This post is part of a new series – my journal as we start our adventure to establish Humblebee Farms in the heart of the Lost Pine forest in Paige, Texas. You can read Day 1 here!

After a rough night of sleep in our Airbnb on Day 1, I awoke less than refreshed. Nevertheless, I was eager to get to the new Humblebee Farms homestead and start work. But before we could do anything, we had a shopping list the size of my forearm that had to be tackled. Besides the normal things like toilet paper, food staples and water, we also needed a skillet, shop-vac, cleaning supplies and tools (lots and lots of tools!).

The cabin has sat idly for the past 6 months, empty on the inside with the exception of spiders and we would later learn – scorpions (more on this shortly). On the outside, the 96 acres of forest had started to encroach the “yard” and house. Before we could start planning the future of Humblebee Farms, brush clearing was in order. Since neither Todd nor I are in our 20’s anymore, I knew the only way we’d survive is to “work smarter, not harder”. So I braced myself for the hit to our bank account to buy a chain saw, brush cutter and pole saw. Oh yay! Another trip to the hardware store!

On the Road

After building up an appetite from shopping and before leaving Austin proper, I wanted to have a decent meal. Since we didn’t get to indulge in Banh Mi bliss from Elizabeth Street Cafe the day before, we decided to go there for brunch. I had the Sticky Rice with Ginger Sausage and Poached Eggs (after asking where they get their sausage from) and all I can say is YUM!

Next up we headed to Wheatsville, the local co-op. The trip took a little longer than we anticipated – not because of shopping – but because we ran into some great people. One of the workers also happened to be a landscape architect. While I know my way around plants, Texas is altogether a different beast from the PNW. Eager to learn anything we can about how to effectively grow both food and native plants we indulged in a detailed conversation with him. After grabbing his card and picking up our stuff, we hoped back into the car and started out on the 45 minute drive.

On our way to the cabin we realized we didn’t have a pan still. Not a fan of non-stick, I wanted either cast iron or stainless. We located a home goods store in Bastrop and found a giant cast iron and a couple other accoutrements to get us by. Ok, ready to go!

Oops. Not quite yet. Another quick trip to the local hardware store to see if we could find a specific tool and finally we were ready to go to our new home. Except by now it was almost 4PM (where does the time go?!).

Arrived, Finally

After a short drive we pulled up to our gate and just sat and stared for a moment. After years of searching, and countless amounts of blood, sweat and tears, we finally had a place for Humblebee Farms. The clouds floated softly overhead. The sun had just started to slant from the West into that luscious golden light photographers swoon over. Outside, it was unbelievably quiet. Only the light chirps and trills of native birds punched the silence. Far off I could hear a distant car meander down the caleche road. This was a far cry from the cacophony of sounds we had grown used to in Seattle.

After our intentional pause we clicked the gate remote and watched as it slowly creaked open. Pulling into the 1/4 mile drive we followed the swirling path to the right, back to the left and then up and to the right over a wash-way that accommodates a seasonal creek. Finally, another sharp turn – this time to the left – and we could see the cabin at the top of the hill. We were home.

The Big Clean

After parking the rented minivan we started the arduous process of unloading our stuff. At this point it was past 6 and the light was starting to soften. I unpacked the shiny new shop vac followed by the mop and bucket and got to work inside. Todd went to work outside cleaning the porch and garages. Cobwebs were everywhere! One thing I’ve learned is that a log cabin leaves plenty of spider friendly crevices and they were feeling pretty comfortable in our cabin. I also discovered that the rounded shape of the logs creates a “shelf” for dust to settle on. This is going to take a while. Two hours later and I was just rounding the final corner when Todd walked in and asked “hows it going?”. I smiled and flashed my fingers to indicate how many spiders I had found (14).

Todd took over the rest of the vacuuming, giving me a chance to move on the the next task – mopping. I was thankful that there was no carpet to deal with. But I remain perplexed to this day by the choice of flooring the previous owner installed – vinyl stick-on parquet. Eeew. Effectively our log cabin’s decor was wood on wood over wood. The raw interior logs accented by knotty pine cabinetry and finished off by that lovely fake parquet floor. It will be changed.

For now, my goal was to achieve a clean home. While at the co-op I discovered that Zum (makers of delectable smelling soap) now make a laundry soap (careful you don’t call it a “detergent”!). Frankincense is both a deodorizer and bug repellent. So I picked up the frankincense and myrrh Zum and used that to mop with. It smelled divine and did a great job of cleaning up the floors.

Bed Time Surprise

After finishing up the floors I went on to make up the airbed, scrub the shower, clean the sink and dust. The clock hit 11. Exhausted, we turned to each-other and silently communicated it was time to clean up, have a celebratory drink and go to bed. I went into the bathroom and started brushing my teeth. I turned on the faucet and let it run a bit. Since the faucet hadn’t been turned on much in the last few months it sputtered and sprayed for a while before finally emitting a steady stream of cloudy hard water.

As I brushed my teeth, I watched the steam curl up around me in the mirror. I looked down to spit out the toothpaste and to my utter shock/ horror/ surprise watched as a scorpion slowly emerged out of the overflow hole of the sink. Not usually one to scream, I let out a piercing yowl that brought Todd running in. What?! SCORPION! But instead of instant-smashing it, Todd decided to take a video. Because who else has stories of scorpions crawling out of their sink but us? We needed video evidence!

Finally after a little debating over who would do the deed, Todd smashed it and put in the toilet. I went back to brushing my teeth, confident the episode was over. Except it wasn’t. Not 15 seconds later another scorpion emerged. This time I smashed it. No sense in getting wimpy now. I live in the woods in a cabin, surrounded by 96 acres full of spiders, snakes and scorpions. I better get used to this. Welcome to Humblebee Farms!