It's a BOY!

Ronan Henry Evan ***** born a week ago today, 7 pounds, 3 oz.
That makes me two times a daddy, and more than twice as proud! Nothing is more important to me than my family, and my kids.Just a thought, for you fathers. Do you know what your kids want from you more than anything else? TIME.
Hey, you didn't think I would write about a new baby, and not put up a picture, did you? This is his first real outdoor experience, at about 5 days old. He's just now starting to open his eyes more and more, but he still (thankfully) sleeps a lot, but on the downside, he eats more than I do, which is to say, about every 1.5 hrs.


I'm not sure why we never did this before. Our property is perfect for kite flying, so I dragged our little kite out of the top shelf, and gave it a test run. I think I had it up to 200 feet in the air at one point. It wasn't really that windy, just some steady breezes from the south. Carrigen demanded that we do this again tomorrow, which I think is a fine idea!

I've been on "vacation" for a bit more than a week now, although I had to go to court yesterday. Most of my day is spent lounging with the family, cleaning dishes, occasionally fixing something, cleaning, cutting wood, and of course, garden building. I've actually been slacking a lot, I only really put in about 1.5 to 2 hours per day building my garden beds, which means I'm not going as quick as I would like. In my defense, however, there is a lot of work to do, and digging is hard on my shoulder joint!
I've decided to bite the bullet, and rent the Bobcat right away, or soon anyway. It'll really save me a bunch of time, and it will be tax deduction too. We need to landscape around the house, put down some gravel, and fill the garden beds with soil. I need to move around some giant piles of dirt, make some room for stuff.

So far, I've got 2 4x16 beds built, and the framework for another 4x32 footer. I want two more 4x16's, and 1 more 4x32 for this year. That's not including the greenhouse, which will be 10x32 (for starters) and the tire garden, which I've now gotten filled with soil, and just needs manure and maybe some other amendments. That gives me probably the equivalent of a 4x32 planting bed. If I can, I want to do another tire garden, they are pretty easy to build, and I've got a lot of tires left!

I've got a tray of broccoli seeds started, some are looking pretty decent. This week, I need to start some Roma tomatoes, peppers, and maybe some melons. Once they reach a decent size, I'll put them into clay pots, and just bring them inside when there's an overnight frost expected. By the time the risk of frost passes, they should have a month or two head start. It's the best I can do without a greenhouse right now! The baby's room will probably be used as overnight pot and tray storage, but he doesn't really care anyway, he's a baby!

I'll be back to work tomorrow, but just for one day. Yippee.

Food security

Most of my posts up to this point have been little vignettes about our little lives here on our little homestead, and I've been pretty restrained about world affairs, but I read something today that made my blood boil a little, and I thought I'd share it, and tell you why the author is wrong.

On occasion, I read from a site called www.thetrumpet.com, which is a Christian site dedicated to articles about the disintegration of our world into chaos, and probably soon, the so-called "anti-Christ" in Revelations. Most of these articles are very good, and report on the rise of China and Russia as new world powers, the fall of the US from it's coveted position of "reserve world currency", and the ongoing economic world depression.

As with most Christian sites, they have a "bent", or to put it more bluntly "a theological motive" based on the writing and teaching of some guy named Herbert W. Armstrong, who was supposedly a prophet of God, and predicted all sorts of our current events, and some future events. You might wonder why I say "supposedly", well, I'm extremely skeptical about anyone who is bold enough to label themselves a "prophet" and claim to have access to future information. 99.999% of these guys are complete frauds, and most are looking for fame and money.

The real test of a prophet can be summed up in this. 1. Do 100% of his predictions come true? Not 99% or less. A real prophet is never wrong, because he actually speaks for God, who of course, is always right. 2. Do his teachings line up with Scripture? If not, he's a fraud, or at best, very, very arrogant.

The article in question is found here:
www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6767.5292.120.0
and starts off sounding very smart and practical, when it reminds us that we rely on technology, electricity, and oil to sustain every single aspect of our lives, from water to food, to heating our houses and getting to work. Without oil, our economy would flatline, and people would starve to death in droves.
Some of the sensible people among us see this problem, and we say "Well, lets reduce our dependence on the "system" and start providing for ourselves, at least in energy and food." So, we have gardens, solar panels, wood stoves, and we put some food away for emergencies. We also trust in God, who provides rain and sunshine, and is keeping the tornadoes and hailstorms at bay.

Mr Armstrong has this to say, and I quote
“Do not spend extra money on foodstuffs above your normal supplies and perhaps some ‘staples’ which could carry you through a few temporary food shortage on a vastly curtailed and reduced diet, in a severe and temporary emergency, for only a few WEEKS! … If you ever store more food than the normal laying up in summer for winter—you’re hoarding, and God Almighty may well withdraw His protection from you!”

The underlying point is "Don't put your trust in earthly riches, trust in God's provision!", but telling people not to have any food stored is about the same as telling them not to completely fill their gas tanks, because it's "hoarding", or not to have more than 2 shirts, and maybe 3 pairs of socks, because that's all you need for a couple of months, and we don't want to "hoard" clothes. Is God going to withdraw his blessing from me because I have 30 t-shirts, 4 pairs of shoes, and 7 pairs of jeans? Because I have extra gasoline stored in containers? Because I have some sacks of grain in my shed? Because I have canned meat and tomato sauce, enough to last probably 3 months? Should I limit my garden to only what my family can eat for this year? What about saving for retirement, does that mean I'm hoarding money? Am I allowed to store several days worth of electricity in my batteries?

Unfortunately for Mr Armstrong, this viewpoint is completely unscriptural, and quite ridiculous indeed. The word "hoarding" does not appear in Scripture, but food storage does. Joseph, when he was Prime Minister of Egypt, stored up 7 years of grain during some excellent growing years, which were used during 7 lean years. This was in response to a vision from God himself!

The so-called "Old Testament Law", which many people think is abolished now, told farmers that they must rest their land every 7 years, and grow nothing. Anything that grows on it's own just falls on the ground and rots. That means people had to have food stored for TWO years, to cover that year where nothing was harvested!

Even the storing of food from one year to the next is a major undertaking. I don't know of a single person who has an actual years supply of food. We don't, at least not at this very second. I'd like to, and we will soon, and I don't consider it "hoarding", because most of that food will be grown right here!

The whole idea of "hoarding" comes from socialism, and the concept that God will punish us for prepping is retarded, especially when you start applying it to other things that are more socially acceptable to store.

I store and prepare in case I lose my job, or something else happens to our family. I don't want to rely on government benefits to survive! If something does happen, and the "World Ends", well, then we've got some food to get us by!

Don't believe anyone who tells you that preparing for the future means you don't trust in God. Just don't be smug because you've got some food stored up. Remember Job, and that all you own can disappear in a tornado overnight!

When's that package coming?

So, basically, we're waiting for a bunch of things right now. Our baby was due yesterday, but there's only a week that they'll let go, and then they induce the labour. There's my tax return, which the Canada Robbery Agency has had for 2 months, and I have seen nothing yet. Last, I'm waiting for it to rain, which it looks like it might today. We really could use the moisture, and my garden beds need a good soaking!
I took a day of vacation already, to start getting things ready for the baby. I spent a good deal of time outside, taking advantage of extremely nice weather (+12 C) to keep working at the garden.

This is the front entrance to our house, which was previously an extremely ugly patch of lumpy dirt, that turned into a big mud pit when the snow melted. I stacked the blocks, and hacked off the lumpy dirt (which was actually really good soil), and made a flower bed. The grate will stop the muddiness.


This isn't finished yet, but it will be a big patch of strawberries, interspersed with some various other veggies, beans, onions, and some flowers. The strawberries will be sold at the farmer's market, and will hopefully supplement our summer income a bit, and provide us with fresh strawberries all summer long. The tires on the left are ones that I cut to open them up a bit. I want to be able to fit around 7 - 10 plants in each tire, for about 200+ plants. If each plant gives me a pint of berries, that's about $3 a pint (hopefully), and maybe $500 or so. If I plant beans in the centre of each tire, the beans grow up over the strawberries, but will not block the sun too badly. They will also produce nitrogen on root nodules, which will be used by the strawberries.This is the second of probably 4 raised beds that will be in a row beside the house. I've built a ramshakle fence to protect from the wind, but this is still the most wind-sheltered spot I've got so far. This is where my mini-greenhouse is, and I've got a couple broccoli shoots coming up from a 72 cell tray of seeds. They will be going into these beds when they are big enough.

The beds themselves are only going to be about 1/2 dirt, or less. The bulk of the "fill" will be llama manure mixed with straw, with a layer of soil overtop. I might even layer more manure, then put more dirt over that, possibly with some newspaper in between. I'm running out of places to put fresh compost, which for us includes toilet waste, which we are composting. After 2 years, toilet waste will break down into excellent compost, which I will be putting under trees and shrubs to feed them. For those of you who might think that using human waste for growing food is absolutely disgusting, what do you think happens to the sewer sludge after it's processed? I'll give you a hint, it doesn't disappear into thin air!
It gets sold as compost! Mmmmm, sewer sludge!

Hopefully my next post will be to announce the birth of a new baby boy, so stay tuned...

A time to plant....

I thought today I would put a picture first, instead of last. I like to include pictures, when possible, because I also love to read blogs with pictures. They really are worth 1000 words!

The two picture are of my first completed raised garden bed, hopefully one of many to be built this year. I know it looks like it was a lot of work, but I actually built the bed on a pile of dirt that was already present, comprised of topsoil I scraped off almost two years ago now, and has been turned into fantastic soil, full of roots, and very crumbly. On top of that, I added three wheelbarrows full of llama manure, which is about 1/2 straw. Into here, I will be placing peas, spinach, and brocolli, which I will attempt to grow through the spring. In the frozen north, planting before May is very unpredictable, but I think my choice of plants will give me success.
As stated in my last blog post, I want (need) to make some money this year, and the earlier I start, the better!

In other VERY exciting news, my son will probably make his earthly appearance at some point in the next couple of weeks, and my second full time job is getting stuff ready for that. We just need a bassinet, and to clean up the bedroom a bit more, some paint touch ups, and I'm READY!!!!!
That, and I'm ready to take a few weeks off. Seriously, I haven't actually taken vacation in two years, and that vacation was the first one in 9 years of marriage. Of course, we're not going anywhere, but I'm sure I can find lots of (garden) stuff to do. My plan is to tow the little tyke around with me in a carrier, get him used to the dirt and sun-shine. My kids are gonna be tough! My daughter has already shot a rifle three times, and she's just six.

As far as planting the big orchard....well, we'll see if I can spare that money. I really need to destroy some debt, and refill my propane tank, so we'll see. For sure I'll be putting up the wind turbine again (it's been windy every day here), and a fence would be terrific! I might have to make do with a couple rolls of snow fence tacked to some fence posts, and add some real boards when money allows. I don't care at this point, I know that things are going to be fine. We made it almost two years out here now, and we're all quite hardened to the scrimping. Raising a bit of our own food will help a bit, and raising our own energy will help a lot, probably to the tune of $300/month. Propane costs a lot, even with the 25% rebate.

Lastly, our good friends, who looked after our house for a bit this winter, and lived out here in a big trailer for a few months, have decided to put the farm thing on hold for a year, save some money, and get a real plan together. I will confess, it is a good idea. No reason to rush anything, but I know from experience, that they need to start formulating a plan RIGHT NOW! Time flies when you're having fun...

I wanted to end by giving some random bits of wisdom for anyone who wants to try what we're doing.

1. -30 C/F means water freezes solid till spring. Bury your water tanks, and insulate your sewer pipes.
2. When that contractor said "I think it should cost around $xx.xx", add 50% to that, and double the timeline.
3. Loving your neighbor is not a suggestion. It is a commandment for a GOOD reason!
4. No matter what, if the wife isn't happy, neither are you!
5. Children don't need toys, they need your time. Every good memory with family only makes for a stronger, more resilient teenager/adult.
6. Don't be smug because you are more independent and enlightened than the average city joe. God gives, and he can take it away too. Remember Job.
7. Six packets of the same seed is really too many.
8. A garden market/orchard/ranch will NOT turn a profit until the fourth year, IF you plan properly.
9. Don't till your garden. Throw down as much mulch as you can, and plant on top of that. Prairie soil is like cement to dig and till.
10. Plant trees around your house the first year.
11. Spend at least 3-5 hours each week learning. Read, listen, ask, and dig into information. It will save you in the end.
12. Conventional wisdom can often be thrown away if you look at how the real world works!
13. Change your tires when they need it. Waiting for that bald tire to explode on the highway can leave you stranded.
14. Recycle everything that can be used again. Avoid plastic.
15. Savor every moment. Don't be rushing around trying to "get stuff done", just enjoy the process of getting there!
16. Your pension will be worthless by the time you get it. Save real wealth, and hand it down to your children and grandchildren.
17. All wealth comes from the ground, and the sun. Paper is not wealth.
18. Never tell me "I don't think that will work!" unless you want to watch me kill myself proving you wrong.
19. 1% of ideas are totally impossible. 95% of ideas don't work the first way you try them. 75% of people give up after the first try.
20. It's not how much money you make, it's what's left over after the bills are paid that counts.

Most of these I learned through the wonderful process of getting it WRONG the first/second/third time. Hopefully someone learns something from reading this blog post.

Springtime here?

So, I just noticed today that I have ONE follower for this blog! I suppose that means I should start promoting it a bit better, but I haven't got much time for it.
Whoever you are, thanks, hopefully I'll have more followers in time.

Really, really good news a few days ago. I was stressing about the mortgage, and how we're two months behind, and after a few phone calls to Canada Revenue, I (erroneously) concluded that they had lost my tax return. I called my mortgage girl, who is an awesome person by the way, and told them the stark truth.
She casually suggested that I defer my payments for some time...and I responded with "What, how does that work??"
Farm credit, being a government agency, apparently is not as bloodthirsty as most banking institutions. They can suspend your account for up to 12 months (adding the interest onto the balance) and you can pick up a year later where you left off. For me, that will mean that I can blast my way through about $15 grand of unsecured, high interest credit card debt, put up some solar panels, landscape a bit, build some fences, and plant Phase 1 of my orchard!
Why didn't I know about this sooner???
Plus, it turns out the Canada Robbery Agency did get my tax return, and they're putting it through right now! Cool.

After many notebook pages of drawings, here is what I'm going to attempt for the next couple of years.
2010 - I want to earn about $2000 this year, through whatever means possible. I don't think it's an overly lofty goal, I just want to show a bit of revenue. That will probably mean annual veg like peas, beans, cukes, and whatever melons I can produce, plus maybe a few berries or jam from the 50 or so 3 year old Saskatoon plants that I plan to purchase. Getting a basic website setup would be nice too, but that might wait for winter. Oh, and planting a whole mess of trees, some free, and some cherry/apples that I've been fancying. I also need to do a BIG water project and build a pond. It turns out we have an excellent low spot that is now full of water, and just needs some digging/forming and pipe laying to the house.

2011 - Planting more trees, and lots more Saskatoons (like 500). Getting some cattle might be a project for this year, if money permits. I hope to make about 7-10k this year, but it's not extremely vital. All the money I make will be reinvested in infrastructure and debt.

2012 - Probably the first year I might actually have a profit, but that's stretching it. Some of the Saskatoons planted in 2010 will be in full production, and some of the fruit trees will start producing this year. Income should be about $20 grand, hopefully the cattle thing will work out well.

2013 - Things should be really cooking by this year, with a 70% producing orchard/U-pick and all of my major projects done, including hopefully a new house. Income of 30-40k this year.

2014 - Orchard will continue to mature, and I will have been at my job for 6 years, making probably 90,000/year. All of my overtime and banked time will be devoted to the summer months. I will be hiring various church people to work in the orchard from time to time, providing a benefit for them, and taking less of my time as well. This will be the tipping point, where the business could become profitable enough to support me if I needed it to.

2015 and beyond - At some point, the debt we've incurred will be paid, and our expenses will be very low, thanks to renewable energy, our food production, and hopefully a large fuelwood forest. My major tasks will be planting a large enough garden to keep my family in food (I'm not going to be selling too many veggies) and streamlining my orchard and cattle/livestock production. Also in here you can insert my personal passion for teaching, where I start doing tours of our land for others, and teaching them to be self-sufficient.

Will these things work out? Probably not exactly the way I've listed them here, but these are general guidelines, and they say that writing your goals down is pretty important to achieving them. We've already come so far, learned so much so quickly, and yet there is much more to come!

Here are some photos of the land and my garden stuff.

A mountain of fertility - Llama manure! Unfortunately, the llamas are no longer present. 7 were taken away, and I had to shoot the one left behind after she jumped the fence and started roaming the countryside. Llama manure can be added to the garden right away, and does not need to be composted like cattle manure. I have about 2-3 yards of it, more than enough for this year.

A seasonal creek that cuts across our property. My plan is to put some trees along here, willows and poplars to soak up some of the water, and produce some wind shelter, and improve the scenery.
A picture from work. The van and the flashing lights should give you an idea of what I do for a job.

PostScript - My wife is at 37 weeks as of tomorrow. That means we could have a new baby ANY TIME NOW!!!!!

The end of strife...

Yay, spring is almost here!
Well, it's Valentine's day, and that means the llama has seen her shadow, and winter is MOVING OUT!

That's the fervent hope, anyway. The weather lately has been VERY reasonable, and my springtime vision is starting to take some rough form.
First, some updates.

OUR HOUSE
We have been back in our house now for a month or so, and we are managing quite nicely. I am a bit behind on the mortgage payments, much to my chagrin, but my lender is pretty cool about it, and I send in as much as I can, when I can send it. At least all of our other bills are caught up, and I expect a gigantic tax return to put everything back in it's rightful place.

We have been very seriously pursuing a refinance option, and through that we intend to put the house on a permanent foundation, add some solar panels, and finally bury a water tank in the ground. It won't be much money at all, and I had been thinking at ALL, I would have buried a tank last fall, since I had the excavator onsite!

Our water pump requires a new housing, because it froze and cracked (again, long story)
Thankfully, I can order a new housing and get that sorted out. For now, it means we live without running water, which we are surprisingly used to by now.

SPRING PROJECTS

Greenhouse: After seeing some other local Alberta people and their greenhouse designs, I have decided to build one of my own. Last year, I had no way to protect tiny little seedlings from the VERY late frost, and all of them died at the beginning of June. I wanted to try some melons, cucumbers and tomatoes, but they really, really need a good head start with a greenhouse.
My greenhouse will be made of electrical conduit plastic pipe looped in a quonset shape, attached to some rebar at the ends, and covered in UV treated greenhouse plastic, which is not very expensive. The whole thing should cost me about $250 or so, and I have a lot of the materials sitting around already.
To see the inspiration for this project, see www.albertahomegardening.com or www.northerngreenhouse.com, which sells the 11ml poly that I will eventually cover it with.
The greenhouse will incorporate the chicken house, and during the winter, the chickens will live inside it, and hopefully create lots of nice compost for me, as well as consuming insects and converting waste food into delicious chicken and eggs. In the summer, and when it's good weather, the chickens will inhabit several portable coops, which will be inside a permanent perimeter area to protect from the zillions of coyotes in the area, and the local dogs.

GARDEN:
I will be constructing a large number of raised beds, which will be filled with llama manure and topsoil, which I have a lot of. I will be renting a bobcat to move all the dirt into the beds, which I'm sure would take me weeks to do by hand...no thanks.

Tires: Last year I obtained a number of large tires, which I used to contain some of my garden. The tire idea was fantastic, and I will be doing it again with certain types of plants, like cucumbers (in the greenhouse), melons, squash and potatoes. Things like carrots, broc, peas and the like, garlic, onions, cabbage will be grown in raised beds, bordered by 2 x 6 boards that I have sitting around. I will be practicing "interplanting", another permaculture concept. Onions and carrots together, carrots and tomatoes, basil and asperagus, brocolli and marigolds (well, anything and marigolds.) These beds will be combined with perennial flowers of all sorts, chosen for their ability to increase veg yields, and protect from insect pests. The garden beds will have trees interplanted, also chosen for certain properties, like fruit production.
Watering: After having watered by hand last summer, and with the hose, I have decided that I need some automation. There are some really low-tech, inexpensive watering options, not fully automated, but only need to be refilled every week or so. Some use a spike on the end of a pop bottle to trickle water directly to the root zone, which is an amazing use of an other wise useless waste product!

FOREST GARDEN:
This is different from regular gardening, in that, most of this will be permanent plants that take several years to mature and start producing. The general idea is to create a "forest" of plants that can be regularly harvested for food, but require little to no maintenance or replanting. These "forests" can be incredibly productive, using very little land, and become more and more productive as they mature. Again, this is an idea from the permaculture movement.
The plants I intend to place in this "forest" will be fruit trees, like apple, cherry, plum and apricot, berry bushes like Saskatoon, blueberry, goji, nut bushes and trees, smaller berry bushes like cranberry, strawberry plants, both wild and domesticated, and inbetween will be annual plants like clover, and other "weeds" that are actually tremendous accumulators of minerals because of their tendency to grow deep roots.
Eventually I would like to have several acres of permanent garden, and it will become part of my U-pick operation, and I expect to make a bit of money from it in time, but for starters, it will at least grow food for me and my family, as well as the chickens.

FRIENDS:
After this last years fighting with every type of government official, the neighbors, and the county, we have finally concluded the stupidity. The trailers are gone, the neighbors are more or less ignoring us, and most of the llamas are gone. We have one left, and she patrols our property every day. She was supposed to be gone too, but I asked to keep her, and the guy who picked up the rest gave up trying to get her in the truck after 2 hours.

Our friends are still very determined to make a go of it here, and we intend to support them in any way we can. After some more research, and getting some quotes, we figured that we can set up another residence for about $60,000, which would consist of a septic expansion, and another mobile home on a permanent foundation, plus the addition which we will build fairly soon. If all goes well, and God is with us, we will be very financially stable, with the potential to be debt free in 7 years or so.

RENEWABLE ENERGY:
In addition to the wind turbine that needs a couple hundred bucks in repairs, I've found a goldmine of solar panels in the US, selling brand new panels for $1.24/watt, which is about 20% of the price you'd find anywhere else. You have to buy lots, but that's not a problem, I need a lot! For about $2500-$3000 I can rid us of the generator trap forever, saving us about $250/month. The payback time will be less than a year, and no more oil changes, filling propane tanks, and paying gobs of money for electricity. Win-win all around.

I will be taking pictures of my projects as they commence, starting with the hot frame I'm building to start some seedlings outside (probably April).

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...