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).
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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...
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...
Monday, October 26, 2009
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.
Monday, October 12, 2009
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....
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....
Monday, September 28, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, September 14, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
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!
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!
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