Sketch for the new cabin
Insulated floors!
Showing posts with label by Laurie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label by Laurie. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Summer 2014 pictures
Insulated floors!
Monday, 19 May 2014
Spring 2014
After 3 years off grid, I am finally breaking my internet habit. which is mostly good, unless your my grandma, who always gets on me to update this blog. So here Nana!
This year marks the fourth year of our garden, which started as a 50 sq foot clay wasteland. Now after three years of expanding, adding soil, winter cover crops, picking, tilling, and peat mossing, The garden is seven times the size of my house, and is actually supporting some plantlife!
We've got some of last years crops going to seed, aswell as heaps of berries and 75 garlic plants going, everything else is just starting to sprout.
After three winters in a cabin that was supposed to be a summer home, I am Actually getting ready to build my extention. Which means........ there will be somewhere to sit! Yesterday I extended my deck, and improved the foundation of it to support walls. Until I get the wood to box it it, it's a sweet outdoor living room.
Building Bridges
Monday, 5 August 2013
Summer Pictures
Added a small extension to the sink counter
Pathway into the garden (covering an irrigation ditch)
Can't have a land project without a hound dog....
Second bridge and stairs to side exit of property
Pathway into the garden (covering an irrigation ditch)
Second bridge and stairs to side exit of property
Tuesday, 2 July 2013
Swamp living
While drinking coffee during my morning walk through the garden, I realized something amazing. This is the start of our third summer, but these july mornings are different than those of the past two years. My previous routine, which consisted of heading to the grocery store to buy a coffee, sipping it in the courtyard, while trying to figure out where is was going to get the siding to finish my loft, or how I was going to get my roofing shingles to the property, or if the last burner on my busted old propane stove was going to last another day, and even if it did, someone else might already be using our communal propane tank today.
This summer is different, though I can't hear the morning birds through the walls anymore, the siding and insulation kept me warm through the winter, as is keeping it cool in the summer. My cabin is a tiny home now, no longer an over-glorified leaky wooden tent. These mornings I climb down the ladder into my own kitchen, with a four burner stove, an oven, a rainwater sink. The dishes all have homes on shelves, the sugar, coffee, pasta noodles, all in tins not zip-lock bags. I don't have to ask one of the property mates for the propane tank, cause we all have our own. I make coffee and an egg sandwich, and start my morning walk through the garden.
Beside the garden is a circle of chairs around a table and umbrella. Beneath the table is our winter fire pit, shut down for the summer. In the garden (which is now 5 times the size of my house) you can see the orange flowers of our collendula plant, celebrating it's first birthday. Next to it, raspberry bushes also a year old, not too far away from a blueberry bush we planted back in 2011. Our winter crops of garlic, fava beans, and tree onions, greet their new neighbors: peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a family or two of root vegetables.
Jackson walks down from his trailer, as a couple couch surfers emerge from a tent at our pond-side campsite. Jackson and I sit down at the table and talk about the last couple years, how far we've come, and what we have now. A solid foundation, tiny homes, that grant us (though slightly compromised) real life comforts. We can take a day to ourselves and not think about how fucked we'll be if it rains, or how we really should be putting in insulation, so we can put in siding, so we can build a desk, so we don't have to sit in the dirt to write, draw, carve spoons, or whatever. For the first time since we moved here, we can just live!
With that said, we still have an endless list of projects, and though there are still countless ways we can improve our standard of living, we are comfortable enough to also focus on the stuff that is just fun, I can go another couple weeks without hooking up my solar panels and batteries, because today I want to build an archery range....
This summer is different, though I can't hear the morning birds through the walls anymore, the siding and insulation kept me warm through the winter, as is keeping it cool in the summer. My cabin is a tiny home now, no longer an over-glorified leaky wooden tent. These mornings I climb down the ladder into my own kitchen, with a four burner stove, an oven, a rainwater sink. The dishes all have homes on shelves, the sugar, coffee, pasta noodles, all in tins not zip-lock bags. I don't have to ask one of the property mates for the propane tank, cause we all have our own. I make coffee and an egg sandwich, and start my morning walk through the garden.
Beside the garden is a circle of chairs around a table and umbrella. Beneath the table is our winter fire pit, shut down for the summer. In the garden (which is now 5 times the size of my house) you can see the orange flowers of our collendula plant, celebrating it's first birthday. Next to it, raspberry bushes also a year old, not too far away from a blueberry bush we planted back in 2011. Our winter crops of garlic, fava beans, and tree onions, greet their new neighbors: peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a family or two of root vegetables.
Jackson walks down from his trailer, as a couple couch surfers emerge from a tent at our pond-side campsite. Jackson and I sit down at the table and talk about the last couple years, how far we've come, and what we have now. A solid foundation, tiny homes, that grant us (though slightly compromised) real life comforts. We can take a day to ourselves and not think about how fucked we'll be if it rains, or how we really should be putting in insulation, so we can put in siding, so we can build a desk, so we don't have to sit in the dirt to write, draw, carve spoons, or whatever. For the first time since we moved here, we can just live!
With that said, we still have an endless list of projects, and though there are still countless ways we can improve our standard of living, we are comfortable enough to also focus on the stuff that is just fun, I can go another couple weeks without hooking up my solar panels and batteries, because today I want to build an archery range....
Friday, 17 May 2013
Season 3 premeir!
The last few months have been an interesting start to the year. Tom and Travis went out to the east coast, where Thom is planning on buying land and starting his own land project. After three and a half months of biking down the Mississippi and other a adventures, Jackson has returned home, and we are planning a powerhouse of a summer.
I have been working stone masonry for the past few months, which other than being great exercise, and bringing in enough money to pay for some big projects, has got me even more stoked on doing stonework. If all goes as planned this spring I want to do a bunch of landscaping in the garden, build an old school stone well, and maybe a stone bridge over the creek. We'll see what happens......
Things in the garden are on schedule despite not having Thom around, Jackson and I have picked up where he left off. Though the tent caterpillars might be holding off their invasion, slugs are on the full offensive and ate all our baby cucumbers. We are hoping tiny bowls of beer in the garden will work as slug traps, and if not, well at least our cat will be drunk.
I have been working stone masonry for the past few months, which other than being great exercise, and bringing in enough money to pay for some big projects, has got me even more stoked on doing stonework. If all goes as planned this spring I want to do a bunch of landscaping in the garden, build an old school stone well, and maybe a stone bridge over the creek. We'll see what happens......
Things in the garden are on schedule despite not having Thom around, Jackson and I have picked up where he left off. Though the tent caterpillars might be holding off their invasion, slugs are on the full offensive and ate all our baby cucumbers. We are hoping tiny bowls of beer in the garden will work as slug traps, and if not, well at least our cat will be drunk.
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| Fava beans and Collendula (Winter crops, ready now) |
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| Tomato House |
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| Strawberries, Soon to be beats, and Garlic |
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| Jackson in the garden |
Saturday, 23 March 2013
A year later
The first picture was taken just before easter weekend last year, Since then some landscaping and rock work has been done, a garden put in, and a garden expanded!
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Friday, 11 January 2013
Free store scores
One of the leading reasons we have been able to exist the way we have here is due to massive community support, not necessarily for us, but for each other in general. You can get just about anything you need by putting an add on the bulletin board; Jobs, propane stoves, beer making supplies, and so on. Not only do we have an awesome bulletin board, but we are graced with a free store. Basically a thrift store where everything in free. As mentioned before, the only money I have invested in my house is the roofing, and 50 bucks to get a custom fitting for our propane stove. the lumber is recycled from old buildings aswell as stuff my dad and I have milled. Just about everything else has come from the free store. From the sink, to the gutters and rain barrels, windows, wiring, dishes, door hinges, and now best of all..... The woodstove!
Setup is temporary, just to take the edge off this winter.
Setup is temporary, just to take the edge off this winter.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
What is a power ONAGE?
When it comes out in conversation that we are a bunch of kids living in the woods with no electricity, you can't help but feel people are judging you. Then storm season rolls around and everyone is dreary eyed, hungry, and stressed out, hell we didn't even know the power went out!
Although I love the warm glow of candle light, and although my LED latern has never let me down, I can't deny, as it starts to get dark around 5, A little electricity would be nice. I have been toying with a couple ideas, solar panels, waterwheel, 12 volt house, 24 volt converted to 110 house, what do I do? This weekend I hit the car battery jackpot!
A couple weeks ago I was working at the bike shop when I was asked if I wanted to be part of "energy action day" a day of presentations and workshops at the school with topics ranging from insulating your home, to selling electricity back to the grid. My job was to offer free bike tune ups to promote people to cycle more, needless to say, on a cold, windy, rainy day, I didn't do many tune-ups. What I did end up doing, was spending six hours conversing with the group on pender informally known as "the off grid eco hippies" say what you will about them, They sure had a lot of good information for me.
Not only did I receive two offers of help to build an effective water wheel, I was given a great deal on a big solar panel, and someone offered to come wire my house so I don't do something stupid (oh I also got a part time leather working apprenticeship out of the deal). Digging out a couple of old deep cycle boat batteries I got from the free store, I am not starting the plans to wire up my house.
Being a tiny space I only need four or five things, Lights, for reading, cooking, and doing dishes, A power plug for my computer, and maybe if I am feeling extra deserving, I'll get a car stereo installed and blast the shit out of my favorite punk songs.
Although I love the warm glow of candle light, and although my LED latern has never let me down, I can't deny, as it starts to get dark around 5, A little electricity would be nice. I have been toying with a couple ideas, solar panels, waterwheel, 12 volt house, 24 volt converted to 110 house, what do I do? This weekend I hit the car battery jackpot!
A couple weeks ago I was working at the bike shop when I was asked if I wanted to be part of "energy action day" a day of presentations and workshops at the school with topics ranging from insulating your home, to selling electricity back to the grid. My job was to offer free bike tune ups to promote people to cycle more, needless to say, on a cold, windy, rainy day, I didn't do many tune-ups. What I did end up doing, was spending six hours conversing with the group on pender informally known as "the off grid eco hippies" say what you will about them, They sure had a lot of good information for me.
Not only did I receive two offers of help to build an effective water wheel, I was given a great deal on a big solar panel, and someone offered to come wire my house so I don't do something stupid (oh I also got a part time leather working apprenticeship out of the deal). Digging out a couple of old deep cycle boat batteries I got from the free store, I am not starting the plans to wire up my house.
Being a tiny space I only need four or five things, Lights, for reading, cooking, and doing dishes, A power plug for my computer, and maybe if I am feeling extra deserving, I'll get a car stereo installed and blast the shit out of my favorite punk songs.
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Short Days, Long Nights
This post is dedicated to my Grandma, the biggest fan of this blog.
Fall is upon us, no more Teva Sandals, No more sleeping in, and no more saying "it's ok I can do it tomorrow". Every day I don't accomplish something is another day my cabin is cold, wet, breezy etc.
The biggest dilema I face every fall is whether or not to work, and how much I want to do it. It's hard to get things done without money, but it's even harder to get things done when your at work until it gets dark. After a few 6 day work weeks, things are leveling off and I have found the perfect medium that is part time work. I have time and motivation to get things done, and I can even afford them. I found a job at a tool rental shop, allowing me a free rental or two when I need one, and oh do I tell you, a battery powered skill saw is so much more fun than hand sawing everything. The house is now entirely sided, boards and battons. The only place with no siding is a small gap where the roof of the extension will attach. Mid summer we got given a propane stove, with four burners and an oven, which was a huge step up over the one burner we have had for the last year or so. a couple of fitting were broken on it, but a local friend of ours happened to be able to fix it. Bring on the cakes!
In other news I put up gutters I got from the free store, combined with some down-pipe and rain barrels, We have a decent water supply. Now I just need to hook it up to the sink inside.
Two days ago I insulated the rest of my loft, and when I woke up I didn't feel like I was sleeping outside in november!
Fall is upon us, no more Teva Sandals, No more sleeping in, and no more saying "it's ok I can do it tomorrow". Every day I don't accomplish something is another day my cabin is cold, wet, breezy etc.
The biggest dilema I face every fall is whether or not to work, and how much I want to do it. It's hard to get things done without money, but it's even harder to get things done when your at work until it gets dark. After a few 6 day work weeks, things are leveling off and I have found the perfect medium that is part time work. I have time and motivation to get things done, and I can even afford them. I found a job at a tool rental shop, allowing me a free rental or two when I need one, and oh do I tell you, a battery powered skill saw is so much more fun than hand sawing everything. The house is now entirely sided, boards and battons. The only place with no siding is a small gap where the roof of the extension will attach. Mid summer we got given a propane stove, with four burners and an oven, which was a huge step up over the one burner we have had for the last year or so. a couple of fitting were broken on it, but a local friend of ours happened to be able to fix it. Bring on the cakes!
In other news I put up gutters I got from the free store, combined with some down-pipe and rain barrels, We have a decent water supply. Now I just need to hook it up to the sink inside.
Two days ago I insulated the rest of my loft, and when I woke up I didn't feel like I was sleeping outside in november!
Thursday, 30 August 2012
Summer Recap
The last few days I have been working on a printable "Zine" version of this blog, this post being the last in it. I guess that officially means we are moving into the next phase of the property. Winterizing.
Between shifting the focus to winter, and reading all the goals we had for this summer, has made me realize all the things we accomplished, and all the ways we came up short.
My cabin is in somewhat better shape than it was in june. The loft is twice the size, turning a sleeping pad, into a mini living room. though most of it still needs siding and insulation, I finished a space large enough to build myself a desk, thus my cabin finally has a place for me to sit down and work on shit. A winter necessity.
The kitchen is showing a lot of promise, though not completed yet. The propane stove I got for free off of the community board broke, and potentially almost exploded my house. I got a new one, and built it into the counter, however it has a broken pipe and is not safe to use yet. as soon as I get 50 bucks to spare our local propane tech is going to fix it, and we will be baking cakes like a reality tv show. We had a rainwater system hooked up to the sink, but the filtration wasn't the best, and it kept clogging the pipes (which were half made of bicycle tubes) luckily we dug a 6 foot deep mini well, which has provided us with enough water to water the gardens, aswell as wash dishes. As for drinking water we are still sneaking into campsites and behind buildings to fill up where we can.
As for electicity being hooked up, the siding being finished, or any of those other things I said i would have done in july...... I'm still working on it. I blame a fractured ankle, and way to many awesome travelers coming to stay with us. Plus working three days a week took up some time.
Around the property is where you can see the most improvements. Where in february there were piles of rocky, clay filled dirt, there are three and a half gardens. Soon to be merged into one very large garden. The motorhome we got donated last year is now in its permanent location with a deck built off of it. The newest addition to the yard is a trail we started that circumnavigates the property. Its going to act as a jogging trail, mountain bike trail, and when it gets a little more advanced, we will turn it into a network of trails on which we will host games of capture the flag, with bow and arrows.
The garden taught us lots this year. Our apple tree died from the onslaught of tent caterpillars in early summer, the plum tree was near producing fruit mid august, until deer bent the fence, and ate half the tree. They will pay....... My dad always says deer wait until the day your ready to harvest before they break in and eat everything, and that has proved true more than once this summer. We have only suffered minimal casualties, but deer fence reinforcement is necessary for next year. Most of our leafy greens came in with complete success, we have had tons of kale, lettuce, peas, and all the easy things to grow. Whereas our root vegetables arent doing so well, mostly because we didn't thin them out enough. Our squashes seem to form, then die, buut that might be due to over-watering. we will find out soon. Also the tomato greenhouse I made might have been too hot, as those plants never grew, and turned a little purple, whereas the tomatoes in the ground turned into crazy jungle tomatoes.
Between shifting the focus to winter, and reading all the goals we had for this summer, has made me realize all the things we accomplished, and all the ways we came up short.
My cabin is in somewhat better shape than it was in june. The loft is twice the size, turning a sleeping pad, into a mini living room. though most of it still needs siding and insulation, I finished a space large enough to build myself a desk, thus my cabin finally has a place for me to sit down and work on shit. A winter necessity.
The kitchen is showing a lot of promise, though not completed yet. The propane stove I got for free off of the community board broke, and potentially almost exploded my house. I got a new one, and built it into the counter, however it has a broken pipe and is not safe to use yet. as soon as I get 50 bucks to spare our local propane tech is going to fix it, and we will be baking cakes like a reality tv show. We had a rainwater system hooked up to the sink, but the filtration wasn't the best, and it kept clogging the pipes (which were half made of bicycle tubes) luckily we dug a 6 foot deep mini well, which has provided us with enough water to water the gardens, aswell as wash dishes. As for drinking water we are still sneaking into campsites and behind buildings to fill up where we can.
As for electicity being hooked up, the siding being finished, or any of those other things I said i would have done in july...... I'm still working on it. I blame a fractured ankle, and way to many awesome travelers coming to stay with us. Plus working three days a week took up some time.
Around the property is where you can see the most improvements. Where in february there were piles of rocky, clay filled dirt, there are three and a half gardens. Soon to be merged into one very large garden. The motorhome we got donated last year is now in its permanent location with a deck built off of it. The newest addition to the yard is a trail we started that circumnavigates the property. Its going to act as a jogging trail, mountain bike trail, and when it gets a little more advanced, we will turn it into a network of trails on which we will host games of capture the flag, with bow and arrows.
The garden taught us lots this year. Our apple tree died from the onslaught of tent caterpillars in early summer, the plum tree was near producing fruit mid august, until deer bent the fence, and ate half the tree. They will pay....... My dad always says deer wait until the day your ready to harvest before they break in and eat everything, and that has proved true more than once this summer. We have only suffered minimal casualties, but deer fence reinforcement is necessary for next year. Most of our leafy greens came in with complete success, we have had tons of kale, lettuce, peas, and all the easy things to grow. Whereas our root vegetables arent doing so well, mostly because we didn't thin them out enough. Our squashes seem to form, then die, buut that might be due to over-watering. we will find out soon. Also the tomato greenhouse I made might have been too hot, as those plants never grew, and turned a little purple, whereas the tomatoes in the ground turned into crazy jungle tomatoes.
Sunday, 22 July 2012
Thursday, 12 July 2012
Give and you shall recieve!
One of my favorite parts of summer is having guests over all the time. Between all the friends we know from traveling cross country multiple times, aswell as the guests we get from Couchsurfing, we are always in good company.
In June we had guests from Ireland, one of which had gone to school for furniture building. Not only did we have an awesome time all weekend, but he built us a new chair our of tree branches and rope!
July Pictures
Due to a pole dancing injury in June, I have been rather inactive both on the property, and on the blog. Though we have managed to start on the second garden, do another rock wall, move a trailer, and build a deck. Here some picture updates.
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| View from Cabin July 12th |
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| Start of new garden |
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| Gate to Main Garden. |
Monday, 4 June 2012
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Tent catipillars
In recent news, all of our island is at war against an invading army of tent catipillars. You cannot sit for thirty seconds before finding six or so on your person, and the trunks of trees are highways with literally thousands of fuzzy vehicles stuck in rush hour traffic.
Though not a typical garden pest, the catipillars have eaten 90% of the decidious trees on island, and have now resorted to our strawberries, cabbage, and a few other unfortunate veggies. Despite countless capture-and-smash-with-rock missions, the catipillars still managed to strip our infant apple tree of everything but it's bark. The plum tree has lost about half it's leaves, but still lives, and the tiny plums on it are still growing. Rumour has it, the catipillars are only going to be around for another 2 weeks, hopefully we can pull through
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Moving In
Last month marked one year of living on Island, and I realized, its time to get back in the cabin. Earlier this month I extended the loft, and suddenly it feels like a whole other room, and I moved a big window (which is actually a skylight, used sideways as a window, and horribly unwaterproof) from one side of the loft to the other, which now instead of facing nothing, faces the garden, and the sunlight. Suddenly the loft is the nicest room to be in in the house. Followed closely by the only other room, the everythingelsebutbarleyanything room.
So anyways, June 1st is the date to move back into the cabin. The insulation and siding should all be done, The kitchen is almost set up, and by July I hope to have the Car battery electrical system in. Many Pictures will follow.
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| Starting to put beams across for the loft extension |
Clay is BAD soil?
There are three types of ground on our properties, the first is swamp. lots of swamp.
The second, is endless mounds of blackberries, which I do consider ground because there
is seemingly no bottom to it, and if there is a bottom to it, it is probably a rusty car,
and the third.... Clay
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| Pallet Greenhouse. Tomoato Paradise! |
is pretty crucial gardening time. This year we got started in mid April; Germinating seeds,
buying bags of soil when we had spare change, and tilling up the garden area Thom and I levelled
out last fall. We started with a few raised beds, lots of pots, and a mini greenhouse I built
from a pallet. at the beginning of may, we got some deer fencing from the free store and made a
200 sq foot garden. We got a truckload of topsoil from Victoria, and combined with peat moss and
mushroom manure, we have something that resembles a garden!
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| Fencing in the garden |
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