Cabin Design

My evil road trip is going fairly well. (Evil in terms of consumption/emissions.) I've already had lots of good social time w friends, packed up my remaining stuff, and still have more visiting to do on my way back. I won't actually get back until weekend after t-giving. 30 day road trip, ugh! Which is one reason I keep joking that it's my Midwest farewell tour.

I pass driving time by mentally designing my cabin. Working on a friend's recently gave me some good inspiration!

16x16 footprint, 8x16 main room w porches on both sides. Stone pillar foundation, lower walls of site-harvested logs, upper walls of scavenged windows and wood, roof of reclaimed slippery metal (for snow shedding). Porch access under gable end of roof (out of snow shed), cabin entrance at center of main room. kitchen and bath to one side, living area to other side. Everything within reach! [g] loft over bath/kitchen intended for storage. Changeable screen and storm windows for porches.

In many ways, it's an adaptation of my Indiana cottage. That one was originally 8x8, with an 8x8 addition. The wall between the two sections made the space too choppy, however. The original section functioned amazingly well, but the addition was little more than a storage shed. In this version, that storage shed feel will be the bathroom portion behind the kitchen wall, giving me a larger living/kitchen area than I previously had. Hmm, no sitting on the couch/bed to cook. That's probably a good thing!

My intention is to make a snug ship-type space, not a crowded cluttered cabin space. Eventually, as I improve my carpentry skills (large pieces outside, smaller work on the porch), the interior will be outfitted with built-in furniture.

I'm pretty excited about this iteration of the plan, yet fully understand that my plans tend to change frequently! I continue collecting materials, and it'll be interesting to see how they end up going together.

Oil Lanterns

I prefer lantern light over electric lights, as it is much less jarring and encourages a more relaxed activity level during the darker hours. (But then I think rushing too much is one of the leading problems with modern society!)

I adore my Dietz lanterns. They have a lever that lifts up the globe for lighting, versus needing to remove the glass chimney and then replace it accurately after lighting. They also have handles for moving about, but be cautious of hot handles. I know at least one of mine was cheaply purchased at Big Lots, so check the discount stores.

I also make it routine to wipe the globe clean and trim the wick when refilling the fuel. (Different wick trims cast different light, so experiment!) Be aware that if you don't use your lamps/lanterns regularly, the fuel can evaporate - very disconcerting to discover during an emergency!

I am sensitive to smells, so I prefer to use high-grade lamp oil. I'm told kerosene is a cheaper option. Citronella oil will also work, and might still be available on clearance just now. One of my long-term goals is to find a plant that I can press my own oil from, but right now that's a much lower priority than food sources. But do make sure you store fuel and a funnel to ease refilling. Enjoy the gentle light no matter what is going on outside your home!

Diverging paths

The Guardian newspaper has an article on an IEA whistleblower, claiming that the IEA (International Energy Agency) deliberately understated global petroleum reserves at the behest of USA interests. Even without alleged understatements, the IEA tells CNN that we are already in "peak oil zone".

I was at my ex-boyfriends last night packing up the last of my stuff. I mentioned this report - his answer was "of course they lied, duh!" in a way that indicated it didn't matter.

I asked him if he wasn't concerned that commercial agriculture and its delivery system is dependent on affordable and available petroleum, and he shrugged it off. Something will replace oil.

He then told me about a new battery technology that is expected to be available in 5 years, that solar has now reached price parity with oil, and we (the US?) have lots of fallow fields we can plant with more food.

He is firmly in the 'technology will save us' camp. I'm firmly in the 'I'll believe the technology when I see it, meanwhile I'm making other plans' camp. We're both boggled by the other's viewpoint, and are now headed in different directions.

I hope he's right, but I can't bring myself to have his faith in *promised* technology. I hope I'm wrong, because he'll be among the millions to suffer.
Either way, I cannot in good conscience continue living the American Dream Lifestyle. And this report just reinforces my decisions.

Colors

This is my first fall in New England, and I'm enjoying it immensely. (Previously I had only been out here during the summer.)

Now, New England is famous for its fall colors. There's an entire tourist season based on it, where the visitors are known as leaf peepers. And it's certainly been featured in quite a number of calendars, a few of which I have owned. So I was amused at my own shock at the brilliance of the fall colors! I literally felt like I had driven into some of those calendar pictures as I was doing mundane activities like hauling trash and recycling to the dump, picking up mail in town, simply running my weekly errands. Especially wonderful were the late afternoon scenes, the low sun dazzling the colorful trees with an extra layer of golden highlights. Out here, the most mundane errands are transformed into beautiful drives in the country, and I count my blessings for having landed here.

The brilliance has passed now, although there is still no lack of color. The high contrast of the reds and oranges has dulled to a beautiful palette of yellows. The beauty is slightly more subtle, but no less awe inspiring. And the late afternoon sun still baths the countryside with its golden glow. And as the trees continue to lose their leaves, a new backdrop unfolds. During the summer, I live in a heavily wooded area. In the winter, the White Mountains are revealed, previously barely hinted at. And the golden sunshine highlights the colorful patchwork of the not-so-distant hills.

Fall is my favorite season - the weather is generally dry, the bug season largely past, and Mother Nature shows off her most beautiful finery. Fall is the season of riches, the bounty of harvest, the culmination of summer's work and the promise of winter's leisure. The lush green of summer blazes into the brilliance of early fall, mellowing to the beauty of late fall, eventually to be followed by the contrast of winter's snow, bare trees, and evergreens.

Those calendars? They weren't photoshopped or retouched. It really is that beautiful here.

Birthdays

Birthdays kind of confuse me. I'm never quite sure why we're supposed to celebrate the fact that we were born X years ago. OTOH, I just had a lovely birthday, so I'm not going to argue too hard!

My roommate made me breakfast after feeding all the rabbits (usually one of my morning chores) before heading off to work. Full of wonderful french toast and bacon, I read for a bit, and ended up napping. Working only a half-day, my roommate returned with intentions of working on a project that needed our attention. I wanted to read some more, so suggested that perhaps she should nap! A few hours later, we actually got to the project, which was doing some additional construction on the hoop house that will soon be the new rabbitry. After a dinner of home-fried potatoes, made from locally grown potatoes, I fed the animals and spent a little time on the internet. And now, I plan to go read some more!

Local food, napping, construction, and lots of reading. Yeah, that pretty much describes my ideal life! Happy birthday to me, and welcome to the Good Life! Being content has to be the best birthday gift ever. (although the LED flashlights are pretty cool too!)

Fresh milk!

There's a farm not three miles down the road that sells the milk from their pasture-grazed cows. I am very excited about this! I tried it last week for the first time - two quarts, one of which I made into yogurt, the other topped my oatmeal. Also a pound of made-on-the-farm butter. This morning I went back for another two quarts, and asked if she was interested in trading rabbits for milk - the answer was yes, worth a try. Excellent! This may or may not pan out for long-term, it depends on how her family likes rabbit. But a perfect example of the barter economy I'm trying to move towards, in anticipation that more people than not will eventually be forced to do the same. (How's that job market out in the real world? I've not been paying attention.) Really, barter seems to be the lifeline of the majority of the people in the world (it's a quiet majority - they're too busy surviving to make a lot of noise).

I have a choice of fresh whole milk, including the cream still rising, or milk that has already had some (most?) of the cream removed. Last week I got fresh creamy; this week I'm trying already creamed (somehow skimmed doesn't seem like the right term for milk that still has some cream on it!) Next week I'm tempted to get a quart of straight cream and try making my own butter. I've tried this before with commercial cream, with surprisingly good results. I'm thinking that one of my (too many!) winter projects may be starting to learn about making cheese. Most cheese advocates say it's really not that hard, limited efforts spaced out over long time (rather like bread).

At some point I'm going to make an inventory of all the "winter projects" I've been saving up! [wry grin]

Fencing

There are so many options and considerations to fencing. Not to mention conflicting advice and stories! The most amazing is probably the neighborly generosity.

Current thought is: move the rabbits out of what I'm now calling the mini-barn. It will house the goats and chickens. Put a 6' chain-link fence as the yard for that. The chain-link was offered to us yesterday; posts will need to be acquired, and another friend tapped for drilling the post holes.

The goats currently go out on lines for brush clearing, but I'm looking at replacing those with portable electric mesh fence instead. The poles are integral to the mesh fabric, and supposed to be easy to move. As a bonus, a friend has loaned their electric charger they're not using this season, postponing that expense until verification of the experiment!

Today I marked off 100' measures in the garden area. This is the initial contemplation of where to put electric fence for the pigs who will be doing the roto-tilling the next few years. The plan includes dividing the garden into quarters to be worked over the next four years. The marked off area is actually smaller than the current garden, which consists of mounds of manure that had seeds stuck in them - which produced a bonanza of cucumbers, along with a fair amount of assorted squashes. Quick and dirty gardening, but not necessarily sufficient! There's a lot of conflicting advice about the sufficiency of electric fence to retain hogs.

Invisible fence wire for the dogs has been laid, but needs to be spliced and flagged.

In non-fencing news, I have set up a camp along the south property line. The weather has been beautiful, and it's killing me to be cut off from it in the house! So time to put stored camping gear to active use. The carriage house I was scheduled to deconstruct in September, providing materials for my next cottage, has yet to be emptied of the storage contents. Very frustrating! Eventually, I will have my get-away cottage. Eventually!