snow does hide winter's ugly

Everything seems so simple

babe's idea of criticizing me 

     

        Till you actually try and make it happen. My Craigslist find I was so excited about is still going to happen; only it is tomorrow instead of Monday as I originally had planned to do. Sunday’s snow storm definitely put a crimp in my plans, as most of you know; we were dumped on by at least 8 inches here. Snow isn’t much of a problem to us, except early in the day when I should have been leaving to pick up the pews.

    I just waited and called them and said I needed to reschedule for another time. This in ways was good as it did let me have a little more time to plan this expedition. And of course they didn’t quite understand that I needed more time, because they only received 3 inches of snow over there and everything was business as usual. Roads were clear, but they seemed to understand better when I explained how much snow I received over here. Yeah I could have tried it and ended up in a ditch some place, and in the end this free wood would end up costing me more.

     I did manage to make it out to my truck and actually measure the length of the truck bed as originally I was just going to use just the truck. Well the panels would stick out three and half feet past the end of the tailgate. Not bad but when you add in the length of the tailgate I am looking at 5 and half feet past the rear of the pickup, this is a little long. So after plowed the lane I set to thinking and weighing my options and decided to take the trailer with me.

    Also I decided to take along some help to help me carry and disassemble the pews before placing them on the trailer. My nephew will be going along to help me load and to remind me not to cuss too much. I have to be really remindful of myself when I am around these folks as inadvertently I let a few things slip. It isn’t that I don’t know better and usually I am capable of finding other words to convey my feelings like what the intercourse might be better or maybe human copulation might be a bit more acceptable, but no I go right to the meat and the bones of the subject let go with a good old fuck and maybe a fuck it afterwards, without even thinking just what the human copulation I am doing. You know what the intercourse I mean.

     Just yesterday I was trying to get trailer off the hill where it was buried in the snow, and I didn’t want to tear the low human copulating tires up. So I pumped up the worse one and started tugging on it in the snow backwards, almost a quarter mile down the hill with the tractor. I had a Charlie horse in my neck by the time I reached the bottom of the hill and one tire was starting to come off the rim, when I was trying to turn around the trailer,  and then I let loose with a couple of well-placed this and that’s , right there in the middle of nowhere where no one could hear it, or really give a damn about my pain or frustrations and I found in that place that place that my words meant nothing, and it was just my frustration at trying to accomplish something the way it should go instead, of the way it is going to end up, and that was screwed up. I meant off the human copulating rim screwed up. I managed to finally get the thing drug back to the barn and had to tug the human copulating tire off and take it and see if I could find another. I never did find a tire so, instead had to take one of the other trailer.  Today I will get the human copulating thing taken off one rim and put on the other. Why it is when it is church related you have to rob Peter to pay Paul, which is exactly what I am doing here.

two views of the same thing , my back yard

      I need to get lights and had to buy a ball and a new tarp as well from Harbor Freight and this cost thirty dollars. I did manage to find my entire tie down straps, and hopefully will be set to go at 7 in the am. The day is supposed to be warmer and this will be good to move these. That is as long as everything goes exactly as I have planned. This in part is kind of the reason I hate to go and do anything as it seems to always be a major event to get things done. Oh well the rewards will be nice if I can achieve the means. And that is what it is all about. To finally live in your space where no one but you has been able to plan and do. Most people never get this chance, and end up living in someone else’s dream or it may well be their partner  in crime and when that partner is no longer there , they finally wake up one day and find themselves strangers in their own home.

      I just want clear views of nature and I want to bring that in the house with me. As I sit here and write, I feel the warmth of the sun as it penetrates the trailers cold exterior and lands warm on my leg through the one good window I have facing south where the sun comes from, reminding me more to make sure the house is pointed right and there is plenty of window space to allow it to come inside. This is why a normal log cabin would never do. The sun is free, need I say more, you know how I feel about free. 

update on yesterdays blog.

Update on Church Pews 

(yesterday's craigslist find) 

pic of the actual pew i will be getting. 

    After about an hour of screwing around trying to get the craigslist pic to download and finally coming to the conclusion that it never was as I feel it is formatted to not be disseminated, although it does show up in my windows word program. I figured since Windows Word was able to view it, if I down loaded the file to my puter it would automatically transfer file. No frigging way. As you can tell I know enough about puters to make me really dangerous and at times really thankful I am not building bombs. Or I wouldn’t have any hands to type with. Some of you out there may think that may be an acceptable equation they could live with but me personally I would miss irritating those people with my values of free speech.

     But I have been known to borrow a file or two, and if someone posts on the internet you really need to copyright your work if you want to have a gripe about reuse and by all means watermark your pics and original work you publish. I avoid all watermarked material that isn’t posted publicly. I also will not copy anything that is copyrighted and never plagiarize, although I was accused of it once in college. Very serious charge but when the professor was charged to make another test up or provide me with another to take to see if I knew the material she refused and gave me my A I deserved. I have some scruples, just a few I use now and then.

     So anyhow after posting, I did as I said yesterday and called the number and talked to a person who was tasked to deal with the calls and arrangements were made to meet with the pastor and although I had to wait a bit because of confusion between the three of us, I was eventually allowed to inspect the pews and the facility or church where they are currently stored. Getting them out should not be too bad as it is a long ramping stairway with no steps that will allow a furniture mover set of wheels to transport the pews on to my truck.

     It looks as though the pews can be taken apart and will do so with the cordless screwdriver. The backs of the seats appear to be hardwood as seams transfer inside and these appear to be solid wood. They have a nice finish on them now, and I intend to preserve that if I can. By disassembling the pews and I can haul them in my pickup and may well be able to haul them all in one load. It is a pretty good ways over there and I want to minimize the trips as much as possible. There are 15 pews they are giving away that are 12’6” long. Each back piece is 2 feet wide. This will give me roughly 360 sq. ft. of hardwood surface and enough to form a hardwood floor between the loft area and the bedroom below to be supported by rough sawn timbers from here on the farm . The lattice work of timbers will allow me to have a bed suspended on chain lengths effectively making it a swinging bed.  The sides of the bed suspended above the floor at a height that will make getting me in and out a priority.

     But the bed and frame of the bed will form the necessary framing to suspend a platform from chains attached to the ceiling. I imagine this can be quite entertaining at times, like when in the middle of the night you wake up and suddenly feel the bed swaying from side to side for no apparent reason. But this feature may come in handy when as it would make the bed earthquake proof. They say we are behind in a major earthquake in this part of Ohio, where I live in a relatively stable zone except for the occasional fracking earthquakes.

      The underside of the pews which would be the front back supports would be placed face down in whole lengths when I can to form a paneled wood ceiling. I should surely have enough for that and also to use as treads for the spiral staircase to the second floor loft. The ends of these will be supported by the outside wall and the inside will have an open look for possibly a totem or some kind of sculpture to be displayed. These are my preliminary plans and nothing is written in concrete till it is actually done. I may come up with a better idea, or different materials as I go along and I need to be flexible and keep my eyes open to allow myself the opportunity to make a once in a lifetime house of original design.

      Just as in the case of the church pews I highly doubt I could come up with that much square footage of hardwood of that furniture quality had I not been open to ideas. Since I am in the preliminary stages of designing I can easily find a fit for the materials as well have it fit into the overall scheme of what I am trying to accomplish in designing interior and exterior spaces. The fact I will be able to reuse materials is also a big plus when it comes to consideration of cost and of natural resources. This is just 360 square foot of timber that does not need to be harvested, and will find a second use in its life.

       Well depending on how bad this winter clipper is today , I should be over there in Youngstown tomorrow working on tearing one apart to see how easily they disassemble till I get an idea of what I need to get them home. As well today I need to make space in the garage to accommodate and store these pews till I am ready to build. I will need to cover and protect them from moisture and dirt. The better I would keep them, the easier it is to reuse them a second time. As they are I doubt if I would need to do much but install them and fill minor gaps between panels with epoxy and maybe match finishes that may be exposed. As far as the majority of the boards go, little needs to be don’t to the finish. So it is important I keep it that way.

      I am still not quite sure what the seats are made of but would assume it is also structural as most of the weight of a bench would be transferred down. These could possibly be used as a subfloor in another room say the kitchen. I just need to get them home before tearing up the seat cushion or maybe when I finally flip a seat over and see what the material is I will have a better idea of where to use that also. The end and seat supports could be re-glued together to make an unusually strong shorter bench or whatever. I am not sure of now. A lot will depend on how much material I have left after doing the floors. Still there is another 360 sq. ft. of free flooring to aid in building my house in one shot. Yesterday I made significant progress in making my new addition a reality. It does pay to keep your eyes open and frequently source out your materials you need in advance of your actual using them.  

      And the other day I was able to take a drive and have dinner with a friend at the Steak and Heifer, That isn't the name but instead something i made up.  But it is in Roscoe Village and so will leave you with some pics i took while i was waiting on my dinner guest to arrive. 

nothing better for free than me!

Today’s Free Find

 these are not the actual pews for free but are representative of what is available. the link below the blog writing contain the actual link and a pic of the free pews if the link is still active. 

       If you look down at the bottom of the page you will see a link to my Craigslist free find of the day. It isn’t real local but may be well worth the drive to Youngstown to pick up 20 free church pews.

      So when you talk about me and being a little out there, you will know that you are probably right. But there is beauty and economy as well as strength and reusability, as well conservation of resources in today’s find. It isn’t just 20 church pews , instead it is over 40 pieces of hardwood oak in 2 ft. wide sections , prefinished , that would make a variety of different objects if they are solid oak. Even if they’re not, they can be recut and glued together as well as doweled and create some beautiful roof joists or possibly columns.

    The panel sections and especially the back rest portions for sure would make some nice panels for a roof system to be located above the new beams you could create with these pews. I could virtually take and rework these large pieces of wood into a variety of objects and furniture creating new objects out of them just for merely taking them apart and hauling them home.

     Therein lies the problem. I am by myself and these are quite heavy and long. Just by looking at them I would say they run at least 20 feet long. They were put together by someone and I am quite sure they will come apart. This would make getting them in or out of wherever they go a lot easier. If they are solid oak I would guess each panel would easily go 400 lbs.. A panel would be a back section off of one pew, 40 of them would be over 1600 lbs. and we are looking at a trailer of at least 16 feet in length to lay each panel on. I think my trailer would probably do the best as I think there is plenty of room on it. Along with the end pieces you are probably looking at over 2000 lbs. or a ton of wood alone. You will need a cordless screwdriver , socket wrenches , a chainsaw as a last resort, , a pickup to tow the trailer , as well a couple of guys and about four hours work , to disassemble and transport on roller carts(2) to the nearest doorway and onto the trailer to be stacked. This all seems simple enough.

      It never is though. Free is never free, but it is a lot better than paying full price. Besides if these are solid panels imagine how much it would cost at today’s prices to buy unfinished oak lumber in what looks to be 2 inch stock wide thicknesses like this. We are talking thousands of dollars to buy the same new. This is already finished though and doesn’t require much more than refinishing the surface to a new luster, to maybe take out some blemishes where that Carter kid tried to carve in his initials with the new pen knife his grandpa gave him for Christmas, while listening to Pastor Fraley drone on about penance for their sins.

     Another thing you can do with these besides just sit on them is to make yourself a nice table and booth. The ends can come off and the seat and back planks can be shortened with a chainsaw or possibly a rip saw if the thickness isn’t too great. A leg support needs to be moved in also, and reattach an end piece and you have a shortened version of the long pew. I am sure people if nothing else would buy these as if they were going out of style as they came from a church and are now in sizes you can handle easier. Also two panels side by side would almost make a nice table top. It looks as though the bottom of the seats are covered but I would assume, and it is only an assumption that you would need as strong a piece in the bottom or stronger, than you would in the rear or backrest portion. The reason being is you have human lives sitting on these pews and you surely don’t want anyone going splat on the floor. God will get you for that.

      So I am assuming there is good structural timber in both the seat and the backrest and one would only know if you could inspect it. If there is good wood in both, other possibilities exist in what to do with these pews. One would be ripping the panels lengthwise into sizes that would make a suitable roof beam gluing two flat sides together to form a new structural beam that for extra strength could also be doweled together. The strength of glued laminated beams is far superior to that of native material alone. Any glued and laminated beam you would buy today for the most part is made of chipboard or what they call oriented strand board. Which is primarily wood chips of the softwood species glued and laminated together , with other glued pieces of same material to create a structural beam. This would far surpass the strength of these common prefabricated beams based on the strength of oak, which is a hardwood significantly stronger than most soft woods, resulting  in a  stronger beam overall that does not require any covering ,  that could be left exposed for architectural purposes.

       Even if these are laminated or veneered church pews the same thing could be done with the pews in terms of cutting them down and reusing them as structural timbers. I am assuming that since they are furniture and in constant contact with humans the strength of the product is higher than most applications, as it should be.

      I am going to spend some time this morning and consider whether or not I want to try and grab this deal up. In fact I may try and call the number to arrange a chance to go visit and see just exactly what I am getting into and how much help I will need, or if it is in fact even still available. This is the case with free stuff and as far as that goes anything you want that is used and is posted. You really don’t want to dawdle too long for fear it will be gone. So for the most part as soon as I finish editing and posting this blog I intend to call and see what is up. Hopefully maybe tomorrow I can have further information as to how my craigslist free find is going.

Church Pews

you name it you can find it , if you really want

Craigslist Finds and Sales

 some of the flowers i grew last year-zinnias 

      What we have here is a family farm and we all share equally, and will be for some time into the future hopefully. The house I’m intending to build will be built primarily with materials I have already accumulated here on the farm. In fact almost 90 percent of the materials I will need in terms of concrete block, and logs, and structural wood, will come from the farm and will just require labor to put it together or process it into a form I can use.

     I have no need to go into debt, or take out a mortgage as our farm is free and clear and all we have to do is pay taxes and insurance to be able to live comfortably. This is in part due to our parent’s and grandparent’s efforts to assure us that we always had a place to live. My goal although I may not stay here the rest of my life is to have just that. A place I can always come home to. It doesn’t mean that this will be my last house; it just means I am taking care of my individual needs and knowing I have security here for a long length of time. I would like to build other places, and do other things now that I can in some ways expand my horizons. This is just a start.

      I have listed and sold a fair amount of stuff on Craigslist as well as other places. At the same time I have found a bunch of deals on Craigslist and continue to do so. I find it is something you need to look at daily, even if all you do is to look in the free section of Craigslist and be amazed at the deals that are waiting for you there. I see it as sort of a barometer of how well our society is doing by analyzing what it is that people give away for free.  No matter what one would want it can be found or sold on Craigslist in one form or another, including the trafficking of humans and animals to some extent. Out right you can see Craigslist disclaimers saying certain things won’t be tolerated but still posters seem to find a way around that, as in the case of prostitution and casual sex ads.

 my greenhouse at end of season last year and some of the plants that were left . 

       Just today I saw an electric hospital bed for free that allows you to place it in a regular bed and it will sit you up by an electric motor. The sad part is that it used to belong to someone who needed it and is now in a nursing home unable to care for herself and unable to return home ever again as her bed is now gone and her room is cleaned. Not that I need an electric bed but who knows this may be an option I need to consider somewhere down the road. I am planning to someday live all on one level and to be able to enter the house or move anywhere on the first floor without any obstructions and to have a convertible bedroom / living room on the first floor with a bed hanging or concealed in the ceiling that would be adjustable to my height by a push of a button to lower or raise the bed to adjust it.

     Still for all the bad that is associated with Craigslist there is a an equal amount of good done by having a free service that allows people to share items they no longer need either for free or a little profit . A lot of these items though used are in great shape and cost half to a quarter of what new would cost. As well some are new, it is just that someone bought too much, or never took things back, or no longer use something. Whatever it is that you need you can usually find it somewhere on Craigslist just by simply going to the search box and entering in a general description of what you want.

     I try to at least browse the daily free ads and have picked up work benches and other things for free at times. Free is nice. As well in return I have given away plants in the springtime that were going to go to waste if I didn’t do something with them. Perfectly good tomato plants and other varieties of vegetable and flowering plants, and have been surprised by the turn out both times I  have done this with people coming from as far away as Akron to pick up free plants. In some small way if they produced tomatoes as I am sure they did, I helped feed some folks somewhere along the line and that isn’t all bad. At the same time my effort was never wasted as I was able to glean something from my time if nothing else satisfaction to know I helped my fellow man in some way. It isn’t all bad. And as Grandma would have said,’ You have to give to get’.

     This will pay me back in time, if nothing else I hope to have at least one person return and buy something from me some day. And I have already seen the fruit of my labor as I do have people coming back to purchase off me after getting something for nothing. I don’t require them to, still they come and I’m forever grateful and know that there is a reason I am doing what I am doing. I usually have an open house since I started to have the greenhouse, and this year will be my third, there is an older couple who I love to sit and talk to. They are both great. And this year I believe I will take their advice and make a manure tea out of my compost to fertilize with as opposed to using chemical fertilizers. The stuff I use is what the Amish use and is water soluble, but still it is chemically produced and not natural. I listen to my customers I have met off craigslist, and to all people I meet along the way and enjoy giving away to those folks who take what I have in excess and make something of it. A lot of this is possible because of Craigslist. When you think about how effective Craigslist is in advertising, it will show in the dust trails and parking problems I have when I offer my plants for free. To imagine that here in the middle of nowhere people can find you with no problem, it is amazing.

a hibiscus i still have some things are just not free

     I sell my hay on Craigslist also, and have one steady customer, and hopefully will have more as I go along. It is free to advertise and a chance to rid yourself of those items you have no use for anymore. If you haven’t used it in a year, then you are hoarding it. That is the new rule, to live by. Now some things you need in case of a major disaster and should never be sold or given away. Canners, jars and lids , preferably full of vittles, are examples of some things you may want to keep , a fishing pole might be nice , although there are few fish in the streams around here I would eat on a regular basis , still it wouldn’t hurt to have survival items around. At least one bicycle should be kept in good repair. You never know what your needs are till you stop and think what you would really need if everything went to hell in a hand basket. Maybe at least one hand basket might be nice to strap to your bicycle.

      There are things I have to trade to buy the items I will need to build my new addition on and I intend to look at what I have to sell and start utilizing Craigslist to sell those items to buy what I need to build my new addition. I have a multitude of things to sell, items somebody else needs as well as I need to be rid of. Some items like my toilet I just replaced will be stripped out of the trailer and transferred to the new addition. To me a toilet is a toilet; once you use a new one it is kind of hard to tell the difference between new and used. They clean up well; add a new seat and no one will ever know the difference. Anything I can borrow from the old trailer and transfer to the new addition I plan on doing. I will salvage the metal and wiring in the old trailer before disposing of the trailer part of the old structure. I have some electrical and plumbing issues that should be cleared up when the new addition is built saving me time and money and aggravation of working on the old trailer.

      In conclusion today I just need to evaluate all I have in terms of what needs to be sold versus what I need to buy and I should come out even, and my only real expense will be the labor and time I put into this effort. In return I will have a place I can come to anytime and enjoy the peaceful quietness of living in the middle of nowhere.  Feed my birds and watch my ducks because someone has to watch them. Might as well be me and hopefully I will be worry free about this part of my life, as much as one can be. New Electric hospital bed

free speech - is great when it is truly free.

Make Do

hmmm - i wonder if this artist is named dick ?  i know one of the monkeys is. and one might be a  jr., and the other a secretary of defense. 

        Sometimes when I start to write I start with something simple like an idea and a title, tonight I followed the same pattern and found the Word program apparently not up to speed as I typed the words “make do” I found myself waiting for the do, to appear thinking something surely must be wrong with my wireless keyboard or that maybe I just didn’t hit the keys right. Anyhow I do as I usually do, when I screw up and try to duplicate the stupid error and guess what I made do-do. I laughed at the mistake for as soon as I typed the other do in there, the computer came alive and spit out some do-do. I guess you put shit in; you get shit out as they used to tell me in computer class. It is only as smart as the idiot punching the keys and tonight I wonder.

      I wanted to have a grand set of plans to offer up for my time off, but instead I have a movie review, and would suggest that if you like what reading and self-expression, is all about you will enjoy the movie ‘The Book Thief’. It is set in Nazi times and under Hitler’s pre-World War 2 days, where he is aligning the people of Germany behind his dictatorship. In the process a young girl is abandoned by her mother because she cannot feed her children and one has died. A young girl, who is left, is found to be illiterate by her peers and in the end she is smarter than her accusers, who label her a dummkopf. Along the way the war advances itself and an accordion player and his wife, who is described as a walking thunderstorm waiting to happen, take her in, and this young girl and her new parents, change each other’s life while trying to make do with the German war effort. It was grandma that touched me with the phrase ‘make do’ and it resonates in my life as I never seemed to have enough money or enough time instead I have learned to make do and live with in my means, as well when faced with some hard decisions the heroines of the movie learn to make do with the little they have.

      Now here comes the rub and irony of all this. I just watched this movie where they burn books and encourage the citizens to come forth, and burn books by their own hand and give up on intellectualism , and free thinking and bury themselves in the socialist movement where it is all for one, being Hitler himself , one for all, as long as you think like Hitler does. I don’t want to give too much of the movie away , as I think all should see it, as I feel it is written with a unique point of view. I have included a link to the trailer to tease you into watching. I was teased by the name of the movie itself.

      This is not by itself an amazing book, but myself  not knowing exactly how to put the Charlie Hebedo terrorist murders in perspective, it became abundantly clear after watching this movie of how many  parallels of restricting free speech there are between the movie and the act of terrorism by the Muslim Al- Qaeda sect. This is also on the heels of another author who wrote that although what happened to Charlie Hebdo was a tragedy, it was a tragedy of their own making as they were tempting fate; they were responsible for the consequence of their own actions as they pushed the issue by showing the prophet Mohammed being sodomized. It would be no less controversial if Jesus was portrayed in the same way and I doubt there would be few religious zealots here in the USA  who would react favorably, or turn a blind eye towards a cartoon of the same nature, yet may want to do entirely the same thing to a Muslim cartoonist. Free speech is free if you don’t have to pay for it with your life.

     The irony comes as that is exactly one of the reasons we entered World War 2 as we could never see ourselves as a nation falling to a dictator who killed millions of Jews in concentration camps, and stripped away the right of free speech and replaced it with a propaganda machine, so that even their own citizens think as one. This is going against one of the main reasons the USA sought to have its freedom after being repressed by the British and being treated as non-subjects without a voice. It seems as if the radical Muslim Al Qaeda group is trying to do the same by saying that Charlie Hebdo shouldn’t have a voice that goes against their way of thinking.

      But here we are in Paris, a country that at one time was subject to a Nazi invasion and are stubbornly proud of their right to free speech. Who have a hard time understanding why people who obviously don’t live in the country want to come and silence the staff at the paper and commit and act of terrorist war is beyond anyone in France’s expectation? But it happened, and instead of soothing relations by respecting each other’s point of view, this has escalated the situation into further driving a knife deeper into each other’s heart for wanting to exact revenge. This is a flaw we humans have, and that is to know when enough is enough, as our mom’s used to say. I never thought it was enough especially when I was losing and wanted to win, but who was I to doubt mom. I just quit what I was doing.

     Unfortunately these guys don’t listen to mom, but the world and humanity would be much better off we could define that place where enough stops. We can’t as it isn’t in our nature. All we need is love according to John Lennon, but I doubt if we see Ali al Ansi the head of the Yemen branch of Al Qaeda embracing the French prime minister anytime soon. In fact I feel we may even see the holy warn as some Muslims would like to see played out in more terrorism, and unrest in peaceful nations. Our schools are already prisons ready for a lockdown and this is thanks to Al Qaeda and 9-11. How much more can we take or believe, when in fact we have come to find our own government guilty of terrorizing our lives much like the Nazi’s by monitoring our online and telephone conversations as compared to what the Nazi special forces did to their own people turning one against the other by performing espionage on its own people and using that as a means to incarcerate them.

     Eric Snowden will never be a martyr in my book, and can easily be defined as a traitor himself when it comes to what he did to the American public as we need to have faith in our armed forces and intelligence gathering community. We lost a lot of faith in both with the revelations of what he stole in terms of intelligence he was sworn to protect and never divulge. He was given a high security job that he prescribed himself to. With plenty of high level secrets our country really didn’t want to share or ever expect to share. He betrayed our trust first to allow himself fame, and in the process try to negotiate some kind of reprieve for letting us down. The good he did is far outweighed by the bad. Still he showed us as a free nation just how free we really are and that big brother is watching us all the time. Should our government be watching its own citizens . if you look at Timothy Mc.Veigh and the Oklahoma federal courthouse bombings , one would think we surely need to look at domestic terrorism also. But who decides that?

      I don’t think anyone had any doubts what was happening after 9-11 and the Patriot Act, and its highly secretive going on’s in the name of national security. The story would eventually come out down the road as most usually do. Eric Snowden took the wind out of everyone’s sails and hurt the country in the process by expediting the lack of trust we have in our present leadership. The could-a, should ofs , and would of’s, have looked at all angles, but what is done is done, and where do we go from here.

      Personally I would like to find a country that thought more of the majority of people it represents than a minority who runs it. Where we tone down the rhetoric and just try and get along again. The gun lovers and the gun haters try to find common ground. No we can’t take your gun away, so quit waving it in the air and shoving it down our throats, we are not the enemy, we are your neighbors. Religion has no place in politics and for the same token government should not interfere with religion, unless they are affecting human rights. Freedom of speech or the right for a woman to own her own body, and make her own mind on decisions that affect her health is her right only.  If she is for abortion then that is her right, and if not then that is her right also. No one else’s. I would like to see a country where the elderly and our youth never have to worry about food on the table, or a place to eat that food at, and sleep, and that they can call their own. That everyone has healthcare that wants it and those that don’t, don’t  have to buy it or they can buy their own.  But still if uninsured, would never be denied healthcare when they need it the most. Maybe because some lessons are hard to learn, and sometimes they may just get lucky and live their life and never need anything. That will work till they die and then it will be someone else’s burden, to pay their bills after they are gone.  

      I was told by a friend that if you are going to criticize then you need solutions, and so this last paragraph was an attempt to find some of those solutions or else start one’s mind thinking that way. I have done many cartoons and I was worried about this and that while creating them,  thinking my warped mind should never let anyone except maybe a few of Playboy’s thousands and millions of readers see exactly what was going on in my muddled brain. I never sold any of my cartoons or had them shared in print, except a few tame ones here on my blog. I have a lot more you have never seen. I also doubt if you ever will, as some are now out of taste, or time, meaning they were relevant earlier in my life when society was in a different position, now they are just lame jokes most would never get. Some I have to take a second look at. Others I laugh right off.

     Could I as an author of a blog and also as a cartoonist, advocate what Charlie Hebdo did, or in fact stand up for it?  Well I think it went the way it did because they lacked as much scruples as the Al Qaeda did also. I don’t think there are any winners just losers. As well we all lost something here, our dignity as a human race, to ever let thing get this far. The more I understand human behavior the more it scares me. And it is animals that I feel a closer kin to, as I, like the ostrich, would rather choose to bury my head in the sand, or lay in the trees and eat and fart like an orangutan than think that we as humans will ever get along. But like Charlie Hebdo and like Al Qaeda, I have a right to express myself and choose too, and would also be offended if someone tried to take that away from me, or use it to ridicule me into conformance.  They would rather make do-do in their pants, than mess with me and my freedom of speech. 

The Book Thief Trailer 2013 Movie - Official [HD] - YouTube

top roof detail is wrong and needs revised

1-11-2015

Plans

      Well I actually have something for you to look at in terms of house plans when it comes to something different in terms of log cabin design plans. It is something modern, yet rustic, solar, or will attempt to be as just now I realized the high part of the roof‘s design does not maximize solar in winter time in its present arrangement. I have had to look several times at the house’s alignment and it appears to be facing due east if I am looking toward the pond as I want to be with a slight northward turn. This would put the sun on my left side or the south side without any windows in its present situation. I want any solar gain I can, so will reorient the windows and roof line to the south side of the house. It shouldn’t be a huge problem and in my little mind opens up some possibilities in design I haven’t contemplated.  The front half should stay the same, and the only real change I see is roof slant of the house.

      That is what sketch drawings are for. As well I am trying to group my plumbing by running the kitchen and bathroom in a back to back arrangement so plumbing should be in a straight line. Electrical shouldn’t be too bad as I can run multiple outlets in the same log run between logs or place in conduits that also have plumbing pipes in. As I sit here and think about what I am writing I realize there is a lot more not done, or to be considered than there is done, in terms of planning. I have been looking at what it takes to get a nice set of finished drawings together that are representative of what I am trying to build. These drawings only help me visualize where I am headed and are by no means my final plan.

       When you look at the plans and imagine as you pull in the drive this is the effect I am trying to achieve with the lower wall being of cordwood with mortar plastered in around it. Then it will begin log construction at about the four foot level and extend all to the highest heights of the walls. The interior will be open and all floors will be slab on grade, with integrated heating supplied by pipes embedded in the floor providing heat to the interior. A wood stove will also supply supplemental heat. If it is the type with windows will allow you to view and enjoy the open flame while at the same time provide you with efficient heat. And this can be run in a double walled chimney pipe , not requiring a regular fireplace chimney. This will be a major savings in work to be completed to move in.

    A spiral stair case will lead to an open second floor loft that connects to the little house by means of a walkway , and will also open up to a deck to the back side of the house. A greenhouse will also be included in the area under the overhead walkway which will serve as an umbilical for all the utilities to provide necessary linkage to existing services.

detail of a corner and what lower wall will look like.

    The whole thing is designed so that eventually after construction is complete I can move from one area to the next and begin a new phase of construction or destruction as the case may be, all the while continuing my day to day living. As I have designed the house with minimal needs of myself and one other, the effect will be an actual loss of square footage as compared to the trailer part I am removing. In reality I don’t need or use parts of the trailer today as I should and some is just wasted space. The open airy feel of the new structure should feel as if I have built a twice as large space when in fact it will be smaller.

    I have revised my sketch drawings but I am unable to have them ready to publish, but will be on the same order as what I am going to show you today. It takes time to make good drawings by hand and plenty of erasers. As I go along I am sure there will be plenty of revisions as I try to make things work. But as with most of life’s work, it all starts with a plan. More details will also become available to you the readers, as I pin them down or pen as it may be speaking in the literal sense. 

the three r's

Reuse Recycle and Repurpose

The New Three R’s

cordwood wall similar to what i want. 

        The old three R’s as I knew them had to do with reading writing and arithmetic. Dad’s West Virginian style of three R’s referred to reading writing and Route 21 , which is where the job’s lay in the north of the Ohio river. From West Virginia on straight up through Ohio on Route 21 to Akron and the rubber capital , where at one time half of West Virginia’s population had moved and was working and, they say on a Friday night you could see nothing but taillights and west Virginia plates on cars as they would head home for the weekend  and on early Monday morning , a parade of WV plates could be seen rolling back into town , when the road was the prime north south corridor after being later  replaced by i-77 or the national interstate system in the early 60’s .

    We had family relations in southern Ohio then and would make the trip down St. Rt. 21 and at least 3-4 times per summer my family would load up in the old Chevy Impala station wagon we would head south past the new construction areas and I was able to remember when they were just building the new I-77 interstate. Had I known years later how many miles up and down that road I would pile up for one reason or another as I have made in my life and still will for a long time. It’s a part of me having seen its birth and I imagine it will be here long after I die. I just hope it is only as lonely as I was out there a night or two going from here to there in the middle of the night. No cars and black as a night can get even when you have the bright’s on and can only make out 30 yds. in front of you. Driving into the blackness of the night so dark the stars can’t see to light your way, praying for a car coming the other way to show you that you aren’t the only fool out there going somewhere. That would be nice but highly doubtful we will ever see it that dark on i-77 again. I can remember the dynamite and blasting signs and the detours we would have to take to make as we went on our way around the new construction. Well even today and ever since the road was built there has always been an orange barrel season sprouting up somewhere, as they  are still working on that road and have been continuously for years. You would have thought that they would have figured out how to make the perfect road by now. But then where would all the workers be who depend on it be.  But who knows, maybe someday.

resin and mortar log butt floors

       Anyhow the new three R’s are reuse, repurpose, and recycle, and In effect recycling the old three R phrase into an entirely new meaning. I will start with the first and end with the last as I define each.        Reusing anything is a win- win situation as no more energy is required to use it over again like reusing a water bottle, or you may reuse a full 8 ft. 2x4 as long as it had never been cut, to make it usable again.

      Repurposing is taking something like the water bottle after you have drank out of it, and placing it in a masonry wall and surrounding it with mortar to create dead space, and to also increase the structural integrity of the wall, you are basically creating a second use for a product already made, different from the original use, and still requires no energy and maximizes the carbon holding capacity of the product. Co 2 gases that were created by manufacturing the product for one use, if it is reused again, it then neglects the first use and now becomes a carbon reducer when used as insulation.  The most efficient insulator  is dead air space, the bottles placed in the center of the wall would create permanent forms to honey comb the wall with air pockets making the wall stronger and yet energy efficient. This same wall would be laterally reinforced using firewood pieces placed intermittently to tie both sides of the wall together. This is how I intend to reuse plastic bottles, as an example,  another method of reuse is where they grind tires into mulch to be used in playgrounds, walkways, etc. after the wire is removed in a tire crumbling process. This is an energy reducer and a beneficial reuse of product, requiring some energy to change the material into something else but does create a product that would require much less energy than it did too initially make it and it does keep tires out of landfills. Not all bad, but the product hasn’t really caught on.

another cordwood wall 

     Of course the last product is to recycle. Recycle can be as simple as reducing your waste into paper , steel, aluminum, plastic, or glass , some of these are comingled at recycling centers, and all of it is an effort to reduce the amount of recyclable material ending up in landfills. This last process of recycling usually requires the spent product to be reheated and requires energy to transform it into more aluminum cans, or into new steel products, some glass is now being used in roadways after being heated and rounded and sieved to reduce the size and angular tendency to slash tires etc.. Paper is transformed into cardboard products, and all of these may have multiple uses besides what I have listed. . I also have an old pile of recycled lumber I also intend to use to build this, as I will now call it my farm office addition. This stuff has been lying around the barn long enough and needs someplace fitting to make it do something besides take up space, and would be a nice contrast to the new wood that will be exposed.   

       Well in lieu of a set of plans I decided to inform you that I too intend to use the new three R’s in the construction of my new farm office addition as I proceed along. Whether or not I need to buy new or if I can use used or repurposed will depend on a couple of factors for sure that I can think of offhand.

    One factor might be as in buying windows, and that would be if I could find thermo pane windows in the size I need or can I scale down the size and shape of the openings.  Most of the lumber I intend to supply is going to be cut with a band saw mill out of the tree tops on the farm I have down already, and will be repurposed into the size I need. Being rough sawed will add texture of some pieces while others will be of the finished variety. Now when it comes to plumbing I think I will go with all new as well the electrical part also, but will in effect be of the recycled group as I intend to strip the wiring from the old house trailer part of my current abode and as well the aluminum shell and reduce them to scrap to trade that against the overall cost of new wiring and plumbing. I am building this with the intent of little or no maintenance for at least thirty years. That is a tough job with today’s materials as I think they are all designed to be replaced on twenty year cycles assuming that 95 percent of the people lose their warranties or fail to turn a claim against the product whether it be shingles, tar paper, or whatever that product may be. The manufacturer’s legal ease allows them a lot of flexibility and any payment will be pro-rated based on how many years you have had the product in use. After 29 years and your shingles go bad, you might as well plan on buying new because you will be lucky to find a judge willing to hear the case in the first place if you should decide to sue.

     So some items like the wood will be repurposed, the electric and water and sewer will be new. Also I intend to merge the lower wall construction into a masonry unit capable of supporting the wall loads and also prevent rot of timber prolonging the timber usage, I also intend to incorporate plastic bottles and wood pieces into the foundation to not only improve the aesthetics but to also insulate the inner space from the harmful effects of the cold by creating airspace with plastic bottles we would drink out of normally. Pretty much any way I think I can conserve heat and save money while at the same time creating a thermal efficient structure to be proud of.  Something that is green and hopefully aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and landscaped with the future beauty only to be eagerly anticipated, and appreciated as an acceptable addition to the farm in general.  

so much to think about

1-5-2015

Sunny and Cold and Windy

log cabin day 2013

falling waters entrance

    Since this diary or journal of sorts is chronological, then for all purposes this above heading will be my format when talking about the cabin project. Should I call it a log cabin, and for all intents and purposes that is what the primary structural component should and will be? The design though I hope will be a little modern with a touch of rustic heritage, bordering on green living.

    It is a house, but one that opens the outside up and brings it inside with you. Windows and views unobscured. I had the chance to help out with a local log cabin restoration, and was able to watch the Amish builders as they went about taking parts and pieces of three different log cabins and erecting them onto a location where another log cabin had stood for years buried in neglect, till it was transferred and restored by the Pike Township Historical Society.

pikey

falling waters

    I have toured the house as recently as last summer, and have participated in several fund-raising events and have also donated sculptures, some to be sold for fund raising activities, and Pikey the bear, one of my wood sculptures, stands proudly in front of the log cabin, welcoming all to the town of East Sparta. In fact just recently while driving by I noticed Pikey wasn’t there and I thought someone had stolen him. I had to check on my way back through. When I did I was assured he was missing, after I made a point to look for sure again. I noticed fresh tire tracks in the snow led  right up to where he stood , and then it looked as if the vehicle, which undoubtedly was a truck, as pikey stands over 5 and half foot tall and weighs 300 if anything, had also backed up to the log cabin . I could imagine it being cleaned out also, as it contained items of value.

     Immediately upon returning home I looked up my neighbor’s number and asked if either her, or her husband knew of any reason why Pikey was missing as they also had an interest as they too volunteered labor for the cabin. And they knew nothing but were going to check it out and see what they find out. Anyhow word came back to me from that the director that the Historical Society had used Pikey in a Christmas parade along with other items from the cabin. It is funny that for years I drove past that corner and had little reason to check out the happenings there, and hardly ever noticed much going on , but since I placed that carving there I seem to never miss making sure it is there, although I gave that job up years a go along with checking on the cabin.

    So where I am going to is that I have had experience in log cabin building and general log building principles but don’t know if a traditional log cabin is exactly what I want. In fact, I want what I build, to be a noticeable asset to the farm and something to be admired. Maybe finally get my house in Better Homes and Gardens, Mom’s lifelong dream. well I don’t know exactly that it was her lifelong dream but I can still remember the day when she told us to clean the house, that Better Homes and Garden was coming to take pictures, that they were going to feature us in their magazine, and the young naïve children that we were, hurried and scurried around gathering up toys as mom directed us on what needed to be done before they arrived as we were all excited only to find out mom lied to us. Her very own children and she lied to us, keeping up the fib till she admitted late in the day after running out of things for us to do and laughing at us every chance she could  behind our backs as she led us around blindly, just to get us to clean the house. No wonder I turned out like I did. Anyhow as punishment for the letdown, we made her take us to the drive in theatre, but before we could go my sister Sherry swallowed a nickel mom told her to keep in a safe place so she could spend it later, so she swallowed it and as a result, we never did make it to see ‘Blubber,’ w/ Fred Mc Murray. I lived a tortured child hood fraught with impossible family member’s intent on purposely trying to distract me from my real calling. Which was story telling?

     Old log cabins of pioneer days had small windows and solid doors capable of fending off Indian attacks or mobs of angry villagers armed with plowshares and pitchforks. They are solid and will burn slowly  as it takes a wooden beam awhile to get started to burn and it consumes itself much slower than a composite wood beam and remains structural, allowing escape if necessary. The windows being areas where heat would escape when trying to heat with drafty fireplaces, were kept to a minimum as oil lamps provide light even during the day, as the interiors of cabins were dark and gloomy and the needed the glow of a fireplace and an oil lamp were needed  even during sunny days. Most old log cabins I have been have that same characteristic of being closed in and this is what I want to avoid. Instead I want the light, and views in my face, open and inviting you to participate with nature and inviting you outside. More of a minimalist cabin, offering space and simplicity in design, with a rustic exposed beam and weathered wood siding accent to contrast with modern features of a third millennium home style.  

      I have drawn up some sketch’s last night of a proposed concept, but easily after discussing what I want on here , I can see that my drawings and concept ideas must change also, as I am still unsettled with my design so far,  and will toy with some ideas of different geometric shapes . With log construction, or post and beam construction at the center of it all. I just want open and exposed as one would say, or at least I would expect, as I have never been a fan of curtains, or window obstructions like shades, etc..  Instead I feel if one wants to block ones view inside from outside, then plants, on shelves serve as a satisfactory obstruction that is green and still represents nature, so maybe open shelves with plants are in order.

     I have always liked floor to ceiling glass and after visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses in Pennsylvania and including ‘Falling Waters,’ and others he had worked on, I understand the architectural and artistic importance of light and openness of nature and how one should design with that in mind.

       I have one shot at this, and for me it doesn’t cost anymore to build expensive if you have the materials and ability, so I need to think outside the box into something where I can combine old world charm into comfortable modern living without leaving the farm . So today’s effort will be to stay inside because it is cold out, and will be for a week or more, and work more on designs and hopefully have something to show you next time around.

still thinking it out, never said i was fast.

1-4-2015

More on planning

back in the days when log cabins were simple  

     Just spent a half hour trying to remove an erroneous underline from my word document and I am sure there is a button I pushed somewhere that led me on an OCD adventure of trying to rid myself of that nuisance . It is kind of hard to write when things are just not right.  I am feeling much better as now I can get on to my subject at hand and that is planning my senior home, and addressing the issues in the preliminary planning phase of bedrooms and the single floor concept of designing the perfect for me senior house.

    I guess if one is going to build a new place or remodel then time needs to be set aside to really search your soul to try and make things right the first time around. Here I won’t have a do over as it will take most of my resources and time to build the house I want to build. That is even though I still am not entirely clear as to what exactly that is and it will be a work in progress as I intend sharing completely with you.

      Working with logs is kind of permanent. Regular stud frame wall construction can easily be retrofitted to something else down the road, whereas logs are not that easily changed, and are most of the time support load bearing walls. Chainsaw’s are the carpenter’s choice of tools to cut in a needed window, or door later on. It is easier to build the log walls right the first time than it is to return to your work later on and make modifications.

     So in my small little mind I am trying to lay out exactly where things will go, kitchen and living room and bath on one floor, with a murphy bed in the wall or cleverly hid in the ceiling where at a push of a button would lower and offer me an extra bed to use as a senior room or as an extra guest bedroom . The advantage of having a bed suspended on cables is that I could have it raise or lower to suit my needs or anyone else’s needs to properly be at the right height when extending your feet over the side of the bed to get up.

    I would build a recess in the ceiling to allow the bed to disappear completely allowing me full access to my living room .recessed lighting on the side of storage area could create a mood that will enhance the whole living room and completely disguise the fact that the bed is over your head. Locks cleverly disguised will prevent the bed from falling when not in use.

      This will allow me the ability to utilize only the first floor when I am at that point where I need to be on one level. I am not there yet and desire to have a master bedroom and still also a place I could have guests sleep if they come over to visit. I intend to add a second floor and as long as I am able, and will try and negotiate circular stair case as it protrudes from a wall as opposed to one from a central pole. This will be in the rear corner of the house and will lead to a closed in master bedroom on the second floor with an outside entrance and patio outside the bedroom taking advantage of the elevation difference of the area where I intend to build on the second floor. I am working on the drawings and will hopefully have something for you to view soon, as well as some sketches of what the outside will look like as I go along here.

       Another point I would like to make at this time, and that is the orientation of the house to the winter sun, and to the rest of the buildings on the property. I have mentioned before that I would like to have view over all other consideration when designing the house, although I intend to use solar arrays as a means of providing at least some of my electricity and also a windmill is not out of the question as I go along. I think any investment made into these technologies now will give you independence from local utilities and if nothing else much needed back up electricity that one can go to in unexpected emergencies.

    Also I intend to utilize very  little electricity in my overall design, allowing windows to provide much needed light when our gray days disappears and sunshine appears. I also intend to supplement light with new LED technologies using less energy. The back side of the house will still be south facing even when aligned with pond, and the roof will have solar panels installed over a metal roof and at the proper angle, this with the absence of trees should give me the proper amount of sunlight when available to fill part of my electrical needs on a daily basis. Battery storage is a design consideration I need to take into account and may be located in a box outside the house itself to prevent accidental explosion of batteries or fire to affect the house itself. Limiters and electrical regulating equipment can be installed to make these alternative sources of power much safer, still I would feel better if that was a stand away unit instead, as batteries still give off noxious fumes.

      Skylights and windows will also be used to make the house inside appear much brighter than normal, and I Intend to make full advantage of both to bring the outside in with a main focal point of the pond as the major emphasis of my design parameters. I will try and look for all energy efficient windows when I buy my windows to assure I conserve energy where possible.

       As opposed to a conventional fireplace, I intend to use a wood stove that allows me to view the flame eliminating the need for a drafty fireplace although the fireplace does add a country charm to the overall cabin look, I still have to be safe and maintain it and feed it wood which may be a problem as I get older. Currently I have natural gas but doubt that it will be there in the next twenty years so I need to plan now on how I am going to heat that is efficient and dependable even in emergency situations.

     Consideration is still being given to having a central type combination wood, pellet and gas stove located in the older section with a warm water loop running through greenhouse and into the main house and heating the floors, with a  multi fuel heater , I could start on gas or propane and switch  to wood or wood pellets as I went along making starting of the wood much easier and providing heat through a closed loop system, this would assure warm floors and if the floors are warm then rest of the house will be warm as heat still rises.

      I wasn’t planning on a basement but instead a crawl space or at least removable panels and a conduit system where as the pipes would be laid in trough’s to allow easy access to plumbing and electrical components.  I had mentioned earlier also that I intend to have water storage below the floor centrally located to provide water during emergencies and also for use in recirculating through waterfalls features located outside. This way even if I have an emergency then this water could be used to flush the toilet and for showers if absolutely necessary, this water would be filtered to assure cleanliness.

       These are all aspects of design consideration I am considering as I go along here. My first step is harvesting all the logs I need and I am well underway in that process and have a considerably large pile of wood with a lot more to bring in. the other main item I have to do is settle on a final design of the overall look I am going to achieve. I have been thinking on that a lot and I am starting to form a vision of what I can realistically achieve by myself with what I have available to me. I will make more available as I go along and settle on some ideas and actually put them in plan form. 

   

glad i don't need all of this , they have as much wood in train trestle as in the woods. 

give some snow instead of this crap.

1-03 2015

Cold and Rainy

still working on it 

       Was supposed to be freezing rain but instead I believe we have the just plain rain, kind of day when you want to roll over and say what the heck , a couple more hours sleep won’t hurt me. Instead something inside says well maybe if I get up and try to get a few things done inside maybe I can still make something out of the day. I guess it is official that 2014 went down as being the warmest on record. It didn’t get a reprieve up until the last minute was so out of character in terms of temperature and overall mood. This leaving us less hopeful that days of snowy weather and of winter memories we had as a kid will soon disappear along with the cold as we become one of those states like Missouri and Kentucky who get occasional bouts of freezing rain and black ice to signal a winter of their memory and type as no snow just miserable bouts of orneriness to test our resolve. Not quite cold enough to be pretty with snowcapped pine trees, layer the ground in a blanket of white and still be able to kill the bugs, instead we forced to reside under an umbrella and view out upon shades of brown bleak gray days, followed by long periods of darkness and dreariness. What have we as humans done to ourselves? We can figure out most anything as a species except when enough is enough and try and fix our wrongs.

      The cold when it does come to January seems to be punctuated by a numbing pain inducing cold to all extremities not protected as it was the last couple of days. Although the temperature climbed above freezing, my fingers were still cold as grabbed the grip of my chainsaw and worked a few hours outside. On the first or New Year’s Eve, a friend visited for a few hours.  As well I loaded a large round bale for a steady buyer of the hay produced here on the farm. Not a bad way to finish the year and begin a new one. I know this year that I need to house more of my round bales one way or another to protect them as the hay is quite good and a shame to see me lose the top layer to the elements. I tried the plastic wraps but wasn’t too impressed with them. At first I thought they were a whole bag where you slip the whole bale in there, instead it leaves both ends open, and without tying bricks on the corner of the plastic to weigh it down, and keep it from flapping , the bags are useless and may contribute more to loss of hat due to moisture damage then without on the bale.

    I thought that losing the cattle would be tough , tough is spending a lot of money  and working just as hard to keep a few, when it is much easier to do a hundred and make some money and be able to afford to live. There again one hundred takes a lot more pasture and fences and time, as well as feed. Al of which was doable but unfortunately not in my lifetime and for what?  I only have red beef only on rare occasions when I feel I need it to ward off a vitamin deficiency. Besides they were pets and it would be like me doing something to one of my pets.  Feeding isn’t much of a problem with the large hay bales and the cows do clean them up as well, if they are on pasture will pick around and find a bit to forage on here and there if you have some good winter pasture. For me I would rather spend a few minutes loading someone else’s truck than worry about my cows welfare and other variables of whether I can keep my costs down and maybe try and make a buck for the farm.

      Now instead, in the winter I can take my time getting out on these cold gray miserable days as only Ohio can make them and instead spend time worrying about my new project that I have spoken of before on here. That is making me a new house with what I have available to me. As I said before I really don’t see myself going anywhere and if I did I would always need a place to land and here is about a nice a place in this maddening world where everywhere we turn the country is being eaten up by developers. It just seems strange that we can’t work with what we have and replace those run down shacks and repurpose those eyesores before making any new land available to rape pillage an plunder. I doubt if you see this blatant land grab anywhere else in the world except here in the USA or in other new world countries. Old world countries where land is limited they see their way to reinvent old properties and understand the value of making every square foot count as land becomes scarcer.

     I intend to do the same thing as I build on to the existing structure and reinvent the same old place, some of it including the older part I intend to save dates back to the early forties when grandpa needed a house for Grandma, my Mom and Aunt Fran to live in, while he remodeled the old log cabin which is mom’s house today. That cabin was built in the early 1800’s and still exists today hidden under a skin of shingles just like it was years ago when grandpa and grandma finished it. Not much has changed except the overall look of things outside from the day I first saw it.

     The old part of my house was a block structure upon which Grandpa slid a Sears chicken house , that someone had bought and Grandpa bought it off them and refitted it for use as the top part of the house we called the little house. It was never used as a chicken house except to raise some young ones under lights in. It was said about the chicken house, as that is what Sears sold these hoop shaped buildings as, was available through the mail order portion of the catalog, where you could buy one and they would send the parts pieces to your house through freight companies. As well they also sold a lot of houses this same way and you would be surprised how many still exist today, and this was around the time of the end of the war when suddenly materials became more available, a little house or tiny house in itself. Anyone that follows me on Facebook would surely understand I have a fascination with tiny houses, but mainly as a place to get away for a few days. Long term and senior wise, I could design something that would be unique, and still have a small footprint, it’s just that making beds or upstairs accessible requires more first floor space and you really end up with what I am designing anyhow.

    Why not incorporate the little house part into my main house making them one and the same. Because Grandpa was short and in order for me to raise the second floor high enough for me to be comfortable walking under requires the need to have another row of block on the foundation. I will use it for my greenhouse below, and art studio and office above. Keep that part of the house as it is, will make changes on the exterior as needed to make it different. At one time it had doors on both ends and I would like to eventually have that again along with decks on both ends allowing me to walk from one end to the other on a second level as well access the first from a bridge, trellis, greenhouse and ramp arrangement tying he two structures together, and increasing my greenhouse space in the process of this whole thing. So a good part of my free time has went to trying and see how I may be able to take what I have make something grand out of this whole thing. If only in my imagination, if then  that at least I will have a roof over my head and a place to sleep,  and knowledge I have tried to do the right thing.