An interesting and remarkably informative day at the Beta Site. This was the first time I’d ever gone up there by myself and I was looking forward to doing whatever I wanted, at whatever pace I wanted, however I wanted, without worrying that I was eating up someone elses time. So, I get up there and I’m trimming some branches from the road, making notes to myself, when I hear a fourwheeler in the distance. And, it seems, it is getting closer.

I looked up on the  hill and, sure enough, on my road, comes this old guy on a beat-to-crap four-wheeler. He comes to a stop and I say howdy. “Im your neighbor”, he says. We shake and introduce ourselves.

He has the 20 acres kitty corner to mine. As we talk, he tells me that he used to live up here full time but now (he’s 80) his wife wants to live closer to the hospital. So, he comes up here on weekends and whatnot ‘to get away from the wife’. Alright, I don’t want to tip my hand too much because no doubt anything I say will get passed around as hot gossip. I ask for recommendations for people to deliver propane, who does excavation, etc.

Then, I tell him that he might see some surveyors creeping around and that theyre on my dime. There hasn’t been a survey done since Wilson was president so theyre gonna be wandering around a bit.

He looks at me like I have two heads and says “Nah, hop on the back and I’ll show you where your corners are.”

Uhm..okay.

So he leads me to two corners that are approximately where the cadastral and OnX says they would be. One corner marker is an old t-post surrounded by a cairn of painted rock and reflectors. Dubious, but things were a lot more casual back in the day.

Other corner is a bright, shiny, and dang near new looking cap with flagging tape that hasnt even faded yet. This too was approximately where Onx and the cadastral said it would be. I took photos of the newer pin with all its info engraved on it and forwarded it to the surveyor. I am hoping this will provide enough info to be useful to them and possible reduce the workload, thereby reducing the price for this project.

The neighbor and I talked and I tried to get across that I’m not here to change anything, Im just looking for a place to enjoy the quiet and be left alone. Hopefully that message got across.

Next weekend is a three day weekend and I’m really keen to spend it out there camping out. Working on a platform this week to put together up there.