It has been at least eight years since anyone cared for the piece of land that I am turning into a garden to grow food and spend afternoons with a good book in the hammock. Parts of the land are so overgrown that I couldn’t access them. Time for some clean-up.

There are blackberries all over the area where I plan to grow food. Blackberry season is nearly here, so I decided to leave almost all of them until after harvest.

It’s not like I am running out of things to do around here. When the weather broke for a while, and the sun dried the grass, I trimmed the area in front of the house and started on the path toward the gate–or rather where there should be a gate if it hadn’t fallen apart.

The land is off-grid, so I ran out of battery before I finished the trimming job. With sore arms and scratches everywhere, I went home to charge the batteries of the trimmer and recuperate.

Soon after, I got another chance to work in the garden. It looked like rain, so I decided to work on the inside of the garden house. I can’t take Pepper when I want to trim the grass, as he dashes toward the thing as soon as I turn it on. With plans to work inside, I took him along.

And the sun shone, and shone, and shone. Way too nice to spend the afternoon inside the garden house. I could have trimmed the grass had it not been for Pepper, but as it was, I decided to make progress on clearing the land.

A representative of the owner of this land is coming by soon to look at the mess the previous owner left behind. To avoid her having to crawl around the bushes, I cleared paths to the huts and worst corners.

There are thorny brambles everywhere. Much of it is edible but supposedly unpalatable berries that look a lot like blackberries but aren’t. There are dewberry recipes online, though, so they are probably good after all. I missed the season, so I didn’t get a chance to find out for myself. For now, they are in the way and make walking barefoot quite, well, not so fun.

One of the large projects for this year will be growing soil. I designated a corner to a compost heap. Pepper loves it, so I’ll have to put up some walls.

As I’ll rarely have to reach the corners behind the compost, I started a wall of green material there with anything thorny. It will provide shelter for animals now, and fall apart into soil later.

Well, and keep those tiny thorns away from my feet and legs.

There is almost non-stop rain still, so the roof is getting more than urgent. But I can’t work in this weather. We’ll have to hope the roof beams stay strong while I wait for a chance to start.

I went to the hardware store and got roofing supplies to start as soon as the weather permits. In the meantime, I’ll continue to use any chance to work on this beautiful land full of potential.

I can’t wait to see what this will turn into.

So long, and thanks for reading.