We’re still Hurting

We're still hurting. Every morning when I wake up and look out the window, it's still there. You can't see that, that's foggy. And of course I don't sleep in my clothes. We're thankfully past that stage in the dramatic event. It's just a reenactment. I didn't want to get back in my underwear. I look out, there it still is, improving. What's up?

Supposed to be in with that No.

How did he get in there?

I have no clue.

Hey, we have organized some stuff. The remnants of the high tunnel. It took so long to build. It took so long to make it chicken ready. They stack nice. I walk a little further, no bridge. Trees, rocks, tons and tons and tons and hundreds of tons of rock need to be moved back up here.

This is our chance to make it so we can actually put a post in the ground without it hitting a rock.

Where are we gonna get the soil? I'll show you a spot in the 2 acres where we hay bomb. That will be a nice place to hay bomb this winter, close to the house. Water's easy to get water there. Happy day! It's gonna be your job this morning, Gideon. Play with Henry Beefcake. A rare all-you-can-eat buffet for him. I guess that's gotta wait. I see Jonah out there with Harriet, and it looks like she's gotten out of the wrestling ring. It was the strangest thing. Like 5 days after the hurricane, we were in the dark, so to speak. We got our neighbor— we got our news from neighbors coming by and checking on us. But I remember when we got our Starlink going and I got online, it was way too normal. The U.S. presidential election is just over a week away.

You started me off, but I'm gonna teach you how to box, Mike.

Life had gone with on without us. Just like this stream just keeps going. There's no stopping it. Just keeps on going forever. Cut this walnut tree the other day, 2 feet wide, and I'm like, wait a minute, there was not a walnut tree in this pasture. Not even close. That walnut tree was 200 feet upstream. How can you go back to a normal life when you're picking up a walnut tree That has moved 200 feet. What happened?

I was moving it and the door got knocked open.

Come on, come on, come on. That's good to have a tame one in here for this reason. I'll let her have it.

Now we have to run the creek through the middle of our property, right?

The creek was not right there. Creek was 75, 70 feet over. Let's get this guy over. I guess Jonah forgot about us. He's already working on rock. It needs hay bombing bad. It's a lackluster pasture here. Was forest, it was steep. This is a little bit spoiled hay. Has some damage. Most of it's still good though, so we just spread it out. They come over here and eat, poop. What they don't eat is organic matter on the soil, hence hay bomb— hay bombing it with nutrients. See, look at all this. Look at all this they've left behind. This is going to be forever better. So as the world goes on, we're still here Scratching our head, trying to figure out what to do. What's the most important thing to do? And what and how to do it. I don't know how to bridge, how to build a bridge. I'm gonna build a bridge. I don't know how to rebuild a creek bank. I'm gonna rebuild a creek bank. I've never done a concrete footing. Gonna do that maybe today. The Homestead Store. Turns out we are going to be able to work on those footers today. I'm still living day to day. Like, I just figured out— I decided last night this needs to be done today. You see, we have to do this before we start bringing material back up. I got all the lumber. We'll see how Rebecca's doing on her task list. This is getting heavy. Oh, there you are. How you faring?

I'm doing good. Is this the right hammer?

There we go.

Is that better?

I think so. That is something that has taken me 3 weeks to get the gumption to do. Yeah, $1,500.

That's good.

That's a setback. That's the setback, isn't it? I feel like we're rebuilding something as opposed to building something new. That's what we were talking about, both Rebecca and I. You and I both kept reiterating this. How long has this set us back? Oh gosh, Daddy. Yeah. There's a military helicopter right there. Thankfully we're hearing those less and less these days. It's like we were in a war zone at first. Nothing but helicopters flying over. No airplanes. Just helicopters.

Going to Lowe's was just a very normal activity. You know, we have our list. We're getting what we need. It feels very normal. But then we come out and we're loading and here comes a military helicopter and it kind of just reminds us of all of the— the turmoil and the disaster and the—

the—

like, you know, we're okay. But there's lots of people who aren't and it's just a reminder of that, that like our area is not okay. Like, we might be doing a normal activity, but it's really still not normal.

Here they come to save the day. I don't know about all that.

How are you doing?

Yay, I'm above the ground! Since Big Daddy's not here, Ben's the new Big Daddy.

Are you wanting to form it up higher to recapture this?

Yeah.

So yeah, we'll have to move all that.

I was thinking so. That's a lot of concrete then. Yeah, goodness. Who's this? Oh, it's Big Daddy. Hey, hey, you coming down?

Yeah, I'm coming down.

We better hurry, Ben's starting. It's looking sloppy.

Why can't we just put— what do we, what do we got? We got, I don't know, 2x. I don't know how much weight here, but we could bring something out on either side and try to pull this out. If we can stabilize this so it can't move, we could put another brace over here. Each way too.

The, uh, the Mini X like you did, build something to support it. You know, we only have to come up that much. Build something to support it, get all the concrete out. Once it's supported, the, uh, the Mini X can leave if you need to, and then we can, we can dig, put a footer in, and it'll be supported while we're waiting for concrete.

We got goals. We got an hour and 45 minutes. Yeah, impossible goal. Let's brace this and the next one and get these rocks out of there.

You want to just put a piece there and put some legs on it?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. We're almost to— he's got an hour. Actually might be spot on. I bet we'll build the second one even faster. I think Ben's Bruce's kind of guy because I've never seen I don't see anybody reinforce something more than Bruce would. And one thing I didn't account for is the time it's going to take us to, you know, lift it up, get all the rocks out. Austin says hold my camera. Austin, you can't get it. Come on now. Come on.

Hopefully it's not full of rebar.

There it is. Thank you, man. Hey, no problem. Yep, we did it.

When you guys are ready for mud, okay, give me a call.

I'll bring that mixer. I'll call it and see how soon it can get here. All right. Yeah, thanks. Cool.