Spring seems to have finally sprung in southern Saskatchewan! But, really, I have idea why I’m so wintered out. Compared to winter in about 95% of the rest of the continent, winter here was easy. I don’t even feel like I ‘survived’ a winter living in an RV in southern Saskatchewan.

Today’s high was about 20C/68F and I made it a point to spend several hours on my property tackling the huge pile of sand and stone on which I plan to park Miranda when I move back in a couple of weeks. Power should be going in around April 20th (delayed because of one last, unforeseen, cold snap) and the RM says they can likely open my water tap around May 1st, so my return to Haven is coming up fast!

Looking south. The broom on the left indicates where I want the driver’s side rear bumper to go. This would give me enough room between the RV and the tree line to move around on that side and also give me light through the front driver’s side kitchen and living room windows.

Looking north. You can see how much I’ve raked out and that the area is nowhere near level. The darker spot represents an hour of work!

Queen of the gravel pile.

Standing on top of the gravel pile looking north.

It’s a formidable task to move all that material by hand and I will likely have to hire someone with a tractor to finish the job for me as I am running out of time. How do you move a mountain? One shovel at a time… I started by raking out as much as I could, but I now have to move what’s left using a shovel and wheelbarrow.

I’m disappointed with the material, which should have been crushed gravel, but it’s what I have to work with.  I’m trying to spread it evenly over a very large area so as to give me a dry solid surface around the RV for accessing the compartments, emptying tanks, doing maintenance, etc.  I’m hoping that the dirt will sink and the rocks will rise to the surface, as has happened on the pile over the winter.

The other thing I need to coordinate is the moving of my buildings. In an ideal world, I would have a level spread of gravel and a foundation all ready for them, but that’s not going to happen. Charles suggests that I focus on getting them weather tight this year and next year we can jack them up properly. I’m still hoping to get out to where they are right now to get some measurements so I can determine exactly where I want to put them. Oh, and I have trees to chop, too. Whew!

I’ve worked really hard this winter and I’m looking forward to slacking a little on the typing hours and spending some time working the property now that the weather is nicer. I’ve got a mountain of work ahead of me, but I’m focusing on just one task at a time and relishing the slight ache of muscles that haven’t done enough all winter and are happy to be productive again.