Patio

Yup. We got a patio. Thanks to Justin Burd for the mixer. We finished this up by the light of the full moon this Thursday. It is nice to have the patio all poured. 

New living room post 2

Well. We have ripped out the old double doors. We opened up the house to the elements in order to expand the 400

To 500 square feet. We laid a cedar floor. Put one of the doors back up facing south. Covered the walls with pine and hardwood slats. 

Tiny house remodeling

The damage due to carpenter ants has taken a step toward repair today with the recovering of the walls upstairs. 

The barn

So, as promised: a photo of the barn in progress. 12x16 it is a great little place to keep the goats and milk hem out of the rain upstairs will be creative work space and an office 

everything update

Well, I have been out of school for the Summer and thus lack the constant internet used to update this blog. A little catchup here. Siding; still not done but getting more done by the week. Toilet; arrived in the mail yet still to plumb/ build the base ( composting toilet with a "dirty grey water" drain). The patio; has gravel down. the furnace; the hole is dug and a trench dug for running the hot air into the house. landscaping: this is always first to be done. Lowes had a deal on dying plants and so we bought trees and shrubs, flowers and herbs, as well as a few lime trees. The geo thermal concept is designed and the hole is dug yet we lack all the supplies to finish it yet. The garden has been struggling due to excess rain and a cool cloudy Summer. We are working to build soil fertility and chalk this year, as well as the past two, up to building tilth and nutrient density. Oh, we also built/ are building a barn. Pictures of all projects to come.

tiny house siding

The siding is taking shape. Weather has treated the thin skin of our tiny timber house harshly over the winter yet it made it through. The wooden armor is slowly going up and turning our shiny little house into a true woodland home. I will be thrilled to have it all up especially after a Winter of high winds. Every wind storm seemed to pull the double bubble skin off the house and I inevitably would be out in the rain and wind with a staple gun suturing the gaps in our skin.

carpenter ants in the tiny timber house

Yup, we have ants. Or rather we had ants. Te little exoskeletonated creeps  were chewing through our windows and beam. we found small piles of saw dust and then the nest. dozens of little creatures running fastly away as I opened the trim on the window to find them. Running fast but not faster than the stay of clove oil. We killed those little pests, lovingly of course. suffocated them right out of the beams and hopefully the house is now pest free. It did mean taking the completed upstairs apart a little but one step forward one step back as "they" say.

kitchen shelves: tiny house

after months of waiting. . . and waiting; my wife has finally gotten her kitchen shelves. A rainy day, excess cured lumber, and limited kitchen counter space was the perfect recipe for building shelves. We used some hackberry that had been in the bathroom. The bathroom rejected the hackberry and so it has gone to live in the kitchen. Reincarnated into shelves the hackberry gives a modern rustic, look adorned in stainless brackets and dark stain. The space saving use excellent from the pragmatic view and from the aesthetic stance they are genius. Thanks to my wife for the vision and the help building them.

siding the tiny house phase two

At last a little siding is on the south face of the tiny house. This weekend Donnelly and I put up some poplar and pine siding. It has made a world o difference in noise buffering as well as wind penetration. The neighbors cows are soothing in their own way when they bellow first thing in the AM but not hearing them is nice too. I think it looks nice but after the aluminum foil look anything wood would look magnificent.

goat cheese

The tiny arm is now up to 3 goats. One thinks she is a lap dog. One thinks she is a wild deer. One thinks she is a goat. Lucky for us the one that thinks she is a goat is also the one producing milk. We get about 3/4 of a gallon a day. The milk makes wonderful cheese. We have been whipping up cheese every other day or so. The creations are delicious. Not having a refrigerator we feel obligated to immediately devour the cheese. below is a picture of todays mid day snack. Organic blue chip, salter roasted walnuts drizzled with local honey and fresh farm goat cheese.

goat cheese

Yesterday we added another goat to the farm. Brie will hopefully grow into a healthy milk producing powerhouse. We hope to make plenty of cheese from her production. Speaking of cheese, I milked Iris yesterday and we claimed 3/4 of a gallon. The process was tiring on my hands but as I got the rhythm she was relieved to have less pressure in her udder. The farmers cheese was tasty straight from the pot and should be even better today as it has had time to ripen a little. Below is a picture of the cheese.

The recipe was simple: 3/4 a gallon of milk ( goat milk) warm slowly to just below a simmering boil. This is easier to do with a gas stove than an electric one. I let it warm slowly for 1/2 an hour so as not to burn the cheese. When it was to  heat I added 1/4-1/2 cup of red wine vinegar. As I stir in the vinegar the curd separates from the whey. I removed it fro the heat and poured it through a linen cloth into a jar. This allows the curd to ball up in the clothe and the whey to pass into the jar. It is basic and smile and delicious.

our bottle baby

This weekend has been an adventure in parenthood. Biddy, has joined our family. She does not sleep, she poops everywhere, and until yesterday would not take the bottle or solid food. Today, she will eat anything especially newspaper.

plumbing gone wrong

    As it turns out I am a terrible plumber. Despite working as a plumbers assistant in college for a season, I am a terrible plumber. I might have realized plumbing is not for me while working for the plumber in college. On my first day of work we had to send a motorized wire auger contraption into a toilet drain. Lord only knows what was being flushed at this hair salon but the sewer did not like it and put a stop to the flow. I was amazed by the sight of the auger in motion. I stood looking down the open whole suited in an apron and gloves, mouth agape. I think you see where this is going. As the auger came out of the whole spraying sewer straight up into my open face the plumber looked over at me a simply said, "son, you are going to need to learn to keep your mouth shut." I have ever since had a bad taste in my mouth for plumbing.
     This week I have plumbed our water line twice and both times it has leaked. Apparently someone ran into one of our frost free hydrants and broke the water line. Thus the reason for needing to fix it. And my terrible plumbing skills are the reason for re fixing it as well as the reason for now needing to fix it again.
 post by: Steve

tiny house power

    Power is one of those things that some would say is a luxury and other claim as a necessity. While I feel it is not a necessity it does offer a degree of expeditious opportunity and comfort in a number of situations. Our current power ( no pun intended) is provided by a quiet generator located near the house. It is cranked for a limited amount of time to run tools such as the circular saw, drill or blender. While all or these tools have non electric ancestors, which we also own, they are the best tool: time implements. 

    The generator is run on very limited occasions and some weeks it is not even considered. That said, the generator is still run too often for my liking. It is a gasoline powered monster that roars, despite it being the penultimate loudest on the market. I inevitably spill some fuel on my hand and then I smell like a mix of gas and me. I would rather only smell of the latter. These issues push to a head the need for an alternative power. 

In terms of alternative power we have discussed several options. 

     Solar, classic. This option harnesses the energy of the sun and converts it to usable power. An excellent option but for our limited roof space maybe it should be more of a backup option. 

     Wind, the up and coming alternative. Wind power has been around for all of time. It has powered boats, pumped water, ground gain, amidst other uses. We have considered wind due to the constant breeze that the mountain offers. It is quiet and comparable in price to solar. The big drawback is raising that tower. 

      The current option in mind is hydro. Hydro power is often used by municipalities as an axillary power. They use power to pump water into elevated holding reservoirs only to release it and produce power when there is a high demand. We would not be pumping water into a reservoir but collecting water from runoff or seeps. The water we plan to utilize would be rain water off the roof held in a tank and released by a valve. The water would turn a turbine down the hill from our home and produce power when we need it. The valve could be turned on/off much easier than starting the generator. The power is clean, quiet and more affordable than solar or wind. Rain permitting and assuming a hill for added head pressure, hydro seems to be the optimal option for our needs. 

While my drawing is basic, it is the general idea. Please read it backwards. 

Outdoor shower Done

The outdoor shower is done, mostly. Here are some pictures of the shower. I will add a little mortar to better the drainage and possibly hard plumb the water line at some point. Those things aside it is done. And yes, I am still working on the indoor concrete shower for those whom have asked.

access to tiny house

make shift stairs are in. The old cinderblock we were using to get up to the deck is gone ( used in a pier to make the deck addition) I can not tell you how many times I fell using that cinderblock. My wife has sure been a trooper, as I know she has not enjoyed the block system. none the less the new little stairs are a nice way to come home.

grey water

grey water is happening. Yet to be completed but the grey water system is under way. This will be a dark grey system. Which is to say it will not contain solid waste but will not be something you want to recycle. That statement will make more sense when the new indoor plumbing designs are released. Essentially, this system will be a nice way to drain liquids from the house and into the forest below.

outdoor shower, tiny house

The outdoor shower in progress. A gravel pit, A hose based hot water heater(Propane) on a tree and a pile O'stuff. Shower to come

tiny house patio

The patio is under way on the tiny house. Outdoor entertaining space being key to large gatherings the patio is definitely a high priority. Obviously higher than putting siding on the house as you can see we have not gotten that done yet. In the spirit of creativity we used the tiller to loosen the soil and thus excavated for the patio. Still hard shovel work but much easier with the tiller loosening things up. 

THe

Farm work: tiny house

We have begun the farming part of living on a little farm in GA. We went with the ancient way of clearing our field of Winter frost killed weeds and grasses. We burned. The field is now full of nutrients left in the ashes and clear for the planting.