I have moved into the earthship. "Bite the bullet," do what needs to be done, all that. Planning will only take you so far.
There are still a million things to do but water runs from the tap (hot, even!) and the light switches cause illumination. Ruth and I arranged quite some time ago to get a hoop house (or high tunnel) and I have put most of the frame up over the earthship to provide a little extra heat, a place to work on larger projects (table saw, etc) snow-free, a place to split firewood (again, snow-free), and eventually a place to start veggies early. In a few years when I have to replace the fabric I will decide whether to move the hoops to the garden where they ere originally intended to be set up. By then I may well have built another one there, however. I suspect that they are the wave of the future, mediating some of the obnoxious effects of global warming.
We've had a killing frost already but I am harvesting peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and cilantro daily from the greenhouse. I've sold my jersey to a neighbor. Living alone, doing all the chores, in order to throw away 7 gallons of milk a day, just aren't worth it. Some day, when more people live on site, we'll do dairy again. Or, I may get another goat. It's been years since I've had goats here.
Ryan Batalden is interested in hosting the Gobar prototype. He raises organic pigs and cattle so it should be a better "test" run than I could do here. (Banjo) Bruce Johnson will be helping me engineer and build the prototype unit this winter.
As Winter sets in I will have more to say about what does and does not function as planned. I've yet to start a fire in the Tuli Kivi, but I'm looking forward to it. One major positive: I have a new grandaughter! Emma and her mother, Erin, are both doing fine.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Notes from Spring 2009
Well, we didn't get moved in last fall, and it cost a couple of thousand dollars to heat the old farmhouse. I did get 4" of foam on the roof with a temporary rubber roofing membrane over that, and I put sheet metal over the thermal umbrella to keep most of the moisture out. I didn't have a tamper so we jumped up and down on the backfill as we shoveled it in. This was insufficient and the soil has settled about 15%. I am filling in the gap but I won't place insulation and pour concrete until I am positive that it will not settle more. I doubt that this will be this year.
¤
Challenges: We chose to leave lucrative city jobs in order to live and work at the farm. On the one hand, I wish I had spent the "easy" money more wisely; on the other, I wish I had moved back a year earlier. I knew the "downturn" was coming but still wasn't as prepared as I would have liked.
My wife found breast cancer in late May, had surgery in early June and was then pronounced "Cancer free." She had trouble with her right shoulder though, and we attributed this to the chest and underarm surgery. Then I lost my son in August. He was 25 and had been married to a wonderful young woman for 5 months. She was pregnant. These things really took the wind out of our sails. We were both offered low-paying-but-local jobs in education and we jumped at the offer to work together close to home. Together we made a little more than half what I made alone in industry, but we only had to support one household, and we were able to drive together and eat lunch together. Still, winter was tough, emotionally and practically. We kept getting a few warm days and then long cold snaps. The roller coaster was tough. Our cow would hold her legs together when I milked in weather below 10°f, not that I can blame her. The dogs and cats tried to stay indoors (one cat needed to check both doors just in case the weather was better outside the other one).
I lost my wife to (breast) cancer of the liver on March 18. That story an be found at http://www.blackhawk-studios.org/earthship/spring-2009.html but is not for the faint of heart.
¤
I've not really put in a crop this spring. I planted a little corn and barley, Ruth had planted a little winter rye and winter wheat in September. I haven't had the wherewithal to do much in the garden. The Chinese tractor turned out to have a cylinder head that was surfaced with a belt sander. With 165 hours on the tractor the gasket seal was worthless. The high school shop class took the engine apart and had the head resurfaced here, but the school year is effectively over and I do not have the tractor back yet (May 26). I will till and plant green manure on land I do not grow crops on as soon as I get it back. Ryan Batalden has been talking about oilseed radish as a plow-down. I will probably use that or chickory as both pull minerals from down deep. The Albert Lea Seed House used to be a great place to buy seed by the pound but last year they started charging exorbitant fees for "opening" a bag, and while the catalog still gives a by-the-pound price you can't actually buy the seed for anywhere near that price. Here's a hint to whoever wants to be the next big thing locally. People will be moving back to the country and planting lots of things in small quantities. Alfalfa, clover, and some other things are just too expensive to buy by the bag when you only need a few pounds. Charge enough to make it pay, just be honest about the costs.
¤
The Photovoltaic experiments have been very successful during the Summer months (I haven't had anything substantial running over the winter, small fans and lights only). Night lights and water (bilge) pumps have been running in the house and the grape vineyard on PV alone. I have not had the money for deep-cycle batteries (or high amp-hour batteries) so I'm still limping by on old car batteries. I did buy 35 watts of bare solar cells that I will install at the top (north, high) side of the greenhouse where they will get great light but not really shade anything growing inside the greenhouse. I have some salvaged ¼" glass I can install them between. I've not assembled my own from scratch but I feel that I need to be able to do this.
So far I've only found 2 grape vines that didn't survive the winter. Both were very small and I won't replant for a while. We did get a pretty damaging frost two weeks after the vines began sprouting. The older leaves survived but the newest ones died and in many cases the cane they were on died too. So far none of those plants died but a few have had to re-sprout from very close to the ground. The general paradigm I'm following is that the first year (last year) you are growing to establish root structure, the second season (this year) is dedicated to a tall, strong vine structure and to that end I have been pinching off the flower buds (which hurts me!). The third year will be the first in which I harvest grapes. It is possible that the fourth year will be the first substantial harvest, but there are sure an awful lot of flower buds to remove even this year. Some of the better plants have dozens. Any replants will be in their "first year" this year.
We planted small grain between some of the grape rows last fall and this spring. Winter rye and wheat should be harvested long before we need to run hired help in the grapes and we can still work the edges anyway. The alternative is early root crops or the traditional mowed lawn strips to control erosion and avoid packing the open soil. I can't see lawn out there as being very practical in my situation, but time will tell. Not all of the medians have even been rototilled yet, most that were tilled last fall have been planted with some crop. A load of rocks or old railroad ties would help by allowing me to terrace some of the steepest parts of the vineyard.
I need to cut firewood for this winter. I had set aside enough (estimated) for one winter in the earthship but used half of it (and all the leftover wood from the previous year) in the cookstove in the studio this last winter. I have a lot of "stickwood" available, but it doesn't keep well. A few years sitting out and it is punky and does not generate much heat. Traditionally this is what is used in poor regions as it can be collected discretely and without tools. Our idea of what a park should be like probably comes from the European forests which have been gleaned of stickwood by the locals. The other big need this summer is to get the permanent greenhouse (south of the earthship) up and sealed, and then the first hoophouse up over the barn pad and area between the barn and earthship. This hoophouse will be where I store hay, alfalfa, and firewood through the winter. My contract for next year is supposed to be an improvement over this year that will allow me to save up enough to pour the concrete thermal umbrella cap early next spring (2010) and finish the mudroom (and "cool storage"). The following year (2011) I hope to build the commercial kitchen (second floor, "three season" room).
A major project this fall is building a gobar unit to collect methane from the winter's cow manure. This methane, unlike "clean" propane, is carbon neutral having been extracted from the manure of cows fed grass from the farm. This grass is grown from this year's sunlight, water, and atmospheric CO2. The methane will be used to heat the dairy and perhaps run the house stove. We'll see. I will be selling plans online after I get the prototype working and the technology that I'm using has been "proven".
¤
Challenges: We chose to leave lucrative city jobs in order to live and work at the farm. On the one hand, I wish I had spent the "easy" money more wisely; on the other, I wish I had moved back a year earlier. I knew the "downturn" was coming but still wasn't as prepared as I would have liked.
My wife found breast cancer in late May, had surgery in early June and was then pronounced "Cancer free." She had trouble with her right shoulder though, and we attributed this to the chest and underarm surgery. Then I lost my son in August. He was 25 and had been married to a wonderful young woman for 5 months. She was pregnant. These things really took the wind out of our sails. We were both offered low-paying-but-local jobs in education and we jumped at the offer to work together close to home. Together we made a little more than half what I made alone in industry, but we only had to support one household, and we were able to drive together and eat lunch together. Still, winter was tough, emotionally and practically. We kept getting a few warm days and then long cold snaps. The roller coaster was tough. Our cow would hold her legs together when I milked in weather below 10°f, not that I can blame her. The dogs and cats tried to stay indoors (one cat needed to check both doors just in case the weather was better outside the other one).
I lost my wife to (breast) cancer of the liver on March 18. That story an be found at http://www.blackhawk-studios.org/earthship/spring-2009.html but is not for the faint of heart.
¤
I've not really put in a crop this spring. I planted a little corn and barley, Ruth had planted a little winter rye and winter wheat in September. I haven't had the wherewithal to do much in the garden. The Chinese tractor turned out to have a cylinder head that was surfaced with a belt sander. With 165 hours on the tractor the gasket seal was worthless. The high school shop class took the engine apart and had the head resurfaced here, but the school year is effectively over and I do not have the tractor back yet (May 26). I will till and plant green manure on land I do not grow crops on as soon as I get it back. Ryan Batalden has been talking about oilseed radish as a plow-down. I will probably use that or chickory as both pull minerals from down deep. The Albert Lea Seed House used to be a great place to buy seed by the pound but last year they started charging exorbitant fees for "opening" a bag, and while the catalog still gives a by-the-pound price you can't actually buy the seed for anywhere near that price. Here's a hint to whoever wants to be the next big thing locally. People will be moving back to the country and planting lots of things in small quantities. Alfalfa, clover, and some other things are just too expensive to buy by the bag when you only need a few pounds. Charge enough to make it pay, just be honest about the costs.
¤
The Photovoltaic experiments have been very successful during the Summer months (I haven't had anything substantial running over the winter, small fans and lights only). Night lights and water (bilge) pumps have been running in the house and the grape vineyard on PV alone. I have not had the money for deep-cycle batteries (or high amp-hour batteries) so I'm still limping by on old car batteries. I did buy 35 watts of bare solar cells that I will install at the top (north, high) side of the greenhouse where they will get great light but not really shade anything growing inside the greenhouse. I have some salvaged ¼" glass I can install them between. I've not assembled my own from scratch but I feel that I need to be able to do this.
So far I've only found 2 grape vines that didn't survive the winter. Both were very small and I won't replant for a while. We did get a pretty damaging frost two weeks after the vines began sprouting. The older leaves survived but the newest ones died and in many cases the cane they were on died too. So far none of those plants died but a few have had to re-sprout from very close to the ground. The general paradigm I'm following is that the first year (last year) you are growing to establish root structure, the second season (this year) is dedicated to a tall, strong vine structure and to that end I have been pinching off the flower buds (which hurts me!). The third year will be the first in which I harvest grapes. It is possible that the fourth year will be the first substantial harvest, but there are sure an awful lot of flower buds to remove even this year. Some of the better plants have dozens. Any replants will be in their "first year" this year.
We planted small grain between some of the grape rows last fall and this spring. Winter rye and wheat should be harvested long before we need to run hired help in the grapes and we can still work the edges anyway. The alternative is early root crops or the traditional mowed lawn strips to control erosion and avoid packing the open soil. I can't see lawn out there as being very practical in my situation, but time will tell. Not all of the medians have even been rototilled yet, most that were tilled last fall have been planted with some crop. A load of rocks or old railroad ties would help by allowing me to terrace some of the steepest parts of the vineyard.
I need to cut firewood for this winter. I had set aside enough (estimated) for one winter in the earthship but used half of it (and all the leftover wood from the previous year) in the cookstove in the studio this last winter. I have a lot of "stickwood" available, but it doesn't keep well. A few years sitting out and it is punky and does not generate much heat. Traditionally this is what is used in poor regions as it can be collected discretely and without tools. Our idea of what a park should be like probably comes from the European forests which have been gleaned of stickwood by the locals. The other big need this summer is to get the permanent greenhouse (south of the earthship) up and sealed, and then the first hoophouse up over the barn pad and area between the barn and earthship. This hoophouse will be where I store hay, alfalfa, and firewood through the winter. My contract for next year is supposed to be an improvement over this year that will allow me to save up enough to pour the concrete thermal umbrella cap early next spring (2010) and finish the mudroom (and "cool storage"). The following year (2011) I hope to build the commercial kitchen (second floor, "three season" room).
A major project this fall is building a gobar unit to collect methane from the winter's cow manure. This methane, unlike "clean" propane, is carbon neutral having been extracted from the manure of cows fed grass from the farm. This grass is grown from this year's sunlight, water, and atmospheric CO2. The methane will be used to heat the dairy and perhaps run the house stove. We'll see. I will be selling plans online after I get the prototype working and the technology that I'm using has been "proven".
Notes from Summer 2009
We got a great crop of winter wheat. The trick is getting it harvested and threshed. Because it was planted between the rows of grapes I cannot get mowing equipment in to machine-cut it. On the other hand (have you noticed how there always seems to be another hand?) since it was planted as weed control, all the straw and grain is a "bonus." I was hand scything winter rye and sliced my little finger pretty good. It's healing but I obviously needed a reminder to be careful. I'm back to hand harvesting, with a gloved left hand and more patience. I did use a gas hedge trimmer while one-handed, and it worked to a point. Cutting by hand you have the handful of oriented stalks and can set them neatly on a pile to be bound (sheaved?) later. Using the trimmer everything falls more or less behind the cutting swath but in a sheet that is hard to orient or pile in anything but a chaotic bundle. This was OK for the rye which will be stored whole and fed whole, but does not work for the wheat which must be threshed or the grain is lost. I haven't started harvesting the barley yet.
The tractor is back (Ted Suss ended up finishing reassembly and I drove it home). There's a new electrical problem but it is not overheating anymore. I do deeply appreciate the work that Bill and his class did.
The grapes are looking good. Despite my talk about an organizational paradigm, I was inconsistent in my pruning techniques. Well, its an experiment. Also, I am making my first attempt at wine making. I bought an E. C. Krause kit with california pinot noir juice. I was struck by how altered the product is. I followed the recipe exactly and it called for not only grape juice and yeast, but also acid "blend" (citric and what?), grape tannin, yeast nutrient (di-ammonium phosphate), and a significant quantity of white (!) sugar. I love the fermentation vessel with the screw-on lid, air-lock and discharge valve. I started this last night so I have nothing else to report yet.
However, perhaps some history is relevant: Ruth and I took 41 students and others on an art field trip to Italy and Greece a few years ago. This was a economy (cheap) trip so we stayed in economy (cheap) places, ate economy (cheap) food, and were served local, economy (cheap) wine. Everywhere we went the local wine was very good - the base standard was high. I read this as a sign of civilization and I look forward to the time when we can meet that (casual) standard in this country. That is why I planted grapes. Part of the reason, anyway.
The corn looks lousy, planted too densely and the soil down in the riverbottom is just too sandy to grow grain without irrigation. I lent a quarter acre right next to the corn patch to the Yangs from town and their garden is beautiful. But they take very good care of it and irrigate with buckets when required. I will plant some winter wheat down there this fall, but I have low expectations. I'm curious to see if a winter grain will do better than the spring types on that soil. Worst case, I'll plant uber-hardy grapes down there. The water table is actually only between 5 and 9 feet deep there and anyone with deep roots should do fine.
¤
The greenhouse (attached to the main earthship) is up although not completely sheathed yet. There's a bathtub out there and I took a hot bath while listening to the rain on the fiberglass roof the other day. The roof is 11' high on the high end. I've installed a wire mesh shelf at 4' and have tomato and pepper plants in large pots on it. Below that there is a planter box (bottomless) holding peppers, green onions, romano beans, cilantro, carrots, and cucumbers for late fall harvest. The cucumbers and beans are netted to grow up. I've installed a drip system to water the pots and a soaker line to water the planter. The composting toilet is online. The house 110v wiring is done, but I've compromised, for this winter at least, on a tanked 30 gal water heater. The Bosch tankless is here but it is not going to be installed in the core house and I don't have the mudroom built yet. So the "temporary" tanked heater is installed. I picked up a bunch of scrap granite countertop left-overs and I want to set the kitchen floor as mosaic. More on that soon as I can't really use the kitchen until there is a floor, can't install the sink yet, etc. And I'm tired of the stove in the living room. The 12v wiring is going to be more of an evolutionary project. I'm trying to anticipate where I will need what, but it is a new way of doing things and I'm finding that I make a lot of changes. I do have a battery well, and I know the best place to put PV panels, but there are a lot of options for placement of outlets (I've decided to use M type) and what will be needed where. Some things like basic lights are easy, but we are used to a great deal of flexibility in 110 configurations and I suspect I'll want as much in 12v.
Bruce has been by and mowed much of the hay. Jim round-baled what he could reach (but doesn't take his baler back behind the ditch) and Bruce hasn't been in with his smaller square baler yet. That is a really good feeling, like having the cow's pantry filled. Hand cutting is possible, but it is a huge chore. I don't have (or know) horse drawn technology, but I suspect that a horse drawn mower and rake is the most sensible in a non-petrochemical environment.
The tractor is back (Ted Suss ended up finishing reassembly and I drove it home). There's a new electrical problem but it is not overheating anymore. I do deeply appreciate the work that Bill and his class did.
The grapes are looking good. Despite my talk about an organizational paradigm, I was inconsistent in my pruning techniques. Well, its an experiment. Also, I am making my first attempt at wine making. I bought an E. C. Krause kit with california pinot noir juice. I was struck by how altered the product is. I followed the recipe exactly and it called for not only grape juice and yeast, but also acid "blend" (citric and what?), grape tannin, yeast nutrient (di-ammonium phosphate), and a significant quantity of white (!) sugar. I love the fermentation vessel with the screw-on lid, air-lock and discharge valve. I started this last night so I have nothing else to report yet.
However, perhaps some history is relevant: Ruth and I took 41 students and others on an art field trip to Italy and Greece a few years ago. This was a economy (cheap) trip so we stayed in economy (cheap) places, ate economy (cheap) food, and were served local, economy (cheap) wine. Everywhere we went the local wine was very good - the base standard was high. I read this as a sign of civilization and I look forward to the time when we can meet that (casual) standard in this country. That is why I planted grapes. Part of the reason, anyway.
The corn looks lousy, planted too densely and the soil down in the riverbottom is just too sandy to grow grain without irrigation. I lent a quarter acre right next to the corn patch to the Yangs from town and their garden is beautiful. But they take very good care of it and irrigate with buckets when required. I will plant some winter wheat down there this fall, but I have low expectations. I'm curious to see if a winter grain will do better than the spring types on that soil. Worst case, I'll plant uber-hardy grapes down there. The water table is actually only between 5 and 9 feet deep there and anyone with deep roots should do fine.
¤
The greenhouse (attached to the main earthship) is up although not completely sheathed yet. There's a bathtub out there and I took a hot bath while listening to the rain on the fiberglass roof the other day. The roof is 11' high on the high end. I've installed a wire mesh shelf at 4' and have tomato and pepper plants in large pots on it. Below that there is a planter box (bottomless) holding peppers, green onions, romano beans, cilantro, carrots, and cucumbers for late fall harvest. The cucumbers and beans are netted to grow up. I've installed a drip system to water the pots and a soaker line to water the planter. The composting toilet is online. The house 110v wiring is done, but I've compromised, for this winter at least, on a tanked 30 gal water heater. The Bosch tankless is here but it is not going to be installed in the core house and I don't have the mudroom built yet. So the "temporary" tanked heater is installed. I picked up a bunch of scrap granite countertop left-overs and I want to set the kitchen floor as mosaic. More on that soon as I can't really use the kitchen until there is a floor, can't install the sink yet, etc. And I'm tired of the stove in the living room. The 12v wiring is going to be more of an evolutionary project. I'm trying to anticipate where I will need what, but it is a new way of doing things and I'm finding that I make a lot of changes. I do have a battery well, and I know the best place to put PV panels, but there are a lot of options for placement of outlets (I've decided to use M type) and what will be needed where. Some things like basic lights are easy, but we are used to a great deal of flexibility in 110 configurations and I suspect I'll want as much in 12v.
Bruce has been by and mowed much of the hay. Jim round-baled what he could reach (but doesn't take his baler back behind the ditch) and Bruce hasn't been in with his smaller square baler yet. That is a really good feeling, like having the cow's pantry filled. Hand cutting is possible, but it is a huge chore. I don't have (or know) horse drawn technology, but I suspect that a horse drawn mower and rake is the most sensible in a non-petrochemical environment.
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