Rain Rain Go Away You've Wrecked Our Pastures and Our Brains

 

 

 After 3 solid build days on the Grain Bin House we got slammed with rain, and more rain and even more rain. Construction came to a mud sliding halt. It has rained at night, in the morning and in the afternoons. It has rained while we were trying to fix electric fences, cook outside, set up a new milking system for our cow Polly, put together our rocket mass stove, manage baby ducklings, plumb the water lines, host a few guests, move livestock around, hang laundry (which has now been hanging for 3 days) ..you name it, it has been rained upon.



At times, the sun would peek through, tease us for a couple of hours and bake us with humidity, then the rain came back and our feet, legs, clothes just got muddier. Wet clothes would only stink up the caravan (remember we have no dryer) so they got hung outside, alongside the clean clothes which of course had returned to their former dirty state. But as my good buddy G. reminded me today, "You choose this life didn't you?" Why yes G. we did.

 

 

 

 

And on the evenings when we felt truly beat up by the hassles of tiny living in a swampy acreage with very few of the modern conveniences we used to have, we were graced with the most amazing silver linings in the clouds that besieged us.

Tomorrow...only hot sun is forecast. Bring it!

The Grain Bin House: The Foundation, Part 3 (and a contest!)

 

 Ah weather, thou has vexed us this week. We had nearly two inches of rain Sunday night and scattered storms all though the week. The "moat" around the GBH filled partially with water but more frustrating was the softness of our drive making it impossible for a concrete truck to deliver precious cargo. But, finally on Thursday in between rain fits our guys returned, sucked out most of the moat water and attached the outside metal forms to the foundations rebar ring...

            

In the afternoon when the humidity and heat soared  the concrete company was summoned. Hearing them rumble down our road was an exciting as...well...hearing the concrete truck responsible for  pouring your first foundation to your first GBH rumble down the road! Even better was the moment all that wet, grey, rocky, slop came pouring down it's rickety metal sluice.

I believe I wept a little.


 

Filling in the gap between the two metal circles with 9 yards of concrete ($1400 worth) the crew worked in near tropical conditions while Keith and I applauded from the comfort of our white plastic chairs in the shade.

We're just supportive that way.

But after a couple of minutes of rest we did return to our own outdoor work; a new milking set up for Bessie, (I mean Polly) among other tasks. It did not take long though for the guys to get the one and 1/2 truckloads of concrete settled into it's trough.  Soon enough the foundation was complete.  Almost.

Next, the metal forms on the outside of the foundation will be removed, hard foam insulation will be cut and curved around the concrete and then dirt will be backfilled against that making it virtually impossible for little pests like ants and mice to get into our mini fortress. Big pests, aka family, will be allowed to enter through our single doorway.

The rebar pointing up through the fresh concrete will eventually be bent towards the inner circle and buried within the concrete floor which will be poured over and around the rocket mass stove heater built on top of the inner gravel. Keith and I will build the rocket thingy this next week. Foster Mechanics will then come back, pour the floor and start raising the walls of the GBH.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

At the end of the day, there was a fair amount of concrete still left in the truck and since we had already paid for it Keith quickly put together some wooden forms to contain the surplus and put it to good use.  Can you guess what he is making?

Leave a comment with your guess and the first one to answer correctly will get a free bar of homemade soap.  I make a mean bar of soap which will treat your skin very nicely. Yes, you can play if you live in another country. I believe in global blog pandering.

The Grain Bin House: The Foundation, Part 2

On day two of the GBH build, (Saturday) after laying out the basic diameter and digging the footing the day before; our bin guys got busy with additional support for the concrete foundation to be poured. First they secured older pieces of galvanized bin metal against the circular base of what will be our GBH floor, with rebar bent in place as they went.  Then more gravel was added and pounded down in the GBH floor area.

 

Cutting the rebar took time as they were meticulous about spacing and attaching. The white PVC pipes in the photo below will drain water softener fluid directly into our leach field bypassing the septic tank while the other larger pipe will drain our shower, dishwasher and sink water. We will not be putting a regular flush toilet in the GBH, only our compost toilet, nor will there be a tub or dishwasher.

After the first go round they decided a second row of rebar would be even better. That's my husband Keith in the trenches to give you an idea of how deep the foundation will be. Foam insulation panels will be placed outside the rebar all the way around, backfilled with dirt and then concrete will be poured between the insulation and this older, uglier piece of galvanized metal circling our GBH floor, hiding it and all the rebar completely.

 

The grain bin body will then go on top of the concrete foundation but I am getting way ahead of myself. Last night we had nearly two inches of rain and so no GBH work was done today but hopefully they will be able to resume tomorrow. This gave us time to make our final plans for the Rocket Mass Stove Heater we will be installing ourselves in the GBH floor, before they pour the final floor, as our only source of heat.

 

Rocket mass stove heater...sounds so scientific does it not? Lets' just hope Ralph doesn't send Alice to the moon accidently. It will be our first rocket mass stove heater you know.

photo www.eathineer.com

The Grain Bin House: The Foundation, Part 1.

 

 

Two days ago Foster Mechanics of Paxton, Illinois started on our new home. Although they have installed many grain bins for their intended purpose of grain storage; this is their first grain bin home or GBH as I shall hence refer to it.

Arriving early Friday morning they worked hard all day. I was impressed with owner Phil Fosters way of operating his small backhoe while giving directions to his two man crew simultaneously. A true multi-tasker. No matter how many times we walked up the hill from our work site to their work site there was never once, one of them just standing about; always each man was working on a task. They also did a fantastic job of asking us lots of questions, clarifying how and why we wanted specific things done and double checking if unclear.

Watching these guys out dig out the diameter of our new home was thrilling. I had no idea a large circle of dirt could make me so giddy.

From there a trench was dug,  around the GBH footprint, 3 feet deep and 30 inches wide. This "moat" was filled with 18 inches of road rock gravel, sprayed with water and pounded down hard. This gravel footing will serve as the bottom of the concrete GBH foundation to be poured in the next few days. We are expecting rain today (Sunday) so pour date will be based on how much precipitation we get.

 

 

 

 

They also measured out the lines for our new septic system and dug the pit for our 750 gallon concrete septic tank which was delivered and put in place the afternoon of the first day. We had not planned or budgeted for this septic system, hoping to do a grey water system for our GBH water since we were going to use the compost toilet for solid waste but of course we ran into issues with Illinois Public Health ( a trend for us)  Seems there are no grey water codes in Illinois, and if there are no codes IDPH considers any actions outside of those codes to be illegal.  I'll discuss that in detail with our septic system costs, in a future post.

The septic tank had to be filled with water at the end of the day to avoid possible shifting and re-digging in the event of large amounts of rain prior to final hookup to the leach field. So after the first 10 hour work day we can see our new home taking shape quickly. Tomorrow I'll show you what they did on day 2, another highly productive day.

Chickenship

For those of you who wondered if we had poultry on our new place; this post is for you or them.

In my previous blog I talked about the Earthships being built in the southern states, very popular in New Mexico, and Arizona for their ability to conserve energy, and grow food with greywater systems.  Keith and I love the idea and will start experimenting with the technique this week as we design an Earthship or Chickenship as we have christened it,  for our poultry.

Earthships for people are made from recycled tires filled with pounded dirt and covered with homemade cob. The end results are beautiful, cost effective, sustainable. comfortable and a great way to use up the garbage in our lives.  Michael Reynolds is the guru behind their design.

          

When they come to put up the Grain Bin House (any day, any day) we will have them also dig out a spot in a sloped area to build the chickenship.

The birds are very excited about this new plan as it will be the first chickenship in Livingston County and perhaps in all of Illinois. We expect tons of media coverage, or at least one or two shares on Facebook.

The most important material needed for our chickenship is of course tires; fortunately there are a few here on The Poor Farm. Oh the treasures we have inherited with this place. Sorting them into similar sizes, widths and condition is one of my tasks this week.

 

Some tires are too worn or torn to be used and will have to be hauled away to be recycled again in playground mulch. After sorting and digging out the area, the chickenship will be partially built into a hillside for warmth in winter and coolness in summer.  Tires will laid in a straight line and pounded full with dirt. Another layer of rubber circles is thenplaced on top and more soil pounded in and eventually you have a wall of tires.

 

 

 

 

The wall can then be finished with a plaster of homemade cob made of dirt, sand and clay. When dry it becomes mortar like in strength. The front will be glass or plexiglass and the entire structure is for winter or nighttime only; the rest of the time our birds will continue to run free-range. They are our primary source not only of eggs but of tick, fly and mosquito control. They deserve the best in housing we can afford.

 

Which is basically a pile of old tires.

Mentioning the Unmentionables.

I don't have a picture of my clothesline yet, just the sunset on The Poor Farm.
Also,  I could use some new chair cushions if you see some at a garage sale,
 but they must be paisley, checked, solid, flowered or striped. I'm very particular.

What a great crazy week. Our wonderful daughter Raven was married several days ago and then yesterday was her "I-Do BBQ" reception. Friends and family from out of town and out of state visited, local officials visited the future septic system site  and the grain bin house building site (don't get me started, let me just say not near as much fun to have around as the out of town friends and family) and we bought a washing machine.

Yes, a new washing machine. But NOT a dryer. We don't plan to own one of them ever again. The new washing machine though was indeed one of the weeks highlights. For the last month we've been dependent on the generosity of friends and family for washing our clothes as well as a few visits to the local Laundromats.

Wow. I don't know where psychology students do their internships now but they should stop immediately and begin hanging out in Laundromats. The Full Monty hangs around many a spin cycle and several interesting thesises, thesi?, could easily be hammered out in between the arguments over who trashed who most vehemently on Facebook or who took the last quarters from the change box. Like they did last week, like they always do.

Real arguments recently witnessed.

This change in laundry status has been another eye opener for us as homesteaders. In the past I might've wiped up a little juice or tea with a dishcloth and then casually tossed it in the laundry hamper, just because we had TWO washer dryer sets in the house, now however; I wait until the rag is stiff enough to block open our caravan door before I will concede it needs laundering. Laundromats are expensive and ironically, very dirty.

I do miss the convenience of washing clothing willy- nilly as I pleased but I am a bit appalled by the amount of water and energy I wasted. Reckless they call me. Keith often hung out his chores clothes on the clothesline but I was too busy (aka lazy) to do the same with our good clothes and household linens. I was a dryer pimp, using it shamelessly even when the sun shone bright. You see, some couples have separate checking accounts, hubbie and I had separate washer/dryers. The manure clothes were washed in the basement while everything else got special treatment upstairs.

But now, fabric segregation has come to a full stop. All we have in the caravan is primarily chore clothes, and they all smell bad at the end of the day. So after getting the new washer we were thrilled to set it up and immediately not thrilled to realize we had bought a high efficiency piece of worthless-non-agitating-water-phobic-bucket-of-bolts. We gave it three tries, even read the manual and followed directions but that stupid thing was meant to wash executive client whitey tighties not the jeans, heavy socks and button down shirts of real working lower class folks like ourselves. So back it goes tomorrow.

I am now in the market for an old fashioned ringer washer, the kind that really agitates your clothes instead of just teasing them. I need a bully washer.

Drinking 147 Year Old Water

Well, well, well...just one more hurdle to cross on our new farm...the 147 year old well. Now there is no proof it is that old but chances are it was bored back in 1868 when the original house was built. Which by the way we now refer to as "the dog house" because our dogs sleep in there, along with our cat and a stray squirrel we often hear in the walls but have yet to see. I call him Sylvester.

Back to the well. From a distance the well house looks oh so quaint.

 

I plan to use some of the weathered wood for door and window trim in the grain bin house. But the inside of the building is less charming.

 

 

Just getting inside is tricky as the wood has deteriorated in the entryway. When we bought this property in September 2013 the well opening and pit that held the pressure tank was covered by mice chewed insulation and several large boards. We waited until our old farm sale went through and then had the pressure tank in the pit replaced and a spigot added from which we could pull water for the livestock. Yes, we do testing on our animals. Better them than us, anyway we figure the water had fed thousands of heads of livestock over the years it could probably handle a few more.

 

 

 

See that tire in the front? Look hard, it's the black rubber thing. That is our makeshift lid for the HUGE well shaft. The tin pan completes the look don't you think? When uncovered the well shaft looks like this:

 

Frightening isn't it? The plumbers we had out to put in the new pressure tank estimate it is about 100 feet deep. So of course the doorway is gated and the grandchildren have been threatened to not even LOOK in the well's direction. But still, I won't rest well until the entire contraption is modified with a proper, secure and very small cap. This morning we sent off water samples for testing and pending results will likely need to shock it (bleach) for any bacteria counts before it is considered safe for us to drink. We already know it must be high in iron as the bottom of our livestock waterers have this lovely rusty orange residue. In the meantime we are buying water for ourselves and/or begging it from friends and relatives. Very soon we will  start tearing down the well building so the plumbers can make this monstrosity safe .

 

One more expense we must tackle...we've been given an estimate of $3000 for all the well work and yet people still wonder why we call it The Poor Farm.

 

 

P.S. After two weeks of drinking the well water our critters are doing great. Please cancel your calls to the humane society.