Sun, Mar 06, 2011 · Filed under Building & Fixing, Homesteading, Planning
A great chance find at the library, lying there on top of a returned-book cart. This isn’t a book review or recommendation, although Barns, Sheds & Outbuildings is a cool browsing volume, full of clear explanations, instructions, and photos. What it did was remind me, as my year of living mainly in town has its effect, how little most of us (I’m talking about the majority of North Americans, at least, living in cities and towns) have to do with actually building things. And how kinda HELPLESS we are, not knowing how to put together and repair the structures we need. I read somewhere that in the 1950′s, around half of the houses in Toronto (so, I assume, in other big cities as well) were built by the owners. Who’d think of doing that now?
The interesting thing is, like growing food, building basic structures IS NOT HARD. For me, working alongside Bob to put up a wood-framed, winterized, 450 sq. ft. barn extension clued me in to that a few years back. Not a huge project, but it was basically a tiny house constructed to withstand cold Canadian winters. We leveled land and poured a concrete pad, built a concrete block retaining wall, framed, installed a metal roof, windows and doors, insulated and wired…everything. Being warm and dry in the middle of winter inside a structure I knew literally down to the nuts and bolts was satisfying and fundamental. Working alongside someone with old-school farmer skills, following his lead, doing whatever he did, made it…simple.
There aren’t that many old-school farmers left to learn from, but we do have books! :)
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Sat, Jan 10, 2009 · Filed under Building & Fixing, Winter
A fairly productive Saturday of building out the new seedling room in the freezing cold (-15°C/5°F), with Michael and Bob (he dropped by to help for the day). By sundown, we had about half of the framing done, slow going with the cold, and the joists in the ceiling to work around. The propane space heater I used to use for emergency greenhouse heat barely made a difference with all of the drafts around the old barn doors and windows. This winter work is nowhere near as fun as rough carpentry in warm weather, but it felt good to get stuff done. And we’re still on schedule—seedlings soon have to start!
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Sat, Jan 03, 2009 · Filed under Building & Fixing, People, Winter
Momentum is slowly building at the new farm. The trusty Kubota compact tractor is on site, there to help out wherever it can. Today, we just about finished the demolition in the barn, which included a small room on the upper level (pounded together with a million 3″ nails), and a stall area in the lower level that looked good maybe for goats. Below, Michael uses a sawzall (reciprocating saw) to cut things up. The sawzall is my favorite power tool of the moment. With a heavy duty demo blade, it sails through wood and nails no problem (you can see the stall poles sawed just above where they’re set in concrete). Sometimes, you have to tear down in order to build—with the right tools, that can be fun. We’re moving along—the new seedling room is on its way!
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Sun, Dec 28, 2008 · Filed under Building & Fixing, Off-the-farm, Winter
Made it back to the new farm to start demo for the new seedling room. I don’t get to do much bigger construction work, and this is really just interior framing and insulating, nothing complicated or structural, but it’s a fair-sized project, involving new windows and doors, what I’d still call big rough carpentry fun! The barn is a small one, 24′x30′ (7.3x9m), about 20-30 years old. The structure is simple, basic, easy-to-understand—what you see is what it looks like. The beam in the pic is one of a dozen or so that support the upper floor. What could be clearer! We’re turning half of the lower level, with its poured concrete floor and concrete block walls, into a fully winterized space that’ll hopefully be home to new herb seedlings by the end of January!
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Wed, Dec 10, 2008 · Filed under Autumn, Fieldwork
In bits and pieces, with no one storm to take the credit, the snow has been steadily building up. Regular barnyard clearing is fully underway, by blade-on-truck and then the big tractor, with snow banks appearing in all the usual places, like the ones that form the winter laneway leading to the Chickenhouse…
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Thu, Jun 12, 2008 · Filed under Building & Fixing, Spring, Tools
The outhouse updated! This Envirolet composting toilet, the deluxe AC electric model, is possibly the most unusual farm purchase I’ve made so far, mostly because it was quite expensive and I’m not 100% sure why I got it. With a hefty $500 off on special, it was still somewhere around $1,200, which on the tiny farm budget counts as a major purchase (the used John Deere riding mower cost the same, and it does fieldwork!). And considering that you can build a composting toilet for little or no money, from scrap wood… Call it divine inspiration, like: “You must get this toilet”? Anyhow, it’s here, it’s been here since around Feb. 2007 (the special offer was expiring), it hasn’t gone unthought-of or unmentioned,…and it’s finally, slowly, getting installed for this season! The general idea is to have facilities in the field, which is a lot more convenient than heading into the house. Still… These toilets do sound quite amazing: odorless, comfortable, able to compost six months of humanure into a thin layer in a slide-out tray. Models range from no power, to AC/DC (has a fan), to regular AC plug-in (fan plus heater for the coldest days). The more power, the higher capacity, as the fan or fan/heat speed up evaporation: this one is rated for 8 people x 3 “uses” per day. I guess I had visions of LOTS of toilet traffic from the field. And this attractive little waste-handler is quite an inviting intro to personal waste recycling, compared to a hole cut in a board (and you can use these in homes to replace regular flush toilets as well!)… For installation, the original plan was to build an enclosure, but this discarded ice fishing hut came up as a ready-built alternative. Converting it is only a few hours work, but it’s being done in little bits and pieces. First, the rotting door was removed and the frame widened to let the toilet in, the various built-in ice fishing conveniences—bench, shelves—were removed, and some rotting floor replaced. Next step, fitting the toilet’s ventilation pipe through the ceiling. And then, interior decoration! A coat of whitewash for a start… Coming soon!
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