Learning, doing, and more learning!

It has been a long time since we last posted. July to be exact. We have been sooo busy with our homestead and paid work. Cheryl and I seem to be on an endless track of way too many tasks. And so often we have no idea how to even think about the tasks let alone accomplish them.

I struggle with this much more than Cheryl. First, engineers are supposed to either know everything or be able to figure everything out. And then there is the male imperative of having it all under control. Final nail in the coffin - being over 50, the experienced thing you know. Well the truth is we embarked on something we didn't know diddly about. Plus we are doing it non-traditionally.

As I look about our homestead, there is much to be thankful for. Since first coming onto the land in the summer of 2009, we have built a house, barn, garden and greenhouse. We've learned about raising and caring for chickens, building roads, organic gardening, preserving food, logging, tractor maintenance, construction of all kinds, care and feeding of the woodstove, living on less money and so much more. All of this with a permaculture focus. Much has been accomplished and there is much to do . . .

There is nothing so comforting as several cords of firewood under cover with winter coming. For city folks and those that heat by more conventional means, making sure you have heat is limited to paying your fuel bill. Although in these tough times, that's not so simple anymore either. But cutting, splitting and getting firewood into a dry place for the winter puts one in much closer touch with what it takes to stay warm. As they say about eggs and ham, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed.

We're very pleased to have a finished barn for the winter too. We started the barn project in the spring and put the finishing touches on in November. Eric is getting Cheryl's pet project, the cupola, ready for installation. It's an old, proud copper-roofed piece from a house on the coast of Maine which she found on Craig'sList for a good price, put a bid in for half that and got it. I had to tear the base off and rebuild it because of rot. Eric finished up the rebuild, installed "Riley" the copper rooster weather vane (made in Maine) and placed it on the barn roof. It really sets the barn off nicely.

With the barn, not only do we have shelter for the tractor, but we were finally able to move the remainder of our stuff from storage to the homestead--performing this move one year to the day after we moved into our house. We hired Eric and Corey to help us move and boy were they back-savers. I am so glad to be done with moving. If I see another moving van full of boxes I will know I went to hell!

Unfortunately we had to bid farewell to Stan Brett and his storage barn where we've rented space for 3 years. The pic below is from Stan's storage barn. It's actually a 3 floor former dairy barn, equipped with a homemade elevator powered by a heavy duty chain hoist. Although it seemed a little creaky, it never failed us. Much, much better than stairs! We always enjoyed our visits to the storage barn (when we weren't freezing our butt's off!) because Stan is such a friendly and interesting guy. He lives 1-1/2 hours away so we will need to invent a good reason to go back for visits! Our last talk with Stan and his wife ended in their wanting to learn more from us about our permaculture gardening method as they will be starting a garden in the spring. So we'll have them to our place for a chat!
And now to the sorting, giving away & selling...








A friend named Spring Goldeneagle stayed with us for a couple of days. She came from Colorado by way of Michigan in search of a place to live. She's been living a very precarious existence for quite some time. Like us, she's been looking for community. She is an artistic painter and gardener and lives with three dogs that she dearly loves. After staying with us, she moved on to Mid-coast Maine to pursue a living opportunity.




Ah, the greenhouse. It was a kit, delivered in two crates. One crate weighed over a thousand pounds. This was too much for Ollie, our faithful tractor. Plus Kirk was out of town when it was delivered. Since we have a 600ft. driveway, big deliveries come to the road end of the driveway. It's our job to get the item from the truck to the house. So Cheryl got our former landlord Andy with his trusty Lull to handle the job.

Once the crates got to the house, they sat there for several weeks because Kirk was too busy with paid work to even think about them. But Cheryl couldn't wait for the greenhouse. We started with, you guessed it, clearing of land. Then brought in 32 yards of gravel to level the site and provide a firm foundation for the structure. After placing the gravel, it was compacted in a ring to support the knee walls. Once the knee walls were built and installed, 2x4 frame sub-assemblies were put together and set in place. Then polycarbonate panels were screwed onto the 2x4 framing and sealed. Despite being a great kit, this was more work than you might guess. We almost ran out of reasonably warm, dry working weather. But the weather gods smiled on us and it is ready for growing. Well, almost. The raised beds are yet to be built. But we have a weather-proof structure that's otherwise ready.










The green thing is an interior shot of the solar water tank and the reflectix on the north side of the dome.



Here's Jayne with our cool chickens. It's hard to believe they were chicks in late June! One has started laying eggs--the different breeds mature at various rates. Cheryl has dubbed them the "Black & White Brigade" in honor of their coloration. A couple weeks ago we started letting them free-range around the yard. At first they didn't go far. But soon they were patrolling the entire yard and venturing into the woods. Then a few days ago, it happened. As Cheryl was sitting at this very computer, a hawk flashed by in hot pursuit of Shakti (the always-a-little-behind chicken)! Cheryl bolted from the house to confront the hawk but it was gone as were the chickens. The girls were lucky; everybody got under the travel trailer in time!!! They stayed under there for quite awhile and eventually went back to patrolling. Since then we've become more careful about when we let them out and for how long. Predators are part of nature but we'd rather not help them along.

This is actually a photo from earlier in the year. A phoebe decided our firewood shelter was an excellent place to raise a family. Since it wasn't heating season or time to restock the firewood, the birds didn't get disturbed much. Our firewood shelter is right outside the door so we could keep an eye on their progress. The dark things on the top of the nest are the new brood. As they grew and started to fledge, they were so crammed into the nest, it seemed impossible that they fit. Then, one day, everybody was gone. Maybe they will reuse the nest next year.

Cheryl's soaking tub. Need I say more? I finally got around to finishing it and it's a beaut. We've been so busy this summer and fall, it sat ready for multiple weeks before the break-in run. The maiden voyage finally occurred in November. Cheryl was in heaven - it was everything she hoped it would be. Throw in epsom salts and it's especially nice for aching, middle-aged bodies (and as planned we both fit in together!).














Beets in our garden. My least favorite food. They sure look beautiful though. Other pics: swiss chard, zucchini, kale, kohlrabi (the alien invader on the right) and pole beans from our garden. And a giant hubbard squash that volunteered in our manure pile. We couldn't believe how big and bountiful most of the plants in our garden were. Especially since this area was still forest in May!

























This is our temporary root cellar. Not enough time to build the permanent one so we picked up this old freezer free at our town's recycling center, buried it and are keeping potatoes, carrots, leeks, cabbage, turnips, rutabagas & parsnips in it. The last three items are stored in damp sand in 5 gal buckets.



Here Kirk and Cheryl are hero-ing again. This time we were spreading 32 yards of compost and topsoil into two 12'x36' raised bed garden plots. (Look carefully & you can see that Kirk's dreaming of being in the soaking tub!) We used slab wood from white pines we cut earlier to form the sides. We were working at night because rain was coming and Kirk had to get back to paid work. No rest for the wicked! The orange vest was leftover from daytime when we were avoiding being shot--we live in the woods amongst many hunters.

Speaking of shooting, Cheryl & Jayne learned to shoot rifles, handguns and shotguns this fall at a women's shooting class. They are both good shots.




This picture is one of the best parts of my job. Hydroelectric power plants are often on scenic rivers in New England. Although I' m not a fan of travel and long hours, views like this in Milford, Maine make up for it.


Cheryl's busy using a stump grinder like the old pro she is. We ground stumps as part of building the gigundo raised beds this fall.





My buddy Mark Lenard wailing away on the saxophone when not on guitar. He's playing in a band called "ATF". Mark is a great guitar player and a fine friend. He and I were in a band called "John Wayne and the Cowboys" earlier this year. We had great fun, made some money. That band went the way of most bands unfortunately. It was great while it lasted though. There will be others . . .


The dog of many names. We said goodbye to a beloved member of our family this September. Kico, aka Bubba, Roonesman, Snog and many others, left the earthly life. He was 14 1/2. He is not a summer dog anyway but he managed to keep going despite problems with arthritis. By late summer though, he was really struggling. When it became difficult for him to even go on his favoritest thing, the daily walk, we knew it was time. It was still very hard to do though. Kik was a loyal and loving fellow who did the steadfast breed of Akitas proud. He has a great resting place under a big white pine near the people he loved. I hope to be as lucky someday.


In other family news the headline is that Jayne has become an activist with the Occupy Wall Street movement. She left, alone, for New York City on November 8 and became one of the 300 Occupiers encamped in Zuccotti Park. (Some kind of chutzpah, huh?!) Since then she has divided her time between NYC and Boston working for the movement in both cities. She is at long last making the like-hearted friends she has always sought. We wholeheartedly support her and are hugely proud. We have been following the Occupy Movement in the "people's press" i.e. the non-controlled sources beyond network news and newspapers and will be doing another posting soon devoted to Occupy. Here's Jayne just before she headed to NYC.