We have not had good weather for building a house.  It pours and floods the house site (we don’t have the drainage set up yet), or it is 100 degrees.  It is good weather when I have to go to work.  We have had many other things we had to do around here.  In short, the house is going no where fast.  That is alright though, we’ll just find something else to do.

The stream runs along the back half of the property.  It is not easily accessable and has a cliff like bank.  We do have what we call “the penninsula” that is a smallish area that has a tiny beach like area (we call it the Beech).  Since it was 100 degrees out, we decided that our time would be well spent if we were to clear out this area and make it useable space.  We can’t cut down any trees since it is wetlands, but we can clear out the broken, dead stuff and rake up some leaves.

Before:

After:

I can now bring dishes and laundry down where there is easy access to water.  Much easier than hauling the water up to the main house site.  I do not wash anything in the water directly, I use buckets, and the grey water is dumped into a large leaf pile that will filter the water long before it gets back to the stream.

I can get all my chores done, in the scorching heat, and the kids have plenty to keep them busy in the water and they obviously stay much cooler.  And once my chores are done, I can join them for a “swim” to cool off.