Loft Pictures

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All these pics are from the loft upstairs, Rachel and I's bedroom.

This is the 'library' - the desktop picture is of the bobcat we trapped:

Here's the middle of the loft, with our dressers, 'tea station', and a map on the wall with pins for places we've lived:

Here is our 'living room':

The bedroom:

A view downstairs from above:

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First Frost

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Today is our first true frost. Besides the mulch and Brassicas being covered in frost, there are thin shards of ice in the duck pool, and all the water containers up at the coop are frozen shut. I tried to take a picture of it, but as always happens to me, there's no heat in the cabin so the batteries in the camera won't work.

Most everything out there is cold-hardy fall plants. Beds #8 and 9 will need mini hoop houses when we've got the money to put them together. We may beat the cold and we may not. We've already got the 4 mil plastic sheeting we bought at the hardware store - we just need electrical conduit for the hoops and rebar for stakes to hold them in place.

It's currently 32 degrees inside the cabin.

Yesterday was much warmer and sunny, a little over 50 degrees. With all the windows it probably hit 70 inside the cabin. Beside the usual chores I caulked about half of the upper story inside. I'll try to finish caulking the upper story today. Early next week we're getting fiberglass insulation for the roof - R 19 - then we can at least run a space heater up here with some efficiency till the chimney arrives. The girls run a space heater in the addition as it's already reasonably sealed up though not insulated yet. The addition also gets very warm with all its south-facing windows. Up in the loft most of the heat passes through the opening at the vent-cap on the roof. Insulation will block that.

Yesterday we got no eggs even though I took several trips up to the coop and saw hens laying and heard them cackling after they'd laid. We've now confirmed something is definitely stealing the eggs out of the nest boxes. Since the wooden eggs were not taken, up to 5 went missing in one day, and no eggs went missing when we were away in Atlanta, we're almost certain it's not a snake. It's something smart enough to avoid the wooden eggs, big enough to carry them away and stash them, and at the same time not big enough to attack the chickens themselves. After some research we believe it's either a squirrel or a rat. We've seen a squirrel up there before eating from the chicken trough, and the guineas gave it a wide berth without harassing it. On my last trip up to the coop yesterday to collect eggs the guineas followed me cackling which was a little unusual. They might follow me for a treat, but with all their alarm calls it seemed like they were communicating that something was wrong - so maybe they saw what was stealing the eggs.

We'll have to be super-vigilant and take many trips up to the coop each day to collect eggs, even if someone's laying and we wish not to disturb them. Hopefully we'll catch what's taking the eggs and then figure out how to trap it - or destroy it if we must. Our 2 problem animals this year were a raccoon and a bobcat - the raccoon had destroyed most of the corn - but both animals we successfully trapped and relocated a half hour away to Big South Fork National Rec Area.

It seems rather surprising to me that a squirrel could carry off our large chicken eggs, yet there are countless stories of such a thing happening on the internet.

Yesterday we also watched THE FLUORIDE DECEPTION and MONEY AS DEBT. We have to wait for movies to load with our slow DSL but they do load after a half hour or so.

Hand wringers are quite expensive but we're still looking. We came across a bucket within a bucket within a bucket method for pressing the water out of clothes which we'll try till we can either buy or construct an efficient hand wringer.

Crows will also steal eggs, but outside of a few times spotting them in the little valley I haven't seen them lately and they'd be hard to miss.

I went around and took photos of everything yesterday and will try to get them uploaded today.

Rachel thinned the seedlings yesterday and we had a big salad for lunch with bread and garden vegetables for dinner. It's been too cold for the sourdough to function so we've had to buy bread.
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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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10/19

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Still sick with a cold today but not as bad as yesterday.

Cold, rainy, and windy all day. The forecast says only 42 tonight but it barely hit 42 all day. Rain and cold forecast for tomorrow also, but then sunny weather ahead which means at least the cabin will be warm with all the windows - though not at night. Still no heat source till the chimney arrives. The girls have plugged in a space heater. We wear several layers of clothes. And drink hot tea.

The ducks don't mind the cold or rain and free-range happily all day. The guineas after last night in the trees in the rain headed to bed early in the coop. At least they have that much sense [a guinea, compared to a chicken, is an imbecile - the semi-domesticated ones at least. The wild slate-colored guineas that live around here seem rather intelligent and raised a batch of keets successfully even while the bobcat was killing right and left].

The ducks make a mess of their food and dump it everywhere. We started them on a homemade diet of mush consistency which they did well with [they like their food wet]. As they got older we switched to high-quality layer pellets which the chickens were getting. We're now trying to get away from kibble-style factory food and do a homemade diet for all the birds. We've put a lot of research into creating the right homemade diet for poultry. It will have to be adjusted seasonally. We just picked up the ingredients today at Tractor Supply and Walmart. A 40# bag of alfalfa pellets, a 50# bag of whole oats, a 50# bag of bird seed, 5# of lentils, 5# of peas, 8# of thistle seed . . . we already have flax seeds, cracked corn - here are the proportions we worked out:

Alfalfa Pellets
40#
Bird Seed Mix
50#
Oats
15#
Nyjer Thistle Seed
2#
Lentils
7#
Split Peas
6#
Flax Seed
2#

It uses basically ingredients we can presently get at a moderate to low cost. The protein content is 14%. Laying hens must have a minimum of 14% and ideally 16%. This is usually achieved via free-ranging with the high protein content of forage and insects. But it's nearly November now and the bugs are almost gone and forage is reduced. Protein is usually boosted in the homemade diets using some type of field peas. If we didn't wish to keep the birds laying through the winter we could simply put them on a low protein (12%) maintenance diet. But as it is we need eggs and have a light on a timer on the coop so they get 16 hours of light a day. We got 4 eggs today from 5 birds [one of whom a banty almost never lays] so it's working. Ever since we got off layer pellets and went from a 50/50 diet of rabbit food and scratch [simply because we ran out of layer pellets] egg production increased.

We'll have to see how well this diet works for them . . . eventually we'll get sacks of organic grain from a supplier an hour south of Knoxville for mixing their food. The ducks will go on the same diet as the chickens [two are mixed runners, 5 are mixed rouens - probably not ideal laying breeds but we picked them up for free sort of rescue ducks from a fellow homesteader moving soon to Texas]. I'll try soaking the food for the ducks so they can eat it better and not make such a mess of it. It's a little bit of a juggle raising three completely different types of poultry all living together in the same coop.

The cat is going on a raw meat diet and the bunny is being switched from poor-quality grain-based rabbit pellets to alfalfa pellets. She'll also get some grains, hay, and I give her a big batch of weeds every morning which she always eats. Sometimes food scraps like carrot tops and peels. Bunny's just a pet for the girls though we do use her fertilizer. She's not breeding and not to be used for meat [we're vegetarians].

We cleaned the kitchen then dropped off the mower today at a small-engine repair shop. A cold wet day is a good day for errands. We'll probably go to Oak Ridge tomorrow for a Homelite chainsaw and splitting maul. We have a lot of wood to cut and stack. Ordered a 7" chimney brush from Ace Hardware - will be here next week.

Too cold and wet to do anything with the garden today - though the seedlings need thinned, desperately, especially mustards. The brassicas are growing wonderfully. The combination of deep mulching with grass clippings and fertigation have made the garden do very well. I take the daily water from the small duck pool in the masonry tub, and mix it in a bucket with graywater from the dishes - about 1/4 duckwater to 3/4 graywater - and distribute it in rotation through all the garden beds.

Rachel's roasting lentils and peas in the toaster oven for the chicken food. With the next batch we'll soak and sprout the legumes before toasting them dry so it's more nutritious and digestible. Right now we're crunched for time running out of the old 1/1/1 mix of rabbit food, cracked corn, and scratch. The birds also have a granite grit in a container in the coop and their own eggshells dried and ground for them to eat as a calcium supplement.

Had stewed root vegetables and bread for dinner.

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Master List

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Here is the master list of everything that needs done up here by winter. Items that are dated have already been done.

FALL LIST

Plastic sheet over coop windows

Insulated strips for coop door and run door

Ad for gas stove on GOLSN [ASAP] 10/1

Get Homelite chainsaw, 6# wood-splitting maul [ASAP] [ATLANTA]

Cut and stack wood [ASAP]

Construct hoop houses [ASAP]

Plant garden [ASAP] 10/10

Insulate cabin

Caulk cabin, plug holes

Finish wiring

Install chimney [when parts arrive] [ASAP]

Move loft ladder

Get Hardiback for cook stove

Build duck house

Build duck nest boxes [ASAP] 10/8

Get duck pool and pen area

Plumb house

Remove French doors, interior walls

Make insulated window drapes

Transfer compost in bin 10/2

Fence perennials

Sand chairs [ASAP] 10/8

Build insulated cathouse [ASAP]

Reconfigure rafters for stove pipe [when parts arrive] [ASAP]

Change car air filters

Amend Rachel’s taxes [ASAP] [unnecessary] 10/7

Drain swimming pool and put up

Trap bobcat [ASAP] 10/4

Dust cabbages with repellent [ASAP] 10/7

Pay phone bill [MONDAY 10/10] 10/7

Pay electric bill [MONDAY 10/24]

Play it Again Sports for Harley’s cleats and glove 10/14

Gather walnuts [ASAP] 10/6

Repair shoes [ASAP] 10/6

Order Amish manual for stove [ASAP] 10/7

Clean bunny cage and fertilize artichokes [ASAP] 10/6

Air tents [ASAP] 10/9

Clean pruning shears

Make garden door

Call Northline Express about shipments [MONDAY 10/10]

Return or repair mower [ASAP]

Buy and paint wooden duck eggs 10/13

Gather acorns from white and red oaks on property

Find hand wringer

Put gas stove on Craigslist [ASAP]

Put washer/dryer on GOLSN/Craigslist

Move light in coop [ASAP] 10/17

Order Rapid Breather washer [ASAP] 10/16

Deposit check at Suntrust [ASAP]

Gather rest of walnuts [ASAP]

Sand/paint wooden eggs and place in egg boxes [ASAP] 10/17

Rearrange girls’ room [ASAP]

Call Northline Express about order status [ASAP] 10/17

Mail cell phone to the girls [ASAP] 10/18

Air out tents from camping on Pigeon Mountain [ASAP] 10/17

Return chimney brush

Get 7” chimney brush and clean out stovepipe

Buy round hay bales

Buy car battery
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10/18

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10/18

Sick today with a cold.

Cloudy and cool through the morning but mostly sunny and warm with some wind through the afternoon. Supposed to rain soon.

Did the usual chores, watering, got 3 eggs today – both araconas in the big box and Rosy in the little one. Many guineas still sleeping in the trees. Acorns cover the ground up by the coop under the white oaks.

Cleaned Bastian’s stuff out of the girls’ room and put it up on a skid under the barn. Kids’ room loaded with roaches and flies. Cleaned out the truck from camping.

Researching getting dairy goats.

Rachel processed lots of garden food, picked the garden, did all the dishes, etc.

All the blankets and sleeping bags hanging up in the upper story of the barn to air.

Located a guy in Jamestown who may be able to fix the mower cheap.

Artichokes have recovered well after bucket of duck water and dying off in late summer.

Had granola for breakfast, stewed reduced garden tomatoes with crackers for lunch, quesadillas with mustard greens for dinner.


['Rosy' is our Rhode Island Red who is so friendly we thought of putting a chicken diaper on her and letting her spend time inside - she often wanders in when the door is open.

Rachel's convinced the roaches are not roaches but some kind of wild relative. In my opinion if it looks like a roach and scurries like a roach it's a roach. But where they should be most common - the kitchen, where all the food is - there aren't any at all. They're only in the addition and out in boxes in the shed.

The flies sometimes inside become quite abundant. We've got flypaper hanging up in front of most windows. It is considered unsightly, but is very effective at eliminating them. We're used to the flypaper and infinitely prefer the sight of it to flies landing on us.

My favorite meal up here is boiling down garden tomatoes into a thick stew to eat with crackers. It can also be frozen in freezer bags for later use in meals like squash lasagna. The cherry tomatoes become so sweet when boiled down they make a rich aromatic jam.]
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10/17/11

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10/17/11

Hot and sunny, some wind. Put out all the wooden duck eggs [12] we picked up in Atlanta [Michael’s - $.79 – painted white] in the 4 nest boxes in the morning. The same two in the coop, one made from a plastic bin on the floor for the ducks, and one I built of wood/osb sitting out in the duck pen. Out of 5 hens we got 4 eggs – 2 in the big popular box, Little Bit the first to lay in the duck box in the coop, and one in the small box. So the eggs work if not just to motivate the birds to lay in the boxes, but also to try different boxes they’re unfamiliar with laying in.

Had a massive amount of duck/graywater to distribute throughout the garden from having the birds cooped up while we were gone [5 days – 5 chickens, 7 ducks, 13 guineas].

Girls barely made the bus by Harley running ahead of Gwen to flag down the bus.

Aired out the tents from our camping trip. Rachel’s tent still wet and she hung it up on upper story of barn.

Took a trip to Sunbright and picked up a small piece of pipe for a garden door, popcorn bowl, rubber spatula, small knife, and two bookcases [$15 a piece]. Had the truck to fit it. Also mailed the girls their phone they left in the back pocket of the seat in the truck [$6}. Didn’t get walnuts – too much to do at home. Also bought milk and ice cream treat.

Rachel picked tomatoes from the garden and lettuce, kale, chard, pepper, and radishes for a big salad which we had for a late lunch. Used up the rest of our blue cheese dressing – need to start making our own. Rachel made croutons from homemade bread and we also added roasted sunflower seeds.

Wasps and ladybugs were everywhere in the house especially upstairs. I had to swat 30 wasps to make it livable up here. Rachel got stung in the foot when one got trapped underneath her sandal. Wasps were milling everywhere underneath the eaves. We can only guess they’re waking up with the warmth or looking for a place to hibernate before the coming cold front - which will probably be our second stretch of light frost.

Coyotes yipping late evening.

Spent hours reorganizing the loft to fit bookcases beside the computer table – had to cut a wedge out of nonstructural stud to fit it all. Brought Bastian’s dresser up here. Put the toilet along the loft railing. Looks good with much more storage space. Put up magazines [Mother earth, Countryside, etc] in one case, books in other. Cleaned and vacuumed. Room now microorganized with library, dressing room, bathroom, tea station, living room, and bedroom. Need a floor lamp for the library area – hard to find cheap.

Read Rachel from A FAREWELL TO ARMS at night. Talked about history.

Rinsed and later washed the dishes in the morning. Cleaned out the truck some. Car battery dead from the trunk having been left open while we were gone. Rachel organized produce in kitchen.

Called Northline about chimney order – shouldn’t expect anything until late next week.

Looking in to ordering rolls of hay to mulch on massive scale especially since mower is currently not working. An ad on Trade Times says $10 - $15 per bale . . . will call.

Brought back helpful things from Atlanta – Rachel got 2 big roles of unbarbed wire from her mother, a ricer, large metal bowls, magazines, 2 big pots, and I got a $100 check for my birthday and $25 gift certificate.


[We've had many issues with chickens laying outside the coop who knows where. There's also the possibility a snake is getting the eggs in the coop. The clutches of wooden duck eggs in each box should help both problems.

The Habitat for Humanity thrift store in Sunbright is an awesome place to score just about anything.

We camped up on Pigeon Mountain with Rachael and Brooke at the end of our Atlanta stay last weekend - they left their phone in the back of the truck.

Sebastian is Rachel's 17 year old son who moved up with us in March. He just got his GED up here and moved back down to Atlanta permanently last weekend. Harley and Gwen are Rachel's 13 and 9 year old daughters who live with us up here and go to school in Sunbright. Their bedrooms are in the addition.

The city park in Sunbright has an almost unlimited supply of black walnuts. We've gathered two trunkloads so far and have them drying up on the upper story of the barn. They so far cover a space 12'x24'. There's another trunkload to get. We also have a good amount of chestnut oak acorns up there we gathered in Pickett State Park about an hour from here.

The loft now has a railing and is Rachel and I's bedroom. I've joked that it's our headquarters for 'Operation Homestead' as we have a commanding view over the entire property.

One of the guards came loose under the deck on the mower, and the blades caught it and tore it up. We have a nice Honda Quadra-Cut mower that cuts a very fine mulch. I replaced the gaurd but now the vibration's so bad we're worried the blades are either out of balance or the crankshaft is bent. We found a small-engine repair guy in Jamestown to look at it. While the mower's out, and until we can obtain some large hay rolls, we're out of cover material - just have to take mulch from future garden beds.]
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