SPOT FOR CABIN: CLEARED AND READY

Over a week ago, I posted about the location for my new off grid cabin.  The photo (which I show here again for comparison) showed a cluttered, overgrown area.  Since that time, I have spent some time cleaning up the trash and clutter and have cut a good amount of brush.  There is still some work to be done around the edges, but that can be done later as the need demands and time allows.

The next step will be to lay out and dig the footing and set up the metal reinforcement for the walls.  After that, the footing and floor will be poured.  The big delays will be finances, and cold temperatures as winter comes on, so I will be saving up for the cement and soap bubbles while taking the time to dig and reinforce.  This is going to be a slow process, but I will keep you posted.

As for the trees around the edge, most will have to go.  These last two photos show what is currently the view from where the front porch will be.  I really like the trees there, but they will grow to be pretty big, and being Red Maple, they will also have large roots running at or near the surface for a good distance, making them destructive to the house.  This is something that everyone should seriously consider when building or when planting trees near a structure.

Most of the trees, certainly all of the maples and elms, will be removed before the house is finished.  They will not be wasted, however.  Some of the smaller of the lot will make very nice, light weight walking staffs, while some of the larger maples may be used in the woodworking shop.  Others may be used for growing gourmet mushrooms.  I will let you know what I decide as things progress.

Thank you for taking the time to view this post, and please feel free to question or comment.  I look forward to hearing from you.

A SPOT FOR MY LITTLE HOUSE

One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of building an off grid house (or any house) is where to put it.  Simple process, right?  Find a spot you like and go for it, right?  Well, not so much!  Many factors have to be considered, including things like flooding, water supply, air flow (very important without AC), and distance to workshop, cellar, barn, etc., just to name a few.

Just such a spot is available.  Some years back, I was married to a woman who enjoyed horses and competitive riding.  For this purpose, she needed a horse barn, which obviously had to be in the perfect location.  It had to be close to water, elevated so that no flood water would ever enter and it had to be close to the house so we could hear any sound the horses made.  The ideal location (though not my favorite) would take a big chunk out of the vegetable garden.  The only problem was that in really wet weather, water could run across the location.  No problem really, just haul in several truck loads of drain rock and top it with clay and gravel to make an elevated pad.

There were, of course, delays in getting the pad materials hauled in.  By the time it was all leveled and ready for building, my wife had become my ex wife, leaving me with a smaller garden and a barn pad.

Years have passed, ideas of what to do with the "barn pad" have come and gone, and nature has somewhat taken it's course.  Bushes around the edge have become trees and begun to work their way toward the middle.  The platform in the foreground of the picture is the floor of a storage building which belongs to my former fiancé.  We had thought to re-assemble the building and live in it, at least temporarily, but it never happened.  As you can see, moving it from the pad revealed a mass of rat nests filled with trash.

A bit of clean up and trimming and what I have is a nicely elevated, flat area 30ft x 30ft.  That should be plenty of room for a 20ft x 20ft cabin, set back in the far corner with a nice porch on two sides.  I do realize that 400 sq. ft. is a small cabin, but in my world, where most of what I do is outside, the large porch space can actually be considered living space.

With all the requirements reasonably well met, it is time to get it cleaned up and trimmed,  ready for breaking ground.  The only drawback is the distance to the cellar which was excavated a couple of years ago and is at a standstill (long story for another time).  Not too much distance, only about 50yds.  As an added bonus to this building site, the vegetable garden will only be a few steps from the front porch.  That one makes me smile a little.

Progress will be slow, as time and money allow.  Updates will be posted as this adventure unfolds.  Thank you for your time and as always, I look forward to your questions and comments.

HOME GROWN GRANNY PICKLES

For some reason, cucumbers have always seemed impossible for me to grow in my garden.  Many times over the years I have planted, cultivated, added compost, watered and nurtured to no avail.  They always grew nice vines, put on lovely blooms and even tiny cucumbers before withering away.  This year, I planted a few seeds in a newly cleared area of the garden which had only had a little compost tilled in, and promptly ignored them in favor of other vegetables.

Much to my surprise, this year I have cucumbers.  Not an over abundance of cucumbers since I only planted a few, but enough to make a few pickles.  In my mind, cucumbers equals pickles and pickles equals Granny Pickles.

Granny pickles are the kind my grandmother (dad's mom) made an abundance of every year.  They had to ferment and got better with age.  We never tasted the new batch because the older ones were to be eaten first, and they were the most sour, salty, pucker your eyeballs delicious pickles on earth.  No others could compare.  Over the years, others have used her recipe but it has never been the same.

Now it is my turn! Most days for about the past month there have been enough cucumbers to pack nicely into a quart jar, some days more, some days less and some days none.  I now have almost 30 quarts of pickles in the jar.  My lack of patience being what it is, there is a difficulty with keeping the lid on that first jar, but I have resolved not to test them at least until after the first frost.

As you can see from this small sampling, they don't look too bad.  You may notice that the two quarts on the right (which are among the most recent) are cloudy, but this is a part of the process and disappears later.  The two quarts on the left are the first of the season and the larger and smaller jars are somewhere in between.

This recipe originally came from a pickling company where one of my grandfather's family members worked (we believe, in Minnesota), where they made the pickles which were kept in barrels in the old general stores of the time.  It is a very simple recipe and easily adapts to small or large batches.

RECIPE:  for the brine

3 quarts cold water

1 pint vinegar

1 cup salt

Note:  Though the recipe I have does not specify, I use natural apple cider vinegar and kosher salt (though I believe granny used regular canning salt)

INSTRUCTIONS: 

soak fresh picked cucumbers in cold water overnight

sterilize jars and lids

pack cucumbers tightly in jars

add a sprig or two of dill

add two or three cloves of garlic (for kosher dills)

fill with cold brine

put lid on tight

Another Note:  Put the jars in a cool place, on a surface that will not be harmed by pickle juice.  They will spew a little in the fermenting process.

Now the waiting begins!  If they turn out like the ones Granny made, it will be more than worth the wait.  As always, thank you and I look forward to your questions and comments.

LARGE PESTS IN THE GARDEN

Pests are always a consideration in the garden.  There are all manner of creepy crawlies waiting with baited breath to devour any seed before it can sprout or to nibble and suck on any new shoot.  While these are a nuisance and harmful to the garden, there are also lots of creepy crawlies waiting to nibble and suck at these pests to keep them in balance.  Not using pesticides (which tend to remove the balance by more effectively killing the good ones than the bad ones), a little soapy water and some manual removal of pests to shift the balance in your favor works well.

However, the most notable pests in my garden are not so numerous, but much more destructive.  Yes, I am referring to the local wildlife.  Living in the woods means an abundance of wildlife and they are always hungry.  Over the years, I have tried numerous methods of repelling the local wildlife to no avail.  Blood meal, fishing line and harsh deodorant soap, to name a few.  The deer actually ate the soap before munching the apple trees.  Rabbits seem totally indifferent to any attempt.

These photos should serve as an example of the destruction.  On the left is a picture of my green bean row about a week ago, and the one on the right was taken over the weekend.  As you can see, the more recent picture has a marked lack of leaves.

I had expected rabbits would nibble them a bit, but this was not rabbits.  Tracks show that I have been invaded by deer.  Not only has the large doe I have seen a few times this summer found my garden, but she is also teaching her two fawns where the food is.
The far end of the okra row has also been defoliated and the okra pods which were almost ready to pick are gone.  I had no idea that deer liked okra, but it seems they do.

Over time, deer populations have fluctuated greatly in response to the increase and decrease of local hunters.  The past couple of years with almost no hunting in the area has led to a much larger population.  Since there are not enough large predators in the area to keep the population stable, hunting is the basic means of keeping the deer herd from overpopulating and becoming a nuisance.

Hopefully, next year I can plant enough (and enough variety) to supply the wildlife and have enough left for my own use.  Meanwhile, one has to remember that, unless one is a vegetarian, the garden is not the only source of food on the homestead.

If anyone has suggestions for keeping the wildlife out of the garden, I would gladly try just about anything that I haven't already tried.  So far about the only thing I haven't tried over the years is a wildlife proof fence, and with a large garden such a fence is cost prohibitive.

Thank you for your time and interest, and as always I look forward to your comments.  

LAUNDRY DAY (A Necessary Evil)

Like it or not, clothes get dirty.  On a homestead, with all the outdoor work and sweat, dirty equals very dirty and smelly.  Like it or not (and I don't), laundry has to be done.  No problem, right?  Just throw it in the washer and come back in a while to put it in the dryer.  But wait!  This is not only a homestead, but a homestead that is working toward off grid.

When weaning one's life from the dependency on electricity, sooner or later appliances, including the washer and dryer, have to go.  This makes laundry a whole different activity.  It can no longer be a hurried part of multi-tasking, or something the machine does while we entertain ourselves elsewhere.

One must think what it takes to do laundry.  Simple really, hot water, soap, a way to scrub out the dirt, more water to rinse and a means of drying.

Personally, I start by pumping the water.  Yes, that is an old hand dug well and a hand pump.  The bucket (nasty green plastic thing that I don't like but it serves a purpose) holds 5 gallons which equals about 20 strokes of the handle.  The whole laundry process takes 4 buckets which doesn't take long. This will sound like a lot of work to some people, but it is also a form of multi-tasking, as switching hands on the handle gives both arms a good workout and saves on exercise time at the gym.

But wait!  I said hot water!  Obviously, this well is not producing hot water and is certainly not pumping it through pipes to a water heater.  The electric water heater is another cord that has been cut in the efforts to go off grid.

Heating water is an age old process and my Grandmother's old cook stove still works quite well.  It only takes a few minutes to get the fire started, and other chores can be done while the fire does its work (multi-tasking again).  The large stock pot full of boiling water is enough to make the remaining 8 gallons of water too hot to put your hands in, so it has to cool for a while, leaving time to do more things (on this particular day, it provided time for further testing of building materials for a previous post).

If you need an element of danger to make this all exciting, here it is.  Carrying a pot of boiling water 50 feet across the, not so smooth, back yard should qualify.  A little caution and all is well.

With water in the tubs, it's time for scrubbing.  Nothing quite like an old fashioned wash board.  At this point, I can almost hear people complaining of sore and bleeding knuckles.  I have heard so many stories of knuckle damage from the washboard that I have lost count.  However, I have never experienced that problem.  Maybe I'm just not doing it right, as I never use my knuckles for scrubbing.  I use the flat part of the finger between the first and second knuckle instead, and make a point of not letting skin touch metal.

Hand wringing of heavy items such as jeans, between wash and rinse and after rinse, can make the hands a little sore at times, but nothing too serious.  If one wants to ease this problem, there are hand crank wringers available.  Having had access to one in the past, I will say it makes it easier, especially when there is a lot of heavy items to do.

What soap to use?  I am currently using a good quality, natural coconut oil based soap from the dollar store.  It is a bar soap (which I prefer) and it works quite well.  Home-made lye soap is my favorite, but this will serve until I can find time to make up a batch.

All done and taking advantage of the sun and wind.  The whole process took about an hour from start to finish (excluding heating time).

I won't say this makes sense for everyone, but for me it really does.  For my purposes, it gives me more control for adding more clean to the areas that get dirtiest, like the front of pants legs and shirt collars.  Also, for me at least, it is a peaceful activity that doesn't take a lot of thought, which allows my mind to wander creatively.

As added bonuses, doing laundry this way only takes about half the water, none of the electricity and I don't have to hear the low level noise of the machines.  With the use of all natural soap, the water can also be recycled into the garden for irrigation.

As I said, not necessarily for everyone, but for me it is just another step toward off-grid self-sufficiency.  Thank you, and as always, I look forward to your comments.

CEMENT AND SOAP BUBBLES (UPDATE)

Today, I repeated the tests on my aircrete samples.  The first tests were done at 1 week of cure time, and it has now been curing for a full 4 weeks.  Please remember that these tests are a bit crude and not at all conclusive, just a way for me to get enough information to decide whether to use it for a house or not.

The compression strength test is a little better.  It failed at 8 strokes of the press as opposed to the 7 strokes required 3 weeks ago.  This is in comparison to the 10 strokes required for failure of the side wall of an old concrete block.

It still dented and broke apart under heavy hammer blows, though the dents were not as deep and it took more blows to break it.  Subjective I know, but being a blacksmith, I have a pretty good feel for hammer blows.

This stuff is still not bullet proof, so in the event of a tornado, small hard objects might be thrown through it, though larger pieces would probably not (no guarantees here, just speculation).

As a side note, the piece that was floating in a bucket of water finally absorbed enough water to sink last week.  So much for the house boat consideration.

Considering that these tests were done on 3in. thick samples, I am convinced that an 8in. thick wall, reinforced with steel, will have the strength and durability needed for a small house.  Since people don't normally shoot at my house and hopefully nobody will be beating my walls with a hammer, I am seriously considering aircrete as the material for my new off grid cabin.  Unless, of course, some new material comes along for me to play with before I get started.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and I look forward to your comments and questions.