Friday, October 9, 2009

Brief notes from Fall 2009

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.

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