Life on my land has slowed me down, and this reflects in the frequency of my posts. But that’s also because I used the good weather to do as much land work as possible. These few days it was raining, so it’s a perfect time to sit down and reflect on what has happened so far.

Firstly, the bad news. My dog Leo probably ate rat poison. This happened at the same time that my neighbor’s dog started vomiting and went under their house and didn’t come out. He was found dead two days later.

My dog started vomiting too, I think it happened around a week ago. He too went under the house and wouldn’t come out. I started mentally preparing myself for his death as the possibilities of him surviving were low. Here veterinarians don’t come, so either you manage to get the dog out of under the house and take him yourself, or he either survives or dies.

I couldn’t get him out of there, and I even tried with a stick. This totally scared him and he started biting the stick. I’m pretty sure the previous owner beat him with the stick, because his fear and anger were great. I think I really scared him then, so after that I didn’t touch that stick ever again.

Thankfully, Leo didn’t die. Also, though he hadn’t eaten for three days, on the fourth day he started eating. Now he regularly eats, but still mainly stays under the house. He sometimes goes out to sunbathe, and then goes back to his new home.

I won’t touch him now, but will only give him food. Maybe gradually he will lose all fears. I’m just glad that he’s alive. I made his new home as warm as possible by covering it against the wind, and I also managed to cover the ground with a towel when he was out sunbathing. So at least there will be more warmth for him there at night.

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Very soon I should get my well dug – the man who agreed to do the job recently called me to tell the date. So soon I won’t need to go to the shop to buy drinking water on a daily basis, which is wonderful. Though I enjoy walking to buy water, that is only the case when the weather is good. After all, it takes thirty minutes of walking.

But now I also got my bicycle tires pumped, so the time to go to a shop is shortened. Since I am unable to take my dog for daily walks now, I thought that it’s then better for me to cycle to the shop.

I also wanted to cycle to the nearest beautiful city which I miss a lot. It’s such a pretty place with a wonderful village restaurant serving traditional food, and there is also a good thrift store from which I get good materials for bed covers and curtains.

But at the time I pumped the tires, the weather turned bad, so I’m still waiting for a good day to make this trip. It takes 30 minutes by bicycle to get there, if I cycle fast. Since Lithuanian weather can change very fast, I need to be absolutely sure the weather remains good whilst I’m making the trip. Otherwise, I will be caught in ice-cold rain and north wind, which is not pleasant at all when you’re on a bicycle.

Yesterday, suddenly there was a big hail, and in two minutes that much has fallen from the sky:

I don’t share with you many pictures of my land as there’s nothing yet to show. I covered quite a lot of the ground (maybe 20%) with fabric. Yesterday, I got specific nails to fasten the fabric, so soon those bricks and stones will be gone, as they weren’t doing that good job anyway because of the strength of Lithuanian wind.

I’m also making a big compost bin which later I will use as a high bed for growing veggies. Everything takes time, and everything needs money. So the work is going very slowly, but at least I see some progress.

Soon a paint stripper will be delivered to me so I will be able to remove the old green paint of my hut (which now looks horrible and I only showed the picture of my hut to my mom). After that, I will apply impregnator to extend the life of this old hut.

Then I will need to insulate it from the outside, to make it livable during the cold winter time. However, the internet store I use for delivering building items does not deliver large polystyrene sheets to this area. So I will need to research for some other reliable company to order them.

After I add insulation, then I will need to attach some sort of wood planks to make exterior look good. Again, that’s so much work and I have no experience in this. But I will proceed slowly. After all, there’s a lot of time left till winter.

At the same time, I’m working on covering the land with the fabric. After the main paths are covered, I will focus on covering veggie beds. On top of that, I will add pine mulch, whilst on the path areas I will use gravel. Again, for large areas these things cost a lot, so I cannot work fast for this reason too.

Finally, I’m also doing work inside the hut. I’m now plastering wooden plank gaps in the ceiling, and after it dries, I cover that with white paint. Around one third of my hut is done now, but then later on I will also need to do something about the floor.

There is wooden floor here but it has gaps because I myself assembled the boards. So I will need to somehow make them all fit better, maybe with the help of glue, I’m not sure yet. Then I will need to paint it too, because after the plastering and painting work it has whitish spots, and it was old anyway.

So as you can see, I’m very busy with work on my land. Since there’s so much work to do, it’s just too easy to spend the whole day on these matters. So now I got into the habit of doing life assessments in the morning, and then, when it’s noon, I start land or hut work, depending on the weather.

When I’m working, I often listen to the recordings of Eckhart Tolle. Recently I listened to his very special teaching of not trying to protect the core self. I’m sure he put it in other words though.

He told not to try to react to anything that you dislike. This is, of course, very difficult. It’s a precious reminder for me, because when the summer starts, it is very likely that I will hear people nearby listening to the music. I absolutely despise those awful beats, but, as Eckhart explains, this is me trying to protect the illusory self and maintain separation.

He teaches that you need to totally relax into what you dislike; to not resist the experience in any way. This helps to dissolve the false self. So I’m sure I will have plenty of instances to practice it this summer.

By the way, now in Lithuania many people desire to buy their own lands and apartments, so the prices have jumped significantly. For example, now half of the land that I own is more than twice as expensive as it was when I bought it. I wonder if in other countries such a demand is manifesting as well.

So these are all the things that I wanted to update you about. Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re doing well in these uncertain times.