Blinded by the light

Or why cities are darker than the open lands..

I have commentecd on this before in different ways, but tonight once again highlighted the enormous difference in light from the city to rural or wild lands.

At first blush our inclination is to think of the light pollution which makes cities brighter. In some ways we are right, but I want for the moment to argue that cities are actually darker than the wilder, more open places.

Seem absurd? Yeah does to me too, except that since I am willing to let reality determine what is actually true, I have to accept that in fact cities are darker* than more wild areas.

*where "darker signifies the ability to see what is around you.

This asterisk comment sets the entire stage. When I last lived in a city, I lived in an enclave or neighborhood which had few streetlights and no curbs.. this is as good as it gets in a city INHO.. still I could barely make it across the street on a normal night without the aid of a flashlight.. and I could only make my way across the patio I myself built without a flashlight only my memory..

Yet here in a place I have lived only a very short time, and where I control none of the placements of obstacles around me (until I get my own home built anyway.. on a different location obviously) I can navigate across an area perhaps 100 yards long with various obstacles ranging from pipes coming up out of the ground for spigots, to flower beds, trees, fences (electric and barbed) an out building, and a house.. all on a night with a covered moon (we have a thin overcast night tonight) and obviously no stars, without any need of the nifty little crank flashlight I have bought..

So why the difference?

Light..

There is so much of it in the city that we never see the enormous amount of light which hits this planet when we are turned away from the sun.. As a result everything appears darker, we see less, and we need more light to see only the smallest fraction of what is there around us.. but if we would cut the light around us, we could see so much more without any need for additional light..

Seems paradoxical but I guarentee that virtually every thinking person who has ever experienced both will agree.. Heck even now looking out my window, with my eyes adjusted to one of the only two incandescent bulbs left in my very humble temporary abode, I can merely glance out the window and clearly make out one of the outbuildings and the fact that the trim and the body of that building are of different colors. I can clearly see trees, shrubs and even disturbed soil.. all of this with less than a full moon, covered by clouds and my own eyes accustomed to normal incandesancts. If this does not tell us something nothing can..

KIll the street lights.. kill the highway lights. Kill the adverts after hours.. etc.. we will all see better, save money, and enjoy a night sky that most city folk have simply never even seen...

Unexpected injuries

I awoke in the middle of the night to a very sore shoulder.. the shoulder away from where the limb swung into me like a battering ram. As it got progressively more sore and painful to use throughout the day I realized that this was not from sleeping on it wrong, but rather was the result of taking the brunt of the force of the blow to my body through that shoulder which I had used to reach around the tree to prevent my falling from the ladder with a running chainsaw.

So today I was pretty well out of commission, though I did help Rancher Bob do a few tasks around his place. A night of rest, a good heating cream from north of the border, and a hope that tomorrow will be better.. that is my evening in a nutshell..

Well okay, and reading The Humanure Handbook.. which I fear is going to get a scathing review unless it changes its nature in the second half of the book..

Life is..

With Rancher Bob back my cow caretaking duties may have lessened, but other projects seem to crop up on his ranch as always happens on any ranch or farm. I am often compelled to participate since I am taking advantage of his generosity in allowing me to place my caravan on his place while I build my U-house.

Though I have been less than motivated for some days, in no small part by the wind which has been howling day after day here (giving hope to the wind generator I want to build), I have been sucked into some planting projects, including planting raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Easy enough since we used the augur on the tractor to dig the holes.. but these morphed into removing some trees for Rancher Bob's wife, who well, hm.. well.. is let us say, less than appreciative of others. I really hate to mention it, but it adds to the tale when you understand the length's to which Rancher Bob goes to to make life easy for his wife. And it applies to the story of today..

But first just a very quick aside.. I am NOT anti-woman in any fashion. I love women and I respect women just as I do any individual. Okay maybe I love women more.. :)

Okay.. that said, after doing the planting, we decided to take down some limbs which have for years made the flower gardens of RB's wife shaded. She had been "asking" for these limbs to be removed, and so wanting to make Bob's life easier I reminded him of this. We get out there, and I climb up the ladder with my running chain saw and proceed to take down a long thick (7-9inches in diameter) limb from a pecan tree. The limb gradually drops at the end to the ground so thinking I am safe to allow the limb to fall down I cut the rest of the way through the limb. It does not drop.. it leaps towards me.. hits me in the chest nearly knocking me off the ladder, where I am still holding the running chainsaw..

Fortunately as many of you know, I have spent two decades on ladders doing painting and remodeling, so I am able to take the blow to the chest from this several hundred pound limb, and shift my weight and grip so that fortunately both I and the ladder stay upright. I take a couple of steps down, hand the running saw to Bob, then make my way down carrying this limb which outweighs me by at least a factor of two.. On the ground and full of adrenaline I check my injuries.. Thankfully I have suffered only the removal of skin for about half of the length my torso which has already scabbed by the writing of this, and quite likely some deep bruising which will show over the next few days. It really could have beem much worse.

I was hesitant to mention this, but a friend said I should blog on it, and so here it is. I will try to get up some photos of the limb, now cut down into pieces I hope to use on my home in vengeacnce if nothing else.. :)

Rancher Bob's wife response at seeing the injuries incured because of her wishes? A mumbled "oh" while never stopping in her channel surfing..

Sadly even in rural areas there are those who just refuse to be in tune with what is right or who get compassion for their fellow beings..

Still I wil lnot dwell on the negativity.. I could have been hurt far worse.. could have finally after all of these years ridden a ladder to the ground, and could have incurred a great expense in medical costs.. so despite some constant pain for a few days, I will still call this a good day.. I helped Rancher Bob on some thing which will make his life better and easier, and certainly he has helped me on other days so I count this as good.. challenging but good..

Oh, and he has another new calf.. two so far this year.. I will try to get photos of them as this too has been requested.. they are really cute little things.. I might have reservations about the industry but some of the specifics are nice to see.. This latest calf, a little black thing was runniing about with that joy o flife that I wish upon all of us..

There is no change in time

..only in our naming of it..

A blog I read regularly of a guy who is also essentially homesteading, though in the desert, put it pretty well:

What do you know?....the clocks get set forward tonight! Traditionally, this is known as loosing an hour. When I was in college this meant loosing one hour of partying and classes starting one hour earlier the next day. With my new lifestyle here in the desert - this time shift that happens twice a year has little meaning other than figuring out what time it is when I call friends and family in other time zones. I go to work when I feel like it and I quit when I'm done. It is only about sunrise and sunset and the high temperature of the day and whether or not it rains out here.

When you are living your life, you measure time in very different ways. Sun rises.. rain storms, sun sets, seasons, crops..

For instance, tomorrow morning I am going to be helping Rancher Bob put in some berry plants. We are going to do this in the morning.. unless it is raining, then we will do it later.. So what "time" in the morning? When it is time.. When we get to doing it..

Now do not get me wrong, I am not saying that life is all just sort of dabbling about in whatever we want to do.. okay well it sort of is, but certainly for myself as a homesteader, as one who will be living off of this land and in a house of my own construction there are schedules and there are things which must be done. However unlike the workaday world, those schedules are not arbitrary nor do they revolve about the rotation of the hands on the face of the clock.

BTW you know why they are called hands on the face of a clock? My theory is that they are trying to hide the face in shame.. No one should enslave themselves to such a device.

If you are tired, sleep.
If you are hungry, eat.
If you are thirsty, drink.
If you are alive, LIVE dammit!

Cedar Grove deja vu

Rancher Bob came back, so my cow caretaking should start lessening.. But to get him caught up on the condition of the fields, and the progress of the harvest of the cedars up on the hill, I set about looking for one of the monsters I had discovered before, but which I had decided I could not get because of its location. Based upon the size of another cedar, I have guessed the age of this particular monster at 150, so I wanted to show him what he had there. After wandering about a while looking for this monster, I stumbled upon another grove of dead cedars, these even older and thus larger than the first grove I cleared! I can get to these by doing a little fence line clearing which Bob wants done anyway.. So today I got out with the saw and cleared 90 percent of my path so that with a little tractor work and perhaps a few more cuts, I will be able to begin dropping the snags, and pulling out both the snags and the timbers which have already fallen.

These could not be more welcome as I am in need now of large cedar posts to carry the large hardwood girders and beams. In some places there will be timbers almost two feet in diameter over 15 feet in the air! To support this without bending and breaking I need stout large and long posts. These cedars, and a few I have already found, will fit the bill quite nicely.

I could not get a good shot of the grove, but here is one of the snags..one of the smaller ones I should note..

The Ever Moving Target

Architects enjoy their work as a matter of creation and practicality, and certainly I have truly enjoyed designing several different homes given the criteria and limitations presented in those circumstances. That said I am no professional architect. I am a designer, a general contractor, a builder of sorts.

However what I am doing now compares to architecture in about the same way as a tent compares to the Taj Mahal. It is not that I am creating the greatest structure ever seen or even one of the most beautiful homes ever to be viewed, though I expect it to be in that latter category in my own eyes, but rather that what I am doing now is creating a finished product while creating the base materials at the same time.

The architect starts with known and constant values. Lumber is all of the same dimensions or rather a limited set of dimensions. Then she adds in tile, or carpet, or hardwood floors or whatnot, all milled to very precise specifications.

I do not enjoy those luxuries in what I am building. I am harvesting dead wood. I am harvesting snags and fallen trees and then trying to find a way to put together a very complicated puzzle with no picture on a box..

I mention this not so as to glorify myself. After all I am the idiot who chose this approach.. I mention this just as explanation for what I am doing.

Tonight I once again visited the latest version of the plans. Plans that themselves have changed a great deal from the idealized concept to the practical application. I revisited them because of what I have harvested since last I worked on them. I have the ubertimber (30' oak 22" in D) to work with, as well as a few other damn fine timbers which were not included in the last survey.. In doing this revisit, I discovered that I need more info on some of those timbers, but even given what I have, I have been able to piece together more than 80% of the roof structure, which in any underground home is the most important element of the build.

But what does this have to do with a moving target? Well when I come across a new snag (dead standing timber) or new fallen timber, I have to adjust my plans. Sure I could stick rigidly to what I proposed at some earlier stage, but by revising, I am able to create a stronger, safer, and more beautiful home.

So I take these approximate measurements, and I design a plan using them. I harvest new timbers, and incorporate them into the plan, adjusting as necessary (often this requires going back to the beginning).

I trust that the end result will be an incredible home for me, and whoever follows me, for this home will outlast me by generations given very little maintenance. Though most folks do not realize this, that is not the case with virtually every stick built (normal) house in the US. They are designed at best to last 50 years, and even that is pushing it. If someone else moves into my home after I am gone, this house will last forever, as long as they watch for the minor issues that may arise.

So my moving target is one of design (changes to suit the material), material (changes depends on what I find) and structure (depends on what kind of material and what size matieral is available). The end result will be less that of my own immediate desire with regard to functional design, and more that of my greater desire to work with the landscape and the materials to create a home that is very efficient, very economical, and most of all very livable.

The target moves, but like trying to take a deer running through a heavily wooded area, it can be done. *

* I do not take those shots JFTR in fact I have not hunted in years, might not again.. but the analogy fits.. :)

Spring is in the air..

oh wait that isn't spring it's....


Started the day with rain coming down steadily if not too heavy. Slid the tractor all the way down the ramp taking a large round bale of hay to the cows. Cows crowding the ramp slowed my progress and kept me from sliding off of the ramp into the trees lining the steep hillside. Managed to get the bale unrolled and spread out for the cows before retreating from the cold and wet back to the cool, but dry inside of the caravan.

fast forward past a delightful morning of reading a book on mushrooming, and another by Edward Abbey, and..

...snow!!

The howling wind and icy blue clouds over the mountain are raining down fairly large snowflakes. Well maybe not down so much as horizontal, but they are in the air nonetheless.

Just a few days ago I was thinking of getting photos of the emerging spring flowers, and the vivid green of the new grass.. Spring was here, so I thought at the time.

Tonight's low? They are predicting 25F.. not exactly spring like weather..

No more work today other than the near constant relighting of the pilot light on the water heater so I can get in a quick warm shower. Time to once again bundle up for a few days..


Update!: They have lowered the forecast to a mere 20, and winds are still howling!!

Slid down the ramp again to make sure that the cows were fed, they graciously slowed my momentum with their bodies.. The wind was whipping snow into my face making seeing ahead of me near impossible, in the very same pasture where two days ago I was feeding them in a Freeb!rd's t-shirt and jeans.. Must be the "global warming" that Al invented..

Keep warm where you are!

Hiking

While talking to some neighbors recently I discovered that they owned a great deal more land than had the previous owners of their house. Over the few years that they have been here they have bought up surrounding land so as to prevent development or the presence of perhaps unwanted neighbors..

These are really friendly folks and they welcomed me to hike their property, an offer I took up the very next day. It was a cloudy day, with rain threatening, but I took off to climb a wooded hill that for reasons I cannot really explain, has fascinated me for years. As this hill will be directly across from my house, I decided it was time to check it out. So following some old logging trails I took off without a real plan beyond checking out the hill then just going wherever seemed apropos at the time.

So I got to enjoy some new views, including some I actually forgot to get pics of, the interesting mix of piney woods and hardwood forest, a good hike which I needed in more ways than one, and even got a bit of a surprise on the way back out:
Who would have thought that there would be an old Cadillac so far from any road?

Washing machine

In taking another look at doing a totally off the grid power system for the house, I began searching for alternatives to the conventional washer and dryer since these are energy hogs, and have a spike usage at start up which I read can dramatically shorten the life of batteries.

I had seen some non-electric washing machines before in my various reading and surfing, but I had not really taken the time to examine the neat small hand crank designs I had seen. Well today that changed. While looking for a photo of one of these to show a friend, I came across this site:

http://www.laundry-alternative.com/products/Wonderwash.html

After reading a bit more about this, and doing some froogling, I opted to buy from these guys. This is what ultimately sold me on it:

"The Wonder Wash washes:
7-8 dress shirts or
10 T-shirts or
30 pairs of socks or
2-3 pairs of blue jeans"

Near as I can tell without trying it yet, this ought to be just about perfect for me. I will have to use some other method for washing comforters and the like, but I might have had to do that anyway with an energy efficient washing machine connected to AC power. All in all, I expect this to be a great find.

A slow day

I guess that I have been pushing myself harder than I thought because today I just could not get going at all. I fed the cows, twice (well three times if you count the supplemental protein cubes) as I have to do for my "rent," but no other work..

I did scout out an area I had more or less overlooked because I thought I could see into it well enough to know that it offered nothing I needed, but it turns out that I was mistaken. This area is in the pasture that the cows are in now, and they have revealed the wide paths through the forest area by trampling down all of the vegetation in their way. As a result on my third trip down to them, I walked through this area and discovered two good hardwood snags, and one dead fall all of which I will hopefully harvest tomorrow. While walking through this area I noticed a stump on which a squirrell has clearly been cracking hickory nuts.. Nice to see signs of the wildlife..

In between feeding cows and looking after the dogs, I found that I was so tired I fell asleep in the middle of the day, which is unlike me. Like I said, maybe I have been pushing harder than I thought trying to get this house built.

I ordered metal for the final stage of the barn repair, to be picked up Thursday or Friday, depending on the weather. I harvested a forgotten turnip from the neglected garden, as well as some rape (it is a leafy green), and checked out the bok choi but none of what is left looked worth harvesting. I did collect some more henbit to go with the turnip as well. So I prepared a nice little dinner of sauteed turnip, cabbage, and henbit with garlic and olive oil, finished off with a dab of butter, some salt and fresh ground pepper. Wonderful impromptu dinner..

Tomorrow will have me running into the "big city" to get a few things, then probably into the closer small town to pick up some groceries, though this latter may wait until I go get the metal later in the week. Harvesting wild foods, and scavenging for the left overs from the garden has really helped the gracery budget..

Chasing Monsters

Though I awoke to a very cold morning, and just could not get going today, I did force myself to get out and get some work done. Back up the hill to the cedar grove and dropped three more trees that will make several timbers, mostly the 12+ inch diameter posts I so desperately need. On the last trip up I noticed off in the distance at one of the creek crossings that there was a down tree across a dry part of the washed out area. It was pretty well hidden by the undergrowth between it and where I had been traveling, but once I did finally notice it I just had to go take a look..


Turned out to be a fine old oak that had been uprooted sometime in the last several months. Here again was a monster tree for me to harvest! It was 22 inches in diameter where I cut it at the base, and to tell the truth I forgot to measure the diameter where I cut the top off, but I know that I could have cut it ten feet longer and still had greater than 12 inches in diameter! I cut this as a single 30 foot piece, knowing that this would allow me to span the greatest length of my house (in the uphill/downhill direction) as perhaps the main girder. 22 inches thick of Oak will certainly hold just about anything I might ever consider putting on top of it. Of course now I will have to use the monster cedars I harvested to support this monster girder, but hey I knew that was part of the deal.

For some of this I am overbuilding it and I know it. Do I need a 22 inch thick girder? No.. do I need 20+ inch thick posts? No.. but if I have the former I do need the latter.. still, what I am doing is taking what is available. I do need greater than 12 inches in diameter for some posts and some girders, so these fit that bill.. Heck I might put more earth on the section with these monsters so as to add to the temperature stabilizing effects.

Fortunately this oak was already laying down. I am not sure I would have tried dropping this one given its diameter and height. Still it did fall into what is essentially an arroyo, and I had to pull it out. This proved to be a great deal more challenging, exciting, and time consuming than I expected. The challenge was to lift the oak up out of the dry wash and keep it from digging in ant the same time. I was above it in a rocky area with the tractor, and could lift some, but as I was lifting it was also pulling the timber towards me, which made it dig in. I had to work it with both moving the tractor back, and lifting with the front end loader, then reposition and repeat. Did this for more than an hour just to get it up the 5-7 feet of incline (horizontal distance was about 25-30 feet) Another 45 minutes saw me make a makeshift sling off of the unroller on the back of the tractor, to hold up one end of the timber as I tried to drag it behind me across four water crossings, up and down several small inclines, across rocky patches and pastures, up the ridge, then finally across the good hay meadows (which I had to make sure not to tear up as they are not mine!) to finally rest for now just past the other stacks of timber.

Not the most productive day, but still a great day in my book given the discovery of this monster and getting it to its next to final resting place. There was also the bonus of having the bark largely stripped off of one side as I was dragging it up to the site. This will certainly save me some time!

Stumped

The weather is interesting to say the least.. from 60 and sunny to 22 and raining..





Still I was able to get a few more timbers up to the site, including two which were part of a tree that made my day interesting.. The tree was 22 inches in diameter where I cut it, and I needed it to fall in a particular direction given the trees around and the way that I was going to have to pull it out of the forest. So I notch the side on which I want it to fall, and I check the limbs to see where the weight is on the tree. The limbs seem to be evenly spaced and the trunk straight so I ought to be able to make the tree fall by cutting away one side low and the other high and the tree will fall into the gap..

Ought to.. Really ought to..

Do I need to say at this point that it did not? As I spend quite some time cutting through this large trunk, which turns out to be mostly heartwood-which is good for me-, I get around to the backside to cut away the far side from where it should fall.. I keep on cutting until I hear that first crack which is the tell-tale sign that the tree is coming down.. I pull the chainsaw out quickly and check to see which way the tree is falling.. I cannot tell except to note that it is NOT falling the direction that I needed it to fall..

Now this is why you always have a few "outs" when you are cutting down trees, especially 50-60 foot tall trees.. I bolted for the two closely spaced trees I had selected as my best out, and then looked back to see the cedar fall almost 180 degrees off of where I needed it to fall... Or to put it another way, fall exactly where I was standing moments before! Fortunately since this is thick forest I had no equipment nearby, except the chainsaw which was still in my hand (and running..) So I killed the saw, set it down, and damn near collapsed.. :) The adrenaline was coursing through my system at a break neck speed..

So rather than start in on delimbing the tree, I did a few jumping jacks.. ran in place.. and tried to work off the adrenaline.. Once more calm, I looked to see if I could still get this monster out of where it fell, decided that I could, then started in on delimbing it. After about two hours I had two very large 16 foot timbers pulled out of there, and one 8 footer left to get.

Ultimately this served as a reminder to never get too comfortable with a chainsaw or with dropping a tree. Usually you can easily tell which way a tree is going to fall (all of the limbs on one side, or it leans a particular direction) but sometimes something happens to change what you think will happen.

So too when I dropped a few other trees the day before when the wild grape vines, greenbriars, and other vines (including poison ivy 3 inches around!) held up a couple of trees, preventing them from falling down at all!

Finally to the stumps.. the photo with the red center is this large cedar which tried to end my life, the second is one I am asking for help with.. I am not sure what kind of tree this was.. One of the problems with getting snags (dead standing trees) is that they have no leaves and so the most common method of determining species is denied to us.. If anyone has any ideas jump in and offer them.. The bark is like that of an oak or a hickory, there is no heartwood, and the interior is almost brilliant white..

A set back and discovery

Now that I have a significant number of timbers on the site, I have begun cataloging them noting length, type of wood, and diameter at each end. This has allowed me to begin the process of creating something I suppose could be called a "build by numbers" plan. Essentially this is a plan which will very clearly say that log number X goes in position here, connected to logs Y and Z.

I was pleased to discover that I am only missing two timbers of the roof structure, which has all along been my greatest concern as it will be supporting 18-24 inches of soil. What I did not expect to discover is that I am sorely lacking in the post department. Most of the posts I have gathered will actually work quite well as beams in the roof structure, but are undersized to support the 12+ inch timbers which constitute the roof system.

So I went out this morning to try to locate timbers with diameters near 12 inch, in lengths as follows:
4- 16 foot
6 each of 10 1/2'
12 1/2'
and 14 1/2'

I was fortunate that a couple of timbers I had already dropped but not hauled out of the cedar grove fit into that group. I was able to harvest two more of that group fairly easily and then marked a few more yet. If the weather holds, I will have a better idea tomorrow what I can collect quickly and easily.

I also need some smaller diameter timbers, on the order of 25 of ranging from 11' to 15' long. These will be slightly easier to find, and are sometimes found on the same trees from which I am taking the larger diameter timbers. Still, needless to say I was surprised and a bit disappointed to discover that I am almost 50 timbers short of being done with collection. This means that I am just over half-way done, unless I adopt the practice of tying smaller timbers together with either bolts or plumbers tape (not tape at all, google it..) and use two or three timbers in place of a single post. I am not very keen on that idea given some of the potential stresses, so I am going to try to harvest all that I can first.

But all was not gloom and doom.. while walking about the fringes of the cedar grove where it becomes a mixed hardwood/pine forest, I did discover a monster cedar which I dearly want.. It is two feet in diameter at the base!! I could get two of my thick posts out of this monster, and maybe even one of the smaller diameter posts as well.

Then as I was coming down from the cedar grove - this is always an adventure as the road resembles the down side of a roller coaster- I noticed at the turn back into the pastures there was standing a large hardwood snag. This one too was a monster measuring in at 18 inches at its base! So I moved the tractor out of harms way and proceeded to take the chainsaw to it. I am not sure what kind of tree that this is, but I can tell you that it is hard as nails and would not budge until there was only a quarter inch of wood left holding it vertical. I have never had a free standing tree hold on to well. Out of this one tree I was able to get a 16' piece with a diameter ranging from 18" to over 12", plus two other timbers around 7 or 8 inches by 12 feet or so. I do not have a place in mind specifically for these last two but they are beautiful marked by the worm trails on the surface (right beneath the bark) and I could not pass up taking them.

And I have no worries about curing this last snag, it is so dry and has been so long dead that the bark is falling off of it. About 10 minutes work should clear it of bark and it is read to be used.

I am sore and physically tired again today, as I usually am after doing any logging, but all in all a good day. Tomorrow I return to it, provided the weather holds, and continue to make progress. If the weather does turn on me, I will return to the research I am doing again on solar, wind, and picohydro to see if there is any way at all I can generate sufficient power to stay off the grid, or perhaps to earn a slight income from generating power for the grid.

Hard work on hardwood.

Before I was so rudely interrupted by the tractor getting bogged down across the gravel bar, I had worked on removing the bark from the hardwood timbers to allow them to dry more quickly. Here you can see the top two logs before I began working on them, plus underneath a Sweet Gum timber I stripped a few weeks ago.




This is the draw knife I am using. It has a 13 inch blade which you pull back towards you at an angle to allow for a nice slicing action to cut into the cambian (cambium) layer between the bark and the wood, and when it works right neatly pull off the bark.
After about an hour I had between a quarter and a third of the Black Walnut bark off, and as you can see some of the bark removed from the hickory next to it.
The black walnut bark is quite thick in places and stripping it is slow going, but will be very satisfying to see every time I look up in my home. All of the hardwoods have reasonably thick bark which can be difficult to remove, though I will say that the hickory stripped nicely. In another half hour I had done about a third of the total bark of the hickory. After a few experimental pulls on other timbers, I called it day deciding that two hours of pulling on the draw knife was plenty for me.
I will admit that my desire to not cut down living trees has helped in some cases with regard to the bark. Many of the old cedar snags I have harvested either already have their bark off, else have bark that can be very easily peeled with just my hands. The pine and the cedars which have not aged that long both strip much more easily than the hardwoods, provided that there are not a lot of branches as is often the case with cedars.

Friday the 13th Pt 2

The day pretty well continued on the same trend as it began: one thing after another going wrong..

I spent a few more hours trying to dig out the tractor, pull it out, lever it out, etc. Finally Rob showed up and between the two of us (read: with his expertise in handling equipment) we had the tractor out in maybe 15 minutes. Now even he will admit that the shoring I had done under the wheels just before he came played the largest role in getting the tractor out, but at the same time his knowledge and moral support went a very long way.

I did go ahead and finish the repair I had begun which lead to the tractor being stuck, and filled in one other low area with gravel as well, before switching back to the hay fork and heading down to feed the cows again. The cows were waiting at the gate, ready to push into a pasture in which they do not belong, so I went around to the other gate. This proved to be simply another disaster. Half way down the ramp into the lower pasture, the hay bale, still tied with twine, fell into a large pile and a fairly small roll. I took the roll on down to the cattle, and proceeded to take the utility vehicle back to the spill and make three trips picking up hay and taking it to the cows.

I am back in the caravan, showered, and ready for the dinner I have yet to fix. It is wonderful to be dry again, to be out of clothes which smell of stagnant water, and to have the relief of having all of the equipment out of the mire and in good working order.

Days like this push me towards wishing that I could adopt that trite belief that reality is not reality, but rather perception is reality. Imagine, I could choose to perceive that none of this happened, and that I won the lottery.. .ah but then I'd have to give up the real pleasures in life as well.. Guess I will stick with reality come what may.

I am going to end the day reading a book, and breaking my self imposed dry spell by enjoying a glass or two of wine. Here's to helpful friendly guys like Rob, to the success that comes from hard work, and to the relief which comes when all is done. Slainte!

Change in plans

Yesterday was to be a productive day of stripping the bark off of timbers and doing some odd jobs around the ranch.. I did spend two hours taking the bark off of timbers, but after only one load of gravel to fill in a low crossing between pastures, I was suddenly sidetracked. I had to spend over 4 hours getting the tractor out of a soft spot on the other side of a gravel bar. Through lots of digging, lifting, cutting, hoping, and maneuvering, I was finally able to get the tractor unstuck. Unfortunately I was still in the wrong place, and the pit where I was stuck was between me and the pastures where I needed to go. I needed another plan.

So plan B was to work my way upstream of the usual crossing, and find another. I hit pay dirt with a good rocky crossing with a hard bottom. Well I thought I hit pay dirt.. Once across that bit, the last 15 feet to the pasture turned into pure bog. Before I could begin to back up the tractor sunk in about a foot. I worked at trying to get it out for about an hour or more, before giving up for the day exhausted, frustrated, and wondering just how I was going to get this beast back up onto dry land once again.

That was yesterday. Today began with a trip down to the tractor, and a few hours of digging, bracing, moving timbers under the tires, and trying to use a come-along to pull the tractor out. The end result: I am more tired than I was and the tractor is still where it was yesterday.

I have a call in to a neighbor who helps on the ranch and who borrows equipment from time to time in hopes of getting his tractor over here to get it stuck as well.. sorry I interjected a prediction there.. the hope is that he will be able to use his tractor to pull this one out.

In the meantime I still had to feed the herd of cows, but without the tractor to move the bales down to them. So in the barn I began taking apart a large round bale and moving it by hand to a small four wheel drive utility vehicle. Once that was full, I took a load down to the cows. 5 trips later they are fed.. for the morning. I will need to do this yet again this afternoon. The end result" I am even more tired yet.. and expect to simply collapse, probably from a stroke or heart attack, immediately after feeding the cows this afternoon.

As they say, some days it does not pay to get out of bed.

Tomorrow will be better. It is what it is.. any other suggestions for platitudes?

From peaceful to pummeling

For a day that began with such tranquility, it ended with great violence. The evening began with a enormous flash of lightening, a mad dash for the caravan to shut up windows, and rain suddenly coming down in buckets. Quite damp I got inside, shut up the windows, and quickly checked the radar online. A line of severe thunderstorms from south Texas northward well into Missouri at least was bearing down on me. With the immediate storm passing, I relaxed, enjoyed the last of my Henbit curry dish, and returned to reading, while listening to the wind rip and roar outside. Within a few hours, it was whipping the caravan enough to bring about some concern, though not enough to leave. I decided to turn in knowing that we were under a tornado watch, and that further storms were bearing down on me.

Well they hit with a vengeance. I could not have gotten more than a couple of hours sleep total in the entire night. I was first shaken awake but the winds increasing in their fury, then by rain which seemed to be boarding on being hail. From there it only got worse.. at one point I got up and got dressed fearing that I would soon have to bolt for safety, though I had little idea where would constitute safety (if only my u-house were already built.. it would be perfectly safe from such stormy shenanigans). So dressed I lay back down to drift in and out of sleep until about 6 am when I once again undressed, slid under the covers and slept for about 40 minutes in the relative calm. The rains had eased to sporadic showers, which ended about 7:30 am, when I had to get out to take care of animals..

Not the sort of night I wish to repeat any time soon, though I do love storms. The final result of that night is that I am turning in quite early this evening, while hoping that tomorrow will bring a day suitable for more progress on the house.

Dreary? No, peaceful.

After a full day of rain yesterday, ending in a wonderfully vibrant red sunset, we began the day with early morning showers ending to leave a foggy and very still landscape. There is full cloud cover and we are in the mid 60's F, all of which many folks would consider dreary or depressing, but I find such days to be rejuvenating and so peaceful to almost be meditative. The rain has kept animals down or inside, so there is no barking, nothing from the cows, and only some modest chirping and calling from the forest birds.

With the quiet, the featureless sky, and the still air it is almost as if time has stopped, letting us get caught up to it, leaving behind that feeling of being behind. Though the metaphor says something ill about our culture, it is apt here: a day to recharge one's batteries.

So today will be filled with catching up on some reading I have set aside for far too long, working a bit on drawing up the specifics as to what timbers are needed where in the house, and enjoying the peace and quiet which seems to get ever more rare as we "advance" as a culture.

It is for days like these, and others of course, that I have chosen this path and decided to take on this experiment of living simply by my own efforts, and why so many have chosen to go back to the land, or get out into the wilderness whenever they can. Peace and time are far too rare to be squandered working to support the things of our modern lives.

Some Assembly Required

I have been asked for more recent photos, so here is the only relevant shot taken this very morning before the rains came on. This is my home. Or it will be in time. What you see here are 64 timbers over 5 inches in diameter with some as much as 16 inches in diameter, plus a number of smaller timbers which will be used in various supports. I am not quite done harvesting timbers, but this is certainly the bulk of those I need to build my underground log home.




The delays in work can be seen here in the form of two different ice storms:

















In between these storms I was drafted into a repair project:














What you are seeing here is an entire 60 foot section of the barn roof which was picked up and flipped over onto the remainder of the barn. Needless to say this repair took some time. In fact there are still 12 pieces of tin to put on in order to be done with this repair. We added some strapping to ensure that this sort of thing will not happen again.

A brief aside

One of the perhaps foreseeable but yet surprising "issues"I have run into when describing the house to folks who though either related or otherwise somehow involved, though not what I would call close to me, is a near constant fascination and focus on the television. They would seemingly abandon the house in order to save the television.

The source of the issue lay in the fact that I have no plan for a television (I have never owned one) and that they see it as not merely "a"crucial element, but "the" crucial element of life, even here where they could go outside and admire the night sky, or walk some wildlife trail to see where it leads, or merely sit and watch the life around us go about its business.. Heck they could go out and gather in free wild food to eat, or enjoy the sounds of the forest. The point is that if one wants to live inside a box, why not make it a box in the city?

Do not get me wrong, I enjoy the mindlessness of some television, and I will watch some things on the computer once I get settled, but I will not allow this to rule my life. Even now, when I step outside on a night such as this when the moon is shining so very brightly, I spend some time marveling at the fact that I can see for quite some distance, my best guess is a quarter mile, in the moonlight, not because of street lights but because they are missing..

One more step closer

Another day of simply moving timbers from one location to another, the house site. Still the more timbers I get on site the easier it will be to calculate what I still need, as well as to begin marking timbers for specific locations in the build.

Not all which have been cut are on site yet, but many more are. I have two stacks to move the final leg to the site, one already up on the ridge, and another composes mostly of smallish cedars (5-8 inch diameters) which are still down below, but which I should be able to move all at once using a truck rather than one or two at a time using the tractor.

And yes dear readers I am using machinery to accomplish some of the tasks necessary for building this underground log cabin. I was reluctant at first fearing a loss of some of the experience, including some personal association with each log, and the tactile sensation of moving each, but given that some of these timbers weigh several hundred pounds, and are best used whole where possible, I overcame this reluctance and realized that I will still be laying hands on every timber more than once regardless.

For those concerned with the environmental impact of using machinery, well that impact will be minimal in the big picture, and more than compensated by the energy efficiency of the U-house, the radically reduced energy costs in transportation (my timbers travel feet and yards, perhaps tenths of miles, unlike most dimensional lumber which travels thousands of miles.. ), and by the fact that I am using snags (standing dead timbers) , discarded timbers from logging, and timbers which otherwise would go to waste. To the last of these, some neighbors have given me three nice pine timbers which had to be removed so that they could build their shop last year. I have yet to pick these up but will soon. This is the ultimate in recycling: I am using that which others consider waste, in order to build my own home. In fact I am even using the polyethylene cording used to hold round bales together to cushion the backfill process. I am collecting that twine now, putting it into the otherwise discarded feed sacks, and when the time comes I will place these against the polyethylene on the outside of the shoring so as to protect the polyethylene sheeting from any punctures.

So I can say with some confidence that I have no apologies to make with regard to the environmental status of my home and its construction. Yes I could do it all by hand and perhaps buy a mule to drag timbers to the site, but I can guarantee that it simply would not happen under those criteria. Were that necessary, I would build a different sort of cabin which would require more use of wood for heat, and perhaps even some form of air conditioning..

Speaking of such concerns, I have been eying a spring fed pond and creek on the property for possible use for a micro-hydro-electric system. This seems to be a real possibility given what I have read about the modest needs of some of these efficient systems. Some require as small a drop as 4 feet, which is doable on this site. There are two downsides that are immediately evident: Rural electric is heavily subsidized with our stolen income (tax dollars) so electricity is cheap (thus everyone wastes it around here.. ) and the distance from the nearest possible generating site to the home site is significant. Still I am going to price this, along with some wind generation possibilities for which I do not hold out much hope given what I have read so far and given the sporadic nature of wind here. Solar remains a possibility, but of course is still very cost prohibitive. There might be the future possibility of some rebates, but I would be very seriously troubled about the idea of taking any such rebates from the feds given that it is not their money to give in the first place.

Still I am working at every opportunity to find ways to reduce my impact on the world (including other people) without sacrificing the important aspects of living.

Another day of logging..

I have commented before about harvesting snags, standing dead trees, and other dead trees for my home, but what I have overlooked is the transportation of those timbers. Today I spent several hours on heavy machinery, okay.. a tractor, moving timbers from many places where I dropped them to one of three places: two places where I stationed timbers which require some other action to move them to the site -either the moving of the herd of cattle (not mine) which stands between the timbers and the site, or finding a way to move timbers up a road going up the ridge which has trees closer together than the timbers are long.. , and the third place being up by the house site where I was able to drop off a few timbers in a new stack for just the snags which are already ready for being treated through charring to become posts.

Most of these were moved one at a time over rough terrain. Thus a handful of timbers might take an hour to move any real distance..

The next few days will likely be much of the same. Once I can get most of the posts on site I can start to mark them for specific placement in the design, thus allowing me to know what I need to finish the build.

cynic

CYNIC n. A blackguard whose faulty vision causes him to see things as they are, not as they ought to be

Ambrose Bierce

Weather challenges

As I noted last week, I am back up and running with a new fan installed on the laptop so all is well with regard to computers anyway..

This week has brought yet another round of ice storms, cold and wet weather, and now coming nearly full circle, we have enjoyed two days of sun and 60+ degrees.

The good weather has allowed me to get out and make some progress on additional clearing of the site, made necessary by a better understanding of the necessary design, as well as some important changes in the design of the home upon completion of the Underground building course. My previous design would have sufficed, but this new design allows in a great deal more light and views, including two directly downhill views.

Those downhill views come with some challenges, which became very clear today as I hauled logging chains up and down the ridge. The primary of these will be a need to take care when exiting downhill. The ridge slope at that point is greater than one to one, meaning that for every one foot forward you climb a foot or more.

The days of ice and cold allowed me to refine the design of the U-home to what I believe is a design which I will find very comfortable, efficient, and yet live like a house close to twice the size. 30 linear foot of running windows, plus at least another 12 linear ft of windows and doors elsewhere should allow for ample natural light, as well as for cross ventilation.

I have included a generous area for cold storage, earth cooled of course, which will also double as support for a loft area. The loft area itself will do double duty in that it will be overflow for storage, as well as a sleeping area for guests, should I have any. Then again, depending on the season I may decide that the loft is my preferred sleeping area, and so will give over the main bed area, with its own wonderful views.

Notice that I have not used the term "room" when describing these areas.. The primary reason is that I am trying to build a life, not a group of segments. So too with the house. The cold cellar will be closed off in order to keep it cold, the toilet area closed off to keep odors out of the house, but these are the only two interior doors in the entire house. Other areas can be screened off for privacy, but most of the time the house will live as one large open space, "divided" if you will be the view presented or the function of the space. There will be a long sitting/lounge area along one wall of windows, which is at the same time open to the kitchen so that no one is separated from anyone else by the "chore" of cooking or prepping food. The large table, approximately 8 ft long, will serve as dining area, but also prep area especially during harvest and putting up of food.

Most of the walls which do not contain windows, will be shelves, almost certainly mostly containing books, but also some collections such as the mementos of the trip to China and Mt Taishan.

So where I sit now is that I need to finish dragging some timbers up the hill and off of the site, strip them of bark, allow them to dry then prep them for installation. With any luck the next several weeks will bring on the excavation, which will allow me to start setting the posts for the uphill and down hill walls.

As I have been asked, the last post referred to a wonderful pet of some dear friends of mine. She passed far too young doubly so for such a fun loving and caring soul She holds a special place in my heart and her passing lessens the world a bit. Love the animals around you while you can. Time is your more rare resource..

Run Free

I am back up and running on the computer, but updates will have to wait. For now:

Good bye to a great spirit and a dear friend. Run free Minx. May you never lack for squirrels.

Frustration on the rise

From the basic frustration of not having computer parts available locally, and not having decent relatively inexpensive internet service available, now the frustration level is on the rise.. Apparently if you want to have computer parts shipped here, they assume that it is fraudulent, no matter to what degree you can prove you are who you are and that you really do want that part. I was told over the phone directly that I must be trying to defraud someone because I want a computer fan. Thanks JPCParts.com..

The ordeal goes on..

The only positive note on this day was the harvesting of several timbers from the cedar grove back in the hills.

Days like this remind me why it is that I long for a very simple life. Fewer things, and less complexity, means fewer things to break and fewer opportunities for failure..

The death grip I have had on my computer/internet connection for the last decade has loosened significantly..

Progress report- Timbering

Computer issues aside, and time consuming obligations overlooked, I have still been able to make a bit of progress on my own projects, which for the time being remain harvesting timber and revising plans to fit available timber and the requirements of carrying almost two feet of soil on the roof...

One of the benefits of having other obligations is that I can do a little of the hard work at a time, meaning that I can work until I am tired and then go work on my other obligations. For those who have not employed a chainsaw for anything more than the occasional removal of a limb or small shrub from the yard, using one continuously especially a larger one meant for ranch use, is very tiring. Your arms burn from simply holding the saw, and then you often also have to attach logging chains, hold the saw over your head (which is in every warning in every manual.. do not do this) all of which add to the exhaustion you feel after as little as an hour of such work.

So whenever time and the weather allows, I go up into the hills and harvest the trees which I marked on a couple of previous visits. Most of these are cedars, as my revised plan (going away from the PSP system somewhat..) calls for many many more posts, which means cedar which are great for compression, and which do not rot (especially when protected as I will be doing), though I will also be harvesting some other deadfalls, and standing dead timber where appropriate. I am gathering in some pine (easier to work and great for interior surfaces) and where I find them I take hardwoods, like Oak, Hickory, and in a sad but fortunate case or two Black Walnut.

These hardwoods when they are sufficiently large, are going to be my roof girders and beams, since their tensile strength is far greater than cedar meaning that a 12 inch diameter Oak, will be able to support far more than a 12 inch (or even 15 inch) cedar. This is important not merely for safety, which is very important to me of course, but also so that I can save effort. If I can build the roof support with 12 inch diameter wood, rather than 15 inch diameter timbers, then I have five inches of soil I need not remove from the floor in order to have the same head clearance. For someone as tall as I am, this is very important, though honestly it is equally important to anyone building their own home.

And I have to admit that there is still an element of love of what is involved, in that I would rather use a smaller timber where I can to save the large ones for where they are absolutely necessary. Remember I am (so far) refraining from taking live trees, so as to keep my impact on the local environment as minimal as possible.

Regardless, the short point is that I am still harvesting timbers, and still getting ready for construction which will be an ongoing process so bear with me. I have however found on ebay a draw knife which appears to be FAR better than anything else I have seen, and still I picked it up for less than one normally finds a new one. This is a tool I expect to donate to my "heir" (not likely I will have kids near as I can tell at my age) and hope that he/she will keep and use to donate yet again.. it is a tool for a century at least.

So for those who have so kindly asked about the progress, I thank you and welcome such questions. I am still making progress, and I am still doing my level best to keep to the budget to show that we can all not only survive the coming painful depression but do so on our own terms, living lives of pleasure, peace, and comfort, though obviously not one of uniformity or conformity.

Computers and caretaking

One of the things which may get overlooked in this adventure, is that while I am trying to live very close to nature, in my own way and at my own schedule, I am doing so while trying to stay connected to the internet (somehow frugally!?!) Most of the time the challenge to this is to find internet service at all, especially service which is sufficient, and sufficiently inexpensive. Dial up is still the norm here, for those few who have connection at all. Yet I have this week discovered that other more basic and more challenging issues in the form of hardware problems.

My primary computer which I purchased a year ago to last me for several years, went down thanks to a fan issue. A new one would run me well over $100, so I opted for a refurb fan which was supposed to run me about $60, but the site I used (supplysale.com) refused to even contact me about the order for a week, then canceled the order without explanation as soon as I filed my second query. Needless to say, I suggest avoiding this site completely as unreliable and disreputable.

While trying to get a response from that site, and waiting for the order they initially claimed was approved and in process, my fall back computer, a laptop from many years ago which is overloaded with data and runs so slow as to make you wish for dial up, decided to cease working properly as well.

The end result? Well today I ordered the same part from another company, one out of Texas rather than California, so I am a bit more hopeful of receiving it. I have fallen back yet again, to using the computer of the wife of my nearest neighbors for whom I am house-sitting, cow care-taking, and dog wrangling. Hopefully before they return in a week or so, I will have the new part and have my own primary computer up and running once again.

One of the lessons of frugal living comes out of this experience, in that by care-taking for neighbors, you can find alternatives which may not otherwise exist. I have no bills other than food while they are gone, I can save the propane and electricity which I would otherwise have to use for heating and cooking, as well as light and to fire up the non-working computer.

I am also generating good will, which can come in handy as well, such as when I have need of a tractor or other machinery which will make moving 24 foot timbers much easier. In these trying times many of us are forced to be frugal, without practice, but even those of us who are used to frugal ways, we must stay on the look out for any possible opportunity all the while remembering that to some degree for almost all of us, there is also a benefit of a good connection with people who have an interest in our own lives, and us in theirs.

Long Forgotten NIght Sky

One of the often overlooked or overly glamorized benefits of being away from modern developments, is the incredible night sky. Sure I am referring to the harvest, blue, and full moons which we can ll appreciate no matter the locale, but I am also referring to the appreciation of Orion traveling across the sky at night, and seeing the Milky Way in its fully glory. The last two nights I have suffered from my unfortunately recurring insomnia, but I made the best of it each night by taking a few moments to step outside, with my eyes already adjusted to the dark, and seeing a mind boggling array of stars.

I am the first to admit my own cynicism, I revel in it, but the opportunity to experience the beauty of the stars without the interference of perhaps well intentioned street lights, neon, and the other encumberances of modern culture is something to not merely not miss, but to seek out.

Just turning another page

This New Years holiday is even more anti-climatic than ever before for me, which is saying something as I just see no reason to single out one day for recognizing the passing of time and our individual lives. Yet as I say this holiday is special in its lack of any significance whatsoever to me. For me the new year began back in the summer when I began these sets of journeys which have brought me to these particular hills where I have begun the process of building not only my new home, but an entirely different life for myself as well.

Still I recognize that some folks feel a need to mark the passage of the arbitrarily determined "end" of the year, or "beginning" of a "new" year, so for all I simply hope that from this point forward you can see every day as a new beginning, every moment as one worth living, and every minute more precious than any gem. Time is our most precious asset, and life is the process of spending that time. Spend the time wisely. Live your live authentically. Enjoy that which brings you pleasure, ignoring the expectations of others.

Weather again brings difficulties

As part of the bartering for the land upon which, or rather under which, I will be building my house, I have to help out on the larger property as needed. Well thanks to the weather that help is sorely needed this week. Yesterday the winds were blowing so strongly that they lifted a very large portion of the roof on a hay barn, flipping that large section (20'X60') over onto the rest of the roof.

So today was spent taking apart that roof as best we could into sections which we then pulled off of the roof so that we could disassemble the rest into parts in order to build the roof once again. Tomorrow will likely be spent in much the same way. Then we begin the process of building again, which will likely take up all of this wonderful break in the weather, thus putting off my own efforts to build my underground house.

Such is the nature of things..

Still with some timber cut, other timber located, plans in place, a batch of muscadine wine begun life is not all bad..

Weather woes and small spaces

After those three days of great progress and no small amount of timber harvested, I found myself hampered by cold, ice, rain, mud, and all of the ills of winter weather. With the temps dipping into the teens (F) the smart person is reluctant to even leave the warmth of his bed!

Still there has been some progress, in the form of a grove of cedars of some size which may result in some change of plan in that I may create vertical shoring in the form of a wall of posts, rather than a few posts holding back dimensional lumber. This means taking more trees, but even so it appears that it may still be possible to do so without taking any live trees, aside from those very few I had to clear from the site of the house itself. The grove we discovered when just taking a jaunt around the property, surprisingly is almost exclusive standing dead cedars (with the other species of trees still living just fine). Many of these are many feet in diameter, including one giant which will become the center post and a focal point in my home.

But as I said, the weather has been truly unpleasant for the most part, keeping me indoors to a large extent. One consequence of this has been a conscious examination of what it means to live in a small space. While preparing for building my home, I am living in a caravan of less than 150 ft sq. Needless to say this is a challenge, even to one such as I who desires small spaces and little impact on the world around me. One of the challenges, and there are many, of this arrangement is that the ceiling is actually about 2 inches shorter than I myself am. So the cubic area is even less than is revealed by the square footage. Still it is my place, and I am making the most of it as my temporary shelter.

I am coming to see some of the challenges of the home to be built, though it will be four times the square footage and have ceilings much more in proportion to my own person. The challenges are perhaps not entirely unique to me, yet it would be tedious to go into them in detail at this point. Mostly they take the form of realization of the need for kitchen workspace, for hanging storage, and for general storage for those things used daily or at least weekly but which need not be underfoot.

The weather promises to warm above freezing tomorrow, but with that comes more rain, so I am doubtful as to the amount of work I can get done, yet I will hope for dry skies and at least some opportunity to begin to clear the timber of the grove, in which we will be creating a bit of an opening in the forest and some more useful habitat for the fauna.

Timbering day three

After clearing the site and taking the timber off of it, I have begun to harvest timber from other parts of the property for the construction of my u-house. So far other than the few I removed from the site itself, I have not taken any living tree, instead relying upon dead falls, standing dead timber, and recovering what was considered not worth taking when they cleared some land for pastures in recent years.

Today's haul was 11 timbers, including a wonderful set of oaks which had fallen on a fence, but had grown previously near laser straight for over 25 feet. Just one of these I harvested is 25 feet long by one foot in diameter. This wonderful, slow grown and beautiful oak will support part of the natural roof which will shelter me, but which being earth is quite heavy. Between this, two sweet gum trees, and a hickory taken out in a storm last fall, I believe that I may have all of my roof girders (the principle horizontal roof structures).

I was also able to get some great oak posts from the limbs and tops of these trees, along with a number of good sized cedars which are already well aged.

The photo shows only a small number of the timbers taken today, mostly the oaks.. the longest being the 25 footer..

Tomorrow.. perhaps more cedars from the same area, along with some of the remaining limbs which could be of use. Progress..!!

Of muscadines, bok choy, and persimmons

One of the great pleasures of my recent life has been the foraging of food otherwise ignored, forgotten, or simply unfound. After arriving at my currently temporary location, I discovered the grand herald of the southern summer, the muscadine, still clinging to the vine. While most of these were inedible, at least not palatable to me, there were a few still green that the frost had turned wonderfully sweet.. these tidbits immediately took me back at least six months to the summer if not years back to the times I collected these as a child along the banks of an exciting creek full of child inspiring wonder..

At the same time, I have been practicing other forms of what would otherwise be considered urban foraging, except that I am hours away from any place anyone would mistake for even remotely "urban."

I have been enjoying the persimmons which are simply inedible until after the first frost, as well as bok choy planted int he garden which is bolting but still very tasty..

I have collected dried black eyed peas, which would be ignored by the owners as undesirable (they collected what they wanted fresh), and I could collect black walnuts were I more patient.. ( I expect that next year I will be..)

This ignores many of the wild edibles of which I am still learning, such as green briar (a nice bit of vengeance that is.. eating the damn vines which leave me cut to ribbons..) and others..

On a tree once planted I am certain by one of the early homesteaders of this site, there stands a persimmon tree, which produces fruit which is simply not edible until the frost comes and converts the starches to sugars producing a delicious if seedy treat.

All of this in December, when the winds are howling, the cold threatening, and the climate simply unwelcoming..

So in these troubles times I ask, are you really taking in all that you could for a comfortable and even gourmet lifestyle?

I am doing what I can.. give me a year and I will be living a fine life than most kings throughout history, for less than the most modest welfare queen!

Clearing the site

Removing the timber, which will be used in the construction of course, was the first step to clearing the land in preparation for the underground home I am going to be building over the next several months.

Dropping twenty some odd trees in the heavily briared site was a tiring two day job, but the results are satisfying. Soon I will be clearing off the vines and putting up permanent boundary markers to be used for excavation. You can see two of the temporary markers on the left side of the photo. This side is the cliff side, which is not evident in the photo. You can see just a glimpse of the mountains and hay meadow in the upper right of the shot.

Definitely progress..

Success

I was reminded this morning of a discussion I had with a friend a few years ago regarding success. If I say Jane is a successful woman, if you are honest with yourself you think of her as making money, achieving some social status, etc. You probably even see her in a business suit. If I say "John is a successful artist" you almost certainly think of the number of paintings/sculptures he has sold. Success is first off thought of in terms of wealth and "accomplishment" where "accomplishment" itself is understood in terms of wealth and power.

I know that there are a few who are simply contrary who will immediately say something about the "successful" people, such as Mother Teresa, who never gathered in wealth for themselves, but even in such cases we are focusing on celebrity, fame, etc.

With those exceptions in mind, we then start to think of others: artists, orators, writers, etc. who may never gain fame or fortune in their lives, but still seem to fit what we would deem successful.

So then, we can see that our initial notion of success is flawed at best. So then what is success?

In the conversation with a friend, I answered this question along the lines of the following: Success (in life) is living the life you choose to live, accomplishing the goals you set for yourself, being the person you want to be.

These travels for me serve as rungs of the ladder of success. Building my own home will be another such rung, and a very significant one at that.

But do not feel a need to follow my path. Seek your own, examine what it means for you to be successful in your life and simply do it.

Second Stage

Well I have arrived at my next temporary home, with my temporary home (my caravan), in the backwoods of some quite old mountains in the central US.

The trip here was eight and a half hours of stress pulling a caravan which outweighs my truck. This alone was a challenge, but doubly so for someone who had never pulled a trailer so large before. Still I arrived safely after only minimal issues. The caravan is leveled and held by the leveling jacks, with the water and electric to hopefully be connected tomorrow. I must make some changes to the facilities here where I am parking the caravan for the winter, as it is set up for larger and newer mobile abodes than the one in which I will be staying..

A brief word about this caravan. It is 33 years old, but wears her age well. Though not in perfect shape, she is in damn good shape for the age and should serve as a snug and comfortable home until I can get the first home of my own design and construction built. One of the surprising aspects is a bed larger than any I have slept in previously. To those who do not know me in person, this means that I will fit for a change.. I am well over the average height and so tend to find most beds very uncomfortable as they require me to curl up into a ball, else dangle my feet off the end, which puts great stress on my back. So this better than king size bed in this caravan is a great source of personal pleasure.

Another element is less appealing at first blush though much more so upon some contemplation. This is the ceiling height. The ceiling is about 2-3 inches too short for me so that the only place I can stand straight is directly under one skylight. Obviously this adds challenges, but as I said after a brief contemplation I found that this is a benefit in truth. Having a home where I cannot stand erect forces me to get outside and enjoy the natural world all the more. As I am hoping to use this time to lose weight and gain some endurance in my hiking, the short ceiling is a lemon which makes great lemonade.

With this Thanksgiving time now behind us, I hope to get the caravan in order, and begin a time of rest from the efforts and stress of both my previous location and of moving itself. I will also be marking trees and standing dead wood for use as beams, posts, girders, and filler for my timber frame underground home which I will be building as soon as possible.

There is much to do preparing for the building process so I hope to accomplish much if not all of that while the weather is less than ideal for building. I will be intermingling that effort with examination of plants, wildlife trails and other aspects of the specific locale I will be inhabiting for some time to come. With luck I will spot many possible wild edibles, places where snares may be placed (if I choose to employ these), and places which will serve as prime spots for contemplation and writing.

A final brief note on the latter. The last few months have allowed me to once again enjoy teaching and being in an environment thriving on seeing truth and wisdom. This is a rarity not to be ignored or overlooked. As a result I am once again inspired to work on some projects which have been in the back of my mind in the fields of morality and perhaps philosophy of language. I believe that some of the work I have in mind will serve to clarify some key concepts which cross the border between philosopher and layperson, and which can help us to better understand the foundations and nature of morality itself which we already use on a daily basis.

Reminder..

Last night I finished my stint as a guest lecturer in a bio-ethics class. The evening ended on a high note, with appreciation and thanks given by the students, wholly unexpected by me in a class which is mandatory for most of them.

Though it was much appreciated, the thanks was entirely a bonus to a wonderful experience, a reminder of what I once enjoyed: teaching.

With the promised increase in racial tensions and special barriers to be erected against folks who look like me, promises made by the president elect, I must savor this last opportunity.. I fear that we are entering another dark age where skin tone, genitalia, and political bent are all put above ability, merit, and truth.

Building a dream

One of the purposes of this most recent set of travels is to arrive at the place where I expect to live for at least many years, if not the rest of my life. I had thought that this would be one location, but that has come under some scrutiny due to some difficulties with one of the owners of the land. So I am now looking at my second choice, which to be fair was a very close second anyway.

What this means for me is that I get to build the underground home I have wanted to build for some time now. I suspect that what most folks think of when they think of an underground home is something like a cave, or a dark damp basement. The plans I am developing will be neither of these.

As is my wont, I have read all that I could on the subject, and the most helpful as well an enjoyable book on the subject is The $50 & Up Underground House Book by Mike Oehler. He built his first U-home in 1971 and is still living in an expanded version of this same home, and expansion which cost $500.. making the home's total cost $550.. I have never even heard of any other home being built so inexpensively and yet still retaining efficiencies not found in the most expensive of homes today. Imagine cutting your heating and cooling costs by 80%!...

His own home still retains great views, and lots of light thanks to some ingenious placement of windows, and some ideas which ran/run counter to the expected, yet result in many great advantages, which elminating many of the major negatives which can come with some u-home designs.

Mike himself is obviously quite a character who very clearly expresses his opinions, not all of which even I can agree with, and thinks about building and living in ways long forgotten or overlooked by most of us. His writing is as charming as it is informative.

If you have any interest in building, in energy efficiency, in self-sufficiency, or even in green house growing, pick up his books The $50 & up Underground House Book and Earth Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book.. both are a joy to read, easy to understand, and serve as a fine example of what we each can do if we start thinking for ourselves rather than just go along with what is expected.

I have just finished the basic layout of what I suspect will be the final design of my own U-house. There is a certain point in the design process when it feels that everything is coming together and the basic design feels like a final version. That is where I am. This does not mean that I cannot or will not tweak the design, only that I have a wonderful fairly detailed design from which to begin.

Easier traveling

Thanks to the $2.00 or 50% decrease in the price of gasoline over the last few weeks, traveling has again become somewhat affordable. A tank of gas now only costs under $50 for my truck.. not bad since for quite a while there I could not even fill it before the automatic cut off on the pump would shut off at $75 or $80...

With the cult of Obama ranting and raving about how the high price of gasoline is the personal responsibility of George Bush, and since this drop in price preceded Obama "election" much less before he has assumed power, one would expect these same cultists to be heralding Bush for the largest drop in the price of gasoline in history..

Has anyone heard any such praise for Bush? (Not that I like him) Or are we just seeing yet another example of the blatant hypocrisy of some folks?

On suicide and going to prison

With the announcement of Obama claiming victory, and with his purely evil health care insurance company subsidy, paid for by the poor who must choose between eating, clothing, and shelter, or paying this extreme health care subsidy directly, or else suffer the threat of prison, I am facing a difficult set of choices.

I will not go to prison.

I cannot afford to subsidize the health insurance companies with my income (It is FAR cheaper for me to pay for my own health care voluntarily and directly rather than to get insurance).

So my choices are very limited under the Obama attack on the poor, well under this particular portion of the Obama attack on the poor (the dramatically increased tax rates, the dramatic increase in government intrusion and regulation, and the dramatic decrease in the already diminished liberty all harm the poor the most) are as follows:

1. Go to prison.
2. Leave the country, hoping that I am allowed to leave and that the US does not enforce its claim to always and forever own everyone who has ever lived here. Yes this really is the US position on citizenship, you cannot voluntarily give it up no matter what you do.. You are ALWAYS beholden to the laws and taxes of the US government in their eyes.
3. Hide and hope that I do not get caught of if I do get caught being responsible for myself, then

4. Suicide.

Of these I know which option I want, but I no longer have a clear path out of the country. So I am left with the other three choices.. I will not go to prison leaving only two..

More and more the fourth seems to be the most appealing, and in fact the most rational.

I suppose I have until Jan 20th or perhaps a bit longer to decide.. :)

Please DON"T Vote

In the US today there is a great frenzy of activity and open calls for increased violence against innocent persons. There is a celebration of coercion, theft, and violence that is formally sanctioned by those in power, and a percentage of the population. We call this celebration of such evils "Election Day"

When you vote you are stating that you do not believe that anyone else is equal to you in worth. You are stating that you hold yourself so very high that you are infinitely better suited to decide how others should live their peaceful lives.

If you do vote you should realize that while you do not give up any right to complain you do become a hypocrite the moment that you do complain about ANY action taken by government, or about who gets into power. By choosing to vote you are granting your consent to not merely one candidate, but to the very system itself and ALL Of the actions taken by that government. You are saying that the imprisonment of innocents is morally good and justified. You are saying that the killing of innocents by that government is morally good and justified. You are giving away not merely your freedom and that of everyone else who comes under the heel of that government, but also your integrity.

Remember that if you do decide to vote today, you are pissing all over your friends, family, and everyone else. Have the courage and integrity to do so directly. Tell them that you think that they are not smart enough nor worthy enough to live their own lives, so you will decide how they should live.

Tell then that you do not respect them enough to no cause them harm. That you do not care for them enough to let them make their own decisions about what peaceful actions that want to take.

Tell them that you so despise them that you are giving your consent to the thugs who will steal their property, and threaten them with violence or imprisonment.

Or you could choose to be just, moral, responsible, thoughtful, reasonable, respectful, compassionate, caring, logical, principled and pragmatic and refuse to vote.

Please choose the intelligent peaceful and responsible route and do not vote.

Time passes

Time simply passes too quickly when it is all accounted for and every moment is planned out.

This is self evident to anyone who reads this terribly out of date blog.. Somehow I have lost two entire months simply because it was all planned out for me. Well that and an unfortunate back injury which has taken a great deal of energy and time from me..

I'd rather not go into all of it publicly but the general idea is that I have been in pain for most of this year and finally had it checked out to find out that I was very near the point of needing surgery (this is not entirely out of the picture yet) .. I am currently in a form of physical therapy and adjustment to try to rectify the problem

Progress is nonetheless being made.. I've completed a few of the major projects I have been involved in here, and since I am feeling somewhat better, I have been able to begin to make up for lost time... Not that this is appreciated by some "clients" (pronounced: "family")

There has been a series of unfortunate events which have for the time being removed the original destination and time line from the realm of the possible.. Perhaps I can eventually find that path again, but not at this time. What this means for me is that I am currently spending the few free moments I have working on a new house design. The original, which was the result of many months of work and thought, was very much specific to the original location and its rather unique constraints. Currently I am not certain that I will be permanently building on a new location, or whether I will live out of a caravan for a year or possibly more (these two are not mutually exclusive it turns out, btw.. )

The exciting or perhaps merely interesting (both to me) part of this change of plans or detour, is that I get to plan on an underground house, which I believe is not really an option on the original path.. This is actually the ideal house for me, I believe. It is certainly the house I most want to design and build.

Since I am still trying to keep to my strict budget and build the entire home and all utilities, etc. for under $5000, with an ideal goal being under $3000, I am of course challenged in the design. I am not including my own labor in those figures, and I hope to salvage much of the material so as to keep the costs down. I believe that it is possible to show how an average person can dramatically decrease their cost of living with a few simple choices and a bit of personal effort.