Our newest project... part 1

I guess I should back up and say that Part 1 is really when we bought some property in Texas that is SO far away for us. It's about 5 1/2 hours, maybe 6 hours away! 30 days worth of traveling by handcart if we ever lose electricity and have to hightail it out of the city....
(just kidding!).

Anyways, we had an opportunity a few months ago to buy some land, and it has always been a dream of Mike's to build a cabin, a place we can retreat to when life gets too hectic. Not to mention, possibly.... eventually... rent it out to vacationers b/c it is close by some amazing lakes.

So, that was Part 1. Part 2 was when Mike went back up and created a road. Or, rather, map out an area where we will eventually build & get started.

Part 3 is when Mike went back up and put in a culvert, and made a gate.. to protect said land. Protect from what? Not sure.... it's a pretty nice gate though, and I'm sure the deer will be frequenting our place often enough. Hopefully the snakes will stay OUT!

So, I guess our trip was Part 4. This past weekend we, as a family, took a 3 day trip to our property... and cleaned it up some more. All the pictures & vision I had to go off of was from Mike's camera on his phone. I had been to the property before, but that was last fall, and truth be told, it was just all a big pile of lumber/mess.... and just ick. I am not one to see the beauty past anything, but Mike can see the beauty. I'll see the beauty when it's done.

So.... we go .... and when we arrive, I see this.

Lovely.
That's a lot of..... work.

Apparently Mike had it all cleaned up, and it grew back in a month.

So, we got to work.... well, mostly Mike got to work in a bobcat, and the girls & I played on the four wheelers and helped out whenever absolutely necessary. It was hot. Let me tell you. I never sweated so much in my life. I thought I was in an Indian sweat lodge, to be honest with you! Mike kept saying over & over again "this is good for you..." :: insert rolling eyes ::

So, we went to work trimming back trees, removing trees, leveling the road some more... and complaining. There was LOTS of complaining by a certain Miss M. "I'm gonna puke!" ... "I'm SO tired!" and the wonderful groan we heard from said child everytime Mike said "let's go work!"

I kept warning them
"watch out for poison ivy!"
and
"watch out for snakes!"
but we saw neither..... whew!

Heigh HOOOOO! Heigh HOOO!
Heigh Ho Heigh Ho... it's off to work we go!

My baby is so strong....
I love her even when she's grumbling & complaining.

When we closed the gate one final time, we took a look back and saw we accomplished a lot.

This is looking at the curve that takes you to the gate.
Go to the 2nd picture in this post.... see the difference?
This is where our Mother in Laws house is going to be.
Yep, you heard that right... a mother in laws quarter.
It's gonna be small... open room w/ a loft for more beds.

Ahh... it's coming along much so beautifully!
All in all, I only got about 10 bug bites, saw two lizards, no snakes, and TONS of fire ants.
It was a good trip.

More posts to come soon about all the things we found & did this weekend!