More timbering and foraging

With the spring rains holding off, I've taken advantage of the dry fields and hills to pick up timbers I had already cut, and stack them into another staging area, as well as to get some timbers from last year that never made it to the original pre-staging area. On top of these timbers, I harvested another 30 foot hard wood timber which is always exciting to have fall.. Still I successfully got it to the primary staging area safe and sound. The gaining of this timber eliminates the need for any posts in the middle of any room in the house. The design method I am using for the build calls for posts every 8 feet, but the timbers used in his examples are all softwoods, which are notorious for their less than stellar performance as beams given their lower sheer strength.

In my own build I am using all hardwoods for beams and girders, and I am increasing the girth from his suggestions (10") to in some cases a full 24"! Even at 18" which is about as small as these girders are on the narrow end, they can carry far more weight than the suggested 10" pine or cedar timbers.

I am using cedars however, as their compression strength is wonderful, as is their resistance to rot and insects. So all of the posts are cedar timbers, some of these also approaching 2 feet in diameter.

So with that in mind it is easy to see why another massive 30 foot hard wood timber would be cause for celebration!

Along with the tedious gathering up of timbers and staging them, I have had a little chance for some more basic foraging and some gleaning as well. I foraged some wild garlic (which I suspect is some other plant actually, but it tastes more like garlic than anything else..) and hen bit, though not enough of the latter yet for a meal. Then this afternoon after I finished feeding cattle and moving timbers, I checked on the garden where there were a few pitiful looking turnips left over.. which turned into a delightful dish of turnips and greens, with butter and some cajun seasoning..

Another day or so and I will have picked up all of the timbers I can for the time being.. which means back to waiting for the backhoe to get out here to finish up the excavation so the build can finally begin in earnest.

*** I have finally found the cable which connects the camera to the computer so pictures will be forthcoming, though Windoze does not recognize the device, I am sure that linux will..***

First Forage of the season

Scored an incredible find, all from simply being helpful! Some neighbors were unloading cinder blocks and I saw no reason not to stop and help make the job a little easier. While transferring them from the trailer to an utility vehicle, I noticed what really looked like chives. This would not be out of place except that these were quite a ways from their garden area and certainly were not organized.

Well a couple of days later while checking the beaver traps, also for that same neighbor, I noticed more of these chive looking plants near the pond.. Finally, I checked and sure enough these plants are wild chives! I asked the neighbors and they were delighted that I wanted to take some. They directed me to an even larger patch of the chives, and though I am not really ready to plant anything on my site yet, as there is some sculpting of the hillside left to do, I dug up several plants and transplanted them to an area which won't be disturbed.

Then this morning to go along with the lunch of rice and beans, I picked a good handful of chives to add to the meal.. nothing short of delightful.

Once established, I should have enough chives to keep me quite satisfied, which is not easy to do..

More timbers, and a book review

Moved onto the last of the primary staged timbers today. Managed to get about half of the last stack moved to the secondary site before the rains began. Had two timbers which seemed pretty normal, though admittedly they are hardwoods, which turned out to be extra-ordinarily heavy. They alone caused me to drop the tractor down a gear while moving them. A temporary annoyance, but nice in the long run as these will make fine roof supports.

Rain will put all progress on hold for the time being, as the secondary staging area quickly turns to mud as it was just cleared of trees last fall.

I finished:
Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of American History
by Richard Shenkman

And.. well give this one a pass. The author repeatedly relies upon biased and questionable sources, ignored some of the most obvious myths (like that Lincoln cared about slaves, he didn't according to his own letters) and for some strange reason referred to some of his sources as good "Marxist historians." Last I checked marxism is a pseudo-economic system, not a scientific or historical methodology..

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.

More Books (15-16)

Finished the first of these several days back, though it was too painful to even think about until now. I am speaking of

There's No Such Thing As "Business" Ethics: There's Only One Rule For Making Decisions
by John C. Maxwell

Not since reading "The Accident" (Author unknown) have I come across a book that is so deserving of destruction. The author clearly has never studied any philosophy, logic, or ethics, and dismisses all who do as mere pointless musers or some such nonsense.

Why does he do this? It appears so he can try to pull the wool over the eyes of those who might read the book.

While he claims that the "golden rule" is the only moral guide, and is a perfect one, he fails to actually apply his own rule in any sensible way. Unlike those mere muddlers, those condemned "thinkers" who actually consider whether a claim is true or an approach practical, he ignores all of the counter-examples to his claims, that is to say all of those countless cases where the "golden rule" actually tells us to do either the wrong thing, or something which cannot be moral at all (such as being "obligated" to buy all of the encyclopedias from the traveling salesman who comes to your door, this is required by the "golden rule" but is not in fact morally obligatory).

His entire pop-(non)philosophy book (nearly a pamphlet) assumes that you are going to do the right thing already. If you aren't then the golden rule is worthless, especially as he describes its application. If you are going to do the right thing anyway, then his rule can only lead you astray or offer nothing at all.

The book serves only purpose only: to make the author money at the expense of ethics and knowledge. Avoid this one and go to something of value!


Fortunately the next book was much better.


Voyage From Yesteryear
by James P. Hogan

Hogan is one of the most solid sci-fi authors, and as he shows in this book, a truly gifted thinker as well. He crafts a story which involves a few novel approaches to not merely colonization but development of society, along the way also showing how a peaceful people who embrace responsibility and liberty (cannot have one without the other after all) can defend themselves through almost exclusively voluntary non-violent action, reserving a physical response only against the most dire and determined threat to innocents.

This one is a joy to read in this time of economic and political turmoil where daily we see reports on the every growing police state. To be reminded that peaceful existence is not only possible, but practical and in fact necessary to our continued existence, helps us keep going in light of all that is going on around us.

I believe that this makes numbers 15 and 16 of the 50 books effort..

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.

Books

A good day to receive.. 

Today brought with it five books, and a few dvd's courtesy of a friend who thankfully is supplementing my entertainment.. The dvds are of mixed shows and movies that he thought that I would enjoy.

The books are: 

   Forge of Heaven (The Gene Wars, Book 2)
by C.J. Cherryh 

Giants' Star (Giants Trilogy, Book 3)
by James P. Hogan

The Heritage of Chinese Civilization
by Albert M. Craig

Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of American History
by Richard Shenkman

The great wine blight
by George Ordish

The first two will being part of a series will force me to pick up the earlier books in the series, but from these authors I can be confident that it will be worth it. The rest should appease my history hankering for a while. 

Composting Toilet

Prompted by a problem in the sewer tank/line of the caravan, perhaps caused by the cold weather, I am faced with the option of tackling this problem head on, in the cold and nastiness, else to leap forward in my plans for a composting toilet. Hm.. work on a difficult to access, unpleasant, and cold sewer system without instructions or any guarantee of being able to resolve the problem, OR get two five gallon buckets, fill one with rice hulls, and thus begin the journey to being a total composter.. Bob I'd like to take door number 2, thanks.. 

So this is just what I did yesterday. I got two of my five gallon buckets and set them up in the tiny bathroom of the caravan to replace the now non-functioning toilet connected to a septic tank. Once a week or as necessary I will take the full bucket to the house site and empty it into what will become my compost pile. The system is quite simple and has already proved to be effective with regard to keeping odors at bay. You do your business in the bucket, no different than any other toilet, then cover the leavings with sufficient cover material, in my case rice hulls, to completely hide the deposit. This is enough to keep odors from developing. 

In a year or so, the compost pile will have broken down to the point of being fine, rich compost without any hint of the original source of organic matter. All without the deadly chemicals used in city sewer systems, and all without wasting one drop of potable water. Instead of being a detriment to the environment, this system will provide a boost to plants, insects, and certainly microbial life, which in turn will provide a boost to animal life as well. 

Though I am using a bare bones system currently, I am looking forward to building a fine throne in the U-home, so as to give a juxtaposition between the beautiful furniture and the function of the piece. 

Haitus

I am experimenting with a brief hiatus from the net. Other than email, I skipped the net yesterday and most of today. Decided to post this update, as it pertains to keeping my sanity, moving forward on the homestead, and the desire to not have any anchors.. 

Though like many, I enjoy a great deal my explorations online, and though I do have luddite tendencies, I am not currently condemning the net as a whole, nor even a particular aspect of it. Rather I awoke yesterday to find myself disinterested in it, and so decided to run with that experiment. 

I am sure that I will soon find cause to order something online, or to visit some sites I value, and of course I will be continuing this blog, but for the short term I am going off line to enjoy the company of a friend from China, the fine weather we are enjoying, and a bit more of "real" life. Who knows what I may learn, and what I may learn about myself in this brief experiment. 

Fourteen

Well finished The Sword of Behleu by Watt-Evans.. it is one of his earlier works and shows it. Interesting but not compelling or really of much note. I'll probably seek out the rest of the series, but more out of having a good deal of time on my hands than out of any real connection with the story.

Snowed again.. the snow and mud are getting old..

I am back to writing again, both essays and some lyrics/poetry. Feels good..

Lucky Book 13

Just finished the thirteenth book of the year.. An Agorist Primer
by Samuel Edward Konkin III

This is a must read. I have included it in my 100 must read books on GoodReads.com and consider it to be one of the most concise critiques of the state I've come across. SEK3 speaks clearly as to the nature of the state, and why liberty is not merely morally required, inherently valuable, but also practical.

He derides the minarchists, the Libertarian Party, and others for abandoning the core principle of refraining from harm to others, which calling out those in power for the very nature of their actions. He makes a point I have in all humility only seen made before by myself: every action taken without consideration of any law, or through the threat of violence is an act of anarchy. SEK calls it an act of agorism, but the point is the same.

"Agorism" refers to the greek "agora" for "market," but don't mistake this as an endorsement of all business or of corporations. Not in the least, instead this is a reference to the voluntary nature of these institutions of spontaneous order where individuals get together to make the lives of one another better through free exchange of goods and services.

Whether "Agorist," "Voluntaryist," or "anarchist" the same respect for persons holds.. No one has the right to own any other person. This simple fact necessitates that no state may exist, and no instigation of violence can be moral.

A moment of weakness

This evening, being tired and a bit eye sore from reading, I finally gave in and watched a DVD given to me months ago. It is Elizabeth, which was apparently nominated for 7 academy awards.

I spent the whole movie, about 7 hours near as I could tell, wondering when the notable performances would appear. Geoffry Rush was quite good, I will admit, but sadly the story and the rest of the cast were so flat as to make ten day old 7-up left on the counter appear vibrant and full of fizz..

I recall that this movie received much the same buzz as Titanic and other "successful" Helliwood movies.. and I see why: it is complete crap.

The actors and actresses are normally good, and I don't hold it against them, but this movie did them a disservice. If you are given the opportunity to watch it, I recommend choosing virtually any other activity.

I want my 7 hours back..

Food Forests and Hemingway

The weather has not cooperated much lately, consisting mostly of cold rains. So my time has alternated between getting soaked while feeding cattle, and stripping off to try to stay warm until next time I had to go out to feed cattle.

During the times spent drying off and getting warm, I have been following the rabbit trail of links on permaculture and food forests. The basic concept of a food forest is to create seven natural levels of the forest with various complementary plants which will provide harvestable food with minimal care. In fact the food forest is a type of no-dig gardening once established.

Now before I get too far into any explanation, I have to admit that I have only just begun to really start to think about, learn about, and consider the concept, so I am not really in a position to provide any more than that basic explanation.

So off I go again on a book search, this time to find a really good book on food forests in the hopes of being able to create a wonderful environment of mixed edibles, from fruit and nuts, all the way down to potatoes growing at the base of these trees and shrubs..

And speaking of books, I have just finished Hemingway's Snows of Kilamanjaro. It was a slow read and most of the stories just were not compelling, unlike his longer works. However, that cannot be said of the last short story in the book: The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. This one read like Hemingway at his best. This one story justifies keeping the book (not that I ever need much justification for that!) and certainly will keep me reading through the Hemingway library.

So that makes book number.. 12 if my count is right.

I am already reading The Sword of behleu by Lawrence Watt-Evans, which is about half completed. Hopefully the Agorist Primer comes in soon as it seems time for a non-fiction work, though to be honest a history of some sort, such as a history of science is really more the flavor of what I am in the mood for. Well that or something on food forests of course..

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!

So you want to be a Cowboy?

Well imagine the darkest day you can recall..

now add rain, on top of days of rain in a soil which has no organic matter.

To this mire add slop, and only the bares glimmer of hope..

deny all comforts.. refuse to be warm..
and never expect to be dry..

This is a not so much less normal day for the cowboy.. this is my day..

Busy Day

The day started early with feeding the cows in what the weather site called "freezing fog." Discovered another new calf, barely born, maybe an hour old..

Walking the neighbor's pond led to a quick trip over to see Captain Rob as the traps were empty but there was a clear path made in the frost from our clever beaver friends.. who I am trying to eat.. :)

From there a quick return to Rancher Bob's place to meet with the fence guys run by the oldest working man in the world. As we were digging the holes for one of the corner posts we hit a septic line, meaning more work for me in the near future. With rain coming on tomorrow, this job will be put off a bit..

Lunch with Mrs. Rancher Bob, then immediately to digging holes for the berry bushes which came in yesterday. With 15 holes dug, I began to prep the holes for plants (Add in manure, dry matter, soil, then plant the plant.. ) This was broken up with feeding the cows again, and then again by collecting more manure for the holes.

Quit planting about 5:00 with 5 more plants to go. Those blackberry plants will just have to wait..

Fed Rancher Bob's dogs, which may not sound like work, but with four dogs, two of which are well over 100 pounds, feeding time can be work..

A bit of dinner, and now I am back in my caravan, exhausted, not quite ready for another busy day tomorrow, but feeling that "good sort of tired."

Still working on The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Hemingway, and I am truly sad to say that it does not measure up to his novels. I have enjoyed only one of the short stories, "In Another Country" with others ranging form okay to very forgettable. I have certainly not given up on Hemingway, but I will lean towards his novels more than short stories now I believe. There are only two stories left in this collection with which he may change my mind.. we will see.

I am also reading The Sword of Bheleu by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Not his best work, but interesting and readable.

Thus ends a rather busy day.. and somehow no progress on my own home, though some plans made for the future..

Galt

The world will change when you are ready to pronounce this oath:
I swear by my Life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man,
nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine.

Tragedy of the Commons averted

With the ice storm itself past, the time for clean up began. The weight of the ice and snow was simply too much for many trees, resulting in fallen limbs, trunks broken, and many of the younger pines bent double.

Even though property taxes are always on the rise, and despite the promises of the county, the roads are never kept up. So this unowned land, the road itself, normally suffers from the tragedy of the commons: no one takes care of it.

In some ways I don't blame the folks who live on the road, because after all they had their own property stolen supposedly for the upkeep of the roads. But even so, I cannot help but take the opportunity to show how liberty, and thus responsibility, works.

So I took it upon myself to travel the road the entire way to the blacktop clearing trees and limbs along the way. I did not need to head to town myself, or even go out to the black top really, but I wanted the road clear in case I needed to go at some point. So rather than wait on "services" that will never come, I chose to set an example. Hopefully we can start a trend now with all of the neigbors pitching in to maintain the road ourselves if for no other reason than we use it and would all like a road in better condition than the one we currently deal with.

Liberty can work if we give it half a chance..

Photos

The Shadow Roads

Just finished The Shadow Roads, by Sean Russell. This is the conclusion of his Swan War trilogy.

Okay enough of the book report format.. I've said before that Sean Russell is more a great story teller than simple writer of fantasy. His works are understated, yet detailed. They are engrossing, yet well paced. This trilogy is no exception. One of the marks of a truly good story is that you are sad that it is over, even when the story ends on an up note. Well, I won't claim that this is a tidy, perfect Hollywood ending, as some things are left unresolved, but they are unresolved in the sort of ways that love and life are so often not so easily resolved. That said, I am still sad to have the story end. Like the addict jonesing for the next hit, I just want to pick up just one more book in the series, then I'll be ready to quit.. I mean it this time..

At this moment I don't know what will be the next book.. It is very early morning as I write this (about 1:30 am) but as is so often the case when I finish a book, I am not quite ready to sleep.. so maybe I'll start another..

While I do not know what will be next, I do know the latest addition to the stack:

An Agorist Primer
by Samuel Edward Konkin III

"If you've ever wondered what Agorism is or why it is the next step in the evolution of libertarian theory and practice, then this introductory volume is exactly what you've been seeking. Told with clear and concise prose, An Agorist Primer is exactly that — a primer on all the important aspects of Agorism and Counter-Economics: how they work together to enable you to free yourself and expand freedom to your friends, family, and the world!"

Rain turning to Ice.

Just after midnight and I am still awake, not an uncommon occurance to tell the truth. However tonight it is because I am enjoying the sound of rain on the all too thin roof of my little caravan. The forecast is for rain all night, turning to freezing rain and ice.. The last two are not really all that welcome as I have to get out to play cowboy in the morning, but then again they will give the landscape a new facade which is nearly always welcomed.

Listening to the rain fall on the roof will be one of life's great joys that I will be sacrificing for the everyday comfort of a home in the earth. With up to two feet of soil on my roof, I won't hear the tattoo of the rain hitting a tin roof as I enjoy now. I've considered options to give me this sound, so welcome it is, but so far none have made it into the plan..

There is something comforting about weather which limits us, which changes our plans or choices. While in Canada one winter, the forecast called for several feet of snow, on top of the four feet of snow already on the ground. My hosts were prepared since that was not an unusual forecast for them, so the house was warm, food was plentiful, but all plans for travel were cancled. It made for a better environment. A shared experience, a shared “tribulation” or challenge. It removed almost all of the modern world, putting us back in the situation of just providing warmth and food. Granted because of the planning of my hosts this was not much of a challenge, but rather a friendly reminder of what once was and could be again.

To a lesser extent a good rain has a similar effect. We want to stay dry, so we avoid going out in the rain. We find ways around what we do not have, or what we “needed” before the rain started. We face a new challenge, cut off, however slightly, from others who are beyond the veil of the rain.

Perhaps it is my love of solitude, or that of a challenge, or perhaps my cynicism on modern culture, or maybe, and I believe this to be the case, it is a sincere love of nature and weather which drives me to stay up late simply listening to the rain, or rising early to test the new snow... Regardless, this is one area I probably won't examine too closely, just to make sure that the magic of extreme weather is not chased away by the bright light of reason..

Reading

Books to date this year:

The Integral Trees

Niven, Larry

The Smoke Ring

Niven, Larry

Niven is truly one of the greats. His imagination is unique, his writing enticing, and the stories interesting.

The Deep Beyond: Cuckoo's Egg / Serpent's Reach

Cherryh, C.J.*

Cherryh too is one of the greats, able to drift between sci-fi and fantasy doing wonders in both.

	On the Shortness of Life	Seneca, Lucius Annaeus

The Golden Sayings - Epictetus (online book)

Enchiridion
by Epictetus

I began reading Seneca first (these are in no particular order) as I have for years wondered where I could find his "smoky room" argument for suicide. Well after speeding through Seneca, I discovered wholly by accident that the "smoky room" argument is not his at all, but belongs to another stoic, Epictetus. I immediately ordered Enchiridion, but could not wait so read the gutenburg online book The Golden Sayings. Here I found the "smoky room" argument for suicide, but it turned out that I already knew the entire thing: When the room gets to smoky, I shall leave through the door..

Still the stoics are wonderful reads, very contemporary surprisingly. They understand that we choose our emotions, and that others cannot force us to feel anything we choose not to feel emotionally. Taking this sort of responsibility for our actions and reactions frees us, but also allows us to grow as individuals while embracing the best emotions of life.

The next step on this particular path for me is either more stoics, else into the cynics..

The One Kingdom (The Swans' War, book 1)

Russell, Sean

The Isle of Battle (The Swans' War, book 2)

Russell, Sean

Sean Russell is less a fantasy writer than he is simply a truly gifted writer. I honestly believe that he could given a bit of time, and the market for it, be ranked along side some of the most notable names in literature.

The Sun Also Rises

Hemingway, Ernest

And speaking of the most notable names in literature.. Hemingway is one I came to only in the last several years, in part because of the reputation. So often that which is supposed to be great is disappointing. Not so with Hemingway. In some ways he reminds me of Tolstoy, but where Tolstoy is often as dark as a shadow on a cloudy night, Hemingway tends to be more like the darkness of a forest which is often broken by dappled light, and the occasional clearing.. Both are wonderful, and similar, but still unique.

Growing and Canning Your Own Food by Jackie Clay

This was a book I had intended to purchase over the hellidays, but put off because I was told that I would have full access and probably be given, several books on canning and preserving foods. Ironically the person whose books those are was given this book by some neighbors. I happened to be over there yesterday to care for a loving but challenging dog (a boxer.. ) when I noticed this book on the coffee table. I dove into it, not stopping until I had read all of the book, except for a few pages on butchering your own beef.. While I am not opposed to it, I know that I fail to have adequate storage space for a whole beef. I have to say that while it gives some recipes, and some killing and butchering methods, as well as how to can various foods from meat, to vegetables, to fruits, and even dried goods, Clay is able to explain it all in terms a novice can understand without going into anything arcane or truly challenging. You might find some greater detail or certainly more recipes elsewhere, but this is a wonderful primer and bible for canning.

I will try to review books as I finish them, so that from this point forward the books will be in order of completion, and there will be more detail for each book.. From the past year, in which I have truly been delving into reading more than I have since graduate school at least, I expect that fiction will still be the majority of the titles, followed by philosophy, political issues, economics and history. Interspersed will be books on homesteading, gardening, foraging (though do I really need more books on foraging?? Need, no. Want.. oh hell yeah..), and other subjects related to self-sufficiency. There may well be some on electrical work and off grid power generation as I am working on building my own off grid power station. (Wind, solar, and generator back up) .

Too good to pass up

Okay let me lead off with the fact that I am not a fan of either rap or youtube.. that said this little gem was just too good to pass up, after all how often do you see any song about economics?

YouTube - "Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem

For more on the Austrian School of economics, the only description of economics which actually makes sense, works, and does not require massive and always increasing debt, check out:

http://mises.org/

Books and a friend

A friend posted a blog on the goal of reading at least 50 books this year, which admitted struck me as ambitious. Still I respected the goal, and quietly in the back of my mind wondered if I am up to that same task..

Well as we close in on the third week of the year, I am embracing that goal for myself with full credit to my friend. Why you may wonder? Well because I am now on my sixth book of the year which if I kept this pace (unlikely) would put me on pace for closer to 100 books this year.

I have never kept track of how much or little I read, and I will still be excluding from the count the magazines like The Economist, which can take some time to read, or the websites like Wendymcelroy.com which is chock full of material to read..

Still this may be a good experiment for me and I welcome it. It is not a competition with my friend or anyone else, but rather an excuse to keep track of what and how I read for a year.. What comes of it is what comes of it..

In the following days I'll list the books so far..

Just a good day

Sometimes you just have one of those rare, sincerely good days.

Today was such a day. Began with some good discussions of objective morality, psychology, and history, followed by good productive work, some creative fencing solutions, and finally some repairs a long time in coming.

Decent dinner, made better by my not having to fix it, and now I can look forward to more reading of Epictetus, then Sean Russell's The One Kingdom. (Russell is one of the best story tellers writing today. )

The evening sky is clear, the temperatures mild, and the stars quite visible..

A good day all in all.

Are Tiny Homes Really Less Expensive?

It is no secret that I have a fascination with small or "tiny" homes. Many are engineering marvels, others show us just how little we need to live very comfortable, even luxurious lives.

That said, I am always a little annoyed with the proponents of tiny homes in particular, tout the economy in buying or building a tiny home. Tumbleweed Tiny Homes sells its tiny homes (more or less a well built travel trailer which looks like a shrunken New England home) from $40,000 to $55,000, with square footage ranging from 65 ft sq to just over 100 ft sq.

If that sounds more like the square footage of your backyard shed, well it is! However in defense of Jay's designs, there are lofts, and the designs are very well laid out, as long as you are under say 5'10" at best.

But the question I am considering today is: are these really money savers in a time when even after the real estate crash, homes are still selling for hundred's of thousands of dollars?

If we look at it the way these designers and manufacturer's do, then the answer is "yes" just as they assert. After all, $50,000 is less than $200,000.. But is this a fair comparison? I argue that it isn't. During the boomtime for housing, I helped a young couple who were buying their first home. That particular home they purchased for right around $200,000. What did they get? 5500 ft sq! Now, it was not to my liking, nor located where I would want to live, but comparing house to house, they acquired a great deal more house for the dollar than in these tiny homes.

Jay's homes can cost more than $550 per square foot! This is more than 5 times the national average!!

Don't think that I am picking on Jay. He is far from alone from offering such outrageous sq foot costs. I came across a blog today, here, which offered a similar size home but just the shell, for $29,000+

All of which makes me wonder why these folks don't consider more reasonable alternatives. My own home should end up costing about $5 a square foot, less than 1 percent the cost of Jay's.. I will have more room, lower heating and cooling costs, far lower maintenance, and full utilities (off grid).

I understand that my own home is closer to the low extreme than most, but surely there is a great deal of room to work with between $5 per foot and $550 per foot..

Home builders, designers, and architects of all sorts need to rethink what they consider reasonable. We can do much better, especially for the poorest amongst us in whose name these designers of tiny homes often appeal.

We can do better.

A material score

Talking to a neighbor a few days ago in the frigid cold paid an unexpected dividend: free doors!

They had replaced most of the interior doors in their home, and one external door. They had intended to take the old doors to Habitat for Humanity but they offered the doors to me first, so I jumped at the opportunity.

All of these doors are already salvaged doors, coming from houses in New York that the original owner of this house had collected over the years. now I am giving them at least their third lease on life in my own humble home. While loading them up I noted that one is the old six panel door style that I have loved for years, despite its being very dated. Another of the doors has a black porcelain handle which still gleams as if new. All of the doors have the original old style key-holes intended for skeleton keys, adding even more charm.

There is one with a nine pane (three over three) window in it, which will be cut down to be a stationary window since the door itself is warped near the bottom, making it unusable for a door.

All in all, a great score: 5-6 doors to choose from, and one window! Total cost: pennies in gas to drive across the road to pick them up!

Artic Air

Well I tried to get out to get a few of the footings started for the posts, but unfortunately the ground is simply too frozen to work with. The air temps managed to get up towards the mid twenties F, but the ground remained quite a bit colder.  The wind certainly did not help whatsoever.. 

So while the day was not a complete loss, as I was able to make a clear step forward in the building instructions I am writing for myself, it was still not as productive as I would have liked. After all I was supposed to be in the house by now, so every day of delay makes me even more ready to be done with the build.

I had intended to offer up some photos this evening, but the cable which connects the camera to the computer has gone on walk-about. I suspect I know where it got to, but it is a place so inaccessible as to require me to crawl on hands and knees under the sleeping area for several feet.. after moving everything stored under there. 

Somehow living in a small space seems to make losing things far easier and finding them more difficult. I sincerely look forward to the day when I will be moving into my new home which is 4-5 times the size of the caravan I call shelter now.. 

In the meantime, I am listening to Fish and Bonfire, reading Epictetus and Seneca (both Stoics) and awaiting my first netflix dvd.. I am trying out netflix using someone else's account (an account left dormant so long that one dvd cost them over $80!!)  A little Foyle's War ought to be entertaining.. After all no one can do mysteries like the Brits.. 

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.. :) 

Looking ahead

While I don't make new year's resolutions, I am looking ahead always so I decided to record some of the objectives for this year that I have in mind.

1. Get the house built. Obvious..  However the plan is of now to get the timber frame built by April. This should allow enough time for the weather to cooperate so that I can get the posts set, and the rest of the frame and roof built by then. All assuming I do not have to leave during build time for work. 

2. Lose 50 pounds. Yeah I am carrying too much weight, like most folks in the US. If that sounds like a lot of weight, it is, but I am a tall person as well, so this is more like 20 on the average person. The plan is to lose the weight through a combination of diet (eating from the garden) and exercise in the form of building, and hiking. 

3. Try beaver meat. Still have not had any luck with the beavers next door, but I am hopeful that Captain Rob will come through with some meat. 

4. Get another article published. This could be anything, such as the gardening article I had published in The American Gardener, but I suspect that it will be something political/moral in nature. 

5. Build a rocket stove. 

6. Become reasonably fluent in Portuguese. I am still working on this, but slowly.. 

7. Determine the exact day that I can re-enter Canada (Thanks Bush.. not..)

8. Grow at least 50% of my own food. Forage for as much as is possible. 

9. Eat at least one wild mushroom I have identified myself. 

Bet you are expecting a number 10.. but I am not Bernard Gert.. I don't need there to be 10.. :)

New Year, a tally

Okay so the first day of the official western new year is just about over, so how did it tally up assuming it is an indicator for the whole year?

Day began earlier than I liked with me feeling worse than I liked though through my own doing. Call that a wash..

The day quickly warmed up from well below freezing, ultimately to near 60 degrees F. Definitely a plus. 

It did not warm enough to melt and drain my excavation. Negative

I enjoyed a good long walk/hike about Rancher Bob's property. Plus

While watching the "news" got into a political argument with Rancher Bob and his wife, based on the fact that I do not respect or worship government and government officials (or anyone else who claims the right to own another person for that matter) Definitely a negative, especially since there was little understanding or consideration from Rancher Bob, and less from his wife. 

Went online.. mixed bag.. a wash.. 

Now I will end the day comfortably warm in my own bed, reading Emerson, and Niven.. Plus.. 

Guess it is going to be a decent year.. :)

All the best to those who read the blog, and anyone striving to make their lives better peacefully, honestly, authentically, and voluntarily. 

Tiny homes and silence

This evening I was reading various blogs and sites about tiny homes, which I find quite fascinating and ingenious, when one site which gave awards for tiny homes/tiny home blogs, made me think about the entries. One was a 64 ft sq home, which is smaller than where I am living currently, by about half. At this point it dawned upon me that small folks, like the founder of Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, have a distinct advantage over tall folks like me.

First there is the obvious, such as the 6 foot high ceilings in the Tumbleweed homes works for people under 6 foot tall.. but not for those of us who are more than half a foot again as tall as that.. but then too there is a problem of space. Our clothes take up more space, we need more space to dress, or to do anything.

Houses, even tiny houses for those of us who are larger are going to cost more, thus consume more resources to heat/cool than an identically constructed house for a smaller person.

Just some of the thoughts on small homes, as they pertain to me.. I am not in any way thinking of abandoning my own small home, though it may not qualify as a tiny home since I am making it large enough to make my own daily living comfortable. It will still have a "footprint" about a third or less than the average new home in the US, so if we adjust for space needs based on size, this is my tiny home..

Just before I wrote this, I opened the door of my extremely tiny temporary home (ceilings are just over 6 feet high..) to see how cold it felt on this last day of 2009, to discover not only is it not too cold, but more surprisingly to me, it is dead silent. No wind noise, no animals at all. Just silence. Quite nice, though I don't know how often I would be willing to be up at 1:00 am on any given night on the off chance of silence..

Ice

Being fed up with not making progress of late on the homestead I went to the site, pick in hand to try to see if the latest idea for securing the posts to the ground would work.. well what I discovered put a damper on my mood and on any progress. 

Ice.. 

The excavation was still holding water, but now in solid state. Though the temps have been climbing into the mid 40's or higher lately, the excavation, which is on the north side of the ridge, never gets sun in the bottom of it currently. So the ice just stays.. and each night gets thicker.. So I fear that I may be shut down for the season. 

I may still be able to salvage something, though not real progress as much as perceived progress in that I may decide to write up my own instruction manual so that when the weather once again permits me to work on the site, I can just look to my instructions without having to think about what step to take next. A very hollow victory at best, but something to keep me going..

That said, I have been working on developing my garden plot, the primary one anyway. I have hauled a couple of hundred pounds of manure to the site so that it can decompose, feed the soil, and the worms. Since it looks like I will spend another half year or where I have parked my caravan on Rancher Bob's property, he and I are going to work closely this year on a garden. With luck, unlike last year, I will be able to grow many of the foods that I enjoy, and want to live off of, so as to save on the ever increasing grocery bill.  With the seed catelogues coming in it is time for dreaming of the wonderful harvests.. 

Ironic, surprising, and apt quote

I never thought that I'd be quoting CS Lewis of all people, but given the current efforts to force government restricted (well more restricted anyway) health care upon us, his quote is quite apt:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C. S. Lewis

A night of "Culture"

Mozart

Emerson

Sake

Check..

A Hermit Turns 40

Strange day.. Began early (5:30am)  rain ongoing from the night before.

Feed cows in the rain about 8:30am

Make a hasty trip to town for feed..

Return only to head back to town with Rancher Bob and his wife and her family for dinner.

Back to be welcomed by snow and temperatures plummeting by more than 25 degrees. 

per usual, little fuss about the day, all focused on the morn..

Thankfully, a couple of friends remembered... to them, I tip my glass.. 

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. :) 

Poignant

http://www.cagle.com/working/091214/stein.jpg

I can only imagine that those who held the hope for change, the hope for hope, or a hope for peace with the seizing of the reins of power by Obama, are the most sorely betrayed and disappointed. Surely even though I know from history and even the simple application of reason that no politician will ever actually reduce his own power, I still had some small hope that Obama would actually try at least to seek peace rather than to escalate two wars and start a third. Whether you like him or dislike him, you have to be disappointed in his decisions to seek and expand war. 

I realize that Obama considers himself the smartest person in the room, no matter what room he is in, but he is no Einstein. 

The trinity

No I am not suddenly going to start preaching about the fallacious 3-in-1 rhetoric.. I am speaking (and borrowing the reference) about Obama, Krugman, and Bernanke. 

I was reading the Mises Institutes web site today, including a number of great articles, but was struck by this one in particular: The Trinity is Complete by J. Grayson Lilburne .

A brief snippet: " "We Need a Housing Bubble" Krugman got a Nobel in Economics. "Let's Ramp Up a Murderous, Useless War" Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize. So what do we give Helicopter Ben Bernanke, who has squandered much of whatever capital we had left after the housing bubble burst by pushing interest rates down to zero, and guaranteed (just wait for it) the worst depression in American history? Make him Time Person of the Year!"

If you are wondering why these awards are so very wrong, consider that following the advice of Krugman, we are now in terrible economic shape. Following the policies, practices, and desires of Obama with regard to wars, we are now outdoing even Bush's fondest wishes expanding two wars, and fighting a third undeclared and illegal war on Pakistan. And now Time honors the man who determined that instead of a recovery, and instead of learning from the actions of the fed at the time of the Great Depression (NY fed was in control then) Bernanke opted for doing exactly what the fed did in 1929 three days after the market crashed.. except that he is taking it even further! 

It was Keynesian theory that set up the Great Depression, and now we have Krugman who is a dyed in the wool Keynesian, whom the powers that be are celebrating.. It was the actions of devaluing money that helped extend the Great depression by several years, and so we now are celebrating taking the same actions and calling them creative and inspired. 

We are on a tragic path economically, and Time is playing the fiddle while the dollar burns.. 

AAARRGH!

Okay.. let me start by saying that this is a pet peeve of mine, and in one sense of little importance, but in another this one factor can really take away from an otherwise good story or film. 

What is it? Well it is the way that hats are treated... See? Sounds trivial.. But give me a second or two to explain.. 

I am a hat guy. This is one of my truly impractical (not always, but sometimes) indulgences.. I like a damn fine hat, both for myself and others, and both for men and women. Hats are no longer valued as they should be, nor seen as often as they should be. Hats provide elegance, can define character, provide protection, can show style, and offer up countless opportunities for graciousness. But this is not the post for arguing for the wearing of hats.. (oh, and I am NOT talking about the trashy caps that are so popular, but real hats.. )

No, this post is to simply vent on a practice which no real hat enthusiast, or even those who purchase real hats of quality would ever indulge: putting a hat down on its brim. 

Hats always "point" up right so you set them down in the same direction you wear them... 

No.. the brim is fragile and can be reshaped through such ill considered practices. This is why a good hatter will always tell you how to treat and care for your hat, whether it be a discounted second running about $100 US to a custom 100+ point fitting running a few grand, the quality hatter makes certain that you understand that you always put on the hat using the brim not the crown, and you always rest the hat on the crown (upside down if you will) rather than the brim. These are the practices which keep the shape of the hat intact. 

So why is it that this common knowledge amongst the wearers of real hats, never seems to find its way to the movies or tv shows? Why is it that these supposedly wealthy high bred characters never seem to know how to treat one of the few elements which separates them visually from other characters? Why can't hollow-wood ever seem to get this simple point right?

When they fail to have the character actually know how to treat their hat, they give lie to the character, thus harming the performance, and thus the story itself.. 

Sigh.. 

Economics

I should really know better than to read the suggestions by Amazon.. Today I noticed that they suggested that I pick up "The Keynes Solution: The Path to Global Prosperity" 

For those who are not familiar with economics, Keynes was unfortunately a very influential pseudo-economist whose rise to popularity rests upon two factors: 1. He told the powers that be that they are right to increase the size of government and to severely restrict liberty, and 2. He said that we can and in fact we must generate enormous debt in order to be prosperous.  Politicians like nothing better than being told that they need more power, and that they must spend money that they (and we) do not have in order to increase that power. 

Keynes must have been the basis for South Park's Underwear gnomes.. 

Step 1. Get underpants

Step 2. (well we are still working on step 2) 

Step 3. Be wealthy!

For Keynes the formula runs: 
Step 1. Increase government while generating enormous debt. 

Step 2. Wealth magically just appears

Step 3. Be prosperous.. 

There is just that little problem of Step 2..

So what made me cringe when I saw the Amazon recommendation is that no one who is familiar with economics, history, and logic can make the case that Keynesian "economic" theory leads to prosperity, particularly given that not on ly the US but virtually the entire world has been dutifully practicing Keynesian economics since before FDR was in power. After nearly a century of devout worship of Keynes, and holding everyone hostage at his alter, we should be free from any possibility of recession, much less the depression we are in now worldwide. The fact that the economy sucks is proof positive that Keynesian "economic" theory fails to accurately describe reality, and fails to provide a worthwhile guide for action. 

All of which ignores the moral aspects, where Keynes assumes that the people in power have not only the right but the duty to essentially own all other persons. 

Under sound economic theory the "Keynesian paradox" does not exist. This is the fact that we know it is smarter for the individual to save, but Keynes claims that this is harmful to the economy. We have been hearing about this "paradox" quite a bit lately on the "news," but none of these folks bothers to think about why this appears to be a paradox. It is a paradox ONLY if we assume axiomatically, that is without any thought, that Keynes is always right. Drop that assumption and the conclusion is clear: No paradox exists, Keynes is simply wrong!

But a brief explanation might help to make this more clear. When I save money, I don't stuff it under the mattress, I invest it. I either invest it in a bank in the form of a savings or checking account, or I invest it in other ways (stocks, bonds, precious metals, etc.). Now the banks don't stuff that money under their mattress either, they invest it to make a higher return than you will so that they can make a profit as well and thus stay in business. Or if you are buying stocks, bonds, etc. you are directly investing in a business which is producing (hopefully) goods that are desired by others. The banks are also investing in such businesses. Those  businesses then produce goods, which if desired will be purchased. Since we have been saving money, we are on good financial footing, and do not have the need to spend all of our time servicing some debt, so we can spend some on luxuries, or non-necessities, thus further advancing the economy. All with no debt.. 

Ultimately we must let reason and evidence rule the day. Either Keynes was right, and thus we are now experiencing incredible prosperity without even the possibility of any negative consequences, else we are in fact in a recession/depression and thus Keynes was simply wrong. Since governments have been closely following Keynesian theory, all other possibilities are excluded. 

A little politics

Though the name of the blog is inherently "political" in that it states clearly that I do not want to rule the life of any other, nor can I tolerate others ruling my life, I have tried to limit the political posts as surely we are all more interested in living, rather than in arguing about how it is supposedly justified to live another's life for them. 

Still, with my background in ethics and socio-political philosophy, and my interest in real justice, I find myself near constantly reading about and otherwise delving into the area of politics in some form, though never in a way which could be understood to lend any legitimacy to the distasteful practice. 

On that note, a particularly good blog post was offered today by Wendy McElroy, a noted author of women's issues, history, and the individual. In this post she discusses the question she invariably gets when she writes on the police brutality which passes as "law enforcement" today: Where are the good cops? 

A snippet: Where are the good cops when police brutality happens? Where are they afterward when victims plea for justice? William Norman Grigg eloquently asks and answers these questions on his blog Pro Libertate where he is currently presenting a series of articles about police brutuality; it runs under the general title "The Thin Blue Whine." Where are the good cops is a question of particular interest to me because, whenever I write about police brutality, I hear from at least one reader who objects, "But what about the good cops?" The clear implication is that I focus on a few "bad apples" and, so, I'm being unfair to the majority of cops who are (it is claimed) decent men.

I disagree...for several reasons.

Follow the link above for the rest, it is well worth reading for both those who know that there simply is no role for police, and for those who still believe in the myth of a good cop. 

More on the build process to come. I did some testing today for a new method and need to make some adjustments to the plan..

A brief update

Little new on the homestead, except for the acquisition of a few slabs, those being the bits cut off the sides of timbers when they are milled into lumber. These slabs will hopefully serve as the shoring, or part of the shoring system, for the U-house.

Weather has been alternating between cold (in the teens F) and rainy, and somewhat moderately tolerable, with the latter being the less frequent of the two.

Decided on some important design changes necessitated by not being able to sink the posts into the ground as per the normal method. I am going to drive re-bar all around each post into the rock and then pour concrete around the post and re-bar. Then I am going to run 6 inch in diameter cedars from the base of one post to the base of another post downhill, for each post. This will create a box structure firmly tied to the underlying rock, and prevent the posts from trying to push inward from the weight of the soil on the outside.

With any luck I will start to work on setting posts in the very near future.

equipment

All about maintenance right now.. The tractor (Rancher Bob's) needs an oil change, filter change, and greasing, but I discovered that there is not enough oil for an oil change after all, so this means a run into town...

The chainsaw, with new bar and new chain still seems to be overheating so I need to clean it out really well and make sure that the oil is getting to the bar, which I strongly suspect that it is not now..

The beaver, being smarter than us humans, decided to stay inside this evening while Captain Rob and I waited in the cold for them to come out to be shot..

More of Rancher Bob's new parcel of land is being cleared, and I have done a bit of research on beaver online, discovering that they are essentially like cows as far as food and fur are concerned.. so I have dubbed them "creek cows" for my own amusement, and with any luck epicurement as well!

I am still slowly working on learning Portuguese. Seems harder and harder to find the time each day, but still it interests me for many reasons, so I try to keep progressing.

I will try to get photos up again soon.. left the camera in the atv today and have no desire to get dressed to go out into sub freezing temps to get it..

Outdoor Grocery Store

I have for many many months now enjoyed breaking my fast with fresh raspberries, muscadines, and only for the last few weeks, fresh persimmons as well. But the first two of these I must admit are cases of gleaning, not really foraging as they are intentionally planted plants (not by me, but by a neighbor) as opposed to true wild edibles. The persimmons on the other hand, if any were intentionally planted the original planter has long since passed, and no one but me, and very rarely Rancher Bob makes any use of them.

However these are far from the only wild edibles I have been either enjoying, or working to positively identify so that I may enjoy them in the future. A few other examples are henbit, which I described in the past and look forward to enjoying here again soon, as they are the first of the greens to come up. Since it is either ignored or hated by most gardeners, I have no problem harvesting more than I can possibly use in exchange only for strange looks and even rarely some gratitude for "weeding" a small area of the garden. The henbit is used much like cooked spinach. I am partial to using it in italian style dishes mixed with other ingredients, but it can easily stand on its own as a "pot herb." "Pot herb" being just another name for any cooked greens.

I gleefully took advantage of the fresh briar leaves, as some may recall. And I have enjoyed clovers, and clover look alikes such as wood sorrel and yellow sorrel, both of which are wonderful slightly sour additions to salads. I read recently that they also make fine lemonade like drinks.

Still, I very much consider myself a novice forager, one still learning as much as is possible while trying to identify as many plants as possible. Some such as pecan are ridiculously easy, others present more of a challenge, such as mushrooms, though I am making some progress on that front as well having positively identified two mushroom varieties on the land which are edible.

Last month, I finally managed to find and correctly identify a Jerusalem Artichoke, which is neither from Jerusalem nor an artichoke, but is related to the common sunflower. The tubers it produces are edible and can be substituted for potatoes for those on low starch diets. I had and still do plan on growing this as a vegetable, but finding on in the wild is an unexpected delight.

With the cold temperatures, around 20F currently, the search for wild edibles turns largely to meat. With any luck at all, I will be filling the freezer with beaver meat which I have come to learn can be used in any recipe calling for beef, but is leaner than beef. With the arrangement I have made with Captain Rob, I hope to have no need to buy meat again. Between the beaver harvest each year, and what I take of rabbit, perhaps even squirrel if I feel like it, I should have an abundant supply of meat for every occasion!

Add to that the chance at turkey and deer, and I should be able to set quite an extravagant table when I desire to do so. In some ways it is hard to believe that some folks claim that there is a food shortage. In truth there is a shortage on knowledge, and a shortage on willingness to try "new" (or very old) things..

Beavers? Dam!

Still no luck in trapping the nuisance beavers in the neighbor's pond. They dropped another tree last night, and have begun on yet another sweetgum. These are not small trees either, probably about as old as the dam itself. Each is over a foot in diameter, yet this or these pesky beavers are determined to drop all of them, and many good pines as well.

All the while they are building their home, and undermining the existing dam, which will of course cause their home to cease to be. I am certain of the undermining as I discovered myself looking at the world from three feet lower when walking across the damn this afternoon. I'd stepped above one of the tunnels, which was large enough to drop me quite a ways.

This means that we need to get these beaver out of this pond before there is no pond to save and it costs the landowner quite a bit in both time and money to have the dam rebuilt.. most likely meaning waiting until summer, meaning all of the fish will die, and the land will be changed by the winter rains etc. with the pond gone.. Fortunately the neighbor is a gentleman farmer who has no livestock relying upon the pond, though he is seriously considering getting a few next year to cut down on the fuel expense of bush-hogging the area a few times a year.

Little else to report.. I turned a left over hambone and a couple of dollars worth of beans into several meals, then turned the remainder into several more meals of chili by adding in ground turkey, more onion, and spices.. finally I turned the last bit left which did not get frozen into future meals, into three final meals of a modified chili which includes corn and whatever else is on hand.. For all of these meals I am guessing that I am averaging under 25 cents a meal.. Not too damn bad if I say so myself..

More Thoreau via McElroy

Wendy McElroy, noted author and lover of freedom offers up another great post on Thoreau and the support for the state: http://wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.2898

"I am sometimes upbraided for excoriating policemen or the military or [fill in the blank with the state agent of your choice] because I allegedly do not take into account that policemen or military are individuals with unique motives and values. The accusation runs...it may be true that the legal system currently expresses and enforces injustice, but many individual policemen are honorable and believe in the constitution. Thus, it is unfair to hold them responsible for a system that they are trying to change.

I disagree. As long as an individual freely chooses to violate the rights of peaceful people -- and the War on Drugs (to state just one example) is clearly such a violation -- then it is not a defense to claim the individual is decent enough to know his actions are wrong any more than it is a defense to say "it is his job"....which is to say, he is not only violating rights but also getting paid for it. These are not defenses. These are further condemnations. If a policeman knows it is unjust to smash in a door in the middle-of-the-night because someone may have drugs in their sock drawer, then he should not do it. Like the employee whose video "Why Bank of America Fired Me" was featured here on Sunday, they should refuse to violate innocent human beings. If they chose to do so, then they must take personal responsibility."

More on her site... WendyMcElroy.com

Eating beaver

No.. get your mind out of the gutter.. 

I am talking about the real deal.. good old fashioned hat wannabes.. big flat tail, destroyers of forest, underminers of dams.. wet slick, furry beavers.. (hm.. might not have helped much, eh?) Well four legged swimming beasts that tear stuff up like no bodies business... 

What brings about this post, other than the long delay in posting* is that I have been talking to Captain Rob who traps beaver, amongst other critters. Now I will admit a full on bias against trapping that I have harbored for decades. That said, and that being the case, I am no less curious about the actual practice. So knowing that Ol' Rob was going to be trapping beaver next door, I could not help but ask to tag along. Thankfully Rob, being a loner like myself, was willing to have me tag along and I did what I could to help (hauled all of the traps and what I could..) What I discovered surprised me. Rob does not have the same sensibilities about critters that I have, and I will admit to not knowing in this instance which is morally correct (I suspect that neither opinion ever enters the moral fray..) but I expected the worse. What I discovered was that the traps he set for these particular destructive beaver are VERY humane and kill instantly. 

For those city folk who thankfully read my blog, know that beaver are not the cute and cuddly creatures those terrible social studies class films led us to believe. Sure they have a life, as all living things do, but their life is not only destructive to forests, fish, ponds, rivers, streams,, etc, but also self destructive! They will undermine the very pond that they rely upon for life, and thus cause their own untimely deaths, while costing the rancher or farmer, or gentleman estate holder, a great deal of money. Now if you are an Obama fan (or love Johnson, or FDR) this is a good thing because they rely upon destruction as a social good, but if contrarily you are a thinking person, then you realize that this is a harm.**

So where do I get around to referring to the off color blog title? Well now... So Rob being a devout christian, though not a church going one, ( an important distinction I believe that Luther would appreciate) does not eat the meat of those animals he traps. Well, as most of y'all know I am not at all a devout christian, but rather embrace reason and reality, so I am more than willing to try out this meat to see if I can appreciate it.  After long talks and several instances we have worked out a plan which not only gets him the hides he relies upon for some of his income (yes we still use beaver hide, including in the hats I value so dearly)  gives him some help in the capture and gives me possibly more meat than I can possibly use..  From what I hear Beaver is one of the best meats around... 

I am not a hillbilly who grew up on squirrel and rabbit, I have never had 'Coon, or many other "alternative" meats, but I am a person who appreciates frugality, and using what is there in front of you. If it were not for many other factors, including my own willingness to take the excess meat, I'd chastise Rob for wasting flesh he could eat, but because I am willing to respect his beliefs, and use the meat myself, he has actually suggested that maybe he will try it as well. This is the peaceful, voluntary method of changing the minds of others.. 

Nothing else to report. For many reasons no progress has been made on the house until the backhoe gets out. So for the time being I am worried about the financial situation, hoping for some jobs to come up (send emails if you are interested!!!) and working so as to reduce my labor in the future. 

* the long delay has many reasons, not he least of which is that I have just been trying to get along for now. I've paid for the excavation, and it is done, now I need to either dig a trench myself or hire that done, then set posts. Neither option is positive, and neither works with the weather so I"ve held off.. 

**Here I rely upon not only a basic understanding of introduction level of logic, but also upon some knowledge of history. NONE of FDR's programs in any way at all ultimately helped the US, In fact his programs can easily be shown to have contributed to extending by at least 4 years, the great depression. What Bush did, and what Obama has done mimicks closely what FDR did, and that which we know caused tremendous harm. We need to avoid this. Neither "party" is free from responsibility, and neither can pretend to hold no blame. "Both" faces of the one part are to blame because they assume that they have the right to control the peaceful lives of innocent people, and thus drive those lives into the ground. We need to stand up to these thugs and refuse at all points to obey their commands. Unfortunately most folks won't so we will have these thugs around for some time. Watch the news, even these mouthpieces for the powers that be never can point out a case where these thugs did something good... Even where the SS (Secret Service) failed in this case of the White House Dinner Party Crashing, they are looking for charges to place against the folks for the crime of proving flaws in the system!! (not that I like the folks, but they did nothing legally or morally wrong!!) 

So such is life.. For those who love nature, and see benefit in living with nature here is a blog I follow, which usually does not deal with such issues but this post is greatly appreciated: 

http://wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.2895

To all of my internet readers and friends.. stay strong. and remember to send encouragement to friends and relatives where they are open to it...

Filler

You just have to love the folks as the Ludwig Von Mises Institute.. when an error occurred and I received a blank disc rather than the Rothbard lectures I expected, not only did the contact person immediately respond (literally within minutes!!) but who I can only assume to be her supervisor also responded ensuring that he would send out the disc immediately.. This is what one expects from folks who understand interpersonal relations, including but not limited to business interactions!.

And there is doubt as to why Keynesian "economics" fails to describe reality??

A few days spent simply doing chores.. nothing of note. Too little tractor time because diesel is running low.. need to fill the reserves again in the few days that Rancher Bob will be in town/country..

The local loonies are out in force.. both the drunk "hunters" and the crazies who fantasize about catching these drunken "hunters" where they ought not be... So early mornings are the norm for the time being...

Re: Steven Brust..

Never argue about reality with a writer of fiction, he might not be able to tell the difference..

Possum Living

In the late 1970's an 18 year old home schooled (before there was really a term such as "home-schooled") girl/woman wrote a book on her life, on a pitiful typewriter which had to be rigged with a rubber band attached to the wall to get the carriage return to work. This book was Possum Living: How To Live Well Without A Job And With (Almost) No Money. This became somewhat of a "cult" book when released, despite being on the tail end of the back to the land movement, arguably actually past that time. What I believe made this book so popular with free thinkers, back to the landers, and a great many mainstream folks is Dolly's wonderful honesty, straight-forwardness, and the fact that she and her father were not nut jobs or extremists, they were not even making their choices for ideological reasons, but as she put it out of laziness (I don't for a second believe this latter claim, as they worked, but enjoyed that work!) 

They did not flee to the country, or disdain the suburban life, rather they lived what appeared to be a normal suburban life in Philadelphia but without "real" jobs, instead living off of the produce from the garden, the meat from their rabbits and from what they could catch in the rivers, and off of the hooch that they distilled themselves... They had all that they could want, even more because unlike their neighbors they had freedom to live, time to live, and of course wholesome food to eat. 

Dolly was taken out of government schools in the seventh grade, and clearly did not suffer for this "loss" (what would otherwise be objectively be called a great advantage!) as she went on to get a college degree on her own and to become an aerospace engineer for NASA. She retained the understanding of what it means to live life intentionally, not because you are trapped as a "wage slave" or even as a tax slave (in the US you spend at least half of your time working to pay for some form of tax!) . 

So why do I bring up Dolly's story now.. well her book Possum Living struck the same cord with me that it struck with so many in the late 70's, so much so that she was brought onto the Merv Griffin Show (think Oprah but in spades!). After many computer troubles, I had lost my digital copy of Possum Living, and sadly could not even recall enough of the book or author to google it but thankfully stumbled across it again thanks to a fellow blogger who linked to a list of "free" ebooks, from which Possum Living had been removed. Now normally I will admit that this new would have been disappointing, after all I was not to get the book again free, but it was removed because a publisher had opted to reprint the book! What better time? When the economy is in far worse shape than it ever was in the 60's or 70's and appears to be headed for complete collapse thanks exclusively to the Keynesian economic practices of the last several administrations.. So while I may miss out on having the free copy, I look forward to buying the updated version, with a new introduction. 

Interestingly there is a series of youtube videos which were clearly made a year or two after the book came out which documents Dolly's life at the time. These are wonderfully positive, encouraging, and enlightening videos and I encourage all of my readers to take the few moments it takes and watch them: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvn79E40VSc&feature=player_embedded

This is pure realistic intentional living, without ideology, without harm to any others, and without any pretense. I hope only to come close to her example. 

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. 

Unexpected progress

Well captain Rob was back in the excavation today, though I thought that we were done until the backhoe could get out.. he managed to get the floor lower, expand the space, and tighten up the corners so that the excavation is almost ready for posts! I will try to get a photo posted soon, weather permitting. We are expecting rain tonight and tomorrow.. maybe on Tuesday as well. 

The site is really coming together. The slope off of the house will be steeper than I expected, but that works out nicely aesthetically as far as I am concerned, and I can shore it up with stone from the excavation as necessary. The rye is growing like gangbusters, and now I am in spitting distance of setting posts... 

On other fronts,  I enjoyed a nice catfish dinner tonight from a fish I caught a couple of days ago. If I can find the time away from cattle work, I will freeze one of the fillets for later. 

I have begun learning Portuguese, in large part due to a friend who is from Brazil. With some luck, sometime in the next year or more, I will hopefully accompany her and her husband to Brazil for a visit.. ah what unexpected turns life brings! 

So much for the brief update..