Hello Everyone!

**Late to bed early to rise, Repurposing the poop buckets, A very lethargic snake & The stuff shuffle never ends!**

Alright, I am running about eighteen minutes behind schedule this evening... even though I have been sitting here sipping espresso for roughly the last forty odd minutes. Somehow I keep letting myself get distracted on the days that I finish everything early... and try to unwind a bit before beginning the writing portion of my day... which is fine and all but I do dislike 'missing my mark' in regards to my schedule.

I was up pretty late last night and did more tossing and turning than I wanted to... because I kept trying to picture all the stuff that I will need (and need to do) to get setup at the new land. I mean I know that it is going to be a 'marathon and not a sprint' but my big concerns are the more immediate challenges... like sufficient fencing for the dogs, safe housing for the chickens, adequate storage for my gear... and of course some kind of shelter to live in which yeah has to all happen very rapidly.

Regardless of being up late and waking up several times throughout the evening... I somehow managed to get up early in the day... but not nearly as early as I wanted to be up. Although I did my usual Hive engagement routine I was not super into it... and more or less cut my online activities short and got out the door well before noon.

The first thing that I worked on today was to scrub out some of those poop buckets that I did the anaerobic composting experiment with... so that I could repurpose them for storing stuff in for the move. Honestly, the task was not as gross as I thought that it would be since that experiment had yielded a bunch of very dry humus... and all that it took to clean the buckets was some bleach water and gentle scrubbing with a small green scrub pad.

To get the first batch of buckets (and their lids) to dry out I put them upside down on the deck where they were in full sun... which worked super well given how hot and dry that it was today. In order to get the next batch to dry even faster... I wound up creating a gap under the edge of the buckets by laying them on a broom handle which stopped any humidity from getting trapped in them.

While the first round of buckets were drying I headed over to the shop tent and began pulling a bunch of stuff out of it... so that I could at long last begin the tedious process of sorting through some of the cardboard boxes in there. It was a bit of a bear to get enough stuff out of the way to get to the back of the tent (where I made that shelf the other week) but eventually I created a nice walkway to the left of the lumber rack.

I was so relieved once I got to that point and feeling kind of zen about the whole process.... until I lifted the first box and saw a big ass snake laying in the box below. It seriously scared the crap out of me... because the colors were odd and ashy, its head was quite big and it was more or less even with my belly... which yeah I found to be 'disquieting' to say the least.

Admittedly, I was not not quite sure what kind of snake that it was... even though I felt mildly confident that it was an Eastern Black Kingsnake... but the way it was positioned in the box I could not get a good look at its tail to see if it had a rattler. Nor could I get a good enough look at its body... to see if it was two snakes or just one large one.

The reason that last part is significant is because the shape most pit vipers have in this region is that they have a fat body that tends to be short... and with the way the color of the snake was (that was not very black) I thought it might be one (or two) cottonmouths. Basically, I was being as careful as possible until I could positively identify what I was dealing with... and in my mind it is always safer to err on the side of caution when dealing with snakes... plus with all the invasive species there just is no telling what it might be these days!

Back to what I was getting at... I eventually got a long handled tool and gently nudged the snake around enough to get a better look at its head... and to see if it would rattle when agitated. It must have just eaten (most likely that juvenile rat that kept eluding me and the dogs) because whoa it was quite lethargic... and seemed rather unfazed by my prodding.

Eventually, I determined that it was just an Eastern Black Kingsnake... so I gently folded the flaps of the cardboard box over... and carried it outdoors to that covered lumber pile behind the shop tent. Once I had it out there, I flopped the edge of the tarp (that covers the lumber) back... and after lots of prodding with a piece of PVC pipe it slithered out... and went under the tarp as if it knew exactly where it was going.

Needless to say, I was super cautious of snakes the rest of the day while doing stuff outdoors... and kept reminding myself not to be too cocky just because I now have some snake proof boots. I mean they are great for protecting everything between my feet and knees... but I am also reaching for stuff a lot, picking stuff up off the ground... and having to shuffle through all my gear that is stored outdoors.

Anyways, I wound up removing everything that I had in cardboard boxes and repacking it all into those buckets... and by the end of the day I had quite the pile of boxes to burn so I made a fire. Per usual I did my best not to get over-involved with the fire... and just focused on turning everything to ash as quickly as I could.

I have no idea exactly how long it took me to get everything sorted in the shop tent... but by very late in the day I managed to get everything (including all the newly painted lumber and sawhorses) stored away inside again. I kind of wish that I had a tarp to toss over the lumber... instead of having to shuffle it back into the tent... but since it is going to rain the next few days I figured that it was best to get it all put up where it would remain dry.

Overall, I still have a lot of stuff that needs sorted through (and cleaned) in the tent... but at this point I have the bulk of it grouped together... and am getting much closer to being finished with it all. Using the buckets to pack things in seems to be working rather well... but it is a bit tricky trying to pack stuff into them in a way that uses all the available space.

Well, I think that is all the words that I have in me for this entry. I hope that everyone is doing well... and has the tenacity to keep chugging along no matter what obstacles they may be facing. Ta ta for now.

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