Taste a life in the wild ~ Fall and woodstove

When the temperature drops, stay at the site, we feel much colder than the city. Since September, each time when we arrive, we need to light a fire inside the woodstove. I've learned how to maintain a good "hot spot."

We will collect a small bunch of dry leaves or tree branches, make them into a smaller handful brunch and put inside the stove, light up a small fire with a lighter. Keep collecting small dry tree branches and keep adding to until we see the stable flame. Then we usually add a bigger chop wood, about an arm's length and wide. It will keep us warm for at least 2 hours.

Louie told me that's why a man will work hard in the countryside since summer to collect the wood until winter. Otherwise, like himself, he needs to purchase a lot of $500 worth of dry wood, which can only support his living for one winter. 

Wow, we need to chop more wood; then, I realized that we only have no more than 15 big wood left in the hunting tab!

Taste a life in the wild ~ work hard, play hard

Uncle and aunt love fishing. This becomes the most relaxing activity after a day's hard work at the site. They will carry all the food and a bag of food to the dear lock lake. 

They've tried several spots and stick to one. This location is a downstream poon from a large lake,  most fishes gather here for the food. When a good time comes, they can easily catch one every 5 minutes. 

Fish either come out for food in the early morning or before sunset. So sometimes our uncle and his friends will fish until fully dark. 

For them, add several fish to the dish is one of the happiest things during the day. Especially our aunt is so good at cooking. With limited cooking utensils we can install at the moment, she still can make us a good fish soup and steam fish!

Taste a life in the wild ~ Let's hiking

For us, this is a huge advantage, let's go hiking whenever we like. This is private property. When we are hiking, there should only be us in the wood. 

Each time we visit the wood, we try to walk slightly differently to explore more areas. This place is so big, about 200 acres, we can only visit a small palm every time. I can not walk into the wood during summertime. The mosquitoes will carry me away! Spring and Fall, maybe the best seasons. Early winter maybe still ok. The previous owner is a hunter himself. He said early winter is a good time to explore the deep areas too. Because when there is snow, you can trace the footprint. 

Now we are used to 2 to 3 hours walking per visit. Sometimes our friend Louie will come and walk with us. He can not bring his two dogs, he is afraid that they will get lost in the deep wood. But when we visit his own farm, he will call his dogs to come along with us. Lucky and Charlie (the two dogs) very happy to come with us each time, they will run around the hills and bug at the small animals. 

Taste a life in the wild ~ Village team

The investment group decided to clean the site. We need to build the septic, and we don't have any experience. Sam called the local business guy, and they agreed to have an onsite visit. 

When we arrived, our neighbour came over, they have a big farm just next hill. Done came down of her pickup and said hi. We had a phone chat before winter. It was the time that we bought the property. The previous owner said that Dona and Glen are nice neighbours, their cows need some hay, so they will come to cut the grass. We told them to continue what they used to do. We are glad that someone will come to the site from time to time.

We had a great conversation then we saw the septic guy arrived. What a small world, he and Dona are relative. Then we saw Glen drove his big truck arrived too. Now a whole team was chatting about how to clean the bushes and where we should build our septic and the well. 

Taste a life in the wild ~ site visits in June

When the pandemic begins, we stay home.  We keep our habit of casual walking, at least 2 times a day, to refresh our minds. We think this way will keep our mental health. 

One day, the uncle called, "We should go to visit our land...". I was a little hesitant to go on the trip. I understood that we should visit there a long time ago, but right now is pandemic,  should we just stay inside our homes?

While never say ever, we made our first trip when the pandemic peak was a little slopped. I packed all types of PPE products in the car, and I told us not to touch anything uncertain along the trip. The first visit was a short one; we looked around the property and planned what to do next. 

The site is lacking maintenance, not very pleasant at the first look. The hunting tab needs a good cleaning, full of damp old wood smell. 

Although the shield looks bad, the nature scenery earns the points. We walked inside the woods, trees, lakes and watersides. We were all impressed.