- A peak into our Homesteading Project -
303Stan4d - The Western Kentucky Experience
July 26 – August 11, 2026
Well, we took a little break and traveled back to Colorado for several event. We were welcomed home by Nate and Hailey hosting a steak cookout in Parker, Colorado. We were joined by our friends Stephen and Boni. It was great catching up with everyone. Next on the agenda was attending a retirement party for a longtime friend and colleague Tom Clayton. It was a really nice event and was wonderful catching up with Tom and many others from the asphalt industry. We were also able to pull together my side of the family to celebrate 4 Leo birthdays. Nicholas (son), Lauren (daughter), Maggie, (daughter-in-law) and myself. It was a very nice and relaxing Pizza Party. Sadly, none of these events were caught on camera. It’s funny how you can get caught in the moment and enjoy visiting and forget to capture the memories on camera.
While we were in town, we attended a music show at the Adams County Fair – it was a huge bonus that my former coworker Joe was playing bass for Brett Hendrix – if they ever play in your area, they will not disappoint. We also took a minute to sit in a replica of the “Mirth Mobile” from Wayne’s World.
The last big event that we attend was the wedding for former coworker Terrance and his now wife Ashley. It was a beautiful event and meant a lot to Lisa and I to be included.
While we were gone, we were able to keep an eye on things 1,100 miles away, watching the camper and deer.
We are heading back to Kentucky, where we plan on building a couple of retaining walls, installing culverts and placing rock on the road leading to our future building site.
Sorry to all those we were not able to catch up with – we will be back in a few weeks and hope to catch up with more friends.
June 22 – July 2, 2026
The weather this past week and a half has been from one extreme to the other. We were pelted with about 2 straight days of rain – once again making the driveway into a big muddy mess – also during those storms we were under a tornado warning (for several hours) which had us a little concerned. After the rain moved on, we went into a heat warning, with the temperatures in the mid-90’s but the “real feel” was above 110 degrees.
We managed to install an actual gate at the entrance of the property. It really dresses up the entrance and feels more secure than having a wire cable for our security. We painted the gate blue and installed solar lights at the top of the posts.
One of the most challenging things is maintaining water at the trailer. Searching for water in Kentucky is far easier than in Colorado. In Colorado, tracking down a water source to fill a camper ended with an awkward exchange between a former coworker and great friend (Stephen) and a business owner in Wiggins Colorado – Business Owner: “Do you mind telling what you are doing?” Stephen: “Uhh… we are camping and ran out of water, we saw your spigot here and thought we could get a few gallons.” Business Owner: “Well, I guess it is alright.” In Kentucky, we have found four public (we think) water sources: our Marina, the bike/hiking trailhead, the Kroger parking lot and a natural spring (next to the Friendship Baptist Church). We have gotten into the habit of filling all three of our jugs each time we head to one of those sources.
To beat the heat, we took a day and went boating, ending up at a marina 20-25 miles away (via boat), for lunch. As the 4th of July approaches, we have noticed the boat traffic is increasing.
One final highlight was - we received our first Amazon order at the property.
June 12 – 21, 2026
Wow, this past week has been our busiest and most productive by far. We arrived back in Kentucky on Friday, June 12th. The next morning, we met with a forestry mulching contractor to discuss clearing 2-3 acres at the entrance to the property as well as our future build site. Much to our surprise, his company was all caught up on their work and they were prepared to being clearing the area the coming week.
On Monday, June 15th, we took delivery of our new Kubota tractor, along with a grappler, loader bucket and a box grader. It was a surprisingly short learning curve for Lisa and I on how to operate it. We are making great progress on grading the road, cleaning up the mulch and grabbing logs.
Tuesday June 16th our long-awaited boat lift was installed – it was quite surprising how dirty the bottom of the pontoons got in the month that the boat was in the water. We are so glad to have the boat raised out of the water at the end of each day.
The mulching contractor wrapped up their operation on Wednesday, and we are very pleased with the work the did. In this week’s slide show, there is a before and after of the entrance to the property, which best illustrates how it really opened things up.
On top of all of that, we managed to get a little time on the water on Friday. The weather and the water could not have been nicer. The water was 83 degrees.
A huge shout out to all of the vendors that came through this week: Josh, Becky and Bernie with First Choice Farm and Lawn (Kubota Dealer), Brad & Leigh with Float your Boatlifts and Mark and Glen with Weaver Contracting (Forestry Mulching).
July 3 - July 12, 2026
It was finally time to do a few touristy things here in Kentucky. We started off with a tour at The Bard Distillery. This distillery is located in several old school houses in the town of Graham, Kentucky. On of the bourbon’s there honored the late musician John Prine (who grew up in the general area). While talking to the tour guide, she suggested us visiting the Music Museum in the near by town of Central City.
The Muhlenburg Music and History Museum, was well worth the visit. As we found out the Everly Brothers are from that area as well – and after the coal mine shut down (and the city fell on hard times), the Everly Brothers would hold annual fund-raising concerts in town. Another famous musician from the area is flautist Jim Walker (known for his music in movies such as A River Runs Through It, Titanic, Seven Years in Tibet, Monsters, Inc., Ice Age, etc…)
Attached to the Music Museum is the Kentucky Motorsports Hall of Fame and Museum. It was fascinating to see all of the cars and motorcycles. It sounds like the displays rotate regularly, with local folks donating their cars for display. One of the vehicles on display was an old Cushman Scooter (identical to the one my father had). There were also a couple of old T-Birds as well as many other cars.
On another hike of the property, we managed to find all but one official property corner. That was a huge accomplishment, because the map we had been going off from was off, so we previously were looking in the wrong location. On the hike we managed to find another Eastern Box Turtle, this one I call “123” because of the markings on his shell. Our hike took place the day after a good storm, so the creeks were flowing through the property. It was pretty cool to see the little water falls.
We have had a few minor setbacks, but nothing that has got us down. I managed to get the tractor stuck in the mud, on a very scary slope – I truly thought I was going to roll it. With the severe rain storms, we have been fighting a leak in our slide out cabinet.
One other thing to note: Lisa has tamed the dragon flies.
April 5 - 6, 2026
Our initial trip to visit Rocked Spring Farm was very successful. We were able to walk a small portion of the property. We cleared some brush and small trees, in order to have a spot for our travel trailer when we return. We also met several of the neighbors & learned about the local wildlife, including several species of snakes in the area.
We met with several Livingston County employees to navigate vehicle registration, acquiring driver's licenses, and getting a street number associated with the property.
In addition to all of that, we managed to visit the marina where we'll keep our boat.
July 13 - July 25, 2026
This week got off to a good start with getting a break from the rain and the ground drying out. We were finally able to rescue the tractor, from where I got it stuck. Before moving it, I had to finish cutting down a tree that was blocking the path. We were able to get 4 loads of rock delivered – the driver did an awesome job tailgating the load to minimize any work we would need to do. Attached are before during and after photos. This improvement was desperately needed – thanks to our neighbor and her contacts we were able to get a “friends and family” discount.
In an effort to expand our dining options, we went to downtown Paducah to explore some of the restaurants, as well as various shops. It is a really neat area. We are sure to return for some live music and dining.
We had another nice day on the water, visiting a local marina for lunch as well as cruising a few bays to look at the homes and wildlife. The water temperature continues to be in the mid-80’s, so soaking in the water has been really nice.
As we prepared for a trip back to Colorado, we decided it was a good time to straighten up the campsite. We finally moved the camper and boat trailer onto concrete pavers to get them off the dirt and hopefully extend the life of the tires.
The wildlife continues to get captured on the game cameras. I am pleased to see the deer still coming around (without us baiting them).
May 10-12, 2026
Well, the trip out to Kentucky was a successful one - although it came with some challenges - our pickup truck overheated twice, which was really nothing more than pulling off the highway for a minute or two for it to cool down. In Burlington, Colorado, Lisa noticed the sidewall of our camping trailer tires were severely cracking, after a quick change to the spare, we ventured onto Hayes, Kansas for the night where an awesome tire shop KansasLand Tire, got us back on the road within an hour. Camping at the truck stop was a little fun and the camper slept better than most hotels. We arrived on Tuesday to an awesome camping spot, dropped the boat at the slip, and checked out the property.
May 23-29, 2026
Well, this has been another great week out in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The rain has slowed us down and made getting into and out the property a “muddy mess”. One of our next projects is going to be grading the road into the property, as well as placing road base or some sort of crushed rock – at this time it is all our F250 can do to get in and out of the property in 4WD Low.
In the past week, we carved out enough space to create a parking spot for a few vehicles.
Wednesday the sun finally came out and started drying things up – it gave us a chance to do one of the things that brought us to the Blue Grass State – we got the boat out for several hours. The weather was perfect and there were very few boats on the water.
The wildlife out here is amazing. We were enjoying a nice coffee outside the other morning and several lizards were climbing the trees. We haven’t caught any animals on the game cameras this past week, so it may be time to move them.
The highlight of the day was trimming some of the vegetation and finally finding a few property corners.
May 30 – June 11, 2026
Time is flying by – This report started off with us walking the back northwest corner of the property, looking for property corners. We were in the right area, but couldn’t find it on this journey. We did however place a few “No Trespassing” signs. Purple is the universal color out here to indicate no trespassing – in lieu of a sign you could simply paint a portion of the tree trunk purple and it conveys the same message.
The rain is still falling out here – far from the drought that Colorado is in. The mushrooms are everywhere, and are far more colorful than I am used to.
The deer are starting to wander closer to our camper – there is one particular doe that makes a regular appearance 40-50 feet from our camper. We gave that one a name – sadly, she is now off limits when hunting season gets here.
We ran back to Colorado for a quick weekend trip to attend a few events – one being, my sister was in town (from Houston) and pulled together the whole family for a dinner. She also blessed Lisa and I with sign for our Kentucky Property.
While we were away (from Kentucky) the game cameras have been catching all kinds of critters – the latest being an old turkey. To date, we have seen (on the game cameras) deer, armadillos, raccoons, owls, squirrels, foxes and turkeys.
May 13-22, 2026
It has been a very busy week out here, in Tiline, Kentucky. We started off on Spending 3 solid days clearing enough land to park our travel trailer. We officially moved onto the property on Sunday, May 17th. Since that time, we have visited with the neighbors and endured nearly non-stop rain. We are happy with our trailer setup, but it has become evident how critical owning a tractor is out here – our road in, is a big muddy mess.
On a hike the other day we got lost – the timber is so thick that it was tough to get a cell signal, for the GPS. While on our hike Lisa found a pet box turtle. The terrain here varies and there are several creeks running through the property, along with many hills.
We suffered through the rain today to clear enough trees to park our vehicles out of the way.
The wildlife is starting to come around – so far on the game cameras, we have spotted armadillos, racoons, and deer.