Category Archives: building our home

Pictures for you Picture Freaks!

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So, I’m hearing through the grape vine, that we don’t have enough house pictures for you picture mongers!  Well then, here you go!

We’ve been doing lots of little things, trying to get the house closed up.  All but two of the windows are hung.  The doors are in and the door knobs are set.  We’ve been doing cordwood on sunny days….

Here’s the front door.  I know, it looks a little run down, but it’s just dirty.  Once I clean it up, clean the window, and paint if red it will be fabulous!!
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Here are the french doors that lead into the dining room.  Aren’t they nice.  They were another Habitat for Humanity find.  We spent a pretty penny on the specially made locks, hinges and handle, but it still cost less then new doors would have.

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These Pella windows are the only ones we bought new.  They cost more than all the other windows  combined!  But, we decided it was important to have an operable window in the living room, ’cause all the others are fixed.  So, now we will have some good airflow through the room.  Can you see the triangle windows are in too?   (We’ve got windows with green frames… brown, white, neutral…. I think we will leave them varied colors.  It’s kinda cool.)
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Today, we worked on bringing up the cordwood wall in the kitchen.  It’s one of the lowest.  But, once we get the wood to the window, the rest will go pretty quickly.  We did about 3 layers today… these wide walls take a while!!
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Here I am making a little somethin’ special for this wall.
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Kaia joined me and made a flower of her own.  Mine is blue/yellow, hers is red/yellow.  Cool, eh?

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Oh, for those of you who might be interested, we are hoping to have another (maybe our last, wohoooo!) cordwood party this Sat. Dec. 8th.  If you want to join us, we would love to have you!!

Color

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So, I’m thinking of what color to paint the exterior of the house.  Our cabin is stained in a red, which is really nice, but I think I’d like something more vibrant.  I’m thinking soft yellow, with a white trim…. what do you think?  It would stand out nicely against all the green around us, and the colors on the living roof.

The windows are going in as we try to close up the house.  The thing that will take the longest is the cordwood.  But, if we can get the rest of the house closed up, we may be able to seal up the cordwood holes with plastic and get a wood stove in to heat the house.  Then we will be able to do more cordwood when it is cold.

Here’s another picture of the insulation.  This is upstairs, looking into the stairwell.

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Here’s the wall to the right of the front door.  The little dots in the wall are glass nuggets.  We put a shelf in there (see the big rectangle piece of wood sticking out?)… maybe a little plant will sit on it once the house is done?
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Here’s the dining room wall.
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Here’s a close up of the cordwood above the dining room window.  I’m proud of me for that little sunny design 🙂
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This is the wall to the right of the dining room window.  It was a very cloudy day when I took this pic.  You should see how that red bottle shines on a sunny day!!  We put another shelf in this wall too, and the bottle above it to let light through to whatever we put there.  We may put the glass chicken on one of these inside shelves.
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learning flexiblity

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Kaia is doing well! Thank you all for your well wishes and concern. The orthopedic doc wants her to keep her splint on until next Tuesday to be sure that any swelling is gone before they cast it. Then he thinks the cast will only be on for 2 or 2 1/2 weeks. So, not so bad. He said the break is a full break through the bone, but the bones didn’t move, so they didn’t have to set them, and the break is below the growth plate, so she shouldn’t have any problems there either. She’s been moving around (by crawling and scooting) with ease and throws herself onto the couch. She’s even been putting a little weight on it and doesn’t have any pain. Her main problem is that her heel itches like crazy when she is sleeping. I think her foot is going to sleep and she wakes up when it starts tingling.

We went to her Nana’s house for dinner last night… here she is (the little brain child) trying to figure out the game “Battleship” and ‘resting’ on the couch. She’s learning to be flexible about getting around, and we’re given another lesson flexibility in our lives…

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The insulation went in yesterday. Easy-peasy! They just spray it (icynene) into the walls in a very thin layer and it puffs up to fill the wall space. We would have loved to use something totally sustainable, but this was the closest we could get for what we needed. Icynene is a petroleum product, but it is supposed to be more air quality friendly and non toxic. It’s also more energy efficient.

See the thin, white spray on the upper left wall…

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Here’s what it puffs into:

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Cool, eh?

Passed!

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The Structural Engineer came out today and said we are good to go!  He sees no problem with our house and sent a letter to the inspector.  So, we will go ahead with insulation on Monday!  Yeah!  The power company is also coming out next week to run a line to the house.  It’s been too cold to lay cordwood so we are doing other things to try to get the house closed in, like putting the windows and doors in.

CYA

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We had our big framing inspection yesterday. It was really nerve wracking ’cause this inspector hadn’t been out to the house since we poured the foundation! So, we didn’t know what he would say. But all in all he really liked it. He kept talking about articles that he’d seen for alternative building and that he’d love to try something like this but didn’t have the guts, or a wife that would live in a alternative structure. But, since he doesn’t know a lot about this kind of building he’s asked us to get the structural engineer back out to sign off on it. He said “I think everything looks great. I just need him to send me a letter saying it’s structurally sound… it’s a CYA (cover your ass) move you know…” So, we hope to have the engineer out this next week.

We are going to finish framing up all the windows and getting prepared for insulation, which happens on the 19th. We are also busting ass to try to get all the cordwood done by the end of the month. (So, if you are a local and want some experience laying cordwood, come on out!! We could use the extra hands and would love your help!)

Cordwood party weekend!

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We’ve laid cordwood all day yesterday and today and we are making good progress.  We had 8 people come out and help!! It’s so much more effective to have at least 4 people working at one time.  That way, someone can be mixing mortar, two people can be laying the wood, and someone can be pointing the mortar that has hardened enough to ‘finish’.  We are probably about half way done.  So, if we can get a few more cordwood work days in before the weather is consistently cold, we may be good to go!!

Here we have laid ‘big bertha’ in her place in the wall.  It is the only large round piece that we have.  They tend to crack, so we didn’t want to risk it with too many large pieces.  But she seems to be holding up well.

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And here is ‘big birtha’ a few hours later.  Kaia said it look like she has bottle hair :-)  I love the way it turned out!

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These are the kitchen walls.  We worked on the left section today.

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We did this section yesterday and today.  On the inside there more bottles making a pattern up the wall.

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This is the living room area. The 2 sections to the right of the triangle are almost finished now!
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Matilda

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Matilda arrived on our doorsteps today.  She needed a place to stay, and we have a little more room, so we’ve decided to invite her to join our family.
She’s a lovely lady and seems to be getting along well with our other ladies.  She’s settling in very nicely.  Kaia has taken to her immediately and follows her everywhere.  We hope she will become a part of our cordwood wall and stay with us forever!  Thought you’d like some pictures!

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the past week

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It’s been unseasonably warm here. So we’ve been hoping to lay some cordwood. Because we are using a lime-putty mortar mix, we need ~2 weeks without a hard freeze for it to dry. So, we are pushing it right now. The temps drop down into the low 40’s here last night, but they are supposed to be up in the 50’s (for the lows) by next week! Since it’s been so warm in the days, we may be ok. Anyway, to really start on the cordwood, we had to get the electrical done (which happened last week) and pass inspection (which we didn’t). Our electrician is from one county over and in that county they don’t require you to strip and tie off all the wires for the ‘rough inspection’. In our county, they do. So, he has to come back and do that. However, the inspector was really nice and said he has no problem with us laying the cordwood before the inspection is passed. YAY!!

So, here is a picture review of our last week. Continue reading »

Happy Fall

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Tomorrow is the first day of Fall.  So, Kaia and I started celebrating by heading to the Annual Plow festival at Warren Wilson College.  Every year, tons of people come out with their old timey plows and draft horses and plow the fields for the college.  There was also fresh pressed apple juice, a black smithing demonstration, pie tasting, bbq, face painting, and wagon rides.

The house is moving along… we finished putting on all the layers of roof insulation, the plumbing passed inspection, and Toby built 3 pocket doors (one for Kaia’s room, for the master bedroom, and in the linen closet) to save space and ’cause they are cool!  Because of all the funky angles in a 16-sided house, we also have a secret room and a built in bookshelf in Kaia’s room, a secret cubby in the guest room, built-in shelves in the hall, a large pantry, and an office cubby under the stairs.  This house is going to ROCK!!

building and building

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Check out what my man made me today!! Once in a blue moon he gets in a serious organization mood… so I encouraged this by asking him to make me something to better organize my tinctures (this is my home stash… the stuff at the office takes up a large closet :-))  All alphabetized neatly from A to Z… oooh I love order!
Here’s the progress at the house… walls are going up. Interior walls down stairs, interior and exterior upstairs. Here we are framing out some of the upstairs walls.

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Above and below is Toby and Eden framing out a window above the stairwell.

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And here I am, so beautifully gracing another window above the stairwell… I think I should have taken off the tool belt and put on the stiletto heels to really get the full effect!
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Here’s Toby in the window that will be above the bureau. (Stilettos would have made all the difference here, too :-))

Today’s Haul

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Toby and I headed out today to pick up the shower and some wood for exterior (upstairs) siding.  On the way, we stopped by the Habitat store to see if there was anything new and got a great haul!  We picked up another antique door (this one for our bedroom) for $25, a cast iron kitchen sink in great condition for $75 (retails new for $400), and a jenn-air gas convection oven for $125!!!  The oven is between 6 and 9 years old, but is in great condition.  We found similar models on the internet for ~$2000!!!  Wahooo!!

Right now, I’m enjoying a little popcorn snack that I’ll share with you, since you asked…

Pop up some popcorn in a little olive oil (we use the stove instead of a microwave).  Then add a splash of tamari (enough to get some flavor but not so much as to really wet the popcorn).  Sprinkle on some nutritional yeast (I like lots… add it to your taste), and a dash of spirulina.  A really yummy treat with lots of minerals and B-vitamins!  (Well, Toby thinks it’s gross, but I love it!!)

Bottles

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Oh, I forgot…  Here are all the bottles that we will be incorporating into the cordwood walls.  We’ve put all of them into a big bathtub with soapy water to try to get the labels and dirt off.  We mostly have clear, green, yellowish, and blue.  I have two red ones that I got at an antique store.  If you have any cool colored or funky shaped bottles in your house that you would like to include in the walls of our house, I would be honored to have them!  I’ll put a little note inside with your name, so you will be preserved in my house forever 🙂

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Cordwood!! Wild foods and Chickens.

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Toby laid down our first cordwood pieces today! Very Exciting!! Here he is, putting in the first piece!!
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This is our friend Eden who has started helping us build. She is working with the mortar here. It is a mix hydrated lime, water, and sand, and should be a nice white once it is dry. That will help to brighten things up inside (as opposed to a dark gray mortar). this wall will be a part of the mechanical/mud/laundry room.

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Here is the same wall from the outside.

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I also ground down all the plants that I harvested a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know if it is worth the effort. The Lamb’s Quarters only made 6.5 ounces of flour, the Aster 5.5, and the Yellow Dock ~4.5 ounces. The Thistle I had to trash because I couldn’t grind it up fine enough and I was worried about getting little sharp thistle pieces in our food. So, for all the effort in gathering, drying, and grinding them, I think it may be a better idea to gather a little each year and use the wild green flours to supplement and increase the nutrients in the ones we buy.

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Have I mentioned that Suki (the dog) and Sweetie (the Houdini chicken) have come to an agreement? I don’t know how or why it happened, but Sweetie, who continues to escape her coop, roams all around the yard and Suki doesn’t bother her. She hops back into the coop to lay her eggs and then gets out again! So, we decided to try to just open up the coop, during the day while we are here, and let all the chickens roam around. Suki seems to be fine with it. She will occasionally give chase to one of the chickens, but there have been no casualties and the chickens love it! In fact, when we don’t open the coop up early enough, all the chickens are trying (and often succeeding) to get out! They have even been going back to their boxes in their coop house to lay their eggs! Crazy chickens!

Score!

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Toby and I had to drive both trucks out to the Habitat store today for their half off all doors and windows sale!  We were able to pick up a front door (with a nice big window), back door, 4 interior room doors (antique looking!), all of the closet doors, and 4 big windows for $144!!!!!  The antique doors are solid 1920’s looking doors that had an old price tag on them of $150 each (we paid $5 each!).  Under one coat of peeling paint is a beautiful dark reddish wood!  So, we’ll sand them down and see what we get.  We also got two triangle shaped windows that will fit together to make a square, and one large trapezoid.  We’re going to try to do something artistic with them 🙂

I have occasionally written herbal articles for a regional paper called New Life Journal.  Each month they do an article on green building going on in the area.  Usually the houses, that they feature, though beautiful, are fairly large and expensive.  So, I mentioned our home project to the managing editor and she said she would be interested in doing a feature on our house when it is done!  We haven’t done the calculations yet, but I think we will have it all done (including solar stuff) for under 100K (maybe well under that, but we’ll see).

So, today is day 11 of the fast.  Physically, I’m still doing fine, but I really want some flavor in my life!  Everything makes me drool… Watching Kaia eat her animal crackers… Smelling a BBQ… anything.  Only 3 days left.  We’ll, then all I get is orange juice for a day and a half while I get my digestion going again… THEN, I will make a delicious, scrumptious, nutritious, vege, seaweed, miso soup! MMmmmm, I’m drooling again!

Decking the roof

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We had some great progress on the house these past few days.  A bunch of friends came out to lend a hand on Sat. and then Toby’s dad stayed over to help again on Sunday!  We have such awesome friends and family!!

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Here we are beginning the decking of the first story roof.  Each piece of wood was planed on one side to give it a smooth, clean look.  Then the edges were routered to give them a finished look.  Then hammered into place. The floor was constantly covered with sawdust.  We will have enough sawdust for the composting toilets to last for at least a year!!

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More decking…

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Toby and his dad trying to lift the center post up to the second floor.

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Just about finished!  There’s the center post for the second story laying over to the left… See it?
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Here is the view of the ceiling from the inside.  I was laying down in what will be Kaia’s room.  Pretty, eh?

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Kaia enjoyed all the saw dust we made!

spaceship house

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Sorry for the long break! We’ve been a little busy (HA, like we ever have down time) 🙂

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Here is the house from afar… Second floor rafters are up! Woo Hoo!!

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This is a picture of the ceiling, looking up from the first floor near the center post.
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This is the sub floor of the second floor. We will be putting hardwood on top (we’ve gotten enough from the local hardwood floor dumpster to do the whole floor!! I have no idea why they throw out this great, perfect wood!)

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Looking down the stairwell into Kaia’s room.

second floor

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Toby was hard at work while I was away this past week. Here’s the engineering feat he has been constructing:
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here you can see the beginning of the joists that will hold up the second floor.

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this is the view from the inside! The flooring will go on top of these joists, so the will be an exposed part of our first floor ceiling. Does that make sense?
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this is looking down on the girders from the second floor, right above the main post.

progress

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Here is this weeks progress.  All but two rafters are up on the first floor.  Next, the floor joists for the second floor (which will come up from the smaller inner circle).

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All the blue stuff is insulation that is a part of the living roof.

Woo Hoo!

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Howdy!

Ok, so I wrote an article yesterday about harvesting herbs/weeds from your back yard that can help you with seasonal allergies and sent it in to BackHome Magazine to see if they might be interested in it. Today, I got an email back from the editor saying that they are interested and would like to publish it in their Sept/Oct issue!!! Woo Hoo!! I’m goin’ national, baby!! No, really, the biggest boost to the ego isn’t that I want to be famous, it’s that feeling “yeah, you know what… you do have something good to say that others might benefit from”. I’d better go renew my subscription!! 🙂

In other ‘big’ news, check out this mondo egg! The one on the left is our standard xtra large variety egg!! One of our Americaunas (poor thing) laid the one on the right. Toby had it for breakfast this morning and said it was a double yolker! Ouch!
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Here are the latest house pictures I’ve got. The first two are of the rafters that have been going up. The third is from our party this weekend when we had a center post raising! It weighed ~600 pounds, so we needed a bunch of hands! It’s so amazing to see this progress and to know that this will be our home and that so much friendship and love has gone into it!

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Fridgidare, you rock!

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After a 4 foot nose dive onto a concrete statue, our fridge still works!!! So, I spent the greater part of yesterday evening cleaning out the egg, dirt and ash (it also fell into our wood stove ash bucket) and now everything is back in. Then Toby and I had ‘a good ol’fashioned outhouse raising’, cleaned it up and staked it into the ground! No more tipping over! We also strapped the fridge to the porch and staked the chicken coop down too…. just in case!

Dandelion Mead and broken fridge

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Once the Dandelions started flowering all around, I planned on making a dandelion mead. But, when I went out the other day to gather dandelion flowers, I also found a field full of violets, a wild patch of lemon balm, a huge amount of nettles, and a few other yumminesses. Above is a picture of the bottom of the 5 gallon that I brew my mead in (minus the nettles). Isn’t it pretty? I can’t wait to sample it!

I taught two herb classes this past week for the local school and felt completely drained. I love teaching community classes about herbalism to people who have no clue about it. Afterwards, I feel energized. But these 3 hour classes to aspiring herbalist just drain me. They make me think too much when I am teaching 🙂 No, seriously, I feel like I am being pulled along by this wave of people who are all doing great herbal things, but may want to be ‘bigger’ herbalists than I do. Writing books, teaching at conferences… I wouldn’t mind being known and making good money, but it’s not a goal of mine. In fact, it stresses me out. I really just want to live simply, have time for playing with my family, and to be an effective healer. If I never taught another class or wrote another article, but had enough clients to keep me happily busy, I would be good with that. But, right now, I have to teach classes and write, etc. to get my name known to build clientele. I think lot of it is that I feel like I am teaching over my head. I mean, I know my herbs and all, but I don’t know all the constituents in Pipssissewa, and I don’t know all the drug/herb interactions for people on cardiac medications. And even when I am teaching anatomy and physiology, I am definitely not an expert and sometimes don’t even feel like I should be up there teaching. I don’t know what I am trying to say here… I guess, I am just remembering the whole reason that we are on this land and building our own house, and it’s not so that I can always be elsewhere trying to make a name for myself as an herbalist. My vision to be a part time herbalist and full time mom/wife/friend/land lover has somehow gotten to fulltime+ herbalist and on occassion mom/wife and even less time for friends and time on the land. Hmmmm… something needs to change.

……..

HOLY SHIT!! The Fridge just blew off the porch!!! The weather man predicted wind gust of up to 65mph for the next 2 days… and the brand new $600 fridge just blew off the porch and landed on a concrete statue! We had 20 eggs in the fridge and now there are only 2 left! The rest are plastered all over the inside of the fridge. Broken bottles everywhere… The whole thing is dented up and the light isn’t working. So we don’t know if the light is burnt out or if the whole fridge is broken. CRAP, CRAP, CRAP!!!
The out house is blown over now too! Major CRAP!! I’m not looking forward to cleaning that one up! Things are flying all over the place and I keep having visions of the whole house tipping over! I hope the chicken coop stays put!! And I really hope the tin stays on our roof! It is really insane here right now, and a tad bit scary!!

this weeks progress

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Here is what was accomplished this past Tuesday on the house! It feels like what I imagine standing in the middle of stonehenge to be like when you are in the house 🙂

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And here is a beautiful dogwood flower! It is supposed to be 17 degrees this sat. night, so I hope they all make it through! My strawberries are covered with flowers, so I’ve covered all of my garden beds with floating row cover.

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Spring has sprung!

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I can’t believe the weather around here right now! It has been in the 70’s for the past week and we have kept our windows open at night! NICE!

With the warm, clear weather, we were able to move ~20 tons of gravel (by hand, with a shovel and wheel barrel!) into the house. It is put down over the leveled ground. On top of the gravel we now have insulation, water proofing, wire mesh, and radiant floor tubing. (A friend of mine makes orgonite, so I may throw some of that in there too, before we pour the concrete. I don’t know much about it, but it sounds cool and it can’t hurt to incorporate some crystals into the house, right?) Tomorrow we hope to have the inspections (for the foundation and for the mechanics of the radiant flooring), then the slab will be poured on Friday!!! Wahoo!!! We are having the color mixed directly into the concrete and then we will put a sealant on top so it will by kinda shiny. I can’t wait!!

Oh, I just posted the first Viriditas newsletter. It has a nice Nettles recipe if you are interested.

This weekend we are hosting a Maya Abdominal Massage Self-Care class based on the teachings of Rosita Arvigo (and Don Elijio Panti, a mayan healer). I can’t wait! This is something I have been wanting to do for a while! In May, I head up to NH for a professional training class. Then I can offer this to my clients. The basis for this massage is that it helps to strengthen muscles and ligaments in the abdomen so that the organs ‘fit’ in the right places. For example, if your uterus is ‘retroverted’ (tilted backwards) this may cause bowel pressure, chronic constipation, painful cramping during menses, old blood to be held in the uterus, infertility… the list goes on. So, this massage helps to get things back in place and relieve symptoms. As I see it, it also increases effective blood and energy flow so that the herbs I give to my clients can get to where they need to go. (No point in giving my clients uterine herbs if the blood flow to the uterus is lacking or bowel herbs if there is decreased energy flow there, right).

Here’s a bunch of pictures–
Continue reading »

Large Marge

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I think there were 20 times this past week where I said to myself, “oh, I should blog about this…” and now I can’t remember what those things are!

Oohhh, I remember one! Ok, so two nights ago, we were all in bed sleeping when Toby bounces out of bed yelling (well, he may not have been yelling, but to a completely asleep me, it seemed like yelling) “Someone is coming up our driveway!” Now this may not seem like a big deal to you, but we are the last house at the end of the last road on the end of a larger road, and no one comes up our drive at night unless they are looking for trouble. So, I look out the window and see this mass of lights coming up the road to us and spot lights moving all around! At this point, I had really only been out of dream state for ~10 seconds and my first thought is “OH MY GOD! IT’S A UFO!” I felt like I was still dreaming, but all I could think of was protecting my family! I followed Toby downstairs and grabbed my phone and dialed 911. I held my finger on the ‘send’ button while Toby went outside to investigate the lights, which were by now directly in front of our house. My heart was pounding and I was trying to think of how we were going to survive (remember, all of this happened within ~40 seconds, so I’m still a little loopy from being asleep). Within a minute, Toby was back in the house giving me the low down. Turns out it was the power company (with their huge truck with lots of lights, a crane, and spot lights on top. (It sure looked like a UFO!) They said the power was out on our street and how could we not have noticed?? (It was only 11:30, even though we thought it was 4 in the morning.) Toby didn’t mention to him that we only have a couple of lights and only just got electricity this past month. Toby headed back out with a flash light to try to help them locate the tree that brought the power lines down while I headed back upstairs to try to calm down. Still, I waited at the window until Toby came back inside, cause all I could think about was that part in PeeWee’s Big Adventure when he gets out of the semi-trailer and the truck driver says “tell ‘em Large Marge sent ya’” and it turns out she has been dead for two years (you remember that?). Whew, what a night!

Oh, so it turns out we may have some new neighbors… in ol’ Junk Man’s place. The land has been for sale for a while, but we met two ladies who have it under contract and hope to close on it next week! They are very sweet, friendly and love canning! I’m excited!!

Today, T, K, and I headed up to the land above us that is under contract (that I think is going to be mass developed) and dug up some lilac and elder plants. I wish we could dig them all up and move them to our land so they won’t be plowed under! At least we will save some of them!

Faye is doing great, by the way. Pretty much back to normal.

Toby shaved off his bushy beard and cut his hair!! I love it!! (I’m not a facial hair kinda girl) I think I might wax my legs in response 🙂

Not so helpful dog

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3/8–Two nights ago, we came home to find Faye (our speckled sussex chicken) injured in front of the house. She had gotten out of the coop and Suki (our dog who has learned not to kill chickens, retrieved her for us and brought her to the house. Unfortunately, in the process, Faye was severely injured. Her back was moist from where Suki had held her. But, when I lifted the feathers, her skin came right off. There was a 6×4 inch strip between her wings that could lift off of her back. I pretty much thought she would die that night. But, I made a tea with everything I could think of (chamomile, yarrow, echinacea, goldenseal…) to help cleanse and heal the wound. We bathed her injury and kept her in the house the first night. I sent a frantic email to Rosemoon, who called me up and gave me some hope (THANKS!) Faye was eating and had a good amount of energy for such a nasty wound. She made it through the first night, so we put her out in the pen for the day, blocked off from the other chickens, so they wouldn’t peck at her. But when we came home, she had weaseled her way into the main area and was sleeping in one of the nesting boxes. She made it through another night. I’ve been adding garlic to their feed and all the chickens have been drinking an herbal tea for healing (since everyone eats the same thing). She slept most of today in her coop, but came out in the evening to peck a little. You can tell movement causes her a lot of pain, but she is trying so hard. The next few days will tell us a lot. If she doesn’t seem to be improving, we will have to put her down. Suki will no longer be allowed off lead when the chickens are out (we thought it would be ok as we had thought we’d solved the problem of them getting out of the coop…) I want to get a dog that protects livestock, not one that likes to carry them around!

3/9-Faye has been out of the coop a lot more today. Sweetie (the smartest chicken alive!), has been staying beside Faye, kicking up bugs for her, and being a bit of a chicken nurse!

3/10–Faye hopped out of the coop early this morning and has been holding her own, pecking for food most of the day! I really can’t believe the is alive. That was a really nasty wound!!
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Here’s Kaia standing where her bedroom will be.

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here is the North wall, which will have soil half way up. The white reflection is from the surface bond material that was put on the concrete blocks.

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This is most of the house footprint. The water proof membrane and insulation has been put on the external north wall, and most of the french drain is in. The plumbers will be out on Wed to start laying the lines, before we pour the foundation.

“GOOD JOB, MOMMY!!”

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That’s what Kaia screamed into the phone when I called her on the way home from the college. I had a total blast teaching at AB Tech. on Tuesday night! There were ~60 people there to learn about Ginger, Saw Palmetto, and Valerian! I never thought I would be teaching, much less to this number of people! I was nervous all day, but when I got there, I felt cool, calm, and collected (maybe it was all the valerian in my tea 🙂 ) There were men and women from 20 to 80 years old. They asked lots questioned, seemed genuinely interested, and they laughed at all my jokes! I made this kick-ass power point presentation too! And here’s the best part: I actually got paid well!! That’s almost unheard of for an herbalist 🙂 When the coordinator said, “do you think this is fair compensation?” I had to completely contain myself so I could get out “yes, that seems fair” before hanging up the phone and dancing around the room! WOW! Now, I know that money isn’t everything, but it sure is nice to be compensated for all the work I have done!

Our chickens are still laying up a storm! 4 to 5 eggs a day from 6 chickens. The funny thing is that we always get equal amounts of blue to brown eggs… we have 2 blue layers and 4 brown layers! Hmmm…

House stuff is going well. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have lights in the house!! I’ve even felt a little like cooking again (I lost all interest in cooking when we moved into the little house with the 4×2 kitchen). Toby should have all the block laid today. Then the foundation process starts (gravel, plumbing, laying radiant floor tubes, pouring the concrete, etc…) Very Exciting!