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....