rainy days and tuesdays

I Write and Never Finish

    I write and never finish on here lately finding what I write either a little too personal to share or just me babbling again. So instead of just going on I intend to just update you on what I have going on.

     The natural gas hasn’t returned and it is day to day, as to whether I will have enough gas to heat my water.  As for cooking it is an occasional meal that is prepared on the stove. Instead my sister Sherry bought an induction cooktop single burner which works like a hot plate, only better. The heat is more controllable and at the lowest setting will gently braise most anything as well as boil water. Most of my meals are prepared in one pan and occasionally if I need a second burner I usually have gas to make that happen. Anyhow I have adjusted and seem to be getting by. Doubt if it will be this way forever but I have enough going on now that I am able to get by with what I have now.

      The gas water heater is a problem but that too is being worked around. I am able to have enough gas to heat the water in the morn for a shower and do dishes, and then I turn the water heater off to avoid heating water for no real reason. The washer will draw down the rest of the hot water, but if I don’t use too much gas drying clothes then I can usually keep the pilot on in the hot water heater, and this will keep the water warm.

    To this end I plan on installing a loop of water line into the back room where I have the wood stove and put a loop on the ceiling of the room above the wood stove to absorb the heat as well run a loop into the greenhouse in back and by making a grid will be able to use solar heat also to heat the water, then the water line will continue back to the original line where I intercept the line and then to the water heater. If I can achieve temperature rise of 80 degrees then the water heater would only have to raise the temperature 45 degrees. This will reduce the amount of gas I will need to heat water and hopefully I will be able to get by with that.

     For safety sake I still intend to add a pressure relief valve in the water line to add protection against a line blowout from increased pressure due to heat buildup in the line. You already have one installed in all water heaters but it won’t hurt to have an additional one for safety sake. Also during the winter I plan on trickling water to prevent freezing of water lines.

     The wood burner is doing a pretty good job of keeping the house warm and some modification of the house trailer as I have it will be needed to make all parts of the trailer comfortable. As well I have a pretty good size pile of wood I need to process to keep me going through the hard winter times so I don’t have to go out and mess with it in the winter. 

 footer excavation

      The footers are coming along on the addition and I am almost to grade against the back wall of the room adjacent to the house and will begin pouring footers soon. I am also planning on installing an extra drain inside as added protection to assure my inside floor stays dry. I will have protection both outside and inside. Again a lot of this doesn’t make sense without some kind of illustration as to what is going on. Sorry I am just spending time doing things I shouldn’t and need to spend more time concentrating on what I should. Still daily I have progress and like yesterday and the day before I dug almost twice the amount out that I had originally set myself to task daily. Not all bad but always could be better.

      The chickens are producing daily and are still kicking out 3 eggs a day and are the most productive and humorous animals I have on the farm. One must make sure you don’t leave a car door open or a door open to the house as the chickens suddenly see it as an opportunity to go in and make themselves at home, whether it be the trunk of a car or an open car door, or it could be inside your house as they head straight for the dog dish to free range babes dog food. The shorter days are forcing them to become more aggressive at eating all they can. Whitey, my oldest chicken is still going, and has all her feathers but has quit laying eggs all together.  She is first to head for the roost at night, and seems to be the first out in the morning.  Daily they come around where I am digging to see if there is something being dug up in the soil. I am down five feet in places and it is a hard shale , not real bad digging but you need a pick to break apart, unfortunately not much for the chickens to pick over like there is in the topsoil where they find bugs, grubs, and night crawlers.

         I now have all the female cats spayed and will start working on the males. Any of my females except momma cat lily will be available for adoption. I should be getting flea medicine for all in mail shortly that has the same active ingredient as Advantage and Frontline. And will have enough to treat them all. All in all they are doing great and are source of entertainment and daily all will come by for a pet or just to say hello. To walk around the farm and see my cat posse following along is fun as if they could be a force to reckon with but still they love to walk round the farm with me exploring new areas and try to look bad.  Trying to get them all out of the greenhouse is a chore as they just want to stay there.  But I am sure they will eventually get hungry and will want something to eat and I am not making a trip out there to just feed them.  Although I have a cat pan in the house where they sleep they hardly use it instead choose to go outside daily. This is a major help to me.

      It is nothing to look outside my window and see 10-12 animals, be it birds, chickens and deer, and the occasional neighbor dog. It is neat to know that they find comfort in being here or maybe it’s the food? Anyhow I like seeing them and enjoy the company as it may be.

    

     

getting an early start on the day

I Appreciate the Comments

pig i am working on

       Although I may seem to get a lot done, still in my heart I know I need to get more done than I do. I am capable of more and even when I am at leisure I need to utilize my time better, whether it is drawing or whatever.  And Mr. word perfect is having its way with me this morning as it seems I can get nowhere with this blog this morning constantly making mistakes while I am writing I have to go back and correct as I go along. This slows my train of thought and makes it tough to stay on subject.

      I regress as I rant about why I can’t get more done or why it is such a hassle doing anything it all. I doubt it is any different than anyone else when it comes to that territory. For me I am driven by a need to make my life better for myself in just a couple of years by making my home life something I am proud of instead of feeling like I am ashamed to bring people into my home, plain and simple I hate trailers. I saw one burn up one night as I went home through Mineral City in an area called Windy City which stands for a small community of trailers grouped together for people trying to escape the Chicago area and all its violence.   Apparently their effort to escape the Chicago area and all its troubles didn’t unfortunately include fire as it ravaged the trailer and firefighters were helpless to do anything about it as I saw flames licking the bottom of tall oak trees thirty feet up on a hill as I traveled on a road parallel to the fire as I went home to my trailer to check my fire alarms. I passed fire trucks scurrying to carry water to the top of the hill where hydrants were nonexistent to fight a fire that there was no chance of ever stopping till it was complete in its devastation. 

 

bear i am also working on

 

       These things are like wind tunnels of death just waiting to snare you with fire as it consumes the cheap plywood paneling that seem to make up almost 90 percent of the innards of these places. The floors are of a composite wood glued particle board and even the plumbing will burn heartily, as the heat builds up inside and the aluminum walls actually melt from the heat allowing more air to fuel the fire and make devastation complete.  They say a trailer will be completely destroyed and engulfed in fire in fifteen minutes and by the time of a half hour is passed even with the best firefighting effort it will be a smoldering black mess. My distance away from the fire department will only assure that the Magnolia fire department and its reputation of being the called the best basement savers around will go unscathed. So easily one could see my need to get to better accommodations than what I have now is of pressing concern.

      I inherited a mess in some respects not unlike a lot I have encountered before. The trailer being mated with the old house was probably ok years back but recently I have encountered some electrical problems that have required me to do without electricity in some areas of the trailer. Part of this is because of my unwillingness to climb underneath the trailer to see what kind of connections my brother installed between the two as I feel that may be the source of my problem. Well my unwillingness to live out my life in a trailer is only surpassed by my unwillingness to climb under the trailer for anything.

     Multiple water leaks forced me to install new water lines in the living area exposed on the walls to make sure they are where heat will get to them to prevent freezing. I have had to redo some drains only to the extent that I would do what I could do, as long as I don’t have to climb under the trailer. I hate those places and their cobwebs and damp ass fiberglass messes. When new they are not too bad. But after a water leak or two and the insulation in the floor of them become damaged they are a nightmare to keep them dry. I have no intention to do that. I am getting to old to run out in the cold at night making sure my animals are ok while I watch everything I own go up in smoke. This is what is driving me to keep on going despite whatever obstacles I might encounter.

    Every day since I started the foundation for the addition I have been trying to put in at least 2 hours a day toward the building process. This is about as much as my back will allow and still be able to keep up with other activities I try to plan on completing daily. Some will say I should just pay someone else to do the work I can’t, or is too hard for me to do. Well in theory that seems great, but in reality I am like everyone else when it comes to paying for anything. I have to watch every penny I spend and I can’t afford to take out a loan and it is up to me as an heir to the farm not to burden the farm with unnecessary costs by having the farm either pay for my needs, or to assume a loan to get done what I need to do. Since legally I don’t really own the land and in reality only have a share of the total farm, I can’t really get the farm to do anything for me they won’t do for anyone else. In fact the only insurance I can get is renters insurance and the insurance companies are not too crazy about giving me that. And the main reason for that is the construction of my fine abode, whereby a trailer is mated to a house. The age of the trailer is also a concern as well as the wiring as it is aluminum and has been known to be a fire hazard.

    I would hate to lose everything and if I did, I think that would be it for me and my efforts at trying to make home here. I guess as long as I could get out the best I can and be able to save my animals, I would be able to start again but it would be hard.  So in the meantime I need to keep on pushing myself to do more. I guess a will is also in order to make sure my wishes are covered in the event something did happen. As it stands now I am entitled to receive a share of the farm properties, without a will , my share would be passed on to the family whether I wanted it that way or not. In some ways it would be nice to see the property stay in the family but in that same respect it would mean my life has been worth nothing, neglecting the endless hours of work I have done on the farm without pay, trying to maintain in some form of protecting the family investment. This will pass on to some who feel I have no right to any part of it. It is for that reason alone I need to get my affairs in order and pass my share to someone I feel deserves a chance to live their lives in comfort of knowing they can live here without worry of moving in their lifetime. Maybe after that I offer my share back to the family to fight over. By then I am sure I will be a passing memory in all their minds.

    So in some ways , yes I am driven to make sure I take care of unfinished business and get myself to a point where my life will be easier and all I will have to think about is taking care of myself , my art and whoever will be in my life as a partner at that point. Hopefully I will have left life’s hassles well behind. Or do we ever get to that point?  

need for change

Saving Now To be Able to Pay Later

      I think I will talk about some other thoughts that have come to me as I start to visualize how this addition will be after I get done. I plan on revising my original drawings and add a few more real soon. This is necessary for you to visualize just where I am headed and hopefully clarify any questions you may have.

    Some thoughts come to mind and will add more as i go along discussing how I feel the need to unload my thoughts. My biggest concern is to get off the grid and be able to have all the amenities that life has to offer, including water features, like a hot tub and waterfalls, a greenhouse for light therapy during winter months. I propose coming up with a hybrid system of producing natural electricity from a green source and use the local power only as an emergency backup to charge batteries or kick in when the natural power gets below 25 percent of battery level, and still have a backup generator to provide power to recharge battery pack.

      I would like to use bio gas from wood gas synthesis to power a dual fuel generator that would only run when power is needed to recharge batteries when wind or solar panels are unable to keep pace with demand. This system is not unlike American Electric Power Company’s practice of kicking in a dirty coal fired generator that will rain acid rain and other particulate matter down on a broad swath of Pennsylvania and New York causing trees to die, as they defend their right to keep the light on in the fridge. We don’t want to let the people get cold in rural peacefulness of Ohio, where by generation of power from these coal eating carbon dioxide spitting metal megaliths located on the Ohio River, will light up that security light, and keep everyone safer. Well maybe all except the residents of New York and Pennsylvania who have to breathe the air we pollute. 

 do we really need this?

    And if the light irritates when you think it burns all night long, and usually there hasn’t been one documented case where this old farmer actually really needed the light to protect him or his property from vandalism or theft. Instead it was used by the farmer so that when he walked to the barn at night the light paved his way. I plan on installing motion detectors on all lights so that when you enter a room it will light up , if it is necessary or when the light level is such that the light would help you negotiate your way through the room or even outside on your way to the barn. In fact I had entertained the thought of installing motion detectors on solar security lights along the lane coming in. We have a long lane and if I had these placed right they would light up section by section as you drive up the lane. It would be like that movie where Dustin Hoffman makes the mound of mash potatoes in the shape of Devil’s Tower in the movie ET. The sounds of the space craft tones and the light lighting up the top of the rock tower, making a landing pad for the aliens to take movie stars into space. Too bad they don’t stay there. This same method of lighting my drive if it works could be used by cities also to reduce power needs by enabling street lights to only come on when cars are using the roads. At 3 A.M.  in the early morning are we really needing all these lights on at taxpayers’ expense.

     Anyhow I will call it my ET lane with the letters ET standing for extra time instead of extraterrestrial, in fact it was always extra time when we were kids. This is the same lane I walked all the time as a kid Most kids would be home eating mac and cheese out of a box , while we were getting off the bus in the hot afternoon steam of summer and would have to walk a half mile lane in that heat . Day after day we did this and never ever seemed to get a ride after our neighbors Nancy and Kenny Capes moved out and abandoned the City Farm. They were the last people to live in that old farm house at the other end of the lane, now tore down and gone including the glorious barn that stood there. They don’t build either of those any more. So many farm houses and barns now replaced with 5 ac. lots called mini horse farms. Farms are being carved up with regularity around here and plastic coated laminated glued stick houses are being built to replace them with. These places have a life expectancy of 30 years before major facelifts are required to make them relive again. So much energy and manpower was used to make these places and the carbon dioxide generated by the house in the building process and the cost to heat these places  will hardly make up for the necessity of keeping up with the Jones’. Still this is what ‘Amerca’ wants and needs, at least for now.

     The size and cost of these houses along with the land, and one must also include the damage to our agricultural system as we carve up old farms to make way for these modern houses that contribute nothing to the environment  but use energy to heat and cool, is something I can hardly understand. You never get done paying for this privilege if you want to call it that. The only way you could afford one of these places is to work for a company that produces some of the energy that is used by these colossal palaces in the countryside. In the process of everyone owning their own little piece of paradise, we end up carving paradise into smaller and smaller pieces until one day we have paved over everything there is left and we have no place to plant something to eat.

     Being on social security I am on a fixed income. My paycheck will never get any bigger and I doubt if the cola or cost of living adjustments will keep pace with the cost of inflation and my dollars will buy less. I need to spend what time and energy I have to making sure I am able to save as much as I can. If I can’t put it in the bank then I need to make sure I am living as cheap as I can.  Electricity isn’t getting any cheaper, as well as food and other things I need to buy to keep myself going on. I can see a time when my income will hardly be sufficient to keep me when I can’t do nothing at all and depend on others, if I ever have to come to that point. I am trying to avoid that. I take care of myself and spend my time thinking how I can make my life easier as I go along. I also want to do it as cheap as I can. I will do quality work but will use earthy materials or repurpose stuff and in the process help the environment by reducing my need to live. It would always be much better if multiple people were living and sharing the responsibility of keeping up with things. I would like to have someone else to share things with, but still find myself without anyone. Build it and they will come. I will as I can.

      I need to set myself up for my future. There was a time when I never foresaw myself getting as old as I am, still I made it. it was more dumb luck than anything and at any point it could have all went south but it didn’t, and being a logical person I have come to the conclusion I might just grow to a ripe old age if I try to make my last years the best I can . I don’t want more than anyone else. Instead I want to live in comfort and have my house be my space vehicle that transports me through this world as best it can in comfort, never taking and hopefully giving. Not costing me fortune and providing me with all I need to get along with in case of an emergency. You never know when that next meteor is coming. This is all I want and I think I deserve that much, if not then I will hopefully deserve it when I need it most as that is the direction I am headed. By sharing my experiences I hope I inspire others to bloom where they are planted and take stock of what you have in your own little place, and then go about making plans and changes to make your life better. If everyone adopted this same principle we could all be moving in a direction of making our generation, one of change when humans started a renaissance of intelligence and showing how greed and come-uppance isn’t nearly as important as living a healthy life.

      No matter where you live whether it be in an apartment in the city or in a house in the country. If enough people make changes in the right direction we will eventually make a change overall. We do this without any real plan, the trend will force society to eventually follow as that will become the new thing to do. Let’s change for everyone’s good in the future, it’s up to you. Think green.

     

everything good that lasts starts with a firm foundation

Moving Forward with My Farm Office

 

the girls outside my back door. hard to get out at times without tramping around animals 

    I know this is a blog and a lot of what I am writing sound a little dry, but it is also a way for me to document the total process of building so that maybe one day I might revisit and write a book based on observations I have made while building, drawing on my observations made, allowing me to write a very factual account of everything involved in the process of building. Hopefully this could be a primer for someone else considering building a home by them self in the future.

        Seems like when you have all the details pinned down on a project like building, inevitably you will have changes as you go along, but as in my case where I am mating one new part to an old part I need to consider both buildings and things like drainage. On hillsides like ours drainage behind the uphill walls is more important than below, as well protecting the surface of the wall is important also. You need to seal with foundation coating after applying a mortar coat all this needs to be applied before installing the visqueen or plastic to create one more layer of protection and this all needs to drain to a footer drain, sounds easy enough to get you a water free slab on grade floor. Backfilling with gravel instead of soil also helps water wick to footer drains, and away from your wall.

      This still all depends on how you install piping through your building to the downhill slide of the building. A floor plan would include gravel under a reinforced slab under a layer of plastic sheeting or moisture barrier and whereby this gravel leads to drainage lines installed under the slab. This will have positive drainage to outside of the building.  Downspouts should not run through your floor slab and should be separate of the footer drain, due to leaves and other materials accumulating in the drains causing a backup which may lead to intrusion into the floor slab. Any footer drain should also have a clean out for each straight length as an extra protection against blockage and eventual water damage to floor slab.

 

footer starting to show 

        I plan on having a gentle arched roof with downspouts on the backside to also consider. This I plan to shoot out the other way and I will make out of redwood with an aluminum insert to protect the wood. From the outside the gutters will look like old fashioned wood gutters and I will try and see if I can find some funnels to divert rainfall from one to other to eventually end up in a drainage line as opposed to using downspouts. The ideal down spout would be copper but that is beyond my present ability but will put on my wish list to try and find used.

       Yesterday I managed to get some more of the footer dug out and it seems to be going ok, the soil is a shale type and is easy digging as long as you like using a pick and a spud bar it isn’t a hard rock but instead is layered and if you are able to enter the layers from the side it digs up fairly easy. I try to do four wheel barrow loads or until my back is sore.  The footer has to be wide enough to support the weight of the blocks which are going to be 12x 16 in. concrete blocks. The footer by engineering standards should be 2 x the width of the wall, but you can slip by with footer 20 inches wide which will give you a lip of 6 inches on back side and 2 inches on front side. The larger lip is to be placed to the hillside and when reinforcing rods are inserted and brought up to the interior of the block cavities and then a grout mixture is used to fill the cavity, produces a solid wall that will resist overturning. 

 

babe and lily eating of same bowl while i am watching. babe was on her best behavior, but wanted to make sure she had the mother lode of her own food before lily the cat.

       The way it resists overturning is because the weight pushing down on the 6 inch side will be enough to keep the footer in place while the reinforcing and the grout in the block wall will also help hold the wall in place as one integral unit. For this reason I move the wall to the front side and this will also allow me more room to install the mortar coat and do the necessary water proofing I need to do to prevent a wet floor. On the front side of the floor slab where the footer and the floor slab migrate out of the ground it becomes important to frost proof the slab and when I get to that point will spend time talking about that. The back side being below grade will not have to worry about freeze proofing as it rarely will freeze below grade to the extent of the back walls depth. The back wall of the addition is the one against the hillside.

      For those of you who follow my blog bear with me as I will occasionally divert to other subjects as I go along in an attempt to keep interest in my blog. Sorry if it seems as if I am using this thing as a tool. But in ways that is what it is. In fact it is anything I want it to be. I use it for storage quite often and at times it is quite raw as it should be. I am writing without a plan most of the time and edit as I go along choosing to get my thoughts down on a daily basis or as often as I can. Thank you for following me. Your input is valuable and let me know by offering opinions of what you think I am doing wrong. I don’t always agree but take all opinions in consideration.