Building a better bridge is going to take some well ballasted anchor points with a bit of elevation to make it viable as an all season structure. Whether you are looking at beam, truss, or suspension, even with salvaged materials you're looking a an expense you don't want right now as I understand your lifestyle. If you have reasonable size trees not on but near the banks, you could support them with "deadmen" and run a zip line with a bosons chair and pull yourself across during high water levels. A deadman is something large (a log or slab of concrete)with cable attached to it running to the support point of your tree or pole. Look at power or telephone poles at any change of direction of the lines - you'll see these cables going into the ground.

We're not talking a bridge for motor traffic --- just another foot bridge. You're definitely right that the bigger stuff isn't something we want to get into.

That's a great list. I'm intrigued about the humanure. I got the book from the library but did not finish it but do get the concept. Do you use this inside or out? I understand it works very well and it makes a lot of sense. Do you have a gray water system for the other water? That bathing room sounds wonderful. What is it with girls and baths? It's my favorite thing and a view to go along with that would be amazing. Do you guys use propane to heat your water? I see some neat heaters online that are good for showers but I am not sure how they work on baths. I think solar heating would be really great.

We tried incubating eggs too, years ago, when we had our little place in the country. Only one egg (goose) made it and then the little fellow was killed by a skunk. I was pretty choked. We had another pair of Emden geese who were only about 6 months old. The books said (before the net) they only would have goslings at 2 years. They surprised us when, upon looking into their little insulated area, we saw 3 babies scurrying around under mummy. This was in February with temps -22 F. We found banties to be excellent brooders as well (cochin) and they sure are cute. Back then, we were pretty clueless and once, when the female goose was picking feathers out of the males neck, I made him a turtleneck to protect him, not realizing she was padding her nest.

I think the caretaker idea is good too. When we do this (move to country), I was thinking of having a little place for someone to help out with the work for free rent or something. But it could be tricky finding the right person.

I used to love using the ride-on at our acreage. This was a prairie and you had to keep the grass cut to prevent fires (so we were told). Where we hope to move, (bush area) they are really into cutting grass, which I am not sure is a good idea. I really like to see natural wildflowers and watch the bees at work. Maybe just cutting a bit is the way to go. Sorry for the length. Happy blogging.

The humanure book suggested using the bathroom indoors and carrying out your wastes, which seems a bit silly to me. We have no problem using the bathroom outside. So far, the only water we use is for washing dishes and doing laundry, and in both cases we currently let the water sink into the ground, or get lapped up by Lucy. (We're quite a distance from the creek, so it doesn't have any way of running straight in.) This year, we're going to modify that by adding beds of mushrooms to clean the water.

I know what you mean about girls and baths! I get so obsessed with bathing facilities! Currently, we just heat up buckets of water on the stove, but I hope to get a point of use hot water heater when we set up our bathing room. And make a solar heater for the summer.

I'm glad to hear we're not the only ones who had problems with incubation. I felt like such a dunce!!! Especially after reading about how other people manage to incubate eggs in a warm towel or other makeshift incubators. I can only guess that the temperature extremes in our house are just too much for it to handle.

I think our cochin would have been a good mother if I'd put eggs from white chickens under her. Since she killed her babies, I've been reading that white hens will often kill black chicks and black hens white chicks. I guess they're smarter than I give them credit for!

We were totally into infrequent mowing...until I needed more mulch and found out how awesome grass clippings are. Some day I may have enough mulch, but as Mark's discovered, it takes an awful lot of mulch to sedate me. (Actually, when he wants to please me, he finds ways to make more mulch rather than bringing home flowers or jewelry.

I'm always glad to hear from you! Don't apologize for the length!

Since your winter storm, I imagine the power company was really busy installing new poles to replace old ones that broke. Often times they just leave the old poles or an employee trucks them home. If you could locate some of these you could buy them at a much better price than at the lumber yard. Maybe even free if you hall off some of the ones that were just left behind and the land owner doesn't want them. Two of these would make a great base for your bridge and more tied together could even carry the weight of you golf cart. They are treated so they will take the water and the ground. Ask an old farmer where he got the poles for his new pole barn or stop and talk to one of the linemen out working. Good luck, this is how I got all my corner post for my fence and the skids I built my storage building on.

Erich --- that was actually my dad's advice as well. It probably would be the cheapest and easiest (although swinging bridges are just so attractive... It's a good point about the storm --- seems like now would be the time to hunt down telephone poles regardless of what we want to use them for.