We had planned to go out to the land this weekend, just for another day trip. But in all honesty, it's just so hard to do a three hour one way trip twice in the same day with five little kids. I think I'm still recovering from the last trip. Plus, the next phase in the shabin habitibility plan is to paint the downstairs walls and floor with a coat of vapor barrier.
Picture this; five kids + small enclosed space + wet paint. Yeah, not gonna happen.
So, we've decided to postpone the trip until next weekend. I'll be taking the kids to a far away friends house for a baby birthday party and Rob will be going to the land to paint and wait for the bush hog tractor driver. He's hoping to get started on the stairs to the loft and reinforcing the plywood floor of the loft with an additional sheet.
We've been working on some simple plans for the shabin to run electric through the walls before we insulate and drywall. We found some Romex and additional electrical supplies just hanging out in our current shed from a long ago project. We'll be utilizing these in the shabin now.
For now, we've decided to use a sawdust toilet. What's a sawdust toilet you ask? Well, very simply it's a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat attached -unbelievebly they make special ones just for this purpose- and a bucket of sawdust. I can get 5 gallon buckets with lids from Firehouse Subs* for $2 a piece. When you're done you either dump out the contents in a hole in the ground or dispose of the entire bucket. Fun stuff!
Once the vapor barrier is completed, the sawdust toilet installed and the stairs complete we can plan on our first overnight trip! We'll plan a time where we'll be up there during the week at which time we will submit our barn plans.
Things are happening, though very, very slowly.
*I wonder if we went to Firehouse if they'd be interested in just giving us buckets if we tell them what we're using them for. Maybe if we give them a plug on the site?
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Two new Rabbits and Why
Rabbits are the ideal small home/apartment livestock. They need relatively little room. They can be three-fold animals providing manure for gardens (which tomatoes love), wool and meat. You can also breed them to sell the kits.
In our area, Angora's range in price from $30 to over $100 a piece depending on the breed, color and sex. A litter of five healthy babies can make a car payment. They also need very little. Food, free access to hay and a never ending supply of water. Draft and drip free housing with good ventilation and a way to capture their droppings and you're good to go. Initial set ups can range in price from very cheap to really fancy.
We chose galvanized steel cages made for rabbits that are 30x30x16" for the bucks and 30x36x16" for the does (which are housed together). Each has it's own water bottle, food bowl and hay manger. We give them glue-free toilet/paper towel rolls and pine cones to play with and we have a enclosed baby gate for them to get out of cage exercise.
The hutches were built with mostly scrap materials and the cages simply rest on the frames. The new hutch for the does has a place for stackable milk crates that holds all their goodies.
So far, I've harvested nearly three ounces of fur off the older two bucks. Fur runs about $6 an ounce on Etsy, give or take. I buy them Timothy hay buy the 96ounce bag that runs $10-12 and lasts about 1.5 months. I get Hartz pellets from the grocery store. A 10lb bag is $9.99 and lasts about 2 months. I'm hoping to get to a point where the rabbits at the very least pay for themselves. I already use the manure in the garden which I think has really benefited the plants though that is hard to tell. If I had a bit better way to do it I could collect the manure and sell that too.
The point of all this is to point out our effort on bringing in animals to the farm that aren't a burden. They need to pay for themselves in some way or help to reduce the cost of having to do other things, i.e. I don't have to buy manure anymore, which is something I did. Moving towards a dream where we live a self-sufficient life means taking the steps now to build towards that. It would do us no good to have animals that only drain limited resources. We all have to work together to make life easier and more productive. The rabbits have that down already.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Our Latest Visit
Yesterday, we packed up the van and the trailer and headed over to the land to drop off some materials we have into the shipping container. Initially, we were going to spend the night over, trying to get some work done on the shabin but it didn't work out.
The drive up got delayed a lot mainly because the things getting packed up were so builky and Rob was doing all the work himself while I was inside getting all the kids ready. Then, we had to drop Leeloo off at the dog-hotel. She needed a bath and we wern't going to be home until really late. She's not puppy trained enough to be home by herself and the van was just too ful and the ride too long to take a puppy along. Soon, she'll be going up with us. She needs to learn better manners first though.
When we finally pulled up to the land and were greated with a vibrant sea of green almost taller than the car.
The sun was setting on our trip to the land. Even with the sky washed in the gray of storm clouds from the East, the West still glowed with the remnants of the day. To spend that time there, even when we couldn't do anything, was special.
The drive up got delayed a lot mainly because the things getting packed up were so builky and Rob was doing all the work himself while I was inside getting all the kids ready. Then, we had to drop Leeloo off at the dog-hotel. She needed a bath and we wern't going to be home until really late. She's not puppy trained enough to be home by herself and the van was just too ful and the ride too long to take a puppy along. Soon, she'll be going up with us. She needs to learn better manners first though.
When we finally pulled up to the land and were greated with a vibrant sea of green almost taller than the car.
July and August are the wettest months of the year here and the land responds accordingly. We drove through the soft fronds up to the doors of the shabin and container. Rob jumped out to unlock it and found someone had cut the locks we put on it. Both of them. I just don't understand people. Thankfully, at that point we didn't have anything in it at all. But it still saddens my heart that someone would do that. They had to have come once, saw the locks and then come back with the bolt cutters. It makes me leery to put anything up there that we couldn't afford to loose. Makes me nervous about staying overnight. I don't want to be afraid to be on my own land. I don't want to be scared to be out of the city and blanketed in the darkness of rurual life.
I tried to push it out of my mind and enjoy the little bit of time we had. My land soothes me. Makes me want to slow down and just be. I need that. The kids loved it even with the grass double their height.
They played in the shabin and stayed out of trouble. Granted if they had run through the fronds we'd have probably lost them for a bit, but I thnk even Max understood that out the rustic-but-still-civilized door there was wildness. With the locks cut we had to run to Lowes to pick up some more resistant ones. Even though there's not much where we are, their are still shops within about a half hour drive.
We came back with batteries for the LED lanterns and the locks and set about finishing up the last of what we wanted to do, which wasn't really much. The kids had a picnic on some blankets while they waited.
When we were getting ready to go, I spied a hawk perched on the top most branch of a tree in our bit of forest. He was watching, standing sentinel, while the wind gusted around him.
A few moments later two of his brothers glided by as if on patrol. It was so amazing to see these birds of prey living on our bit of Earth. To know that we are stewards of their home and they rely on us to protect them, even if they don't know it.
The sun was setting on our trip to the land. Even with the sky washed in the gray of storm clouds from the East, the West still glowed with the remnants of the day. To spend that time there, even when we couldn't do anything, was special.
As we packed up Amelia, our three year old, said "I want to live here forever." Me too, Emmy, me too.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Electric and Plans
I think we've decided to go ahead and set up electric service on the land, connecting it to the Shabin. The idea of going completely off-grid is really ideal but we have babies to care for and can't rely on not having enough power to run tools and other vital building implements. We still have the generator which is a great thing to have. Chances are, when we go up on the 4th of July weekend, there won't be power. Besides, just because we're connected to the grid, doesn't mean we have to use it.
The electric co-op that services our area requires fees of almost $400 to set up the meter and run a line. If they have to set up poles I'm not sure if they charge for that or not. I don't think they will as the power line runs right on the road we're on. The set-up cost is definately something that we'll feel out of pocket.
There is also a note on the set-up worksheet that says they won't go out until we've applied with the Building and Zoning Department, though they didn't mention that when I spoke with them and told them we didn't have anything on the books yet and had no clear time-frame of having it set up in the main house.
If that is the case, there is another at least $420* due to submit our plans and that's after we've had it signed off on my electricians, plumbers and architects and those fees incurred with that. And actually finalized the floor plan we want to go with, of course.
So, progress has been made in the field of information but so far, that's all.
*$424 is the estimate submission fees for 1900 heated sq. ft with no porch, attached garage or other.
The electric co-op that services our area requires fees of almost $400 to set up the meter and run a line. If they have to set up poles I'm not sure if they charge for that or not. I don't think they will as the power line runs right on the road we're on. The set-up cost is definately something that we'll feel out of pocket.
There is also a note on the set-up worksheet that says they won't go out until we've applied with the Building and Zoning Department, though they didn't mention that when I spoke with them and told them we didn't have anything on the books yet and had no clear time-frame of having it set up in the main house.
If that is the case, there is another at least $420* due to submit our plans and that's after we've had it signed off on my electricians, plumbers and architects and those fees incurred with that. And actually finalized the floor plan we want to go with, of course.
So, progress has been made in the field of information but so far, that's all.
*$424 is the estimate submission fees for 1900 heated sq. ft with no porch, attached garage or other.
Monday, May 24, 2010
House Plans and Pottys
A few months ago we announced that we had purchased house plans. Well...true to just about everything we do, we think we changed our minds. A friend at church directed us to some easy to build homes utilizing a dry stack block method of building.
Since we're doing this on our own (no mortgage, no contractors, no laborers other than ourselves) it makes sense to do this efficiently both in cost and time. A dry stack house can be done by one person or two and you can leave off without worry about weather damage to what you have gotten built. Sounds good, now we just need a new houseplan!
The other order or business is doing our business. We've been planning on heading up to the shabin for a few weeks now but there is only one problem: How to potty? With five little ones (3.75 of which are potty trained) we need a way for them to go to the bathroom without having to trek across almost the entire property in the middle of the night to the privacy of the woods. I'm not really quite scrappy enough to chance the darkness and the animals for this kind of adventure. At least not yet. Also, we don't want to risk contaminating our land with human waste either by just randomly digging holes.
A composting toilet was our first thought but the only size we'd be able to use in the shabin won't be functional in our regular house. At a price tag over $1500, it's not an option to throw that money away on a short term potty solution. Though I do like the overall idea of a waterless composting toilet for the house's long term solution.
Last week, while I was perusing Hobby Farm Home magazine at Girl Scouts, I saw an ad for an incinerating toilet. Hmmm, could this work?
The price tag is about the same for the electric model as the seasonal use composting toilet and it would be able to be moved and used in the main house without any changes. The only issue we have is the safety factor during a burn cycle and the cost of the specialized liners it requires. Overall, this seems the best bet and we've been doing a lot of research into it. The price tag is steep for something that just is for one specific function but if we can't go up to stay to build, no building will get done.
Other than that, we're itching to go back up and start working on the shabin to make it livable for building. I long for that peaceful surrender that overtakes me when we visit our own little slice of Earth.
Since we're doing this on our own (no mortgage, no contractors, no laborers other than ourselves) it makes sense to do this efficiently both in cost and time. A dry stack house can be done by one person or two and you can leave off without worry about weather damage to what you have gotten built. Sounds good, now we just need a new houseplan!
The other order or business is doing our business. We've been planning on heading up to the shabin for a few weeks now but there is only one problem: How to potty? With five little ones (3.75 of which are potty trained) we need a way for them to go to the bathroom without having to trek across almost the entire property in the middle of the night to the privacy of the woods. I'm not really quite scrappy enough to chance the darkness and the animals for this kind of adventure. At least not yet. Also, we don't want to risk contaminating our land with human waste either by just randomly digging holes.
A composting toilet was our first thought but the only size we'd be able to use in the shabin won't be functional in our regular house. At a price tag over $1500, it's not an option to throw that money away on a short term potty solution. Though I do like the overall idea of a waterless composting toilet for the house's long term solution.
Last week, while I was perusing Hobby Farm Home magazine at Girl Scouts, I saw an ad for an incinerating toilet. Hmmm, could this work?
The price tag is about the same for the electric model as the seasonal use composting toilet and it would be able to be moved and used in the main house without any changes. The only issue we have is the safety factor during a burn cycle and the cost of the specialized liners it requires. Overall, this seems the best bet and we've been doing a lot of research into it. The price tag is steep for something that just is for one specific function but if we can't go up to stay to build, no building will get done.
Other than that, we're itching to go back up and start working on the shabin to make it livable for building. I long for that peaceful surrender that overtakes me when we visit our own little slice of Earth.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Our now existient Etsy store
http://www.heartsongfarms.etsy.com/ is up and running! Let us know what you think and what you'd like to see.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Photos of our land
These are of the forest area and the pond/stream which take up close to two acres of the 5.3 we own.
We got the land discounted because of these features.
It's amazing what some will see as defects, we see as wonderful.
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