Back in the bacwoods

I've spent the overwhelming majority of the year away from the build site due to end of life issues with my family, but I've returned for a while. Unfortunately due to some abdominal pain that I experienced while I was away, I was told by (useless*) doctors to avoid strenuous activities. *I say useless because though they ruled out the obvious, the appendix, they were unable to give me any idea as to the cause of the pain and fever. Their advice was to avoid strenuous activities and then when I am better to return so that can do some invasive testing that even they admit probably won't tell them anything! Crazy..

So on the build I will be working slowly, but I will be working on it. I have one pier poured, and I will start in a day or two pouring more. I may only get one or two a day done so as to avoid overdoing it, but I will make progress.

In the meantime I will be working on other aspects of the homestead, such as the garden which has not only suffered in my absence, but has been abused by the weather this year as well. I am going to get to planting again tomorrow in hopes of getting something out of it..

All in all I am glad to be back..

Brief Update

I apologize for the long silence, and I promise to rectify the lack of updates very soon. I have been away from the homestead for quite some time dealing with family matters, including the passing of my grandmother. However I should be back on site again in about 10 days or so, with a new camera so I can document what little progress has been made, and then begin to show the progress which should be upcoming very quickly.

Thanks to all who have been following my journey and I will make that story more interesting soon..

Still is still moving to me..

I am still in the flatlands, taking care of family. End of life issues, along side glimmers of hope, combined with undercurrents of old emotion based problems.. Still some good memories, some good time spent.

On the homesteading front, I have now brewed two batches of apple cider. The first crisp and clean, nice though would have been better had I gotten some better juice (what I used is locally hailed as the best possible.. I differ in opinion). The second.. well I allowed it to continue to ferment as it was fermenting at a frantic pace for more than two weeks, something I have never seen in brewing beer. Finally it slowed, and so I filtered it and gave it a try. In a word: fail.. Its best quality is that it contains alcohol.. but it is bland, with a slight bitterness and a hint of a vinegar smell though it never had the chance to turn to vinegar. Still, this is good learning experience that I can apply to the five to ten gallons of pear juice and pulp I have waiting for me back at BWoH.

For now, that is life as I am living it.. it remains interesting.

New year update

It has been far too long between posts, but life became very interesting, not necessarily in a good way.

We recently found out my grandmother has terminal cancer, so I dropped what I was doing to head to the flatlands to help take some of the burdens off of the family.

For the meantime, the home and homesteading has to be on hold.

As soon as I get back to the Backwoods of Hell, I'll get right back to building..

Weather delays

Well we are finally getting desperately needed moisture here at the Backwoods of Hell, but unfortunately it is not enough to really help or to refill ponds, though it is enough to make the site unworkable.

So in the meantime I simply plan out the forms and the build process, and wait for clearer days, which hopefully won't be so cold as to prevent concrete from setting up properly.

More progress!

Well today marked the absolute last bit of work that I will have to have done before I can build.. Since the backhoe and Captain Rob were still very near by, I decided to bring him back to the site to lower the entry area a bit (it was higher than the rest of the floor area) and to dig me a small trench for the french drain insurance policy.. Well he lowered the floor a bit, then preceded to dig a trench large enough to drain the great lakes!

But I am not complaining. The trench is deep enough that I can guarantee drainage and prevent water from ever building up in or above my home, so this one goes into the better safe than sorry file..

Tomorrow I start figuring what I need for concrete forms, french drain supplies, and the precise methods to be used in both...

This home looks like it might just happen after all!

Photo time..

Well still no luck with finding the cable for my camera, so I brought out the old one from retirement to get these, just before it perished..



Coming up the drive..



From above the homestead. The major progress is the opening up of the entry (the cut away to the right/downhill) as well as opening up the bedroom window are in the back of the photo, downhill corner.




Standing just outside of the front entry looking to the back wall.


From just inside looking out the front entry. To give an idea of scale, the dirt on the left side is about 9 feet high, and though this photo doesn't show it, where the dirt ends outside of the front entry, is about 15 feet above the undisturbed ground.. Needless to say I am building on a rather steep slope.

No pics

Well at some point in my travels I misplaced or otherwise lost the cable for connecting the camera to the computer. So for the time being no pics... I have one place left to look before I decide that I simply don't have it and have to get a new cable.

In the meantime, I began digging the trench for the french drain. Once this is complete, then I can fill in some low spots in the floor, get gravel in to level the floor area, and then begin work on the forms for the footings.

It is so good to know that I can make progress now, that it is under my control to a large degree.

Progress!

After so many delays, after so many times of being told that this final excavation would happen, after so many months, the final excavation is under way. With any luck it should be wrapped up tomorrow and I can begin laying out forms for the footings on which the posts will sit.

To make things better, we also received a bit of rain here at the Backwoods of hell... not enough to really break the drought but enough to raise spirits a bit.

I will strive to get photos tomorrow and post them, though we are supposed to get rain again.. regardless I'll have some up ASAP!

Forgetting politics for the moment despite this tragic day, I have enjoyed a wonderful mess of greens this evening.. henbit, mustard, turnip, rape (brocolli raab, and some asian radish..)

Beans on the stove, going' to let them cook overnight..

Delightful pea soup recipe which I've enjoyed a bit of this evening and more so tomorrow..

Good Intentions Paving Company

On this tragic day, this is a good reminder to all of us who have compassion for a fellow humans, but specifically to those who wish to reduce government but still choose to vote:

http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.3588

in part:

"Your vote is not a defensive act. It is an act that facilitates violence committed against people like me who have done you no harm but merely wish to live...and peacefully so. By casting a vote, you tell thugs, opportunists, parasites and worse that they have a right to intrude upon my life with their laws, their taxes and zero-tolerance policies about everything from speech to drugs, from guns to trans-fat. You vote is like ringing a dinner bell for wolves to descend."

Deception Day

Tuesday being a tragic day of deception and inherent violence, I'd like to encourage everyone reading this to remember that harming innocent others is never justified. Furthermore it is no more justified to harm innocents by selecting someone else to do that harm for you.

The only recourse for the moral person is to refuse to vote. Refuse to grant the illusion of legitimacy to those would be your masters by refusing to vote.

Respect your neighbors, respect all other persons. Have some compassion and reason and refuse to contribute to the harm of innocents.

To this end, a wonderful piece on voting and the inherent moral problems with it:
http://www.wendymcelroy.com/hitler.htm

General update from BWoH

Little has been done here at the Backwoods of hell. The final excavation was supposed to be done this week, but as is usual in this area not only did it not happen, but I have not heard a word from Captain Rob the backhoe operator. Adding to the frustration has been the weather, which has been unusually hot and dry. All of Rancher Bob's grass dried up in the pastures and so he has me feeding out hay while he is out of town working. This also effects the garden naturally, which was pretty well dead by the time I returned, as no one here was taking care of it. Still that neglect may turn into a small benefit as onions and potatoes left unharvested, have with the hot weather decided to put out again. If it stays warm for just a bit longer I will be able to get some small potatoes and onions just in time for the soups of winter.

The persimmons have been the best ever this year. Though there has been no frost yet, they are sweet without any hint of the astringency which would normally present itself. I've spent a couple of afternoons eating as many as I could reach that were ripe, giving myself an all natural sugar high.

Foraging has been very limited as well given the lack of rain. I've managed to find a few wild mustards and radishes in Rancher Bob's yard (it gets watered) but the fruit of the passion flower vine was almost a complete no show. I was able to enjoy only one of these, and it was certainly sub par. In fact the foraging is so bad I am seriously considering setting up the contraption that Rancher Bob bought, but has never used, that is supposed to make cracking black walnuts easy. I suspect that "easy" is a very relative term.

No muscadines for wine this year either. They put out a little fruit, but not enough to bother picking beyond just a few nibbles here and there. Strangely though the pear trees did produce fruit, a hard fruit with very little sweetness which is unpleasant to even try to eat. No one around here eats them. Still, rather than let those pears go to waste I am trying an experiment with making cider. We'll see in a month or so how that turned out.

I am trying to stay positive through all of the delays and tribulations in this effort to set up a modest underground homestead, and it is nights such as tonight that certainly help. As I am typing this, I am sitting outside my temporary (well it is *supposed* to be temporary!) home (ratty travel trailer) in a comfortable chair, sipping some unusual local wine (well if 3-4 hours away is local..) watching the thunderstorms over the mountains giving the much needed moisture close, if not here yet. There is hope and a forecast of a good chance of rain later tonight...

So as long as there is light I will enjoy the light show, return to studying aspects of homesteading (currently permaculture and and footings for underground homes..), all the while hoping to get the rain which will force me inside.

Autumn

Made a run into the Springs yesterday, enjoying the dappled shade of the autumnal trees, and the somewhat cooler temperatures of fall. Normally I really loathe driving, but this was one of those rare times that it was a damn great drive..

More chores for Rancher Bob, feeding cows, keeping everything together..

The garden is struggling in this dry weather, no rain for a month and little chance in the foreseeable future.

Guess I will have to simply sit back and enjoy the persimmons..

Breaking the silence

I realize that it has been a while since I posted, and for that I apologize. I'd like to blame it on being busy, and traveling, and several other excuses, all of which are true, but the primary cause was lack of something about which I wished to write.

I am back in the BWoH, waiting for the backhoe for the last little bit of dirt work before I can build.. I swear that I won't rely upon anyone else for the rest of the build because of these delays...

In the meantime I've been foraging as best as I can, including some wild mustards and radishes, American Beauty Berry, persimmons, passion vine fruits, and anything else I can find. I've put up gallons of chicken stock, several pounds of catfish, several pounds of an italian meat sauce, as well as some pureed pears which will become cider in the near future..

Not wanting to be completely unproductive with regard to the homestead, I've been working on ways to lift the main girders (2' x 30' oak timbers) into place 15 feet in the air... I believe that I have figured out a solution, though not an elegant one as it requires rolling the timbers down the header of the top wall... Tricky, dangerous and perhaps a bad idea, but it is the best I have come up with so far.

It is terribly dry here, and there is no rain in the forecast, so foraging is poor and the garden all but dead.

That's the news from BWoH for now..

A Need for Place

Let me preface this with the admission that I have some pretty great friends, surprisingly wonderful clients, and just a tiny bit of luck I like to think I helped create. That said, though I have spent the last several weeks living in different homes, rotating between all of the above groups.

So as I sit here late at night, in the art gallery as I like to call it, I really want little more than my own place, albeit a tiny one, where I need not worry about the niceties of being a good house guest, or where I can leave out whatever I like..

It is all about a sense of place. While I would never dream of detracting from those whose homes I have shared, we all need a place to be, a place to be without any concerns even those friendly concerns of being a good guest. And sometimes you just need to know that the walls around you, or better yet the plants around you, are your own..

Though it is a different story, and an abrupt change, there are those around us who would deny that peace of mind to us..but I will save that rant for later..

Tonight, a glass of wine, some Hemingway, and some calming Fish..

Book number... oh heck I've lost count.. plus.. well I still haven't counted

The Market for Liberty by Linda Tannehill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Tannehills provide a good introduction to peaceful coexistence, also known as anarchy, in this book. They go into some detail as to how people choose to interact, and how these voluntary interactions can and should replace the bullying, coercion, and violence of the state.

There are some points which could be updated, and some of the specific details of how society would look are too precise for any prediction of the multitude of solutions that freed persons would develop, but overall this is truly a worthwhile stepping off point for any discussion of the nature of the state and alternatives to coercive methods.




View all my reviews

Still is still moving to me..

I am still living in the art gallery and working far harder than anyone should in the terrible heat here in the hot hills.. Well that was true up until today anyway. I just left that house to dog sit for some friends here for the weekend, then back to the ol' gallery at the invitation of the wonderful folks who live there, having returned from their trip.

Work has been very satisfying, outside of the much needed income. The art gallery (actually a home I remodelled some years ago) has provided the opportunity to touch up some minor details I did not have time to address when we did the original remodel, as well a do a few other projects for this delightful couple. The next project was a kitchen remodel, a partial job for a couple just starting out. I was able to create the canvas upon which they will be able to paint their own ideal kitchen. From that to a flagstone patio and path system, along with a garden shed, and next week I hope to begin an interior makeover which will turn a couple of drab and dreary bedrooms into the exciting Asian inspired rooms that the owner desires.

In the meantime I am reading voraciously, though I've been lax in updating the books here unfortunately. Currently I am on Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, which is guaranteed to be bright and cheerful.. :)

I've probably about another two or three weeks in this locale before I can head back to the homestead, though I'd like to be working on the home, it is good to garner a bit of income before I return.

Strange dichotomy

I have noticed over the years that many who celebrate the wildness of the world, want nothing more than to wall in, essentially cage the rest of humanity as if we were not a part of the world. They wish to control, and ultimately destroy all that is, all of the wonder of science, all of the thrill of being in nature, all in the name of saving it from those who would enjoy and celebrate it..

Might strange world we live in..

Still away from the 'stead

I am still away from BWoH, busily earning a bit of coin to build the homestead, and to enjoy a few luxuries like extra electrical power and water storage.

The stress of running a full time business again is bothersome and a welcomed reminder of why I left here in the first place. Though this too is beautiful hill country, and though I have enjoyed many luxuries simply not available in BWoH, the trafic, constant business calls, and long working days go against the life I am trying to build. A few more weeks and I should be moving on, back to the BWoH.

In the meantime I am making the most of the place I am, while still keeping up on my readings including blogs and news sites. One such blog actually has the author declaring that the moral worth of the individual is unimportant and a failed concept.. Somehow I am guessing that if it were himself or those for whom he cared who was threatened, he'd change his stripes.. :)

Life goes on.. we make the most of it that we can, and if we are decent we do so without harming others.