Or more accurately, the sandpeople. But not like the “Star Wars” kind. Let me explain.

This year (haha, it’s only Jan. 10) has been a rough one for ice. There have been a lot of storms that have ended with rain, which packs the snow down and it eventually turns into ice. That’s bad news for anyone with a long driveway like us.

And, because we don’t yet own a sand/salt spreader, it also means we hand-sand when it’s icy. This is one of the least enjoyable aspects of living far off the main road. Often, Jeff is left to sand the whole driveway on his own, but this time, I got to help. Yay.

Hand-sanding goes like this:

• Put on many layers of clothes, even though you’re probably going to soak them all in sweat. (Note below another of my Christmas presents this year — a fashionable pair of insulated overalls. Highly recommend, I love them!)

• Get sand.
• Use a spade to spread the sand by flinging it onto the ice, making sure to twist your spade mid-arc so it doesn’t end up in a huge clump (which still happens sometimes anyway).
• Try not to fall on the ice because you forgot to put sand down where you are standing.
• Get in the truck and move it 10 feet.
• Toss more sand.
• Again, try not to fall because you’ve moved to a spot that hasn’t been sanded yet.
• Move truck; more sand. Repeat.
• Run out of sand; get more.
• Repeat until entire driveway is passable. In four-wheel drive.
• Sob uncontrollably when it proceeds to snow another six inches and cover up all of your hard work.

That’s all there is to it, kids. Any volunteers to help next time?

With the holidays behind us and no snow on the ground, is seemed like a good time to add the other two walls to the sap house. (We would have done it sooner, probably, but we ran out of 2-by-4s…)

After a quick trip across the field to the sap house to measure the length of the walls (between two other walls, therefore shorter than the original 10-footers we installed for the front and back).

Anyway, measure, cut, measure some more, nail together. Pretty standard. Except maybe my bracing technique, but it works for me.

Steph bracing a sap house wall under construction while Jeff nails on the other side.

Once we had the walls built, we loaded them into the back of the pickup for the ride through the field to the sap house. A few minutes later, we had four walls. And, a sweet sunset.

Securing the sap house walls — there are four now!

Sunset, Dec. 27, 2018.

Nope, we aren’t talking about after Christmas sales. We’re talking about land clearing. Because what else do people do the day after Christmas?

I did get to use one of my presents, though, a brand new pair of work gloves!

Jeff had already cleared an area of the property, reclaiming an ancient field, away from the house for a game plot, but we decided to expand it a bit, so it’s now about a half-acre. Here’s what it looked like when we started:

Jeff handled the chainsaw (I don’t do slice and dice, spinning blades. I like my extremities.) I got to haul all of the cut back brush into piles, which we will burn later. The only reason I am on board with burning it is because it’s useless to me for the wood stove in the house.

There was a small hiccup with the equipment. This is why Jeff says to always bring an extra saw. Yep, that’s the blade of the saw on the ground and the chain in his hand. After he found in buried in the pile of brush he was trying to cut into smaller pieces that are easier for me to handle. (“There are always field repairs in any forestry operation.” -Jeff)

But, it all worked out in the end. The broken saw will be fixed by Jeff in the shop and we finished up with the back-up saw. Ta Da! Now the area will be bush-hogged, burned along with the brush piles, then seeded with a Maine forestry mix.

Update: Today we built and installed two of the walls for the sap house we’ll be using in the spring.

There was a level involved, along with a lot of brute force. Initial leveling attempts revealed the ground in the field is not AT ALL even. So, Jeff decided to get the tractor to pick up the front of the floor so we could jam some boards underneath to make it more level. Here he is, lining up with the front corner that is clearly lower than the back wall.

I tried with the 8-foot 2-by-4 to jack it up without the tractor because that’s the kind of person I am — try a simple solution first before resorting to heavy equipment; that’s what’s sticking out. Using the tractor worked fine for that side of the sap house. Four inches later, the front of it was even with the back, which already was level (we checked). On that side.

The other front side was a little more tricky because that side was the skid side, so the four-by-fours supporting the sap house are cut at an angle so we can tow it as needed. This time, we went old school, with a fulcrum, which is just a big, heavy metal bar we used for leverage to lift the sap house. It went like this:

You can see the two pieces of 2-by-4 running crosswise to the floor base, and another 2-by-4 chunk peeking out that runs horizontal. Then, when Jeff let it back down (he’s the muscle),  miracle of miracles, the sap house was as level as it’s going to be on the frozen ground for winter. We braced the walls — also as level as they’re going to be — and called it a day after I got the exercise my muscles by fulcrum-ing the middle section for additional bracing. Not bad for a couple of hours of work!

Thanks for joining us! Not sure who we are? Read this.

We’ve been tinkering away at this homestead thing for a couple of years but our full-time jobs (and not wanting to have hungry children) have limited what we’ve been able to accomplish so far. But, the time for messing around is over — we’re jumping into the deep end of the pool.  … Good thing our youngest child is a lifeguard!

So, our first project for spring is under way: a sap-house. We built the floor inside yesterday — that’s a 12-foot door and a 10-foot floor — and parked it in the field in the very cold rain.

Pay no attention to my fashionable outfit. Look at that floor! On skids for easy transport to its semi-permanent location in the front field near the maple trees we’ll tap in the spring.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton