Fall in Die Weide - Archery and Trail building

Today we visited again after another way-too-long two week hiatus. I'm building a cabinet for our 85 year old next-door-neighbor and I've been working like crazy to try to get it done before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I was defeated by the weather, of all things. It has been super humid the last week and the finish I'm using on the cabinet takes a lot longer to dry in this humidity. I'll have it done next week though.

Anyway, about the land - We took along our recurve bow, which is set up at 24 lbs so both my wife and I can both shoot it. I had in mind to buy at least 35 lb bow, but when I tried it at the bow shop, I found it a bit tough to draw for me, which would have put it out of reach for Inge. So for now, we'll practice and build our strength with it at 24 lbs. After we get relatively proficient I'll buy the recurve arms to bump to 35 lbs. Originally I bought 6 arrows, of which two were lost in the tall grass the first time around. However, Inge's coworker said he had lots of old arrows and he gave us a bundle of arrows. Not ten minutes after arriving at the land, I looked down and spotted both of our original missing arrows buried in the grass. Now we have 20 or so arrows, which makes it fun to shoot a lot before going out to gather arrows. Inge and I both hit our box target reasonably well. I shot a lot less than Inge because my shoulder is still giving me troubles from the accident.

After our bow shoot, we went into the woods to trail blaze. We hacked brambles and small shrubs to clear a trail through the woods. It's a bit easier to work through in the fall with less foliage to deal with. In the long run we plan to have several trails through the forest, but it will take a long time and we'll always be battling the brambles. We saw boar and deer sign in the woods though.

On the Penny, puppy front, we arrived and walked out to look around and no more than 5 minutes after we arrived, she was off like a shot for the neighbor's to visit her siblings and mother. We never saw Penny again until we dropped by to leave. She is staying with the neighbors for the holiday weekend as we're going to visit Melissa in New York City.

Fall Grass - Natural Decoration

As you can see from the photo, Inge gathered a spray of tall grasses to place in a vase in the house. She did the same last week and it really adds a nice touch to our house - and it's free!

Our visits to the land of late have been a bit sporadic due to the accident on Oct 6th. (I suffered rib injuries when my truck was totaled by red light runner.) Although we went out last two weekends, this weekend was the first time since the accident that we could clear fence line again. I had to give up after only an hour due to rib and shoulder pain. We cleared abut 200 feet because there were long stretches without brambles. In the last two months we've cleared 600 feet along the north fence with about 325 feet to go. A lot of the rest is in the deep woods though. Once the North fence is cleared, we'll be done clearing fence because the West fence is in good shape and needs no repairs. Both the north and south fences need work to repair wire that has become detached. The choice I get to make is repairing wire, or stringing electric fence. We won't mess with it until the East fence and gate is installed. I really hope we can get that done in December. I think we have budget for fence, but the water harvesting shed may need to wait until next year. I had really hoped to build the shed this year.