10/21

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43 degrees inside this morning.

Cold, rainy, and windy yesterday but the rain finally ended by afternoon and we saw a moment or two of sun. The forecast is for sunny weather and gradually warmer temperatures over the next 6 days. Then cold and rain again. Chimney should be here late next week.

Rachel and I watched THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE yesterday morning. I downloaded another video for her to watch today - MONEY AS DEBT.

We ran errands again yesterday as it was miserable weather.

We looked for used comforters at the Habitat to use for our insulated window curtains idea, but the only ones they had were thin and not cheap. We took our trash to the transfer station in Sunbright. The old guy there wanted to borrow a lighter to light his gas heater in his little blockhouse. There was a David Lynch moment where he needed me to go in to the blockhouse with him to help him light the heater. I ignited an end of curled up paper he was holding, while he pushed it in to the front of the heater while holding open the valve for gas on the stove. It would occasionally puff blue flame - but seemed maybe out of gas. After several tries with burning paper shoved in to the front of it it ignited and the flame burned steadily. I was happy to get out of there without a fireball having consumed the both of us inside the little dark blockhouse.

We picked up organic tobacco at the tobacco shop in Wartburg, as we roll our own organic cigarettes. Rachel's always smoked, but I picked it up last year after all the emotional turmoil of separating with Patty and not seeing the kids and moving out and fighting over the Tennessee property. Haven't smoked since I was 19.

I paid the electric bill and Rachel picked up a prescription for Harley's tooth which is hurting her and we looked at what grains and scratch they had at the CO-OP - none of which were really all-natural and suitable for our homemade poultry diet mix.

I returned the 8" chimney brush at the hardware store and the guy was being difficult because I didn't have the receipt. These guys have known me at this local hardware store for 4 years and I've spent a lot of money there, always preferring to support them over a big box store - and he's the one who recommended an 8" brush would work in a 7" pipe - well it doesn't . . . the brush goes in, but is too big and stiff to come back out. I told him I could go home and find the receipt if he wants, but his receipts aren't itemized and of such cheap ink they usually fade out and become illegible in a couple of weeks. He said he never charges the price on the item so he doesn't know how much to refund. But he eventually gave me the price of the item plus an additional dollar for tax. I'm determined to find the receipt and give him any difference if he overpaid and slap it on the counter the next time I'm there. I've never had a problem before with this store and wonder why the guy's decided to make an ass of himself now.

We went ahead on to Oak Ridge since it was cold and only 25 minutes away, and we needed the HomeLite chainsaw at Home Depot and to deposit a check at the bank. We also looked for a Toyoto dealer to exchange the battery from the car that we had tested at AutoZone and found dead but was still under warranty. There wasn't any Toyoto dealer in Oak Ridge, and over the phone they told us battery warranties are pro-rated and since ours is 59 months old we probably won't get anything for it. So we called around and found a new one for $64 in Jamestown. We've got to get the car back up and running as gas is too expensive to be using the truck for errands.

We got the chainsaw with an 18" bar at HomeDepot, oil and a stone for sharpening knives, a 6 pound splitting maul, a set of chisels for sharpening the chain, and paid $25 for an additional 2 year warranty on the chainsaw since we know it's going to get abused cutting wood for heat year after year. And I learned a lesson in not having got an extended warranty on the mower and it's already broken down.

We also looked at the price of fiberglass insulation. After some sticker shock I spent the evening looking in to cheap alternatives for insulation and researched sawdust for a while since we have an infinite free supply of it down at the mill [Rachel and I go down there once a season to fill the Explorer to the roof with bags of it to use in our composting toilets - it only takes us about a half-hour to gather a season's worth of it. We store it in the barn to keep it dry.]

I've ultimately come to the conclusion to stick with fiberglass because I'd have to immediately put interior walls and ceiling and something under the floor to hold the sawdust in. The R value of sawdust is debatable, and you've got to put some price on your own personal labor for putting it in which is intensive. If we stick with fiberglass and do one area at a time as we can afford it we can leave the walls exposed on the interior and cover them later.

The lesson here is if you're a DIYer/potential homesteader and don't have an infinite supply of cash NEVER USE MODULAR CONSTRUCTION TO BUILD YOUR HOME. The cost of everything is astronomical. Use any inexpensive local material you can get your hands on, whether earthbags, adobe, cob, cordwood, logs, sod, block, stone, straw, etc. - anything but kiln-dried framing lumber and all the costly manufactured materials that go with it purchased from a home improvement store. Considering the cost of straw and wet climate, if I had to start over I'd do earthbags - nothing's as long-lasting and cheap as dirt, and once constructed structure/interior exterior walls/insulation via thermal mass - all are completed in one inexpensive step. Tedious to build . . . but cheap, functional, beautiful and durable. Rachel would be happy with a little sod hut on the plains. Well . . . maybe if we ever move. I'd be fine with a wigwam.

Rachel mixed a half-batch of the ingredients together for our new poultry diet. We put it out in the trough in the coop last night. We let Rosy try the roasted lentils and whole oats and she loves them. The chickens also devoured the raw chicken that kitty refused to eat in trying to get her on a raw-meat diet [chickens will eat anything].

Oh and as far as kitty goes, we're going to put an ad up on GOLSN and try to find another home for her. She climbs the housewrap and window screens on the cabin and tears them up, stalks and harasses the birds, tears up newly planted areas of the garden and shits in them, constantly gets into food in the house like licking the butter, shits in the pepper plants, and yesterday when we came home from errands Rachel left a bowl of lentils on the table which she'd spent all day roasting for the chickens. Kitty had pissed and shit in it. We had to wash it and redry it. That was the last straw. She's cute and friendly, but totally incompatible with what we're doing and a nightmare on a daily basis. I'm also allergic to cats and her dander's everywhere. Anybody want a cat?

We have a lot of chores to catch up on today now that the rain's over. Then we can get out the saw and maul and start making firewood.

[Kitty's meowing at the door desperately to be let in]

Time to let out the birds . . . and get bunny her weeds . . . and fertigate the garden . . .
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