Sooooo...... WE HAVE THE INTERNET!! It is exciting to have this connectivity after a year of not having the internet at home.
So what's new? We moved. We're not building our cob house anymore, although we are looking forward to a cob pizza oven project later this summer. I'm working as an office manager at a lovely country birth center and inching (more like millimetering) my way through midwifery studies, picking things up through osmosis, listening to women roaring out their babies while I sit at my desk. I took a yoga teacher training and am currently teaching prenatal yoga at the birth center, which I love more than I can describe.
Nate and Maya have moved on to novels. Eli is a geographical genius and can point out any country you name within a fraction of a second. Nick is a farmer. We have an amazing garden. Our dog lives the dog's life. My mom moved in and we're stoked about it. Our whole giant house is wired for sound. We have a nice deck and a beautiful view of Mt Hood. We live much closer to our friends in Portland. And now we have the internet! Life is good.
So that's what's new. What's new with you?
Showing posts with label cob house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cob house. Show all posts
17 July 2012
05 November 2011
No news is good news
So it's been awhile. Hi. Nice to see you here. Sorry I haven't written for so long. I'm a bit like that.
For what we've been up to since I wrote last, check out Nick's blog. He is a prolific picture poster too, so that's a bonus.
Long story short: we moved in with Grizzly and Sunny (and their village of kids) at the end of July. We laid out our tiny cob house plan, dug the foundation trench, laid down drainage pipe and gray water pipe, laid gravel, obtained truckloads of rocks from a local quarry, built the foundation, and started cobbing!... and then the rains came. We hung up a giant tarp to cover the building site and protect it through the winter, but it's too cold to cob now. So we're taking a cobbing hiatus until spring. In the meantime, it is an amazing place to hang out, all protected from the rain, interesting rocks everywhere. It looks a bit like an excavation site for a thousand year old house. Awesome. So that's what's going on with the cob house. Come spring, we'll be ready to cob. We have (literal) tons and tons of sand, clay and soil and a bit of straw. We have our two doors and myriad windows (we still need at least 3 little interesting windows for the kids' rooms). We have loads of people who want to help us make cob and throw it onto the walls. We're set. Just waiting on Mother Nature, and that's just fine.
Our free-range kids are loving life. We're taking a break from Village (where they took classes last year) due to financial and geographical constraints, and everyone is fine with that- it's nice to not have to be anywhere. There are lots of kids around to play with, and our kids are really thriving. We have a real village going on now. We have friends that come up to stay sometimes - our gorgeous friend Corry brings her kids and her dog and then camps out in the kitchen making amazing food for the crew and our village expands for a few days. Life is good. We have found that living with a lot of people is easy if everyone is honest and straightforward with each other all of the time. Everyone wants to be happy, so it works.
We spend most of our time at home, working on projects and getting into routines. Nick and I have discovered a wonderful dynamic: I am a really great starter of things and he's a very efficient long-term doer. I get interested in a subject that I know will enhance our lives (like sprouting, making nut milks, aromatherapy), get a bunch of books from the library and read 1/10th of each of them, buy the supplies we'll need, then get started. Then I kind of drop off. And then, if it was something Nick agreed was awesome while it lasted, he'll pick up the reins, make some improvements, and carry on. Every day, that guy makes almond milk for a huge household. He soaks and sprouts beans for huge batches of food to feed the village. He makes amazing raw vegan smoothies for the kids. He sprouts alfalfa and red clover and broccoli and fenugreek seeds so that we can have leafy greens with every meal. He's a dude. And he does it all with a smile on his face. Love that amazing man.
I am currently in the running for an office position at an amazing gentle birth center near our home (well, as near as anything really gets - we're way out there). It would be 3 days a week, and I would spend my days surrounded by pregnancy and birth and midwives and babies! I'm almost too excited and hopeful to mention it in case I don't get it, but I'm perfect for the position and it is perfect for me, so I kind of think it must be mine. I should know this week. Wish me luck!!
And in more news... Nick and I have a new venture. Check out our Etsy store and think of us for your holiday shopping! After I sign off here, I'll be working on some more items to add to our store, so check back often.
That's it for now. Lots of love to everyone out there!
For what we've been up to since I wrote last, check out Nick's blog. He is a prolific picture poster too, so that's a bonus.
Long story short: we moved in with Grizzly and Sunny (and their village of kids) at the end of July. We laid out our tiny cob house plan, dug the foundation trench, laid down drainage pipe and gray water pipe, laid gravel, obtained truckloads of rocks from a local quarry, built the foundation, and started cobbing!... and then the rains came. We hung up a giant tarp to cover the building site and protect it through the winter, but it's too cold to cob now. So we're taking a cobbing hiatus until spring. In the meantime, it is an amazing place to hang out, all protected from the rain, interesting rocks everywhere. It looks a bit like an excavation site for a thousand year old house. Awesome. So that's what's going on with the cob house. Come spring, we'll be ready to cob. We have (literal) tons and tons of sand, clay and soil and a bit of straw. We have our two doors and myriad windows (we still need at least 3 little interesting windows for the kids' rooms). We have loads of people who want to help us make cob and throw it onto the walls. We're set. Just waiting on Mother Nature, and that's just fine.
Our free-range kids are loving life. We're taking a break from Village (where they took classes last year) due to financial and geographical constraints, and everyone is fine with that- it's nice to not have to be anywhere. There are lots of kids around to play with, and our kids are really thriving. We have a real village going on now. We have friends that come up to stay sometimes - our gorgeous friend Corry brings her kids and her dog and then camps out in the kitchen making amazing food for the crew and our village expands for a few days. Life is good. We have found that living with a lot of people is easy if everyone is honest and straightforward with each other all of the time. Everyone wants to be happy, so it works.
We spend most of our time at home, working on projects and getting into routines. Nick and I have discovered a wonderful dynamic: I am a really great starter of things and he's a very efficient long-term doer. I get interested in a subject that I know will enhance our lives (like sprouting, making nut milks, aromatherapy), get a bunch of books from the library and read 1/10th of each of them, buy the supplies we'll need, then get started. Then I kind of drop off. And then, if it was something Nick agreed was awesome while it lasted, he'll pick up the reins, make some improvements, and carry on. Every day, that guy makes almond milk for a huge household. He soaks and sprouts beans for huge batches of food to feed the village. He makes amazing raw vegan smoothies for the kids. He sprouts alfalfa and red clover and broccoli and fenugreek seeds so that we can have leafy greens with every meal. He's a dude. And he does it all with a smile on his face. Love that amazing man.
I am currently in the running for an office position at an amazing gentle birth center near our home (well, as near as anything really gets - we're way out there). It would be 3 days a week, and I would spend my days surrounded by pregnancy and birth and midwives and babies! I'm almost too excited and hopeful to mention it in case I don't get it, but I'm perfect for the position and it is perfect for me, so I kind of think it must be mine. I should know this week. Wish me luck!!
And in more news... Nick and I have a new venture. Check out our Etsy store and think of us for your holiday shopping! After I sign off here, I'll be working on some more items to add to our store, so check back often.
That's it for now. Lots of love to everyone out there!
14 June 2011
Homesteading
Another weekend up at the farm, and a lot of decisions were made. Good stuff.
So our home site is no longer our home site. We checked out the septic plan, and we would have been building on top of the leach field, or whatever it's called. Not awesome for a house (or for any structure that requires digging, since there are pipes down there). However, we already mostly cleared the area, so we decided to full-steam ahead and do a controlled burn of the felled blackberry brambles. Smoky work.
When one door closes, another opens. Turns out this area is going to be our animal garden! We plan to fence this area and put in a hen house and a goat shelter. In one of the "how to raise your own laying flock" books I checked out from the library, there was a picture of a happy chicken pecking at some huge zucchini. I'm excited to learn more about chickens and goats and their nutritional needs. I know the chickens will be stoked about the abundance of worms here.
Grizzly and Sunny (The Friends) had already cleared a bunch of poison oak, but it was seriously rampant. Grizzly decided to set out with the whipper snipper to avoid more contact. He was able to clear the whole proposed garden site and our new proposed home site, which will be right next to the garden.
Sunny and I spent some time turning over the ground in the little garden cage (DEER!). Hard work. Super hard. Clay!
Since the master plan is to extend the garden to cover this whole area (probably 6-8 times the size of the cage), and since we discovered how beautiful the area behind it could be for a home site (beautiful southern exposure), we decided that we should just get some kind of tiller in there and do the whole job at once. We'll need to improve the soil with some sandy loam and/or compost, so we'll till it in. Grizzly is working on securing a tiller, and Nick and I are looking into frugal fencing options. Grizzly had the brilliant idea to tie some cob work into the fencing for artistic/reinforcement/practice purposes. That will be our opportunity to discover our own perfect cob recipe! Exciting.
Sunny and I discovered (and have yet to explore in depth because we were without machetes) a Faerie Forest. Seriously, it's magic back there. Stoked.
My amazing uncle sent me this link to an article about an urban homesteader. How inspiring! I love that he read that article and thought of me.
So, what else is there in news from the home front? The kids were pretty bummed to come back, especially Eli. He did not want to leave the farm. I did my best to explain to him that we're going to spend a few days at home working on stuff for next weekend, and then we'll be back up there in a few days, but he was just plain sad. He woke up this morning telling me he wants to go back to Grizzly's house. In 6 weeks time, we'll be up there full time. Until then, we'll work on patience.
10 June 2011
MACHETE!
I already knew exactly where our home site should be, but Nick was a bit unimpressed by the blackberry brambliness of said location. But then, you know, we checked it out. And my place turned out to be the place. Well-drained, lots of winter sun, access to the septic tank, almost as much space as we feel like clearing.
Nick got right out there.
He carved out a path, then a big ring around the outside, then savaged the middle. He made it look easy. The kids watched from a safe distance. (The area in the middle is the cleared area. It was all more or less level with the stuff around it.)
Late in the afternoon, the littler two kids got hungry, and I brought them inside to clean up and eat. Nate seized the opportunity to ask his dad if he could have a go with a machete. And because Nick is awesome, he said of course. Check out my boy, the wilderness tamer. It looks like quite a feat.
Yes, I had to have a turn. And I'm a bit of a dork.
I haven't really ever spent any time on any project similar to this one. Like, not at all. I haven't "cleared land" since I was a little kid with a big stick in the "Ghoulie Forest" in my apartment complex. But it certainly looked fun. I went in hard, and after about 40 seconds I was pretty sure I was done for the day. Once I got into a rhythm though, it was really, really fun. Super rewarding, progress easily measured with the eye. I hacked for a few hours, using muscles I didn't know I had, until my hands could no longer grip the machete.
The next day, Nick got back out there and cleared for a few more hours. For the most part, the area looks like blackberry bushes shredded on the ground. We're hoping that when we go back, it will all be really deadened and flat so that we can clear it all out and start to level.
I decided to work on some steps down to our home site! The hill isn't super steep, but if we're spending all summer walking up and down, it will be a slippery slope. That was my day 2 project.
Can't wait to get back out there and hang out in the backyard.
Nick got right out there.
He carved out a path, then a big ring around the outside, then savaged the middle. He made it look easy. The kids watched from a safe distance. (The area in the middle is the cleared area. It was all more or less level with the stuff around it.)
Late in the afternoon, the littler two kids got hungry, and I brought them inside to clean up and eat. Nate seized the opportunity to ask his dad if he could have a go with a machete. And because Nick is awesome, he said of course. Check out my boy, the wilderness tamer. It looks like quite a feat.
Yes, I had to have a turn. And I'm a bit of a dork.
I haven't really ever spent any time on any project similar to this one. Like, not at all. I haven't "cleared land" since I was a little kid with a big stick in the "Ghoulie Forest" in my apartment complex. But it certainly looked fun. I went in hard, and after about 40 seconds I was pretty sure I was done for the day. Once I got into a rhythm though, it was really, really fun. Super rewarding, progress easily measured with the eye. I hacked for a few hours, using muscles I didn't know I had, until my hands could no longer grip the machete.
The next day, Nick got back out there and cleared for a few more hours. For the most part, the area looks like blackberry bushes shredded on the ground. We're hoping that when we go back, it will all be really deadened and flat so that we can clear it all out and start to level.
I decided to work on some steps down to our home site! The hill isn't super steep, but if we're spending all summer walking up and down, it will be a slippery slope. That was my day 2 project.
Can't wait to get back out there and hang out in the backyard.
09 June 2011
And now for something completely different...
Things are better than they have ever been. Life is amazing.
We have been trying out how to make this happiness sustainable. We have been blessed to have not had to work very much since we've been in the US, and because of that time together we are learning and discovering the most interesting things, fully self-lead discovery. Nick thought that he didn't like to learn new things, but he is discovering new interests and ways to explore them. He is, truly, a new man.
The conversation about income had to happen at some point. We do still live in "the real world" after all. We only needed to talk a little bit about the subject to come to the conclusion that since life was feeling so just right already, our answer must be to be doing what we're doing already, but on a commercial scale. For example, we're loving getting into frugal, super wholesome eating. We are sprouting all kinds of legumes and our staples are fresh daily almond milk and wholegrain organic spelt bread. Nick loves all of his kitchen processes, and he loves sharing all of our amazing food with people. Surely we could find a way to do what we're already doing and find a way to make some money from it.
Our idea was to get a small farm thing going on. We both want to work, neither of us are averse to earning our keep, but it's super important to us to do this on our own terms. For us, we need to be close to our children, and the children could fully and happily participate in a small farm operation. We could finally start to grow our own and work towards the self-sustainability we have been talking about for years. Maybe we could even progress to an on-site cafe/restaurant - completely farm to table. Nick would love that.
I got very, very excited about this farm idea. The main obstacle was, again, the money stuff. So we don't have the money and we don't want to have a mortgage. How on earth were we going to find ourselves the 5 acres we decided we would need to start a small farm? We were optimistic that just the right thing would happen. We waited it out.
Enter The Friends. The Friends live on 5 acres in McMinnville. Between them, they have a bunch of kids and a huge desire to homestead, and not nearly enough time or human-power. They are looking for community, self-sustainability, healthy vibrant lives, and natural upbringings for their children. We mentioned our farm idea, and we spent a few weekends out playing with them, exchanging visions and ideas, and experiencing such peace while the kids were blissfully outside in fresh air and dirt for days. We all, almost shockingly quickly, decided that the very best idea would be that we share their 5 acres with them and do the farm thing there.
We will need a dwelling, and that money issue still exists, so we easily landed on cob building. Our research immediately reinforced that decision. (Check some of it out; I'll throw up some links at the end.) Cob is easy: anyone can do it and it is safe for kids. It is very cheap, being made from the soil we will accumulate when we clear the land, clay which is abundant there, sand and straw. It is a real physical effort which I can only imagine will mean that it will be incredibly rewarding. We can incorporate passive solar to efficiently use the sun to heat our house, solar panels for power, rainwater tanks for water. What an experience it will be. I mean geez, imagine designing your own house, quirks and all, from the earth up. Cob requires a good solid roof and a good solid foundation, and all of the information one could possibly need or desire is available on the internet. People who take on cob building projects clearly love the process so much that they have to share it all, because their stories are everywhere. The fact that so many people seem to add extensions to their houses every year makes me feel so excited to get started.
We already spent a weekend out there starting to clear the land. We go back out this weekend to really get down to business with land-leveling and gardening. I can't wait.
Stay tuned...
Meka's Cob Cottage
Another random 'building with cob' video
Cob Wiki article
greenbuildingelements.com
The Year of Mud
We have been trying out how to make this happiness sustainable. We have been blessed to have not had to work very much since we've been in the US, and because of that time together we are learning and discovering the most interesting things, fully self-lead discovery. Nick thought that he didn't like to learn new things, but he is discovering new interests and ways to explore them. He is, truly, a new man.
The conversation about income had to happen at some point. We do still live in "the real world" after all. We only needed to talk a little bit about the subject to come to the conclusion that since life was feeling so just right already, our answer must be to be doing what we're doing already, but on a commercial scale. For example, we're loving getting into frugal, super wholesome eating. We are sprouting all kinds of legumes and our staples are fresh daily almond milk and wholegrain organic spelt bread. Nick loves all of his kitchen processes, and he loves sharing all of our amazing food with people. Surely we could find a way to do what we're already doing and find a way to make some money from it.
Our idea was to get a small farm thing going on. We both want to work, neither of us are averse to earning our keep, but it's super important to us to do this on our own terms. For us, we need to be close to our children, and the children could fully and happily participate in a small farm operation. We could finally start to grow our own and work towards the self-sustainability we have been talking about for years. Maybe we could even progress to an on-site cafe/restaurant - completely farm to table. Nick would love that.
I got very, very excited about this farm idea. The main obstacle was, again, the money stuff. So we don't have the money and we don't want to have a mortgage. How on earth were we going to find ourselves the 5 acres we decided we would need to start a small farm? We were optimistic that just the right thing would happen. We waited it out.
Enter The Friends. The Friends live on 5 acres in McMinnville. Between them, they have a bunch of kids and a huge desire to homestead, and not nearly enough time or human-power. They are looking for community, self-sustainability, healthy vibrant lives, and natural upbringings for their children. We mentioned our farm idea, and we spent a few weekends out playing with them, exchanging visions and ideas, and experiencing such peace while the kids were blissfully outside in fresh air and dirt for days. We all, almost shockingly quickly, decided that the very best idea would be that we share their 5 acres with them and do the farm thing there.
We will need a dwelling, and that money issue still exists, so we easily landed on cob building. Our research immediately reinforced that decision. (Check some of it out; I'll throw up some links at the end.) Cob is easy: anyone can do it and it is safe for kids. It is very cheap, being made from the soil we will accumulate when we clear the land, clay which is abundant there, sand and straw. It is a real physical effort which I can only imagine will mean that it will be incredibly rewarding. We can incorporate passive solar to efficiently use the sun to heat our house, solar panels for power, rainwater tanks for water. What an experience it will be. I mean geez, imagine designing your own house, quirks and all, from the earth up. Cob requires a good solid roof and a good solid foundation, and all of the information one could possibly need or desire is available on the internet. People who take on cob building projects clearly love the process so much that they have to share it all, because their stories are everywhere. The fact that so many people seem to add extensions to their houses every year makes me feel so excited to get started.
We already spent a weekend out there starting to clear the land. We go back out this weekend to really get down to business with land-leveling and gardening. I can't wait.
Stay tuned...
Meka's Cob Cottage
Another random 'building with cob' video
Cob Wiki article
greenbuildingelements.com
The Year of Mud
04 May 2011
Ahhh, spring...
Phew, taking a minute (or ten) to sit down and post an update for our beloved family and friends who wonder what's going on in our lives!
The biggest change in the last few months is that our friend Jon has moved in with us! It is awesome having him here. We have the same kinds of thoughts on intentional communities (which is that we love them and want to be part of one) and have high hopes to be in a village-y sort of situation in the very near future. Our mutual friend has some land and a genuine desire to share it, so we're exploring that option and reading up on cob building, solar power, large-scale gardening, composting toilets, keeping a house cow, and breeding alpacas. We would love to grow to be self-sustaining as quickly as possible. It is all very exciting, and my sincere intention is to keep my blog all up to date, especially if we embark on any new big projects!
I am halfway through my first term back to school, and I'm loving being a student again. I definitely need to get a bit better at starting assignments closer to the time they are assigned rather than waiting until the day before they are due, but other than that I'm on the right track. If all goes to plan, I have one year of prerequisites to take and then I can start at Birthingway College of Midwifery!
The two older kids are still taking a few classes at the homeschooling resource center and they love them! (Eli isn't quite interested enough yet.) Between them they have Lego club, chess club, organic gardening, cooking, folk tales from around the world, detective agency, and other fun stuff. The families we know from that place are so wonderful. It's a good place to hang out!
Stay tuned for some photos!
The biggest change in the last few months is that our friend Jon has moved in with us! It is awesome having him here. We have the same kinds of thoughts on intentional communities (which is that we love them and want to be part of one) and have high hopes to be in a village-y sort of situation in the very near future. Our mutual friend has some land and a genuine desire to share it, so we're exploring that option and reading up on cob building, solar power, large-scale gardening, composting toilets, keeping a house cow, and breeding alpacas. We would love to grow to be self-sustaining as quickly as possible. It is all very exciting, and my sincere intention is to keep my blog all up to date, especially if we embark on any new big projects!
I am halfway through my first term back to school, and I'm loving being a student again. I definitely need to get a bit better at starting assignments closer to the time they are assigned rather than waiting until the day before they are due, but other than that I'm on the right track. If all goes to plan, I have one year of prerequisites to take and then I can start at Birthingway College of Midwifery!
The two older kids are still taking a few classes at the homeschooling resource center and they love them! (Eli isn't quite interested enough yet.) Between them they have Lego club, chess club, organic gardening, cooking, folk tales from around the world, detective agency, and other fun stuff. The families we know from that place are so wonderful. It's a good place to hang out!
Stay tuned for some photos!
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