It is now the evening of 9 August, 2017. I had just typed out a post and was considering whether I had anything more to add when the cat came and stepped on something and it all disappeared. Therefore I have shut the cat out of the room, I hope. I didn't actually see her go out the door so I can't be 100% certain she isn't hiding under the bed.
      I said that I have gotten discouraged because I have tried to hire people who said they would do it, but then never showed up. I have over $4700 in the account that I have been saving up particularly for this labyrinth.  Most of it is the proceeds of the sales of items I have made of lilac wood. Getting the land cleared is probably going to be the biggest expense. I would like to spread some lime on the area and something for fertilizer.  Lilacs do not require high fertility or a great deal of lime but the ground where I'm trying to do this is unusually poor and acid soil, so I'd like to improve it somewhat.
    And I have gotten a little more disabled in the last year or two, quite a bit more disabled since I started this project.  If I had known precisely where I needed to clear when I started out I might have been able to do some of that myself, but I can't do it now.  Wages are so much more now than anything I ever got paid in my life, that it gets hard to hire somebody.
     When I started this project, when I got the idea for it, I was a member of I dream study group that had a forum on the Internet. It was in existence for years, but last fall more people started to say they were taking time off until finally there was no one left but me. I posted the last dream on it. No one made any comments on it. Every week or two I would check in there to see whether there had been any other activity. But there never was.  Two nights ago I tried to look at it again but I just found a page that said "The domain has expired."  So that is completely gone.  I hope the same thing doesn't happen to this one before I can report that the labyrinth is done.

It has been even longer since the last post.  There was a message from the Mabou farmers market about a mulcher machine that could be seen in action at a certain man's place. It was not practical for me to go see it in person but I saw a video, and I could see it could clear my half-acre in a short time.  I e-mailed the contact person and found, oh, certainly they could do it.  In fact, I asked both that man and the driver of the machine, when I finally did talk to him on the phone, and they both said, yes, they could.
But they didn't call me, til I sent another message after a couple weeks.  He asked me to find a trucker to haul the machine to my place.  And he said my place might be too small to do economically.  I did find a trucker, but I haven't heard back yet whether they will do my lilac labyrinth place or not. This machine chips up the trees and rototills the chips into the ground.  But maybe, maybe, maybe . . .

It has been a long time without any progress.  Garvin did mark the edge with surveyors tape, but Wayne said the trees were too big and would take too long to chip to be reasonable.  I had a neighbor who has been working in the pulp woods come look at it, but his employer is not interested in such a small piece.  Neither is anyone else.  They all want at least 15 acres, not 1/2 acre.  Garvin moved away.
     I had an expression of interest from a wwoofer who is experienced with a chainsaw, but he went to PEI instead. I have had the son of an old friend come and do some work for me for pay and he expressed willingness to work on that job, but his car gave out on him a week or two ago, so he won't be able to come til he gets some transportation.  He also suggested his cousin, said he'd call him about it, but I haven't heard from this cousin yet. So I have hopes, but nothing is happening so far.
   I added up and with what I sold today at the market I have about $1100 more to go in the fund from the lilac spoons I've sold.
    I sure hope for more progress to report soon.

         Terron

I called Garvin this morning and left a message on the answering machine, which he returned a couple hours later.  I asked him to cut down the tree he located at the centre of the area, drive a nail in the stump and measure 150 feet in every direction.  If that put him in the woods, he should tie a piece of surveyors ribbon.
   So he came over and worked at that til the time his uncle said he should come back.  He worked 3 1/4 hours and got mostly done.  So he will come again and then I'll call Wayne to come look at what has to be done.  So, some progress, anyhow.

Yesterday I went down into the labyrinth clearing on my 4-wheeler with Garvin, my neighbor's nephew with  a 200-foot measuring tape and an axe.  We measured and found that the clearing is not nearly large enough.  So we located where the center would have to be, which is in the woods, and I had Garvin peel that tree with the axe to mark it plainly.  Today I got some surveyor's ribbon or tape or whatever they call it, that bright plastic ribbon they use to mark locations and boundaries.  I will have Garvin cut off the tree about 3 feet high, and drive a nail in the top of the stump.  Then the tape can be hooked on that and he can measure out in every direction and tie ribbon on a tree to mark the limits.  Half or so of the circle will be in the woods, and that will all have to be cleared. I will call Wayne again and have him come look at it.  It seems to me that there will be enough wood that is big enough for pulpwood that I might possibly get someone to do it for free if I give them the wood.  But it is disappointing to have to do more clearing at this point.  I hoped I could just plant.

I have not had much free time to write, but I have a few things to report:
     I got sick and spent 2 nights and the day between in the hospital, where they said I was dehydrated and low on sodium, which they corrected by IV.  When I got home I started to cough and blow my nose again.  I didn't feel up to going down there myself, as I had planned, so I sent Vincent (a wwoofer who was here with his mother, Evelyn) to the labyrinth spot on my 4-wheeler, and he used that to drag all the logs off the area.  But then he measured to find the centre and found it wasn't as big as it is supposed to be.  He found it was 130 feet across instead of 300. I had better measure again, to be sure, but it is hard to see how a smart boy could be very wrong about it, when he had a 200-foot tape to use.
    When I had Wayne in to do the clearing, I offered to get a tape, but he said he could measure it; I don't remember how.  I told him 300 feet in diameter.  I have been looking at my original diagram and figures and what it comes to is 238 feet in diameter if the pathway is 6 feet wide and 218 feet if it is 4 ft.  But it doesn't have to be much wider than that, or at least doesn't have to be well-cleared outside that.  There could be stumps, &c out there  On one side it goes downhill fairly steeply, so that side doesn't have to be cleared far.  But the other side there are larger trees and humpy ground.
      I will have to measure and then talk to Wayne.

I have had repeated trouble with my 4-wheeler, which I need for going  to the place I have had cleared for the labyrinth, but it seems to be working now.  I have gotten 11 tons of lime delivered here, so I have plenty to put on the labyrinth place.  But I need to drag the wood off the ground there and measure to find the middle so we can mark the circles.  Once I hav gotten that done, I will call Wayne again to come with a machine to clear out the stumps that are in the way an level out the rough places.  Then well mark the circles over gain and will be ready to plant.   Lilacs are usually planted in the spring, here, but I have read the words of people who are familiar with planting lilacs and they have said you can plant them almost any time.  One said his favorite time for doing that is in the fall, and I hope we can do it this fall. 
   We had a couple of wwoofers here, and I wished I could go down and measure it while they were here.  But the garden urgently needed weeding, so we concentrated on that.
     I had a hard time figuring out how to get to this page to write another post, but I finally took a guess and found my way.  So many things I run into where they expect everybody to have a cell phone, but I don't.  Both yahoo and google have put in a page from time to time requiring a cell phone number "to call with your pass word if you forget it."  They don't provide for any way to answer that you don't have one.  I don't want one and if I did have one it wouldn't do me any good.  There is no reception up here. That's ll I can think of for now.

          Terron

Yesterday it was warm and sunny, not what you'd expect here in November, and I went down to the place I planted the lilac bushes I got from Vesey's spring before last in order to weed them out before all the leaves would fall of and leave them hard to find.  Most of the leaves had already fallen, but I found most of them anyhow, I hope.  Najim and Ann, (who came here for a few days) came too, and after a while Shindouk, and we finished the patch, so if I get to plant them in the spring before the leaves are on them, as should be done, I ought to be able to find them.

    Terron

     This morning I went down to the labyrinth clearing with my friend Sarah, who has offered to help me lay it out, &c.  We actually went to get fence posts for the chicken yard, but she said she can't measure it out until we get the logs out of there.  There are about 40 black spruce, tamarack, and balsam fir trees cut up into pieces 8-10 feet long, mostly fairly small, but some bigger ones.  We hitched up 6 pieces to my 4-wheeler and dragged them out, but it wore out the rope dragging those up the road before we got there.  I am certainly going to have to have a trailer to get those all out, but they don't all have to come clear out right now.
      Sarah thinks I am certainly going to have to get the whole place tilled and fertilized before I plant anything.  I hope not, because I don't think I can afford to.  It would take a giant rototiller that is capable of chopping through tree stumps.   Such a machine does exist, but it costs $250/hr.,  am told.  Of course, I don't know how many hours it would take.  I don't know what they'd charge to bring it here from wherever it is, either.
       Then, even more than fertilizer, maybe, it should have lime, about 4 tons, I suppose.  I have been thinking of getting a whole truckload for the field, and lime is cheap, but still . . .  And the problem is hauling it down to the place it is needed.  That road is getting pretty wet, and it won't dry til next summer.
      So all this gets discouraging.  I sure hope the price of fuel doesn't go out of reach before I can get all this done.
    

Yesterday, Wayne came up and said he had done all he could do, but the man with the chain saw wold have to come back.  So he came back today and finished.  I have paid them both,  which leaves me in debt to the lilac labyrinth fund, but I will have to calculate how much.  I will still pay it off out of money from lilac spoons, unless something goes wrong.  I think I will have to get Wayne back with another machine to level out the humps and hollows in part of the area, and maybe take a few stumps out.  Most of it is not bad.  I will try to mark out the labyrinth first, to see if there are any serious stumps I can't avoid right where I want to plant. 
     I also have to get the logs out that are left from the scattered larger trees.  Some of those should be sawed; some are too crooked.  I don't know how many there are yet, but if there are enough, I suppose I can sell them and use that money for the project as well.  The man who did the sawing told me that he knows somebody in River Denys who has 2 trailers for 4-wheelers, one that is quite long and one shorter one, and he will ask about them and tell me.  That would help a lot getting the logs out, I suppose, if I can load them into the trailer some way. 
     Anyhow, things are on the move here, and it looks much more certain I can finish.

     Terron

Today I was just getting up when I heard the sound of a truck down at the road and I suddenly remembered Wayne was likely to come today.  So I rushed to get dressed and while I was putting my shoes on he showed up at the door.  I had to yell to him and he said he would start over there but asked if there was anything he could do for me first.  I asked him to put some gas from the gas can in my 4-wheeler.  I got out there as quick as I could and started it up and sped down to the road and down into what I call the swamp.  I caught up with them, and we got down to the end, where we conferred on where to go.  I told them what I thought and they started in.  I came back in an hour or so and gave the go-ahead, so they worked all day, Wayne in his machine and the other guy with his chain saw, for the trees that were big enough for logs or firewood.
    I intended to go back later in the day, but sanding the insides of spoons took longer than I thought and then Najim came home from school, so I didn't get down there til just after they left.  I am sorry to see that we still must not be where I intended, but I guess it will do. There are too many trees bigger than they could be if they had only grown as many years as it has been since it was cut over.  But, as I said, it will have to do.  I may have to hire some other machine to smooth it out, because there are rather a lot of humps and hollows for a labyrinth.   But Wayne called back this evening to get my verdict on his work so far, and he said he should be pretty near done tomorrow.
     So hurray!  the clearing will be done.  I hope I can plant it this fall.

                        Terron

I added up the lilac spoons I have sold this year and it comes to $1134 worth.   That doesn't include some sent out on consignment, nor doe it include any sold last year after I got the work done on the road, I think.  I should figure it out in detail and see if I owe my labyrinth fund anything more at this point.  I should also call my friend who offered me lilac bushes to make sure she doesn't give up on me coming and get rid of them.

Wayne came to investigate whether suitable gravel for the road was obtainable on the site, and he started by scraping the thick layer of peat moss off the road.  What he found was that most of the road was just fine and needed no gravel, except there were some deep ruts caused by the machine that hauled out pulpwood before I even bought this place.  The only place that needed something more was a short stretch that goes across the boggiest part in the very bottom of the route.  That took cutting some poles and laying them in a hole where the ground was very wet.  So I guess the road is basically ready, after 2 days work on it with a machine, and no loads of gravel at all!  Hurray!  Now the rest of the area will have to be cleared and most of  the wood chips he made scraped off into a pile, and I will be ready to lay out the labyrinth.  Yahoo!
      

It is a long time since I posted anything here, but that is because nothing new has happened for a long time.  Recently I decided I have enough money to go ahead and have the road finished so I can get in there and finish the clearing.  But I have been unable to contact the guy who was doing the work.  Even when I tried to call his father I got nothing.  But I finally got through to his father's office, where a friend of mine who works there occasionally, answered the phone.
      He said Timmie has moved his equipment to Alberta or sold it, and has split up with his wife.  So who will I get to finish the job?  I need someone with a dump truck and a dozer.  I know people with dump trucks, but I don't think any of them has a dozer.  This is liable to cost more than I was expecting. I sure wish I had been able to finish it last year.
    I think I will try to call Wayne, with the mulcher and ask him to come look at it to see if he can get across in this dry weather.

A couple weeks ago, a woman called me who didn't even have my name, but some friend of hers had told her that I could use lilac wood and she had just cut down a lilac bush. I told her I would ask my friends and see if I could find someone going to Halifax who cold pick it up for me. Some friends did go, but they didn't get time to go get the wood. But sooner or later, I will get it. A woman I have known for many years also told me she had cut down a lilac and would give it to me, but I haven't got it yet. I guess I could just drive over there and get it.
I just decided I should post here about that wood, but I see that I haven't posted about the Christmas fair I went to the 3rd and 4th of December. I sold over $2300 worth of spoons, but not so much lilac, because I don't have much lilac wood left. If I added up how much was lilac, I forget how much it was.
I have spent the last few days cleaning up the scraps, making little spoons and spreaders out of the scraps I saved from making bigger spoons and spatulas, and a good many of those scraps were lilac. So I made a bunch of lilac spoons, but they are all pretty small, or even tiny.

They did work. Timmy is back for a couple weeks from Alberta and he and John K. came and hauled gravel and spread it on my road into the area where I want to make the labyrinth. They spread 14 loads of gravel and billed me a $2100 for the gravel, $315 for spreading it and $150 for haulin the dozer over here, plus tax. Timmy said 15 cm of snow is predicted for tomorrow, which probably puts an end to the project til spring, but I won't be able to afford any more til I sell some more lilac spoons and things anyway. He thinks it will take about that much more to get the road clear across the bog. Fooey, I was hoping to be able to finish it this fall so I would be able to plant in the spring.
I need some more lilac wood, I think, to be able to make enough more things to raise that much money!

November 22, a sunny day, and the equipment operator has come with a truck I can hear down at the road and has walked up and started the bulldozer and is driving it down there. Has he come to work, or to take the machine away? We will soon know, I guess. He didn't come talk to me.

Pouring rain all day. No sign of the operator, but then it's a holiday. But it rained enough it may not dry sufficiently before it snows. It was warm today though. I wish I'd looked at the temperaturein the afternoon.

As you can see, if you look at the dates of these posts, it has been over a month since a heavy equipment operator I've dealt with before promised to come look at it, but nothing happened. I called him and he said again he'd come but I didn't hear from him. So I called again and he said he had come but it was too wet. He said he'd come again. He did and wanted to know how much mony I was willin to spend before he brought the equipment back from wherever it was. I told him and he said he'd call Timmy, who owns the machines.
Yesterday I went early in the morning to take my car to have a rear wheel bearing replaced but they never got to look at it that day, so I had to stay overnight at my daughter's place, and they got it done sometime in the middle of the day. I went to a store and a gas station and came home, and I find the dozer here. So he is finally ready to begin. But heavy rain is predicted tomorrow and tomorrow night and rain the next day, so we will see how far he can get.
Delays and mechanical problems have been plaguing my effort to get enough spoons made for the Christmas fair I'm going to the first weekend in December, too. One of those delays is that a woman who promised to bring me a piece of lilac she cut down went to the US so I will have to wait til she comes back to get that. As I said last post (or was it the one before?), I am almost out of lilac wood except for small scraps. I wish I had some for this fair coming up.
Terron

I thought it was a while since I had deposited money in the savings account in which I am putting money for the lilac labyrinth, so I looked up in the passbook and found the last time was 22 July. I went through my record book and added up all the lilac ones I'd sold since, and it comes to $606. I wasn't sure I had that much. I find, on counting it, that I do, but not a great deal more, so I didn't put it in all at once, but something like $168, which was all I could afford from my wallet when I was at the bank. But I will get it in there sooner or later, and there is now over $3000 in the account. If I had realized I was going to make this entry here, I would have looked it up first.
One question on my mind is I have given a bunch of spoons on consignment this year to various shops, and some among them are lilac. I have lists of what went where, but how do I know which ones sold? At what point do I deposit that money, if I don't know which ones sold?
I guess I have to make up my mind on a system, but anyhow, I need to make sure not to forget those ones.
I am nearly out of lilac wood too. I have only scraps left, really, though a lot of those will make a little spoon or a butterknife type of spreader.
I'd better get to bed now.