72 day 1

We don't own it yet but the owner agreed I could start taking down blackberries at least, which is awesome cuz my hands are itching to do this since we got the good news.

Now the bad news. We're not allowed to build a riding ring on 72. It is classified as wildland, forest, and should remain so.

The only way to get permission to turn wildland into a riding area is to be a boarding stable. That's not us.

So, we're gonna go for it anyway, and not tell anyone what we're doing. It's tiny, I measured today 20X25 meters. We will have to build it down the hill from the street so it's not visible to the public, which is fine by me, I don't want a riding ring directly on a street, one that concrete trucks, UPS, and semis seem to prefer.

Our good neighbors stopped me on the street today with Mag and said "Better tell the government less now, and beg forgiveness later", when I mentioned we might be cutting down some trees. He also said, "They're mostly dead, cut 'em all down." True enough, every year some of them fall, and mostly on our fence. Just like Washington state, my home, so many land owners have no control over their own land.

As we brought branches to our good neighbor's Easter Fire* for Saturday, he met us halfway between our properties and  J just spent the last hour talking to him in his garden. * - Easter Fires are city-approved bonfires that only occur around Easter. Farmers can burn appropriate branches and even some yard waste on this day. 

Our neighbor's wife joined us and said, "We always used to have our Easter Fire on your pasture! Now that you own 72, you can have your own Easter Fire!"

Ok, that sounds tempting for next year when we have an enormous amount of downed trees no one might want. But we're celebrating at their Easter Fire like we do every year, this year: )

In this video I show you 72 despite having a cold. As soon as I was done with filming, I got my tools and went out and made the "first cut" on 72, and after 2 hours I had conquered a 7X5 meter area, removing all blackberries. That was only possible due to unfathomable motivation, that which comes from 10 years of waiting.