When we first bought our little piece of land, it was nothing but trees and rocks. So many trees that we couldn’t even set up a tent. After a huge amount of hemming and hawing we finally decided to have a logger come in and clear some of the land. I hated to make this decision because I wanted to keep all the trees and not have our lot destroyed. We did not have the experience to cut the trees ourself and we could not afford to pay someone to cut what we needed. The only thing we could do was to get he logger to come out.

After the logging was done, I was thrilled that we had made the decision. We had a clearing for our tent, our tiny house, my orchard, and we had trails from one end of the lot to the other. It opened up the land and made it so that we could actually do something rather than trying to figure out how to work around all the trees. It also opened the woods up so that some of the smaller trees could begin to grow in their new found space. The money we made on the trees we sold also helped to pay for about half of the expense of the tiny house we built. (This does not include any interior since we haven’t done any interior yet)

So we now have a piece of land with a tiny house, some clearings and trails, and a whole lot of tree tops and branches laying around everywhere. Rather than get frustrated with the massive cleanup effort, we came up with projects that we needed to do anyway that could make use of all that scrap wood. I made compost piles to eventually become gardens (hugelkultur beds). I made so many of these garden beds that I just couldn’t make anymore. So what could we build with all that wood? How many bonfires could we have? What kind of crafty projects could we do?

Most of the work we will be doing this summer will be using up all the scrap wood. We plan to build a wood storage shed, an outdoor kitchen, and even a playground for the kids. This summer will also be for setting up some of our basic needs around the homestead. A water tank, a root cellar, some places to cook outside, and a little bit of a garden are a few of the things we have going. I hope you will be around to check out some of the projects! Thanks for stopping by!

Here is a sneak peak at the first project I have to share: The Outdoor Kitchen