We’ve been in the cabin and on our retreat property now for a little over two months. It’s been great and a ton of work. Moving in the middle of a Maine winter with feet of snow on the ground and it still falling from the sky provided a lot of challenges. MPG had moved to Maine back in early December and my date to follow only was an estimate. She had brought some of our stuff as well as I when I traveled up there at Christmas. All the rest of our possessions were later stuffed into a 7′ x 16′ cargo trailer we purchased a couple of years prior which I pulled to Maine in early February. We are still emptying the cargo trailer and getting things organized.
One of my priorities has been to have a place where I can write articles, work on books, and make videos. We haven’t been able to get this set up but getting close.
So – here are a few updates from our life in the cabin……
Internet was a major issue when we moved onto the property. Very weak cell phone signal and no local internet provider made doing anything on the ‘net difficult. Being that I have an online business as a secondary stream of income this was more than concerning. I signed up for Starlink and got put on the waitlist. After a few short weeks, my area received satellite coverage and the equipment arrived shortly after that. It has made a big difference!
The shudders on the cabin were far from attractive and largely falling apart. We removed all of them from the downstairs and the idea came up to repurpose them into raised beds for flowers or some other plants. We are on a tight budget with so much to do and keeping costs down allows us flexibility in completing projects. Using these shudders rather than buying lumber – WINNING!!
There were two grills that came with the cabin. Neither was in very good shape and both had a variety of varmints living in them. Out with the trash they went. We planned to spend $300 or under to get something decent along with a cover. Maine Prepper Girls’ son gave us their grill which was in great shape. Interestingly we are the third owners of the grill. Someone had given the grill to MPG’s son. We were beyond thrilled and avoided the spending.
Spring has arrived and the snow is gone. Grass is starting to pop up as well as lots of weeds. The cabin came with two lawnmowers – a push mower and the riding mower above. I worked on the push mover cleaning the air filter, adding new gas, checked the oil, and cleaned the air intake. A few pushes on the primer and vroom!!! It started right up. So far it has run like a dream, although the deck is rusted out pretty good. I’m looking at taking a couple of aluminum cans and some short self-tapping screws and repairing the rusted-out holes.
The riding mower above I’ve not had any luck. I’ve worked on it but have not gotten it to start. I have a few more things to do then to a shop I’ll take it. It’s definitely worth putting $100 or so into.
There are populations of deer, bear, and moose in the area as well as fishers, porcupines, skunks, and tons of turkey. I’ve seen one deer so far as well as heard turkey. I’m going to put out some bait to attract the deer and turkey and have started adding trail cameras on the property to see who stops by for a visit. I would really like to do some turkey hunting this year(coming up VERY soon) but doubt I’m going to have time. Deer? Absolutely.
I plan to have plants and seeds in the ground for this season’s garden within the next 10 days. The growing season is shorter here than back in South Carolina and need to get on it. My garden area is approx 40 feet wide by 60 feet long. I need to measure it. One-half is going to be full of raised beds and containers. The other half will be an in-the-ground garden. MPG pointed out that where I will be tilling the soil there are already a couple of rows of onions coming up. Love it! I guess the previous owner(who sadly passed away) must have planted onions and never harvested them. I told her I’ll till around the onions – no problem!
I’ve started building the raised beds. I picked up some 10-foot boards, 12 inches wide for $7 each. Cheap!!! There are lots of sawmills in the area and I’ve been able to find some good deals. These boards are rough-cut which is exactly what I wanted. All the raised beds will be done and full of my soil mix by the end of this upcoming weekend.
Here are a few of the beds I made so far. I’ll add at least one narrow board across the middle to prevent the longer beds from bowing outward when filled with dirt.
The Gerber multi-tool above is at least 20 years old. I used it in its early days at my job and used it frequently. It’s ridden around in vehicles, toolboxes, and get-home bags ever since. I came across it when unpacking stuff in my garage and it brought back memories. It has been faithful and has worked well. I’m going to continue to use it.
That’s it for now. I’ve got so much planned for this website as well as other platforms such as Youtube to share the message of preparedness – and thoughts on life….and more. This will start soon after I get situated in the cabin.
Let the adventure begin!!!
Take care all –
Rourke
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These Bushcraft Matches are great for starting fires. The wax-infused jute cordage will easily ignite using a ferrocerium rod. Once lit, the jute rope can burn for up to an hour providing ample opportunity to get a fire going. Once you're done, push the aluminum sleeve over the ignited end of the rope to snuff out the flake.
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Glad things are going so well!
I’m glad things are coming together. Love the raised beds!
Helpful hint on the raised beds…Put down 1/4″ hardware cloth. It will prevent burrowing varmints from getting into the plants from underground. Also use whatever leaves, sticks, branches etc. that you having lying around to fill the bottoms of your beds. That way you don’t need as much dirt. Plat a “sacrificial garden” if you can. That way the varmints will eat those plantings instead of the ones that your family is depending on.
These are things that worked for us and we lived in the city.
Leaf material is best on top for the worms to handle and pull down. The best stuff for the bottom (IMHO) is chunks of rotting logs which will continue to rot and supply deep nutrients.
I’m sure you are going to find many rocks, if your using a powered tiller watch out so you don’t damage the blades, at least for the first time.