61 of 106

After today's moving efforts, I have 61 of the 106 timbers stacked. This leaves just over one of the four stacks, the one containing all hardwoods, left at the primary staging area. If the weather cooperates I will try to get that moved tomorrow, then if there is time left, round up some of the timbers that are laying down cut to length in the bulldozed area of Rancher Bob's land.

Obviously this is a slow process. Keep in mind that the timbers are various diameters and lengths, and not all will move down the road the same. The primary staging area is a half mile from the secondary staging area, and every trip is made by me on a tractor either dragging or carrying timbers. Some trips will have only one timber, if it is particularly large, others will have as many as 5 if they are smaller and will hold together as a unit (this is rare).

But I keep telling myself that this is one step closer..

One advantage of this move is that I am better able to organize the timbers so that the ones I need first (posts and girders) can be stacked together so that I do not have to tear down entire stacks in order to get to one needed timber. Hopefully this bit of organization will save me time and headaches come build time.

Staging

More progress on the slow build..

Spent some hours today moving the stacks of timbers, and organizing them at the same time, to the next staging area. I need to get all of them out of the hay pasture so that when I start using them I am not destroying the much needed hay, nor the wildlife habitat I will be developing this year.

I managed to get the two 30 footers moved and stacked, along with 12 others. Some of these had to be dragged along the road, which served to remove any deteriorating wood as well as any bark left on the timbers.

I will likely spend the next couple of days, doing more of the same until all of the stacks of timbers are moved to the staging area. Then I need to collect the timbers from the cleared over area, assuming that it has dried out enough to get in there with a tractor. Earlier this week I managed to get a utility vehicle stuck in that area when it slipped into a sink hole where a tree used to be. Tractors are far more prone to getting stuck so I have to be particularly careful.

Still it is nice to once again be working towards having a home.

Dolly is back!!

In the world of frugality and self reliance there is one person who shines brighter than virtually all others. She is Dolly Freed. Don't know her? Well you probably did not grow up in the 1970's when she wrote the runaway best selling book Possum Living.

I came across this book a few years back, and like so many others I immediately fell in love with it. It is on my 100 must read books on Goodreads.com and one I recommend to anyone with even the slightest interest in intentional living, frugality, self-sufficiency, homesteading, gardening, or really just living. Dolly and her father lived without jobs in the suburbs in Pennsylvania, so they were not back to the landers, as were common in the 70's. They were not survivalists, like the Y2K-ers or the media image of militias. They simply lived for what is important: life itself.

A couple of years back I was wondering what happened to Dolly, who was illegally home schooled, which obviously worked since she wrote her book when she was merely 18. I searched the net, and though at the time you could find copies of her book available free online, no one seemed to know what Dolly did after the book, the talk shows, and the documentary. Well now we know because she is back!

On her site, possumliving.net, you can read her blog, get a copy of the reprinted book, get recipes, and follow the new press about her.

In these difficult times, just as in the 70's (though I predict ultimately far far worse) we need all of the examples like Dolly to remind us that we can live, and not merely live but thrive by living intentionally, living smart, and valuing what is truly important.

Welcome back Dolly!

Soft Rock

No, I am not talking about Hall and Oates or Billy Ocean.. but of actual stone, specifically the stone into which my house will be set. 

For the last two weeks there has been water/ice in the excavation to the point where I could not get in to see if the rock would yield, and yield in the right way to a pick. I finally was able to test out the new method of securing the posts to the earth today, just before the artic blast settles in for three days, dropping the temps into single digit F.. which is weather that I cannot imagine working in, though I may simply to make some progress.

Anyway, the upshot is that with the pick I was able to relatively easily (how easy is it ever when you are using a pick on solid rock?)  chip away and down into the rock base. Since I have not laid out where the posts will go exactly, I did not dig out a full keyhole for a post, rather just satisfying myself with the test hole. In under five minutes I had confirmed that any one of the three very similar methods I am considering will work. The digging was easy enough that I am considering the method which would be the most work, but would provide a good deal of peace of mind as it would have the posts setting 6 inches into the stone, and still surrounded with some concrete to ensure that the post is well keyed into the stone.

All of which is unexpected and pleasant progress.

I am also reviewing the structural loads for some of the spans in the house, to the end of removing some of the posts. In the most recent drawing, I have two-three posts which are out in the rooms, though not really in the way. Still, one of those is backed up to where the wood stove will go if I get one, or where the rocket stove will go if I build one. This one may stay if only because it really would not be in the way at all. The other two however could eventually become bothersome, so I am considering spanning the distances, from 14-16 feet, with the largest of the timbers I harvested. Being at least 18" in diameter, these should span the distance without compromising the strength of the roof and all of the soil which will be on it.

Such is the excitement here in the backwoods..

Feel free to go back to your Caribbean Queen.. :) 

Old is new again

Well, the "old" setback of not being able to sink the posts into the ground because we have excavated down to solid rock,  has also defeated the "new" solution. The "new" solution was to drive Re-bar down into the rock (it is "soft" rock) then pour concrete around the posts and re-bar thus giving the post a good strong footing. Well, a few days ago I tried to drive some re-bar into the rock to no avail. Not even a hint of progress.. So onto the next approach.. 

Now I am going to try to dig out a trench out of the rock, using a pick and my own labor. Depending on a few factors, this trench will either be for the posts themselves, else for concrete wall to sit in front of (downhill/inside) the posts to prevent any downhill movement. Then I will be running cedars from the uphill "wall" to the downhill so as to further prevent any chance of movement. I am fairly certain that this is overkill, but though I plan one day to take my own life, having a few tons of soil come suddenly crashing in on me is not the way I plan on undertaking that endeavor. 

Regardless, I can see no other way to resume progress on the site now that the equipment is locked away for the season while the owner heads to Cancun.. And to think that there are some who question my wanting to do virtually all of this myself when I cannot rely upon others to meet any sort of deadline.. 

In the meantime I have been working out the details of my plan, catching up on movies (odd for me) reading economic books, and buying christmas presents using the rewards I receive from various frugal/reward sites. The $20 in Amazon cards went a lot further than one might think.. and a delayed present from another site will be 26 weeks of the Economist for Rancher Bob, which has the benefit of my getting to read them when he is through with each issue. 

Yes money is tight now, but there are still ways to make the most of things using the various rewards. To be honest, I have not even touched the best reward program yet (Harris polls) nor have I counted the cash from Pinecone Research. 

I've also come around to the decision to forego a refrigerator completely in favor of an ice box. I realized that over the past year I have been living with this small RV fridge, and using it mostly for the freezer section at that. Moreover the use I have for the fridge has been for leftovers, which in my case get eaten right away, and for condiments. With that in mind, I calculated that I can use a well insulated container for these items, making the ice (for now) with the freezer unit which I intend to keep. This will mean firing up a generator* once or twice a day to keep the temp cold and to make sure that I am making ice for the icebox, but that seems a small price to pay for the energy savings from not having an appliance that I really have little use for.  I hope to get to the point of being able to do without the freezer as well, perhaps by building one of the solar ice makers** that have been designed, and perhaps by canning more of the foods I would normally freeze. Then too in the winter when the temps drop into the teens, there ought to be no problem creating ice for the icebox, and to add to the freezer to keep it cold enough without needing to fire up the generator. 

*Compressors and other motors require too high an initial draw to safely operate on a small solar/wind/battery system so a generator stands in to take the draw and at the same time recharge the batteries. 

**http://free-energy-info.co.uk/P13.pdf

http://dvice.com/archives/2008/08/solar_icemaker.php

We are expecting rains starting Tuesday, lasting for three days, so that will once again prevent any on site work from getting done, but it feels like I am making progress by getting some of the plans worked out in better detail to deal with the new/old hurdles. 

That is the news from the backwoods of hell.. where the children are absent, the men overworked, and the women are welcome. :) 

Quick photo update

reading: On the Shortness of Life by Seneca, Chanur's Endgame by Cherryh, Where Keynes Went Wrong by Lewis

listening to: Jen2 compilation

For those who could not resist the swimming pool comments before, despite forewarning, here is another opportunity. You can see that with the deepening of the excavation, it holds water even easier. This is the result of less than two inches of rain.. I am sure it has occurred to some that this could be a problem once the house is built, but first off, there won't be a hole to catch the rain as the house will be in the place of the hole, but also there will be a french drain system in place to carry away what water might threaten my U-house. 

Here you can see to some degree the amount of material we have removed from the excavation. Look to the slope of the hill itself. It does not change as you get higher, the change is strictly the many tons of excavated soil pushed downhill. 

We are almost at the point of setting posts. I would like to get the backhoe out to try to dig a trench for the posts, especially since some of the main supports are going to be 2 feet in diameter at their base, so digging a hole into this rock is less than appealing. 

Still is still moving to me

Still making progress on the site. As noted, the pond is full which is a delight, especially since it is higher than expected when full, giving me perhaps as much as 6 feet of depth in the pond. Hopefully this means that I will always have water available for myself and my garden. 

The excavation continues as well, and is as of 6:30 this evening about 10-12 feet deep at the lowest point. There has been a lot of rock, and unfortunately much ledge so going is slow meaning that this is pushing my budget as I knew that it would once I opted for the new site... but the incredible views and the dramatically increased privacy should offset the additional effort I will have to make to recoup the additional savings I will have to use to pay for this greater expense. I am also going to have to make some cuts somewhere if I am to suck up this expense and still stay under my budget of $5000 for the house. The excavation, clearing, and pond, could come close to half of that cost. I can deduct the pond at least from that particular budget as I consider it separate from the house, but simply moving the numbers around like some political ideologue won't create any additional wealth.. Still, the reason for moving this to another category is to keep my numbers straight on the house itself so as to work on documenting what it takes to build a home, and then a homestead even in this downward economy. 

No photos today, though I have a couple from yesterday. The camera is fighting me and perhaps on its last legs. She has served me well in travels from Texas to China, to Canada, and across the US. The motor on the lens is failing so I will have to fall back upon one given to me recently which would otherwise have been simply discarded. It is sometimes amazing what you can get simply be being open to the idea that everything need not be new, packaged, shiny, and meeting the approval of the most uptight constipated consumer.. 

I seeded the hillside today with annual rye so as to hopefully decrease the amount of erosion that occurs this winter. I still have more seeding to do, but that will have to wait until the excavation is completed. I probably have more seed than I need at two hundred pounds of seed, but in this case the seed is relatively cheap insurance against erosion, and for a time at least it will give the appearance of a fancy manicured English lawn.. not that I will make any effort to keep that look! 

Through one of the many groups to which I belong, I discovered a wonderful little wind generator at bargain basement pricing: http://www.usawindgen.com/200hd.htm

I am very close to ordering one of these, perhaps the 300 watt model, to provide power for my home in the winter, and any time that the wind is blowing more than 7 miles an hour.  Even at the government subsidized (read : "immorally taken labor of others")  electricity available locally, a little wind generator like this pays for itself in no time. Heck the monthly charge simply to have a hook-up with the local "co-op" electric "company" (again, this is merely a branch of the federal government, not an actual company) would pay for this little generator in less than 6 months, and with the increase that they announced recently, perhaps less than 4 months! This is not exactly the doom and gloom that the folks opposed to individual energy generation (again the feds to a large degree) preach. They tell us that the best possible return is 20 years.. For this they assume a Larry Hagman (yeah, JR Ewing!) approach: buy gigawatt solar arrays to cover any and all possible usage! Crazy approach, though kudos to Mr Hagman as he did this first for his own house which is larger than he planned (he let his wife design it) and voluntarily provides power to some local low income families he screened. 

The point is that we need not adopt these massive arrays to account for our power usage, but rather make different choices when we know power is limited. I won't do without my comforts, such as the internet and computer usage, but that does not mean that I need to be able to power up a stadium either. 

Okay.. perhaps a bit of a rant.. gist of all of this: much progress is being made, some things are really coming together, and we can live very comfortably, in fact even luxuriously if we think before we act or spend. 

More pics tomorrow.. 

The difference a day makes..

After two days of good progress on the site, today work was at a stand still because of constant rain. Still, I am not too upset by this as the rain filled the pond (in fact filled it to overflowing..). This picture is taken looking back at the point where I took the picture of the pond yesterday. I had to approach from this side as the other is all mud where we have done the dozer work. With any luck this will stay full enough to provide me all of the water I need. So maybe no work done today, but still some progress made. 

The rain also gives me a bit of a chance to revise and rework the house plans given the new information about the specific site I have now that we have cleared it. Not that I need an excuse to work on house plans.. 

More progress

Captain Rob cleared the rest of the site, including where the pond was to go, then built the pond, and at the end of the day began the excavation itself.  As you can see he managed to get about four feet down into the high side of the hill before calling it quits for the day. We've got rain coming in tonight and tomorrow, so we may be on hold again for a time. 

That same rain which will likely keep us from making any more progress ought to help to start filling the new pond which will be the source for all of my water, in conjunction with whatever rain water collection I am able to set up. 

I know that it looks a mess now, but in a year or two the sides will be covered in grass, and this will hopefully be a nice little forest pond. 

PROGRESS!!!

After eight months of delays, of being stagnated and unable to do anything at all to move forward on the homestead, this morning the dry spell was broken. Captain Rob showed up today with the bulldozer and cleared to the site, then cleared the site once I saw the lay of the land and the view and so knew that this was the place to build. He managed to clear a couple of other areas for gardens, and a path down to where he will build the pond which will serve as my water source along with what little rain collection I can do.  

This is a shot of the site itself which is steeper than it appears. The house will sit right at the top of the slope in this picture, with terraced gardens below it.

This is but one of the views to which I will wake every morning.