Back to the drawing board

It's been a while, and many things have happened. Some good, many, not so good. Some quite rotten. Still, we press onward.

Yesterday, we endured some of the strongest winds that I have ever seen in the year we've been here. The gusts were up to 100kph, and the normal speed was 75 kph. 35kph is considered strong wind, with 55kph being the threshhold for a wind warning.

Regretfully, my entire workshop collapsed. I was about 70% complete, I had just added a whole bunch of roof joists, and started putting on the roof sheathing. I was going to start stacking bales inbetween the posts, and placing the stucco mesh. The mesh might have made a difference, and provided some much needed lateral strength. Unfortunately, there was not as much strength on the side the wind was blowing from. If I had perhaps braced it more, or added the bales and mesh earlier, this would have been avoided....

As it is, the foundation and subfloor are completely intact, and the wood that comprised the structure is fine, or at least most of it is. We pulled it apart last night and stacked the pieces aside for later use. My plan at this point is fairly simple...build it again, 4 feet shorter. It was very challenging to build at 12 feet, and it really doesn't need to be THAT tall. 7.5 to 8 feet would be plenty. Enough room to work in, anyhow. What I really wanted from this structure is a place to put garden tools, maybe park a vehicle or so, and keep the water from freezing in the winter. If I can accomplish at least that last one, I will have succeeded this winter. It won't be easy, but perhaps a little heat tape and insulation will cover that. What will be a neater trick will be keeping the tank from freezing. It certainly won't freeze far, but the surface certainly will, especially without a building overhead to lock in some of the heat. I was toying with the idea of placing a small wood stove down beside it, but the platform is wood, and I don't want to risk a fire. I don't have any real way to vent the smoke yet. I doubt that the water will freeze yet, but it will as soon as we have a sustained frost.
I have an idea involving a small heat lamp mounted where the pump is, to keep the tempuratures hopefully just above freezing. Some reflective insulation should assist with that.

Now we come to the real interesting part...our future home! Or, at least the home before our home is built. After much research, we've found a housing solution that's easy, fast, and not expensive. It takes about 12 hours to erect (except for the foundation, add another 2 days for that), and costs about $15,000 roughly. It can be sold after we use it, and is insulated, wind and snow proof. It can be heated with wood, and you can separate it into rooms simply by erecting walls.
It's called a Yurt, and it originates from Mongolia, which is a very inhospitable place to live. If these guys survived in yurts, you know that they work!
Here's a photo:This is the "frame" of a yurt. As you can see, it is built on a platform, and it is round.
This is the "finished product" It is a poly/canvas skin over the lattice, which is fire retardant, and very steady against the weather. Like I said, those Mongolians live in these things, and Mongolia is filled with mountains, which means wind.
We only need this for about a year, until we get our home built up proper.
I just don't want to pay for this house anymore, and I need something fast for spring time. We do have another baby on the way!
Anyhow, I fully expect to see some brutally cold winter fairly soon, lasting at least 3 weeks and freezing everything just right solid...

Thank God I'm a workin' man!

This picture is almost the most up to date view of the workshop from the east side. I have since sprayed a layer of cement on the bottom three feet as a starter for the stucco. Today I finished the foundation concrete, and started taking the pump fittings apart in preparation to fill the water tank. I kind of stopped half way, since I was tired, and it was supper. Unfortunately, we'll have no water until I finish, which will hopefully be tomorrow : )

It is now quite late in the year, and time is just zooming by! It always does when I'm busy, which is good and bad at the same time. Good, because the very cold winter months will also seem to zoom by, and bad because I'm just not ready for winter! : (

Well, update to our battle with the county people with regards to this second residence...
I will be filing an appeal tomorrow, which costs $300, but we'll get it back when we win. I say "when" because we ARE going to win. The councillor that made the decision admitted to me that they only refused it because we moved the trailers out here BEFORE making the application!
Then, I asked him if it was illegal to have a trailer parked on your own land, and he said "no". I don't think this guy knows anything about law.

I mentioned in a conversation that I was THINKING of making a request when the workshop is finished to live in it for a little bit while we build the house proper. I actually just asked him what he thought of it as an option, and he (the councillor) seemed horrified, or something like horror. Not receptive at all.

Several days later, I had a visit from Permit Pro (building inspectors), and he asked me what I was building. I told him it was a WORKSHOP, not a house. He seemed confused, and left. I phoned the county Development officer, who told me that he was there to look at my workshop, because I had mentioned the idea to live in it! No one called me to ask if it was ok, he just showed up! I wrote a very firm letter to this Councilor, reminding him that this communication problem was the very reason they refused our application in the first place! Now he's sending people over here without so much as a phone call, email or letter, and I'm just supposed to be ok with that?

I've been very seriously looking at the idea of staying in a "Yurt" while we build our proper home. I would only pursue that option if the workshop conversion was a no-go. A yurt is basically a very sophisticated tent, heavily insulated, placed on a subfloor. It has glass windows, doors, and electrical outlets. A woodstove can be placed in the centre, which will heat the entire this with no issues. The only person who isn't keen on the idea is my wife, who immediately heard "living in a tent", and got a little freaked...so I'd need a little bit more research before I could really convince her that it's a good idea. The best thing about a Yurt is that it can be set up in two days with minimal tools! Lack of time is an issue with most things around here, second only to lack of money : )

Anyway, more pics to follow when I get more bales in the walls. I only need to finish some more box beams, wait for the concrete to set, and start putting bales in! I should have a completely closed in workshop in about 5 more "working" days. Those are my days off, so realistically, it won't be until mid-November till it's actually ready.

Evil has returned!!!

Well, the freakishly cold weather is almost at an end. The next few days are going to be nice, unfortunately a) I'm getting a cold, and b) I have to work for 5 days in a row just as it starts getting nice!!

That's not the worst problem we're facing right now. I wish it was. We received word about our permit application the other day. They turned down the application, and demanded that we removed the trailers from the "site" within 30 days! We all freaked out a little bit, but I did a little bit of legal digging and found some GLARING errors in their reasoning.

The county is claiming that we don't qualify for a second residence because we don't have a farm fuel number from the Province. The only problem is that the bylaw doesn't mention a requirement to be a farmer in the section regarding additional residences. It says, and I quote "engaged in agricultural pursuits on a full time basis for at least six months of the year." The county cannot just add to that on a whim, or because they think that an additional qualification would be nice. The bylaw says what it says!

Next, they claim that a trailer doesn't meet the presumed meaning of a residence. I found a section in the Municipal Government Act that says it is a residence. The county also says that travel trailers are not a discretionary or permitted use. The MG Act says that a travel trailer is a manufactured home, which IS a discretionary use under the bylaw.

At the end of the letter, there was the ominous threat that we have to move the trailers from the "site" within 30 days. Are they suggesting that it is illegal to park a travel trailer on private land?? I beg to differ! The trailer is not attached to any structure, and it completely self-contained. Our friends are camping on our land, and that is not illegal under any statute in Alberta or the county.

I sent a letter to the head of the Committee that made this decision and sent the letter. I will be at the county office tommorow at the opening of business to discuss this further. We're not going to put up with this ridiculous nonsense. All we want to do is place a second residence so our friends can live their homesteading dream as well as us! The laws are clear, and we've followed them very carefully. I'm pretty good at legal research, and I've done my homework. We're gonna fight this, and with God on our side, we WILL win!

In other news, the workshop we're building is proceeding nicely, although not as quickly as I'd hoped. I've got the walls up on one side, and I can probably get the roof joists in place by the end of tomorrow. Once it warms up a bit, I'm going to finish off the water tank and fill it up with water. Then, I need to thoroughly insulate the pipe coming into the house with some heat tape and foam insulation! The pipe that brings the water in right now is frozen solid, even with heat tape on it. I suspect the heat tape is no longer working, but we have no running water right now. It should thaw by tomorrow or the day after that at worst. Hopefully the warm weather will last long enough to get some cementing done around the foundation. That will strengthen the base, and protect the bottom layer of straw bales from moisture. The irritating thing is, it's apparently going to snow tomorrow 5 cm! That's quite a bit of snow, almost an inch. Then it will melt and make my bales all wet : ( They should dry nicely, though, and then I can start stuccoing them when it warms up.

I'm going to make some more lemon honey tea now....

Too much wind

Well, time passes, and work gets done (slowly but surely!) More importantly, people who were thought to be enemies are no longer!

Turns out that my neighbor is a facebook user, and I just happened to look him up. I spoke with him some, and I don't think we'll have any trouble from him again.

The llamas escaped from our property about a week ago, and were congregated into my neighbors yard. We were very fortunate that they didn't get to the road, they easily could have! I think they were after the trees in his yard. He called me at 7 am, and I ran out the door to the truck. Before I'd even started it, I saw that the bylaw officer was at my gate!!!

We herded the llamas out into our pasture, and spent most of the day getting the fence fixed up, in scorching 32 degree heat. I've never worked as hard in the first 27 years of my life, as I have this last year alone....and I love it!

I got a bit more money from my business taxes for last year, so I'm pushing ahead on the workshop project. I'm not sure if I mentioned our plans yet, we're going to sell the mobile home we're in now, and move into the workshop, which will be converted into a cottage. We'll stay in the cottage for about one and a half years, until we finish building our house. We will be building a home for our friends first, which will probably take all next spring, summer and fall. We'll break ground on our house, and start the foundation, but we won't have time to build it until the following year.

We have to sell the mobile, and recoup our money. Only then can we start saving and stop paying so much in debt! I had the seeds of a plan to sell the mobile as an "off-grid" home, and include the batteries and renewable energy devices as part of it. I would move it onto whichever parcel the buyer wanted, and probably build a permanent foundation for it, which would give the buyer a better setup, and let them mortgage it as a permanent home. We would purchase and install a rack of solar panels, and the buyer would set up his own water supply system (I could probably build a small water collection tank for not much money by using dry stacked concrete blocks)

I want to set up color brochures, and a website to advertise the house. I plan on doing all of this over the wintertime, and we're gonna try to get about $120k for the whole package. This will not only pay out the rest of the mortgage, but will also give us a bit of extra cash to re-purchase the renewable energy items that we will be selling.

Speaking of renewable energy....my turbine collapsed!!!
We had a heck of a wind storm a few days ago, and the pole that supports the tower just could not hold up. It bent in half like a pretzel. It was the thickest steel pole that I could find, and it wasn't enough. Obviously, we need a stronger setup for a wind turbine out here, the wind can be extremely punishing!!!

The turbine is actually not damaged badly, just two of the blades broke off. The blades can be replaced for a few bucks, and the pole is about $80. Probably $150, and an extra $50 for more guy wires....a necessity. I'm going to fill the steel pipe with concrete too, as an added measure of strengthening. I hope it's enough... That turbine produces about $60 worth of electricity a month, so I want to keep it!!

I'm working tomorrow, so I'd best go to bed now.
Quite likely within the next couple of days I will start framing the wall of the workshop. I've got almost all the bags laid out for the foundation, I just need to cover them with concrete! It shouldn't take me long, a few days to hammer at it should be sufficient. It takes a while to mix the concrete, even with the mixer (that I now own for almost $700). I've placed one side already, as you can see in the pictures below. The water tank is also pretty much finished, just needs a coat of water proofing.



Water tank about a week ago, floor is poured, final wall under construction.

Concrete block retaining wall, which will be actually inside the building shell. It simply holds the dirt back in my little "basement"

One perimeter beam poured, the wooden forms are the 2 x 6 boards that I have now used to frame the floor above the water tank. Nothing is wasted! I have a lot of backfilling to do on the trench and block wall, which unfortunately I have to complete by hand....boooooo! It is good exercise though.

Git er dun Cletus!

Six more days of summer...but daytime temps are still hitting around 29-30 degrees Celcius (85 F), but the daylight is getting shorter and shorter : ( Nice indian summer though!

I received another lovely visit from the Development officer today, and he was a little more terse this time. He told us "Don't bring any more trailers or anything out here" until we've had some approval from the Almighty County Council. I didn't know, but they require a development permit even for temporary dwellings...boooo! I guess we'll get the permit, but I don't want to hear that we need to wait several weeks to allow them to use their new home. We just spent the day moving all their stuff out here yesterday, there's nowhere for them to go!! I wrote a letter today, and I'm going to bring it there tommorow. If I can, I will be attending the Council meeting on Wednesday this week. I want to be there when they read my letter, and possibly explain further.
We just have to leave this in God's hands. There will be a way!

Despite the lack of money for materials, I've been chugging away at my workshop. I managed to find cinderblocks for $1 each, and I got 60. It's enough to finish the half-basement wall, but I ran out of cement! The basement wall isn't really supporting much, so I'm just filling the holes with cement, and then I'll plaster the outside of the blocks to keep them together.

I've amended my expectations to assume that it will take me until the end of October, which is fine. As long as the weather stays fairly dry, and it's not excessively cold (think -20 degrees) I can git er done.

Nosy people

Well, summer is really almost over now. Ironically, the weather has been very nice, and should be nice for a while yet, probably till the end of September. I've been doing as much work as I can afford, when I have a spare moment to do it. Our friends have started moving stuff out here in preparation for the Big Move. There's now a big 5th wheel trailer sitting here, and there will soon be another smaller trailer for some more of their kids to sleep in temporarily. They're insulating both trailers heavily to prepare for the winter chill, and save propane/electricity.

We now have llamas! We located some free llamas and brought them out here just a few days ago. They've been roaming around the land here, almost in a regular patrol pattern. We had to stretch a gate across the entrance just to make sure they wouldn't get out, and they've been drinking from a huge wetland area that covers almost a quarter of our field, which brings me to another topic.

Our neighbors are being NOSY! Twice in two days, I've had a visit from a gov't official regarding a "concern" about what we're doing. The first was the development officer, who came to investigate why there is a trailer here, and a building being built. Someone apparently thought it was a house! He mentioned that we might need a development permit for the trailer, since it's going to be occupied full time, but he didn't seem too concerned about it. We don't need a permit for a workshop, and it's not really any of our neighbors business anyways!

Then, today I noticed the Bylaw officer had stopped his vehicle just outside of our entrance, and was just sitting there. Now I already know the officer, and I know how to deal with gov't and police (since I am one), so I went to chat.
Apparently someone had a concern about our llamas not having any water..........not joking at all.
WTF!!!!
I laughed and told him about the two troughs of water that we put out, and the huge wetland, and he just said he'd close the file. They have to investigate, so it's not his fault at all, in fact he confided in me that people in the county tend to be nosy like that since they're all quite elderly.
I'm not sure what to do about these neighbors, whoever they are, but we're here to stay, and I'm not too pleased with the harrassment.

On a more pleasant note, I was pouring through my taxes and all of the farm expenses we've incurred, and I think I can get about $5000 back in taxes from last year, and maybe another $2000 from this year. There are quite a few things I can write off, and I've got to collate all the receipts and numbers to file the right paperwork. It's a real pain in the hiney, but it'll be worth the money when I get it back!

I should go now, and resume my work outside while there's still sunlight to do it!

The brick wall of economic reality.

August is now over, and the summer is winding down quickly. In two weeks, I expect our first fall frost to kill my tomato and cucumbers, but the broccoli should continue to grow for a week or two after the first frost. My single pea plant has been producing peas vigorously for a couple of weeks now, and man, are they delicious!!! Next year I'm planting waaaay more peas. I plan to bag them and sell them to friends. People love peas, at least most do.

Now for the hard facts...we didn't get any financing for this project at all. Well, we got $1000, which isn't nearly enough to finish it on the scale that I wanted! We're at our limit for debt, and with the credit crunch hovering overhead, banks won't lend without equity or collateral. I could perhaps refinance the land at some point in the future, but the cost of the appraisal and other fees is a lot, and I don't want to pay a lot of money just to find out we can't refinance!

So, we scaled it down. A lot. It's going to be really basic, just a shell until next year, and only half the size we wanted, although I admit the size I wanted was pretty big (800 sq feet). It will still cover the cistern, and I can still put some living space, and even park my car inside, but the strawbale aspect will have to wait, and even if I can put some bales around it, there will only be one door and one window. I'm going to have to get those for free too, which shouldn't be too hard.

I have almost finished plastering the water tank, which I ended up doing entirely by hand, mixing the plaster in a wheelbarrow.
I'm waiting an hour for the plaster on the upper level to dry, then I'm going to place some forms on the backside, brace them, and pour concrete down into the space. I'm not going to hand plaster all of that, especially since it has to be thick.

I did attempt to find an easier way to mix plaster, I bought a powerful corded drill and a mixing paddle, and then I bought a compressor to run the sprayer, but it's still faster to place the plaster by hand, ironically. Unless I had a big mixer, and a large capacity compressor, I can do it faster by hand. When we start plastering the bales, I WILL have a mixer for that. I am not mixing all that stucco by hand.

Well, time to go back and finish the job!

Hard work, just like Grampa used to do.

At last, we've had some decent weather! I've never seen so much rain in August, it was really unexpected. I only wonder what fall and winter will be like this year, if spring and summer were this messed up.

My friends were come and gone, and, unfortunately, I didn't get the entire project finished like I'd hoped to. We had one and a half days rained out, and we really could have used a cement mixer! We were mixing cement plaster for the walls by hand, in a wheelbarrow, which is tiring work. With a mixer, we could have one person mixing a batch while the other two throw plaster on the wall with trowels or shovels.

This was my last day off of this week, and I spent almost the entire day doing plaster! I mixed it in a wheelbarrow, only this time it was just me doing it. I still managed to get a lot of plaster on the wall, probably about 300 lbs of it in total. I have to use a lot more plaster, because the wall is so thick at the bottom. It has to support the weight of the earth behind it, and some of the building weight, so I'm not holding back on plaster.


When my friends left, we had about a foot of plaster at the bottom. I added everything else, almost to the top, just today by myself. Needless to say, I am very tired! If you look closely at the bottom of the picture, you can see that the excavation has about 6 inches of water pooled in it. We have a piece of plywood under the water, which makes work much easier, but it's going to be difficult to get the plywood out later, especially with all the water over it! I used the water on the bottom to mix the cement with, saving me from using the hose.

This is how much we completed before the rainy day spoiled our fun. I've almost run out of sand, which is quite amazing, since I had an entire truck box full!

Going even further back in time, before any plaster was placed.


When we get a mixer, I expect to be able to plaster around 4 times faster, even by myself. The local hardware store sells an electric mixer for about $350, so I will purchase one tommorow or within the next week. Renting one is $32 per day, and I need this thing a LOT, so buying it just makes more sense! I might even advertise myself out to do small cement jobs in town, if the demand is there. Cement is really quite easy, when you have a mixer!

Once we get a little financing from the bank, we can really take off with this project. I haven't been able to get going without any money, unfortunately. I still need a lot of gravel, and about 3 yards of concrete to complete the foundation, as well as a Bobcat and another day with the excavator. I'm looking forward to starting the framing, which I can do anytime now. The framed pieces will simply sit around and wait for the foundation!

On the garden side, my broccoli just LOVES this weather, and recovered quite well from the hail, but the cucumbers did not do very well at all. Some of them will produce a few cukes, but nothing like they could have! I do have about a dozen little tiny tomatoes, which ought to mature by the end of August.

Testing some crazy ideas

Well, just a short while left in our Alberta summertime, but progress has been made! After many rotten delays, mainly due to very unseasonable rainfall, we had pushed ahead with construction of a unique building, that will hopefully demonstrate the wonderful buildings that can be made with local, inexpensive materials, and not only meet, but exceed the current building standards in every measurable category!

After racking my brain, and making a dozen or so designs on paper, we started construction of our strawbale workshop. Because of the quickly approaching wintertime, and our financial constraints, I elected to use some unconventional techniques to build the foundation and overall structure of our workshop. As it stands now, we have more time and labour than we have money, so we're opting for labour intensive, yet, inexpensive techniques, which I will describe in this blog.

First, a funny story: We rented a small excavator to dig out our foundation, but we could only afford one day's rental, so I needed to really make it worth-while. I had a few projects that I would have like to get to, but the foundation was primary! Unfortunately, there was a horrible turn of events that led to the excavator being trapped in a deep trench (not completely my fault). Only through the wonderful grace of God, and my way cool neighbors with big tractors did we manage to free it! Unfortunately, time was lost doing that, and I spent the next day from 7 am trying to catch up. I managed to get the foundation done, but it was pouring buckets of rain, and I had to stop now and then to scrape off accumulated clay from the bucket. Washing off the excavator took me $40 and almost two hours at the car wash! Then, I broke something on the trailer, which cost me $100 extra too. Even so, I consider that it went well, considering everything that was stacked against me!

My good friends came out to help me slave away, and put in nearly two days of solid work to build an earthbag wall (pictured below), which will serve as the bottom of a rainwater cistern, and will also double as a portion of the foundation.
The Hole. Doesn't look like much, about 5 1/2 feet deep, 11 feet wide at the top. I dug this in about an hour and a half with the backhoe.
Earthbag construction: Literally, filling bags with excavated dirt, placing them on a stack, and ramming them down. Includes barbed wire in between layers to keep them stable. The dirt was simply hacked from a spot on the wall that will become the staircase to the half-basement. One side (seen in picture) is the cistern, the other (off camera) will be a root cellar, and will house the pump and pressure tank.

Twelve layers high forms a good foundation. The wall is curved to give it strength, and will be reinforced with rebar, and wire mesh. The plywood on the ground helps us work in the mud. It rained twice, and is raining right now. In the middle of August...sigh.
I left to purchase cement and sand, and return to find that, not only have my friends placed the rebar, they bent it to fit the shape. With just their hands. I was very impressed!

We left off by placing many tall rods in place, and putting wire mesh against it. This will provide the strength needed in the cement to withstand not only being filled with water, but also the pressure of the dirt and some of the building weight as well. I believe it will be fine, but I'm not taking chances. I'm simply over building as much as possible to avoid any failures! The corner of the cistern that will be under the most strain is curved, which gives it tremendous strength over a flat design. The bags, rebar, wire and cement plaster should hold up better than conventional techniques, yet uses less cement, which is very expensive!

Tommorow, I rent a big 'ol compressor, which will power my plaster sprayer. I bought a truckload of sand for peanuts, and my cement bags are rain-protected. My friends will be back to assist tommorow, and we have two days to get the job done!

I'd like to point out lastly, that we are doing something that has NEVER been done before (as far as I know)! I have never heard of someone using earthbags to build a water cistern, especially not below the ground! When we're finished, hopefully someone will be able to see this, and either use it, or possibly even improve on it.

Just to give you an idea, so far I've spent less than $1500 on the entire project. The entire building will cost around $8000 (or less), and will be more than 800 square feet inside! This is a building that could easily be turned into a small home, or scaled up and made into a bigger home! In fact, if anything were to happen to our main house, I would move my family into this building until more permanent arrangements could be made.

Stay tuned for more pics in a few days!

PS - We're having another baby too! We just found out! We're ECSTATIC!

Hail!!!!

I was educated yesterday, regarding severe weather in Southern Alberta. A couple of days ago a person was killed at the Big Valley Jamboree when a massive wind gust blew down the concert stage. The wind that caused the damage was called a "plough" wind, and preceeds a thunderstorm. It's basically a powerful downdraft wind that spreads out in all directions like water pouring from the faucet when it strikes the sink. It can reach speeds of 100kph, which is almost hurricane velocity, and 1/3 tornado velocity. The same downdraft blew through downtown Calgary, and tossed plywood sheets off of construction towers onto the streets. A 3 year old girl was killed when she was struck on the head by a piece of metal flying off a building!
A friend of mine was on the Bow River when the downdraft hit, and Calgary Fire Rescue pulled him and his family to safety. So, these downdrafts can be deadly, even though they don't last very long.

We experienced this twice over several days. No major damage occurred from the winds, but the thunderstorm last night brought hail, which basically pulverized my vegetables. Some of them look like they might make it through, which is encouraging, but all of them sustained pretty severe damage, except the tomatoes, which were getting out of control anyway.

I have come to the conclusion that I need a permanent system to deal with hail, which is a constant presence out here on the flat prairies. We very much need a shelterbelt around our house area, which of course takes time to establish. I also plan to build a metal framed mesh around my garden tires, made of bent 5 foot rebar with chicken wire stretched over it. The chicken wire should deflect most of the hailstones and reduce the damage significantly. It's also inexpensive, and lasts a very long time. The rebar will be bent in a curve or two bends (whichever works best), and tied to the chicken wire. I could also stretch plastic over this and make a very decent mini-greenhouse in the spring, perhaps starting the seedlings a week or two early.

I really pray that my plants will recuperate from the hail, which will surely knock them back in growth by a week or two.

The workshop/shed/barn project is progressing well, with tommorow being the excavation day. I staked out the 42 x 24 foot area and cut all the vegetation down to make it easier to see. I purchased some thick cable for the electrical circuit, and ran it out to the edge from the house. I want to be able to just dig the trench, bury the wire, and rebury it right away. I only have the machine for 1 day, so I have to be completely prepared!

Look for pictures as I complete the digging.

Gardening is the mother of all therapies

I would like to suggest to anyone with a lot of stress in your life...take up gardening. Yes, you can't really do it during the winter (maybe herbs in pots), but during the stressful, busy summer months, a garden is a panacea of positivity in a world drowning in disaster. It reminds us that God still sends rain in due season, peas still come in a pod, radishes still grow like crazy, and tomatoes love the sun!
Many people may be unaware, or perhaps only vaguely aware, but a food crisis is developing, slowly but surely. As the West gradually falls into Depression (yes, no recession here), our ability to grow enough food to meet our needs is falling further behinds. We are mining the goodness right out of the soil, and I only have to look out my window to see the results...genetically modified crops, a desperate attempt to avoid nature's loathing of monoculture. Nature (which is to say God Himself) prefers a huge variety of plants, which feed each other in healthy competition. Add some animals, and we have a harvest for ourselves, and the land does not starve. God never intended for 10,000 genetically modified canola plants to exist in the same 1 acre of land!
I love my garden, small as it is this year. I have about 14 broccoli plants, which are doing quite well, about 10 cucumber plants, which got off to a late start, thanks to frost kill of the first batch...live and learn. We just pulled a whole schwack of radishes, and some beans are climbing up. I purchased some tomato plants, which are now flowering and attracting bees. My daughter planted sunflowers, which grew (without much watering at all, I might add), and are now more than 1 foot tall! Everything is growing fast, and strong. Weeds have been beaten, and the tiny ones sprouting at this stage are nothing. Only the carrots did not germinate well, but the seeds are old, so, I suppose a new batch is in order...next year.
We are well on track to bringing our friends out here to live, the bank will loan the money, and we will have a barn with plenty of water for winter (and a root cellar!)
None of this happened without generous blessing from God, and lots of agonizing, praying, sweating, and selling things I didn't really need to get the things I wanted.

Here are some photos for those who like the visuals:
Blueberry bushes! We now have 21 bushes in total, all about 2 years old (I think), about 1.5 feets tall. They were on sale for about $2.50 each, and in very good condition, so how could I resist? I just love blueberries, and so does the rest of the family.Broccoli, peas, and tiny asperagus plants growing in tires filled with soil and manure. The asperagus are in a circle around the broccoli, and I'm going to move them somewhere else soon.
Radishes and beans in the same tire. The radishes will be harvested long before the beans ever get going, so I can use the same space twice. Companion planting!
Not pictured: Tomatoes and pickling cukes in several tires, getting VERY big!

Hot weather...sort of

Well, it's the middle of the hottest part of summer, yet we have not used either an air conditioner, nor a fan at night or even during the day! I'm sitting in our house right now, and it's 29 degrees C outside, but inside it's only 23, and very comfortable. I'm pretty sure that I can thank our lack of windows on the south side of the house. All of our big windows are on the north side. It does affect our heat gain in the winter, however ie, we get almost no heat from the sun at all!

Although it's now more than halfway through the growing season, I came across some blueberry plants at a local supermarket for a bit over $2 each, which is waaaay cheaper than they normally are! So, I crammed as many as I could fit into my car, and I'll be going back for more, if there are any. I got 15 this time, and I just planted them. Eventually, I'd like to have an acre or more of berries, maybe several acres and I'll make a U-pick farm out of it all.

I also got a gas-powered weed whacker for $50, although it didn't have some of the parts (it was a demo model). I found a new spool for it, and it works great! So much more powerful than the electric variety, and I don't have to drag around the stupid cord. I use it to keep the weeds away from my trees and shrubs, and I've also declared war on thistles. I've pulled more than a hundred just around the house. I'm not pretending I can beat them entirely, but I don't want them to go to seed, so I whack the big ones.

I booked a digging machine for me to fill in some big holes, and make some new ones. I didn't book it for a week like I originally thought to, just 24 hours. I figure I can probably sit in the thing for 16 hours straight, and just get it all done in one day. Saves me a bit of money, and if I don't get it all done, I can always rent it for another day later. I'll have to anyway, to backfill the trenches and holes in, once the cistern is in place. For the cistern, I purchased a plaster sprayer for a couple hundred $, but it should save me many, many hours of handtroweling, and slopping the plaster one bit at a time, when this thing just blasts it at the wall in a few seconds.

That's it for now, remember, winter is coming!

Springtime during summer?

We've been getting some strange weather lately...it's been raining quite frequently, and it's almost the middle of July! I thought that this was normally the dry, hot season, but it's already rained more in the first 10 days of July than in all of June! Not that I'm complaining about the rain, it's good for my trees, but it's just odd.

I also sold my motorcycle today, for a couple thousand dollars, which is terrific, because now I can rent a very expensive machine, and start digging all of the many different projects that I've got planned for the summer and fall! I didn't get as much as I would have liked for the bike, but I got a quick sale, which I'm glad for. It was difficult to sell, because we don't live in the city anymore, and I had to come in to let people test drive and such.

I've come up with more new ideas, and I've also got a few decisions to make, just some small ones really. I can't decide whether to put the jet pump for our water in the barn, or keep it inside the house. I can see good points to doing either one, but I've got to make a decision one way or the other.

This year, I'm planning ahead for winter big time. I've already started cutting firewood, and I've got almost a cord cut already from a giant schwack of packing pallets that I picked up for free. I use a chainsaw to slice the flat parts out, then a mitre saw cuts the rest into manageable pieces. It didn't take more than 2 hours, which is good. I've kind of perfected the woodcutting process, I can strip a pallet down in about 10 minutes or less. In extremely cold weather, a good size pallet is about a day's worth of wood, so the further ahead I can get in this chore, the easier my winter will be!

I've also been planning a small car shelter for the end of our house, which could probably for the basis for a small garage when I get around to it. I need somewhere to keep a vehicle out of the cold, something that could be heated with a propane heater (supervised of course) and I'd like to store some of the firewood there as well, because it tends to get quite piled up with heavy snowfall, and it would be easier on my wife if it were sheltered. I plan on cutting and storing most of the wood in the barn, but I'll bring a weeks worth at a time to the shelter for easy access. I may use the skeletal remains of the canvas shed that I bought last year, which died an early death from wind. This time she'll be bolted together at every joint, and the walls will be OSB or some sort of stronger material. A canvas roof would be fine, it's just a temporary structure for shelter after all!

I just noticed I tend to start all my paragraphs with "I've". Is that egocentric of me? Well, "I've" got to go now, thanks to the couple of people who read this. I know I'm long winded, and I'm working on it. Maybe. With limited success.

Waterfight!

Today, for the first time we took advantage of a local provincial park, only 20 minutes away! It's a gigantic campground, with a huge irrigation reservoir in the middle. Lots of mature trees, swimming area, a small sandy beach. There's a concession stand too, but the guy said it wasn't open, someone broke into it! He actually did let us buy some ice cream though, super nice guy : )

It's officially summer, and it's hot enough to prove it too. Although for us in Alberta, hot isn't really that hot. We just feel hot, and complain a lot, but it's really quite nice. We've had some rain, not a lot, but enough to keep the trees alive for a few more days. For some reason quite a few of my poplars are dying, while other ones are doing quite well. All of the dead ones are in a certain area, so I should probably test that area's soil and see what's wrong. I'll replant them next year, once I've amended the soil or whatever.

I've been brainstorming on behalf of our best friends, who have said that they would like to move out here with us. I really want to see them succeed in that, but I also don't know exactly how serious or dedicated they are. We haven't talked about it for months, and it's the middle of the year. Winter will be upon us in a heartbeat, if we're not careful! Once August rolls around, I should have enough money to build the barn, and hopefully, we'll have enough time as well. It's a huge project, and I'll need lots of help, and I really like to have some extra hands out here for that sort of thing!
The idea that I had, was to build the barn, and put a large 5th wheel trailer right next to it, connected by a temporary "hallway" to the door. We'd have to insulate the crap out the the trailer, since they aren't strictly designed for winter, per se. Have an insulated and frost protected water hose from the barn, into the trailer, and build some temporary bedrooms in the barn (which will have a dirt floor, and a woodstove for heat), for the kids. We can all use the water out of the large tank, and if it's not terribly expensive, I plan to put a well out here, for all of our use. I'm hoping $5000 or less will take care of that. We'll see.
If this works, they could move out here as early as the end of July or August, and we could then put our muscle into the barn-building project! The only cost that they would have to pay for is the trailer itself, and maybe a generator, but I've got a plan for that too. A large diesel genny could run two houses at once, and use waaaaay less fuel as well. We won't need too much in the way of extra electricity, if we can get another turbine set up, and maybe a few solar panels. Just a boost charge here and there will keep us afloat...

GalaxyFest (aka NerdiCon 2009)

So this weekend is the famous "Star Trek" festival in the county we live in, and the town puts on a big fair, not unlike the summer fair in thousands of small towns across N America, except this one has a "Star Trek" theme. Why? The name of the town happens to be the name of a famous "planet" in the Star Trek universe, and the county wants to capitalize on that, and bring in tourism. Good idea, I suppose, but really, really, really nerdy! We did see the parade this morning, which, thankfully was mostly just average hillbilly floats, the Shriners cars, and a pipe band. There were more floats than I expected, and I did get some pics, which I will upload a few of next post.
We got some ice cream, filled up the water tank, and came home.

My wife is in another town at the moment, she went to visit a friend, so as soon as she returns, were going for a free swim!

Oh, I planted a few more tires, I now have about 25 tires sitting out here, and about 4 of them filled with dirt (but they're the biggest ones!) I soaked a pile of broccoli and asparagus seeds in water for about 36 hours, then I put them right on top of the soil, and covered them with straw. Hopefully the seedlings will punch through the straw layer, and start growing soon!
We have had almost no moisture in the last 6 days, and none predicted for the next 6, and June is supposed to be the wettest month!!!! I have been watering the trees faithfully, but I'm starting to wonder if this isn't going to be the harshest summer we've ever had, both in terms of late frosts, and lack of moisture.
Lord, please send rain!

Some garden pics

I can't remember if I mentioned it last post, but whatever. I'm going to be doing most of my gardening in old rubber tires, from here on. That is to say, I'm going to experiment with several different methods, and whatever works the best will be my primary method. I gotta say, this gardening in old tires concept has already got me hooked though!
1. Tires are practically indestructable. Our great-great-great-great grandchildren are going to be swimming in them if we don't find a better disposal method.
2. You can get them for free. Just ask (be prepared to load them yourself)
3. They come in many sizes. From wheelbarrow tires to the big tractor sized ones, with benefits to each size.
4. They allow you to heat the soil faster. Black rubber absorbs heat, and could allow you to start your plants a bit sooner, especially if you put some kind of plastic or something over it. I plan to stack two or three to get a earlier start on some seedlings!
5. They exclude weeds and pests. You can place a barrier below them if you want, but you won't get the beneficial worms if you do that.
6. They are MUCH less work to fill and plant, than digging down below the compacted prairie soil, which has to be well worked to get a good bed. No rototilling for these suckers!
7. The side of the tire makes a good place to sit while you weed, seed, or whatever.
8. You will get fewer pests stealing your garden, and fewer animals will rampage through your delicate plants. Especially with the larger tires, something actually would have to climb up on top to wreak havoc, and it's less likely, especially with larger "animals" (children).
9. You can paint them, but I like them black myself.
10. Did I mention free?

The above picture is a few "normal" sized tires awaiting some dirt, but I really don't know what I want to put in them. The place I got these from did not have many normal tires, but for the average gardener, these are the easiest to work with. The large ones, even the semi-truck ones, are really heavy.

Here are four of the semi-truck tires, partially filled with topsoil. I scraped this soil off last year to put the mobile on, and it's composted down to some excellent stuff! These are heavy, and will not fit in a car. You should have a buddy if you're getting these, to help get them in the truck.

We have two of these monsters on our property. I dragged this one about 500 meters with the truck. My daughter thought that was just awesome, and talked about it all day! This one took a lot of dirt to even partially fill, and I planted carrots in it. I mulched the top to conserve precious moisture.

This is a non-tired spot where I'm trying to grow potatoes in straw. I've got a bunch of these, and they've already done ok despite the very late frosts we had. The straw protects them from cold, and holds in moisture. I bought a small bag of seed potatoes on sale, and only used half of them! I tried to use more, but I don't have more tilled spots, and besides, we don't use enough potatoes to make it worth planting more. I doubt we can eat what I've seeded now. Perhaps I can sell some!

Any how, I've got the next three days off work, and I'm grateful for it. I just worked 7 days straight, and I'm tired to say the least.

Another small project that I attempted (and needs more work, or better design or something) is a rainwater collection system, using black drainpipe. Unfortunately, the pipe, which is flexible, just allows the water to pool in one spot, which eventually spills all over the ground. I need more supports for the pipe, seal up some joints that leak, and add the first-flush diverter. Once all of that is in place, I should be able to collect at least some of the rainwater from the gutters. Water is expensive for us, and has to be hauled from town in my truck. It costs about $11 to haul 350 gal, including the truck gas (which comprises half of the total cost). I might work on this tommorow, if it's not too hot out. I'm a bit of a pansy in the heat, but I can work like a dog in the cold, even in -20 Celcius, which is about -10 F (I think).

Some of my trees are showing good growth, which I'm thankful for. I need some fruit trees though!

Two more days...

Oh man, I'm getting tired! I'm on a really long run of shifts, thanks to a team change. I had to adapt to their schedule, and they were on 3 more day shifts after my last 4 days, for a total of 7 9.25 hour shifts in a row! Two more left, and I get 4 days off though, not too shabby.

So, I did get some tires, and my God, were they freakin heavy! I went to the local Fountain Tire, and just asked them for some old tires, thinking they would have a bunch of small car and truck tires. Turns out they do mostly semi-trucks and the occasional tractor, so they have a lot of those tires. I did get a few smaller ones too, though. I also found two large tractor tires in my field, and I've dragged one over to the garden, and the other one will be on my days off. I filled the one with some nice, rich soil over top of newspaper, layered with some straw, and more soil over that. I put a chunk of really old manure crumbled on the very top, and sprinkled a bunch of carrot seeds on the dirt. Then, I mulched that. We've got another frost warning tonite!!!!!!!! Are we actually going to get a summer here?

So, I looked into the selling ice cream idea. I need 5 permits. Seriously. To sell frozen, prepackaged ice cream, I need 5 permits, and an inspection from Health Canada. Is it even worth it? Each permit has a fee attached, and the inspection is almost certainly quite costly. I'm not sure I could make much money at it, after all the expenses! What a gyp...
I have all the material to make the cart, so I might do it anyway, and then use it for some other nefarious purpose.

I have kind of settled on the type of farm I would like to operate. I want a large orchard, and a small U-pick operation, with some various types of berries, including raspberries, saskatoons, and some cherries. I'm lazy, and I'm not going to make this a very "intensive" operation. That means wide tree placement, very little pruning, and no spraying of any kind. If the birds eat my fruit, then they get some, and I get some. I'll keep the raspberries from spreading, and try to add lots of organic material, but as I said, the less work, the better!

I'll post some pics of the tire gardening, and my potatoe hills as soon as I take some. The potatoes are actually sprouting, despite the numerous frosts. They are under straw, which probably saves them from freezing.

AAAH! KILLER FROST!!!

Ok, so last night, I set out the tomato, watermelon, corn and asparagus seedlings. This morning as I was getting in my car to head in for a court appearance, I noticed frost on the back window! I absently thought "Uh oh", but I didn't think any more about it. Just now, as I was putting some potatoes in straw mounds, I looked at where my other seedings were, and they were gone! Imagine my surprise to see that all of my seedlings, cucumbers, corn, tomatoes and all the rest were dead, killed by the frost...it's so discouraging. How could there be frost this far into spring? It's June, for crying out loud!!!
Last frost out here is supposed to be around May 19th (on average) I guess this isn't going to be an average summer, especially since there's probably going to be ANOTHER frost in a few days ??!!
If I had known, I would have put buckets over the seedlings! Crickey...
Last year my garden went in around June 1st, and I didn't get very much of anything, at least of cucumbers, but the broccoli and carrots did really well, despite the late planting.

I really, really, really need a greenhouse. I can start the seeds in flats inside the house, put them out in the greenhouse around mid May to harden off, and plant them on June 10th or so. I can't risk losing my plants again!

In other, happier news...I'm going to start an ice cream stand! I bought the cooler today, some tires for the cart, and I just need some paint, handles and stuff, and I can build the cart. I'd like to have it ready for the 13-14th of June, there's a huge "festival" in our local town, and I want to part some sweating tourists with their money, in exchange for ice cream. If I can sell a few times a month, make a couple hundred dollars, I can stop bleeding money, and maybe even get back in the black! If nothing else, I could probably recover my investment. I really think I could make some good coin though.

Maybe next year I'll try planting in old tyres, people who live waaaaay further north than I do have had success with that. I've got to do something different, anyway.

Gardening time!

It's that time of year! It's time for the three months of food production that Canadians enjoy. I suppose we've got more than that, but not much more. The frosts can strike as late as June 1st, and as early as Sept 10th, so the earlier we start, the better.

I'll be honest, I should have set more seedlings out in pots. I set a few in, but I didn't put any broccoli, nor did I prepare my planting areas until just now. I really didn't know what I was going to do. At first, I figured I would rototill the ground, just like everyone else does, but that's expensive, and very, very hard work! Not to mention, the ground becomes very muddy when it rains. So, I did a little research, and here's what I found. No till gardening! You don't cut the sod up, you don't dig the ground, and you don't need a tractor! You simply layer organic material over top of the existing grass (after cutting it), which blocks out the sunlight, and plant on top of that. The plant roots shoot down into the sod, softening and decaying the grass and weeds, and the mulch prevents too many more weeds from appearing.

This is the tiny little garden that my daughter "planted" this year (I helped). She was given some seeds packages by grandma, and she picked the spot herself. I brought her a number of rocks to border her garden spot with. We covered the dirt with mulch, so, hopefully things will grow here.This is one of the garden plots I created. Underneath the top layer of mulch is a layer of newspaper, and beneath that is a layer of dirt, and the grass is under that. I want to add more layers, maybe some manure, some more dirt, and then I'm going to plant seedlings into this plot. I'm starting the seedlings today (should have done that a month ago, but....) in peat planters, when they're ready, you just tear them off and stick 'em in the ground like they are.

I'm really not sure what I might get this year, but I'm going to give it my best shot. Plus, I want to prepare bigger garden spaces for next years garden. Next year, I'm hoping to be in possession of a greenhouse, in which I can start the seeds a month or so early, and get a better harvest!

Here's a few more photos:
This was taken at the dump. The bobcat is dropping a load of FREE mulch in the back of my truck. It was about 7:40 pm at this point, and the landfill closed at 8pm. As soon as this guy finished, he parked his bobcat, got in his truck, and left, locking me in!!!! Thanks man, really awesome. I had to interrupt another crew crushing rock to let me out. Note to self, go earlier!


Another view of some finished plots. I seeded some carrots in the middle one, hopefully they'll actually grow! I got some excellent carrots when we lived in the city, but they are a root crop, and the soil isn't really ready yet...
I want about 7-8 more plots just like this ready by next year, plus 40 more saskatoon bushes, and some apple/cherry/pear/apricot trees.

So lastly, one more victory. When we moved, I didn't get my wife's address updated with the Canada Robbery Agency (Oh, I meant Revenue, oops), and they stopped sending the Child Tax credit, and childcare benefit, which you get when you stay at home. There's five months of backchecks that they now owe, which is about $800! Not bad, now I just have to sell the bike, and I can start building a barn! Giggity.

Trees, trees, trees

Short post today, just had a sweet victory over stupidity, and saved myself a lot of future work.
Not to mention, it's getting closer to garden planting time! I've got a big tray of seedlings all sprouted and ready for transplanting. The garden itself is right now just a big plot of grass, which I still have yet to trim, rake, and till. That's coming up on my next set of days off, and I might even try to take an extra day just to make sure I get it all done! If you live in the US, you're probably saying "Wow, I had my garden in months ago!", but up here, gardening starts in June, and ends in August or mid Sept at the latest, especially for frost sensitive plants like tomatoes. We have a little more than three months to get all the growing done! For us, I plan on having a large row of greenhouse space by next year. 9 months is too long for me to wait, at least with a greenhouse I can start seedlings early, and maybe get some more harvest time!

Now, the small victory. We run our house mainly off of a gas generator, and I've put probably 1700 hours on the one that we've got now. I thought I finally killed it, it just wouldn't start, no matter what I did! Well, turns out that my laziness was to blame, and the fix was retardedly easy. All gas engines have valves that let out exhaust, and bring in the gas mixture. With less complex engines, those valves can become misadjusted, and it affects the engine, making it backfire, hard to start, and stall out. It got so hard to start the engine, that I finally broke the pull start cord! I was going to order another one, but I haven't yet. Turns out, you can start it with any available cord/twine if you just wrap it around the starting shaft. You only get one pull though, and then the cord falls off.
Well, I adjusted the valves, put some baling twine around the starter, and vrooom! One pull! Now I can stop using propane, which is EXPENSIVE, to make our electricity, and is irritating as well. I'm just happy that I fixed the problem, and it didn't cost me any money either!

Sweet!

Ok, I might have overreacted a bit in that last post. It turns out that the gov't cheque arrived that afternoon, but things did not exactly proceed how I had hoped they would.
I still owed some money for various things, I paid the overlimit on my credit card, my taxes ($350!!!) and some money that I owed for an old utility bill, and after all that, setting aside enough money to pay our bills until August, I've got about $1000 left to start projects with, including gardening. Not enough, by a long shot! Just getting a front loader in here to get the digging done will cost more than that. So, it looks like we'll be waiting a while again, until I can sell some items, my motorcycle, and hopefully a payraise is coming sooner than later, and we can consolidate some of this rotten debt.

I did purchase a very, very useful item, something so useful, I can't believe I didn't get it before!!! Our power inverter has a controller device that basically lets you change all of the settings, adjust charging, equalize the batteries, change voltages, etc. It was $300, and it's ESSENTIAL!! If you purchase ANY device, and there's an optional controller, BUY IT! I prefer Outback, it's worked very nicely for me this far, and hopefully for a long time to come yet.

We've started planting trees, and it's as much work as I thought it would be, and more. I really hope most of these seedings survive, it's going to look so nice when we've got trees around the house (not to mention wind-blocking), maybe someday I can stop picking up roof shingles off the ground after every heavy wind. The next major project is the garden. We've already got 10 saskatoon berry seedlings planted, several raspberry canes, a current bush, and three blueberry bushes. I've still got about 40 evergreen trees that need to be planted, but it's kind of hard when I don't really know where I want them!
I've sort of picked a spot for the workshop/barn to go, right next to a huge depression where water apparently gathers. I'm going to dig that area right out, add some leak proofing, and make it into a pond where we will be drawing our house/garden water from. The water from the pond will be filtered through a biofilter, and stored in the large cister that I will be building, which itself will be placed 5 feet into the ground, and surrounded by the building envelope of the workshop, which should prevent it from freezing in the winter! The roof will also collect and deliver rainwater to the cistern. I will build the cistern and shop with the idea that it will be expanded later, with more water storage capacity. I hope to have 30,000+ gallons of water storage by the time I've finished. More than enough for one year's use, in case there's ever a drought here.

I'm going to be doing some light repair work on my bike, then putting her on the market for sale. It's ok, I've got another bike, which nees a new carby, but still will be placed into service once the good one is sold. I need projects more than a bike!
Pictures will be forth-coming, once I've tilled the garden spot, and I haven't forgotten about chickens, but the garden is my priority right now.

Frustrations...

It's May, and spring is here. I have been very patient up till this point, but my patience is starting to crumble, especially concerning the government. They owe me almost $7000, and I've been waiting for the stupid cheque to arrive! I sent in all the documents a month ago, and nothing has arrived yet. We're trying hard to keep things together, but it's pretty hard with no money.

The turbine is running decently enough. I had to take it down and fix the tower, a piece was loose, and the top of it was wobbling around. I'm not sure how that happened, but I can tell you that the next tower will be welded together, and I'm going to make it myself from the same materials, but stronger.

I also purchased a battery charger, that cost me nearly $550. The idea was that I could charge the batteries while still using them normally. Right now, when the generator is charging the batteries, it's also running the house, and the slightest surge pops the breaker on the generator, which means we have to reset it. Even typing this, I've reset the breaker three times! If the generator is just charging, the inverter will provide all the surge power we need, while we restore power to the batteries. Seems like a good idea, but the STUPID CHARGER STOPPED WORKING!! There no lights flashing, no noise coming from it, and no charging. Just, nothing. So, now I get to take it back and find out why the heck it crapped out. I tell you, when I realized that yesterday, I went into a foul mood, and snapped every crayon I have! My poor family....

I hate operating with a deficit, it makes doing anything just so much harder. I've got some substantial pay raises coming soon, and we'll be in the black before long, but it still sucks for the time being. If anyone who reads this feels like they would like to pray for us, don't hesitate.

Here's what I advise for anyone who wants an off grid power system...Buy the best quality components you can find, even if it means you have to delay the purchase of some other desired item. Get yourself at least 2 days of battery capacity, and the best quality BATTERY STARTED generator you can afford! You should be able to fully recharge the batteries in 4 hours or less. You must have a functioning backup plan in case a generator or some other component fails. Get a battery meter that can tell you exactly how many amp hours are left in your battery, and be prepared to adjust your life around peak production times (Do laundry on windy days!) If you could afford it, a permanently mounted back up generator with auto-start would be the cat's pyjamas.

On the brighter side of things, my windbreak trees are being delivered on Saturday, and most of my vine-bearing plants like mellons, squash and cucumbers are now growing in flats inside my house. I really would love a greenhouse!!! That's on my wish list for the summer. If I sell my motorcycle, I could probably afford the materials to build such a wonderful item. I need some more raspberry plants, and I would love about 50 strawberry plants as well. I might get some of both items from our old garden in the city, if the new tenants are ok with my pilfering the garden. I'm sure they don't care, most city people don't like gardens.

For anyone who's curious, I am a regular on Homesteadingtoday.com, and my user name is adamtheha.

Spring is Here!

Hello again, it's been a while since I last posted, but that's because nothing has happened up until a few weeks ago. We basically survived through the winter, trying to keep the house warm and the batteries charged using the generator. Our water pipes froze, the drain pipes froze, our vehicles froze, and it seemed like everthing was going wrong!

As you can see in the above picture, we've finally started moving on the major projects that I had planned, and we are right on schedule! The picture shows a 750watt wind turbine on a 27 foot tower spinning in the ever present stiff breeze.

This picture was the turbine just after raising it for the first time. It's mounted on a very sturdy steel tube tower, and stays in place thanks to 4 steel cable wires and anchors buried in the ground. It cost about $1650 for all the parts, including the tower.

Before I raised the turbine itself, I lifted the tower on it's own, and tensioned the guy wires so that the tower was exactly straight up and down. I didn't want to risk my expensive turbine on the first try! Once everything was giggety, I attached the turbine to the pole and raised it up. The turbine is very heavy, probably over 55 lbs, but it was a simple matter to lift it up with the truck! We completed the entire project in about 8 hours, over a couple of days.

First, I strung out three cables almost 200 feet long. I had to drive an hour to find the cable, but it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. I bought 954 feet for about $200. It took about 500 feet to connect the turbine, and I've got plenty left over to at least start the next one! The turbine runs three wires to the charge controller, which converts the power to battery style DC, and charges my batteries. I set up the turbine on Saturday, and it is now Monday. We were away from the house for over 24 hours. Before I left, I started the generator and left it to run out of gas. The turbine was spinning, but I wasn't sure how much power would be used.

Well, we got back about 3 hours ago, and the first thing I did was open the battery box. Fully charged! The turbine not only kept the fridge and freezer running, it kept the batteries almost fully charged. When we got back, the wind started picking up like crazy, as it tends to do around here, so I turned on everthing I could think of, washing clothes and dishes, warming up food and such. When the wind is blowing hard like that, we have to take advantage of it!

Normally, we spend $6-10 per day on gas for the generator, not to mention the irritation of having to turn it on all the time. Just today, we've already saved about $10 in gas by having fully charged batteries when we got here!

In addition to the turbine, we also now have permanent running water. I ran a different pipe from the tanks, wrapped it with heat tape, and insulated it. After attaching all the other pipes, I flicked the pump on, and there it was, running hot and cold water! It took me some time to get it working properly, I accidentally forgot to glue one of the joints together, and it popped off. Water was gushing out like crazy, and I was soaked when I went under the house to fix it.

There are a few small things to fix up, a couple pipes that need to be reglued, some roof things that need to be fixed, and sealed with roof tar. Our shed needs to be re-organized, and I need a better way to organize my tools. Once the house is in good shape, clean and whatnot, we can start building the barn.

The final plan for the barn is going to be a rubble trench foundation with a concrete topper, compacted gravel floor, post and beam structure with strawbale infill. The roof will be whatever material is cheapest. I only have a few thousand dollars to spend on this thing, so it has to last!

Stay tuned for the next small project: chickens! I've found a source for heritage breeds of chickens, a little expensive, but I don't want the typical idiot breed of chicken. I want the hardy types that the pioneers used to raise, the kinds that know how to raise their own chicks.

I'll be sure to post lots of pics, when I get some.

Almost finished!

I can't believe we've been here for three months now! And, we just got internet...finally...

Time flies when you have nothing but work to do...but the weather has been fantastic, so it's not even a chore to be outside!

I just ordered the first of probably 2 wind turbines, and it should be here very soon. It's nothing special, just a small one, Chinese made, sold on Ebay. It probably will last 5 years at the most, and it'll need replacement, but in the meantime, it'll cut down on generator running time, which is extraordinarily costly, in gas and even more so in propane. The propane is nice, because it's electric start, and will start in the coldest temperatures, but it's twice as expensive to run! What I really need is an extra outlet from our main propane tank. I pay wholesale price for that propane, and all I use it for is cooking (so far). Then, I wouldn't have to keep changing over the tank every 7 hours either! Ultimately, I'd like to try and run one of the generators on methane or wood gas, or even both.

I've been trying to secure a long term financing solution, and a short term cash infusion to get us through to August. The fact is, I need a part time job of some kind to provide some extra cash on my days off, at least until I can put together some sort of business idea. We approached ATB financial with a refinance request, so hopefully, we can repackage all these short term loans that we needed for services into a long term, low interest, low payment solution. Then, all the extra money that I may have from time to time will be used for paying it down faster, and buying silver. The silver is a secret debt repayment strategy for when the economy implodes around us, which could be as early as next year! My plan is to pay off all of my debt using the proceeds from selling silver, which I expect to rise in price 10 - 15 times it's current value. Once we're out of debt, we could potentially live with almost no income at all! I'm really hoping for a few more years of falling prices, so I can stock up on more silver, put aside food, and start some long term food production with fruit trees, livestock, and a large productive garden. And trees too, for firewood. I'd really love to have about 2-3 years of stored firewood in case I can't get any more!

I've still got a ton of work to do, not including the daily chores, like wood cutting and stacking, making lunches and meals, and trying not to spend too much money! I've been a little frivolous with money, and I'm trying to reform. Something that I'm doing more is making hot chocolate and coffee, and bringing them in a large thermos to work. There are days where I've spent $7 on coffee alone, and that's not acceptable. I can afford to buy lunch every now and then, but snacks I've got to bring. I usually eat healthy lunch food, but garbage-y snacks, so a few apples, homemade muffins, and granola bars will keep me healthy, and save money too!

There are a few hard sacrifices to be made this year...I've got to sell the motorcycles, and probably a bit of silver coins too, to keep the cash flow up. I've got some major projects coming up, and no money to fund it (right now). I can always buy another bike, and more silver later on. I'd do anything, and sell anything to avoid losing this land!

Grit your teeth and hold on!

I haven't posted for a bit. We still haven't got permanent internet out there, but the little thing is coming in the mail soon.

We are now almost fully settled into the house for the long haul, just waiting for springtime to arrive. It was nice weather for a week and some, but now cold weather has returned, and the wind as well.

I have place a temporary water system, which seems to work for the time being. It's basically a portable water heater that sits by the sink and gives us hot and cold running water from a bucket, but what else does a person actually need? We take showers in town, wash clothes in town, and flush toilets by filling the tank. We heat with wood and run our generator for electricity. We don't use very much of anything right now, except for gas, which I'm using too much of. It's a good thing gas is cheap for now, because we depend on it quite heavily!

At some point this week, probably tommorow, I'm going to order the first of our wind turbines, and replace our refrigerator. The turbine will just be a small one, and the purpose will be to supplement our electric usage, and allow me to equalize the batteries, which I can't do right yet. I picked up two 24volt battery chargers, and for the first time, we actually had fully charged batteries! I looked inside the cells, and I could see bubbles forming, which means that they're almost fully charged. I hope that these few months of moderate abuse aren't going to damage the batteries too badly. And the turbine will reduce the generator running time, which is nice, because starting that stupid thing in the cold is a PAIN! I should have gone with the propane version...but the price was right. $400 for a 4500 watt genny is pretty good, even if it only lasts for 1000 hours.

I've almost got all of the siding on the house, so things are going well. I've basically abandoned the water tank until spring time, when it's not going to freeze daily. It's well insulated, but I still can't keep the outlet from freezing! Plus, the trench that the intake line sits in is now filled with ice, which will freeze the water inside the pipe, and I can't get the ice out...so we won't have reliable, long term water storage till spring. That's about when I'm planning to start the barn.

The long term plan is to have a 15,000 gal cement cistern buried 4 1/2 feet in the ground (Which will protect the outlet from freezing) and this will become the back end of the barn, in a separate room dedicated to protecting it from freezing. All of the rain that falls on the barn will be channeled into the tank, hopefully providing at least half of our domestic water use. The pipe will be buried at least 4 feet in a trench leading up to the house, whereas right now it's totally exposed to the air (it's insulated, but it takes a ton of electricity to keep it from freezing).

All of this hardship is just making my family stronger, and I can feel myself growing hardier by the day! I don't regret this at all, and I'm actually glad we have a bit of hardship to strengthen our character. We've been spoiled in the city for too long, we've never had to fend for ourselves, and I knew it was going to be difficult at first, and it has been. Summer will be a nice break, and will give me time to build some more permanent fixtures.

Tax time is coming too, and I think I can milk that for some major refunds, especially in the GST dept.

See you soon, and I'll have more pics to come. I just can't upload them right now.

Rain delays

It's now a month after our scheduled move in date...and we are living at my parents. How did this happen? Well, let me just give you a little piece of advice...if you ever decide to do any sort of major renovation involving water pipes, a new home, or anything like that, do it in the SUMMER!
Our water pipes froze solid, and my wife and I decided that we would wait until we could get the entire thing running, then we would move in. So far, I've got almost everything completed, but it's just so hard working in the cold!
I was foolish to pressurize the water system without having the skirting on the house. I knew it was going to freeze, but for some reason I just went ahead and did it! Well, the jet pump paid for my mistake...by self-destructing. When the water in the pipes froze, all the pressure had to go somewhere, so it traveled down the line to the pump, and blew up the plastic housing. I figured that probably a pipe would burst, but none of them did, shockingly, that I'm aware of!
Everything else, and I mean EVERYTHING, is done, and ready to live in, but the water and skirting aren't fully complete.

The plan was to get a bunch of straw bales, put them around the bottom of the house and put some sheathing over it to keep the cold out. So, a couple days ago, I took the truck over to Claresholm to pick up around 60 bales from a farmer there. I was shocked at how many bales could fit on the truck and trailer, but it was stacked HIGH! I've got pics that I'll post pretty quick here. I tied the trailer bales down, but the truck stack was too high, so what could I do...I drove home with the teetering stack of bales swaying in the breeze. Took me over two hours for a 40 minute drive, but I made it without a single bale out of place at all!
Then, before I had to go to work on New Years eve, I managed to get most of the bales and sheathing on the house, and wrap about 60% of the exposed pipes.

Uh, time to work now...