California Homesteading

Sexy Concrete

2011-12-17T19:37:00.000-08:00

Oxymoron, you ask? No way. It's taken (of course) a bit longer than anticipated, but we finished the first two pieces of the kitchen countertops. They are a magical brick red color that blends beautifully with the redwood and fir in our cabinets, with a few interesting types of aggregate, and embedded antique watch parts (thank you, Creek!). The effect is nothing short of stunning...now a bit about the process.

First, we make a template out of thin fiberboard that conforms to the exact dimensions and angles, since walls are rarely as square as they should be. Then, Drew used the template to build the form out of melamine. This took a lot of fiddling for the longest section, since it includes the kitchen sink, and had to have a very precise cutout and holes for plumbing and such.

Drew and Aaron tape and caulk joints in the the form.

Once the form was built, he applied caulk to the joints of the form to create the desired round-over effect on the edges around the sink and the fronts of the counters. We also included an integral sloped area for the dish drainer. (No more water puddles, thank you!) We then added welded wire and rebar for reinforcement.

Welded wire and decorative aggregate in the form ready for pour.

Next was the fun part, placing the decorative aggregate and elements, exactly where we wanted them. We have collected shells and agates from the beach over the years with this project in mind, so it was nice to finally use some. We also used some black volcanic glass, and some red and yellow stones. Finally, we added watch gears, watch faces, and even some entire watch bodies, which when filled with epoxy leave all the gears and workings exposed in the surface of the counters. They came out beautifully!

Working the concrete into the form.

Once all this is done, then finally the pour. After they sit for 10 days or so, then we grind with a water grinder with diamond discs. It's just like sanding wood, where you use progressively finer grits to get a glass-like shine. We revealed a minimum of aggregate, and then polished up the slabs.

Polished, sealed, and glossed, and ready for install!

After we were finally satisfied with the results, we finally brought them indoors and sealed them with more Ecoprocote concrete finishing products: AcriSoy as a penetrating sealer, and EcoFlorz as a glossy topcoat. They shine beautifully after this treatment. Then at last, the install, which was a day without a kitchen sink, but well worth the wait. After a year of plywood with plastic tablecloths over top, I'm loving the wipe-able surface, and most of all, the rich color that blends so well with our cabinets. Now there's just two more pieces to make before ALL the kitchen counters are done.

Install day...

Giving Thanks

2011-11-27T20:56:00.001-08:00

So many things to be thankful for, not least of which is getting a moment to post again on my blog! Geez! It's already been a month!

Usually, we spend Thanksgiving with my aunt and uncle, who are kind of like parents to me, and are definitely grandparents to my kids. We have spent all but a few Thanksgiving's together for about 20 years now. But this year, I felt excited to host Thanksgiving in my own home for the first time, so we stayed home and invited people over. We had a very nice gathering with Drew's mom, as well as several community members we love. We all had a great time.

I definitely feel so grateful for the space of this house that I can host such a party with such ease! I'm grateful for my family, and the safe passage into life of our newest member, Gardner, who daily reminds me to be patient and unconditionally loving. I am so grateful for my husband, Drew, who I am so proud of for his deep training in and commitment to Aikido, the Art of Peace, which indelibly shapes who he is. I am thankful for my daughter Ella, who's strength of spirit and boundless energy remind me to live a little bit more each day. I'm thankful for the rest of my family, for knowing they are near me energetically, and that they love and support me, even if they are far away.

I'm thankful for our community here, for all it's quirks and all its ordinary and extra-ordinary grandeur. I'm thankful for helpful and loving neighbors, for like-minded families that raise kids together, for unsurpassable natural beauty all around us, for abundance of soil and rain and homegrown food, for the salmon that still return, and for our comfortable house.

I'm thankful for my health and for the continuous opportunity to grow in my understanding of myself.

May we always enjoy such abundance of things to be thankful for, and accept them with grace...

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T10:55:00.000-07:00

This year, Ella wanted to be a "Tiger-Faced Koala Bear". So there you have it...

Happy Halloween!

Honor and love your dead, leave a little food out tomorrow night, their favorites, on Day of the Dead.

Ella's Room

2011-10-31T10:26:00.000-07:00

We just needed to buckle down and finish up this room, and now we've done it...plaster is done, trim is done, floor is done, loft railing is finished, and over the weekend, we moved some of Ella's play scene into the space!

In this room, we tried a new floor finish product from Ecoprocote. It's a glossy finish sealer, and we love how it looks. It completes the fun variability of the basic stain. We also figured out how to appropriately use the glossy wood finish to make the redwood sills and trim really pop. I'm excited about the look AND the clean-ability of the end product here.

Glossy Floor

Glossy Redwood Windowsill, Ooo la la!

Drew spent a good bit of time building a beautiful loft railing out of cedar wood. It has mortis and tenon joints. He found he didn't quite have the right tools to do a perfect perfect job, but we are both happy with the results, and know that it will keep everyone who ventures upstairs safe (once there is actually a ladder...maybe when Ella is 15?) We are also still missing some closet doors and an actual bedroom door. That door seems important for her, once this new baby begins crawling/walking. Ella keeps a collection of chokables that are not to be trusted!

Loft Railing

Closet Trim

We're hoping Ella will want to begin sleeping in her new room soon, though I must admit, the thought is a little bittersweet. She's been right near us almost every single night since she was born over 5 years ago. People tell you that it's hard to let them go as they grow up, but I didn't realize how true that is until recently. Sigh. It's all a part of life. You nurture them and help them and hold them, and then you let them fly, and hope they fly back to you!

Play Space Ready for FUN!

Clerestory Finishing

2011-10-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

Aaron installing window trim

The finish effect, with the beam now visible!

A few weeks back, Aaron built finish frames to go around the clerestory windows. He plastered the open drywall first and then put up the frames. Then Drew was finally able to take down the plastic drape that has covered up our beautiful redwood beam for almost a year. What an unveiling! Then Drew completed the final step, which was to install the low-wattage LED rope light along the whole clerestory, which provides a very low energy ambient light for moving about the house at night after dark. It's a small thing, but it's so fun to see parts of the house we've designed a long time ago come into fruition.

Kitchen Cabinets, Oh My!

2011-10-23T08:45:00.001-07:00

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After!

Sink Area and Corner Run

Close Up of Cabinet Door

Almost two weeks ago, the delightful folks at Forbes Cabinets in Eureka came to install the upper and lower cabinets, upgrading our kitchen overnight from 2x4-plywood world into fantastic-functional-beautiful-awesome place. It didn't take so long to get used to, though we are still having a little trouble finding some things!

The cabinets were built by a local shop in town. We've been so happy with their service, and commitment to getting it right, while making it beautiful, all at an affordable price. The cabinets are vertical grain fir, and we added some redwood accents to allow them to stand out a little bit from our background plaster and ceiling. One of my favorite parts, beyond the pretty wood and its pleasing grain and color, is the easy-close drawer slides and door hinges that make the drawers and doors close softly at the end. Oh, and that all kitchen items are now in the kitchen and organized in a way that is easy to access.

Another feature that we are very much enjoying is the small built-in window seat/couch we designed into our kitchen. It's really the perfect size and has three big storage drawers underneath. You see it immediately when you walk in the door, and it just looks cozy.

Built-In Couch (Has yet to acquire a cushion)

Our next step now is to work on our concrete countertops. Drew has built the template, and now needs to move on to the actual forms. We're excitedly planning the colors and inlays. Our friend visited over the weekend with lots of small watch parts that we hope to include in the counter. I'm excited to see how that project unfolds. Beyond that, there are still several finish details to get to as well, like a backsplash, and plaster finishing above the cabinets and around the vent hood. All in good time...

Back in the Saddle

2011-10-18T15:09:00.000-07:00

Gardner Thomas Rain Barber

born July 10, 2011 @ 12:07 PM !!!! 7 lbs. 12 oz.

It's been quite a long while since my last post. I wasn't doing anything much, just having a baby, keeping up with our garden, sending my oldest off to kindergarten, and continuing work on our house. It's all continuing, but life is settling onto its new routine after adding a new family member, and I have been missing my blog.

Plus, there are some exciting things happening in the house...here's a short list:

the pantry is finished and moved into
Ella's room is nearly complete
the clerestory is finished
our shower got tiled and the tub was installed, so we have a shower in the house now, and,
we just got our kitchen cabinets last week (!!!!!!)

Oh, yeah, and we have this beautiful new baby, who is really interesting and fun, and so much joy. There's certainly no shortage of things to write about, so stay tuned for more frequent updates...

Hand Knitted Socks

2011-05-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

Adult socks knitted in Panda Soy "Stained Glass", 2-at-a-time

Children's Socks, Knitted in MochiPlus, 2-at-a-time

Oh dear, it's been a while since I've posted. Pregnancy hasn't been so kind to me, diminishing my immune system and leaving me vulnerable to every passing virus. I've been sick a lot over the last two months...

But. Some backlog posts. I wanted to show off my knitted socks. The red pair are mine, and the first pair I've knitted with the two socks at the same time with the two circular needles method. They are knitted with a yarn called PandaSoy, which is made with bamboo and soy fiber.

The pink pair are the second attempt at the two-at-a-time socks, and my first attempt at using something other than a very basic sock pattern. It has a ribbing pattern only on the top of the foot. These I knitted as a gift for my daughter, who was requesting "pink, fluffy socks". I used the MochiPlus yarn, a beautiful, soft, painted yarn that does really cool color changes. I made them a little large, so she could wear them next winter, since it's almost summer (though the weather lately wouldn't necessarily suggest that).

I am currently working on a few knitted projects, but my enthusiasm for knitting has kind of faded with sunnier outdoor skies. As it should be. I am wanting to knit while I can, knowing I won't be able to so much once our new baby arrives this July.

More American Clay Plaster

2011-03-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

Me, in front of the East Wall of the Office/Music Zone

Today, we mixed up some more Enjarre plaster and got working on finish walls again, after three months off. I'm feeling pretty inspired about plaster right now because I just attended a American Clay application workshop on Saturday with Rick Kantor of Terrasanti in Penngrove, CA at Alternative Building Center in Eureka. I had a whole lot of fun playing and experimenting with plaster with a group of great people, and learned a heck of a lot, too.

This is our third application of Enjarre plaster, which is American Clay's more commercially-minded plaster. It's designed to be a one-coat application, and is intended, generally, to be applied with spray equipment and then back-troweled. That is, until they released a new product called Up & EZ, which enables you to literally roll the plaster on with a paint roller. (Link shows a video demonstration of the roll-on technique). Or you can trowel it on like usual, too.

The last few times we used Enjarre, we were having some difficulty getting it to stick on the roller, and applying it seemed more challenging than American Clay's workhorse plaster, Loma. One thing I learned this weekend was that we weren't mixing it wet enough. I made the mix a lot wetter today, and had much better results. Drew rolled the material on, and I troweled it smooth. Ella got in on the fun too, playing with a small trowel we usually use for compressing our clay once it's dry.

I had some captions in the photos in the original slideshow, which wouldn't show up in the movie. Essentially, they said things like "So easy, a four-year-old can do it", and "So easy, a pregnant lady can do it". The color of the plaster is called "Palomino Valley". What you see here is the wet color, it will be softer when dry.

Master Bathroom Cabinet with Countertop

2011-03-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

The Vanity, with the Concrete Counter on top, and sink installed. The darker wood in the door panels is the pear wood.

The Tall Linen Unit

The Recycled Copper Sink, set into the countertop

Concrete Countertop, stained with "Espresso" SoyCrete

A few days ago, we installed the concrete countertop that Drew and Michael built. We poured it before we left on our vacation, because with the concrete counters, the cement needs to cure for around 40 days. So we left it in the form while we were away, and Drew unearthed it as soon as we got home.

Once the form comes off, then there is a lot of grinding and sanding to do, with a grinder that connects to a hose. First, we exposed some of the aggregate, and then we sanded with progressively finer disks until the surface was almost like glass. The effect is almost like granite, though not quite as shiny. Once the sanding was done, we stained the counter with SoyCrete, and then put a coat of Acri-Soy sealer on it to protect it.

At last, we lugged it into the bathroom on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, while I was in town, Drew installed the sink and the faucet handles. By Wednesday evening, we had cold running water in the bathroom, and Drew and I realized that for the first time since we've lived together, we no longer needed to brush our teeth in our kitchen sink! Ella was first to try it out.

Our friend Michael Salbego built the cabinets, which I haven't showcased yet either. Drew and I shopped for wood, and after much deliberation, settled on maple frames with select pear-wood panels (these came from Willow Creek somewhere). The drawer panels are locally-grown and milled Pacific big-leaf maple. We were looking for a shaker-style panel. There is a tall unit for linen storage, and then a vanity, with doors under the sink, and drawers on either side. In between the two units, there is an empty space to hold our laundry bin. To finish the assembly off, Michael made some simple, hand-carved drawer pulls and knobs. We think they're gorgeous, and that Mikey did a fantastic job.

North Half Ceiling Complete

2011-03-24T11:57:00.000-07:00

The finished ceiling with paint

Unprimed texture, over drywall

Aaron, applying the spray texture

Last week, we focused our efforts on completing the ceiling on the north half of the main room of the house. For a long time before our vacation, Aaron was working on mudding and taping the ceiling in preparation for texture. Once we returned from vacation, Drew and Aaron sanded the seams to smooth them out. Then Drew and I spent two days (!) masking and draping the walls. Well, it wouldn't have taken quite so long if I wasn't pregnant and Drew wasn't recovering from the flu!

Finally, we diluted our bucket of mud, and loaded some into the hopper to test the spray and see how easy or difficult texturing is. Turns out, it's not THAT hard, though there are some simple tricks that make it a lot easier. Like having thin enough mix, for example. Once we decided on a coverage amount and got the gun nice and clear, it was smooth sailing, though the boys' arms were very very sore by the end.

After we let it dry for a day and a half, we primed the ceiling with ASM's SafeCoat New Wallboard Primer. This is a very low VOC primer, considered non-toxic. The following day, Drew and Aaron painted the ceiling with two coats of Yolo Colorhouse Paint in Color Air.01. Yolo Colorhouse is another no-VOC, non-toxic paint product that we get at our friendly, neighborhood green building store, Alternative Building Center in Eureka. It's a soft, slightly yellow white.

Our goal for this project was to make the tape seams invisible. We mostly succeeded. You can see them in a few spots, but mostly, it looks really great. We're pleased, and NOW we can get on to finishing the walls in that whole area of the house...did I mention we're working on our bathroom, too? I'll make a post about that, it's looking really nice.

Chicken Egg Surplus

2011-03-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

On our return from vacation, the chickens have ramped up their egg laying such that we're back to a surplus. We are getting 15-17 eggs a day. One of the main permaculture ethics is to turn a surplus into a resource. So we've been doing just that, selling our extra 4-5 dozen a week, to contribute to our feed costs. Then we can subsidize our three dozen a week habit, and continue to enjoy all things egg: deviled eggs, quiche, souffle, benedict, and pancakes.

Now I know why we have that tradition of doing stuff with eggs at Easter! The chickens are in full out production mode.

New Batteries for our Off-Grid System

2011-03-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

The new batteries, alongside the old in the battery enclosure alongside the garage. The front wall is removable so that we can do just this: get the batteries in and out. We will need to recycle the old ones.

The batteries are so large and heavy, Drew needed to bring them over to the battery enclosure with the tractor.

And he needed a second person to help move them into place.

The Outback Mate showing our battery voltage at 25.6V first thing this morning. What a change from 24.4 first thing. It also shows that despite the cloud cover, we are making 100 watts with the solar panels.

Just after our return from our trip, we finally got the call that our new batteries had arrived in Eureka. We ordered them several months ago. Our old batteries were very much on their last legs, requiring extensive generator use.

The original batteries were really a deal. We bought them used from a neighbor who had them connected to a grid-intertie system. This means they had been held at a constant voltage for the time he had them, so despite their being used, they were in very good shape. However, they weren't designed for off-grid use, and we figured we'd get about 3 years of use out of them before they were no good anymore. We managed to squeeze 5 years out of them. These last two years, they have been far less than optimal, but they have held us up, and allowed us to build our house and keep lights on and the refrigerator running into the night.

Now that we are in the house and have a good idea of what we really needed, we've got these amazing batteries. There are 8 of them, and they are large capacity, and have a 10 year warranty. We are so excited that after charging, they hold charge for hours above a low voltage mark! Wow! We are still conditioning them, and hopefully we do a good job, setting them up to perform for their marketed 10 years or so. Ideally, we will invest in some more solar panels or a wind generator to maximize efficiency in charging these batteries.

Chickens as Garden Tools

2011-03-11T21:33:00.001-08:00

That concentration of chickens are in the raspberry bed, working their magic. In the background, you can see where they cleared last year's summer garden to dirt, where the black irrigation lines are.

Here's another two gals, working in the bed. The upright sticks are the raspberry crowns, and you can see that AAAAALLLLL around them are weeds. That's the white electric fence in the background.

A few months ago, we finally got around to purchasing a moveable, electrified poultry fence for our chickens. This not only expanded their available foraging area, but now allows us to move them around our orchard and garden area to where they might be most useful. Their natural scratching habit lightly cultivates the soil, they find and eat weeds, grass, and bugs, slugs, and snails, and then they poop, fertilizing the area in their wake. It's a pretty cool equation.

Just before we left, we moved the fence to enclose part of last year's garden. It was already overgrown with weeds and grass. In the six weeks we were gone, they brought that entire area down to bare dirt. I don't really recommend this as a general practice, but it's pretty amazing what they did.

So just today, I was pruning back my raspberry canes, since I never quite got to it in the fall, and the crowns were very grown in with our sheep sorrel weed and several types of grass. None of our grass species is very easy to deal with. They are all very difficult to remove, especially once they crop up in the root ball of a plant you want to keep. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with it until I thought, "hey, this is what the chickens are for!" So I enclosed the area, and immediately, the birds went right for the raspberry area, since there is mulch under there. They scratched and scratched down to bare dirt. Once they do that, I can remove them by moving the fence again, and then mulch heavily. Bye bye, weeds and grass. I'll post another photo in a little while so we can see how it's changed.

Baby #2 On the Way

2011-03-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

Most of my dear readers know by now that Drew and I are expecting our second child sometime in the middle of July. This may have something to do with why I haven't posted anything since early January! That, and the fact that we only recently returned from our annual winter vacation, which seems to get longer every year. When I left, I was still feeling pregnancy sick, and now that I'm home, I realize just how tired and ill I was back in January.

So now, many weeks and many telemark ski turns later (that's me up above tearing up the slopes at Heavenly, at 4 months preggers), not to mention a week in Santa Cruz, the flu and a trip to Disneyland, we are settled back into home and spring is just around the corner. There's so much to look forward to, I'm sure I'll be getting back into sharing about the goings on in our little corner of paradise.

Baby Sweaters

2011-01-07T13:34:00.001-08:00

For some reason, I haven't really mentioned anything about my knitting obsession on this blog before, but it went into high gear last fall, when I helped host a knitting workshop for beginners and intermediates. I've been knitting since I was about 9 or 10 years old, but I've only begun attempting actual projects in the last 6 years or so.

These last two years or so, I've started knitting baby sweaters for all the cuties being born around these parts. This one above I love, it's so warm AND has a hood. Essential for Mattole babies.

I've also been knitting socks, hats, scarves, fingerless gloves, and I even tried a pair of mittens. I don't know why, but following instructions to create something just lights me up. Weird. I know. But fun.

I'm so excited about it that I've started contemplating raising my own fiber animals so I can raise some of my own yarn. We have a great local fiber artist who knows a lot about it. We've discussed what it might look like to get a local fiber cooperative going, and to create a micro brand of yarn. A fun pastime, contemplating what's possible, and how delightful it would be to knit with locally-raised Mattole yarn.

A Bed Off the Floor

2011-01-07T13:28:00.000-08:00

These small things are so tiny, but so delightful. For many years now, our bed has been in a loft or on the floor. Not such a bad thing at all, especially when you have a little tiny person who could fall out of a tall bed. But it comes with it's prices. Changing sheets is a pain (especially with very close ceilings). Crawling around when you're 9 months pregnant isn't so easy, and a little hard on the wrists. And climbing out of a loft at 3 AM when you have to pee isn't such a holiday either.

So we're up off the floor, and the other awesome benefit is to experience the view out the window in the morning that I designed the room for:

The single largest window in the house frames this view of Moore Hill, the last hill before the ocean. Drew and I spent the beginning of our relationship staring out the window at Moore Hill from a different perspective. Ahhh, it's so lovely! It catches the sunrise light so beautifully.

Living In the House

2011-01-02T11:45:00.001-08:00

View of Kitchen and Dining From Living Room

View of the Living Room from the Dining Room

Living Room

I have been waiting to photograph the house until the sun was fully shining. Today is January 2, and the last day we saw real sun was December 22. On that day, we hadn't moved in yet!

We moved our temporary kitchen into the house on December 23, the day Drew's mom came to stay for Christmas. It was a little herky jerky and disorganized, but we did it, thanks to the help of our friends, especially Ali, Everett, Aaron, and Chris and Jody, who showed up at the furniture moving moment. We couldn't have done it without all of the Christmas angels.

Though we have been puttering and slowly organizing things and figuring out new systems and patterns of movement in space, we've mostly been relaxing into our new space, and enjoying it. It has been largely rainy and gray since we moved in, and we celebrated Christmas comfortably even though it rained 4 inches outside. We had 4 guests for dinner, and we could still talk, and we enjoyed the fire and food and drink. We had many guests for New Year's Eve, and there was plenty of space for many more. I am looking forward to many more gatherings, opening up this space for unexpected community needs.

My favorite part of living in the house right now is that I don't need to go outside if I don't WANT to. Living in the yurt, there were so many needs to go outdoors, each one requiring shoes, a coat, and moving things around, and often Ella wanted to come, which required SHE get suited up too. Now I can do the laundry without putting on my shoes, nor balancing up and down steps and ramps while holding a full laundry basket. And I can even do it if it's raining outdoors. Wow. Life under one roof. It IS all it's cracked up to be!

The Master Throne

And did I mention the flushing toilets? Now that is something. For the last eight years, I have lived with several outhouse situations. Some of them were rather deluxe, but for the last 4 and 1/2 years, I have been doing my business into a pickle barrel with a seat. With no roof. When the weather was nice, I didn't mind this setup one bit. But when it was pouring rain AND the middle of the night, I would curse the barrel and vow to build a roof each coming spring. Which for some reason we never did. I'm sure it goes without saying, but I am deeply enjoying using the indoor plumbing, especially with all this cold and rainy weather. Especially in the middle of the night. It is true luxury. I had forgotten how nice.

Moving Day

2010-12-22T12:13:00.001-08:00

The Living/Dining Room at Winter Solstice, Walls and Floors Done!

View of Kitchen From Living Room

At last, the day has come. A few more details, a few more items to assemble, and we move our life over to the new house. I realize it will still be a process, as the final configuration of things will slowly unfold, but a basic, functioning kitchen will be in place by tomorrow, and the furniture and trappings of a life will all vacate the yurt. What an amazing Birthday-Solstice-Christmas gift to arrive at this moment.

We've been sleeping in our amazing bedroom since a week before Thanksgiving, and this has been a huge blessing. We have had an extremely wet December, with lots of rainy, stormy nights. I would have enjoyed significantly less sleep during that time had we not been over there at night. But the back and forth each day, just before bedtime and first thing in the morning, has been a challenge for me in particular, as we are now expecting our second child (!), and I am needing to eat at odd hours of the night, as well as first thing in the morning. So this move is a very welcome and relieving prospect for me!

I'll take some more photos once we move everything in, and set up our Christmas tree. Game on!

Cozy Sleeping

2010-11-18T10:06:00.001-08:00

At long last, we moved our bed into our lovely, finished bedroom, and have been sleeping in it, in the room, since Sunday night. It's a simultaneously WOW feeling, and also just a quiet, smooth transition into something we've been waiting for, literally for years.

How ironic that even sleeping in a much anticipated space, it's difficult to sleep in a new space! There are new sounds, new routines around going to bed, getting up in the night to pee, and all that. But there is a deeper quiet.

It's been my feeling for a while now that Drew and I suffer from a long term lack of deep sleep, created by a constant awareness of ordinary sounds heard through yurt walls: calm sounds like owls hooting, birdsong, and coyotes howling, as well as deeply and instinctually stressful sounds like 50 mph winds, pounding, needling rain, and cars, generators, and the like. I'm finding that I can hear a lot of the sounds in the house, but they are markedly quieter, and the inner stress level is so much less, because the house feels so solid and secure. I'm looking forward to catching up on deep-level relaxation in sleep.

Once this rain stops, we are ready to move all of our clothes over to the closet, and we are also soon to get Ella her own big-girl bed, so we can have our bed back to ourselves, after 4 and 1/2 years. I salute that!

Butternut Squash Soup

2010-11-12T14:26:00.001-08:00

Round about now, the winter squash starts singing to me at 5:00 PM when I begin to contemplate what to make for dinner. This year, I had a bumper crop of butternuts, along with other squash, so I think I'll be making lots of butternut soup. Here's one of my first and favorite butternut soups...

From The Silver Palette Cookbook

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp butter

2 large onions, sliced

3-4 Tbsp curry powder

2 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into cubes

4 medium apples, cored and cubed

1 quart chicken stock

1 cup fresh apple juice

salt to taste

1 package of your favorite sausage (optional)

yogurt and/or herbs for garnish

Saute the onions in the butter for about 15 minutes over medium heat, until well softened. Add the curry powder and cook for a few more minutes. Add the stock, squash, and apples, cover and turn up the heat until boiling. Then reduce heat to simmer until everything is very well cooked and soft. Meanwhile, slice the sausage into rounds and brown in an oiled pan, and set aside. Use an immersion blender or food processor to puree soup until smooth. Return to low heat, and add apple juice. Add the pre-browned and cooked sausage. Heat through and serve with plain yogurt, cilantro or basil, and fresh buttermilk biscuits with butter. Sometimes I also serve it with leftover rice or other grains.

Bon appetit!

It's Full Steam Ahead

2010-11-10T19:11:00.001-08:00

Though I have had several days of low motivation, our crew is still moving all kinds of things forward with the house. Last week, Jemma and I plastered the big wall in the living room a lovely yellow color. This afternoon, in the sunset light, it was a magnificent, glowing gold, so I couldn't resist photographing it.

Living Room Wall Plaster in Golden Sunset Light

Also, our bedroom trim is done, and we're working on the doors so we can install the last of it in the entry and in the bathroom/closet. Today, Drew and I plastered the laundry closet with Structolite, so that when we move over to the house, we can move our washing machine, too.

Here's the Bedroom with Trim, All Done

A Bathroom Door

Stair Trim, Just Like Tetris

Last week, Karl and Drew had Cedar here with his trenching machine, and we ran phone cable to the house, propane line from the pad to the house, water lines and power lines. Karl is working hard to get all those utilities set up before he leaves in a few weeks. We've ordered new batteries for our off-the-grid power system, and we're looking forward to that purchase arriving. Our current batteries were used and cheap, and they have certainly done their duty. But they are no longer working very well, so we're excited for batteries that perform properly. Karl is building a little house outside the house for them, as well as the inverter and other electronics that operate our power system.

Hmmm, what else. Aaron is mudding and taping on the north slope ceiling, getting it ready for texture. I moved some window bucks along towards readiness for plaster. Jemma has been cleaning and oiling all of our window frames, including the clerestory windows. And the list goes on. There are a lot of steps!

Our bathroom sink arrived, as did our vent hood for the kitchen stove. We're lining ourselves up to do plaster and floors in the kitchen/living/dining, so that we can create a temporary kitchen.

Maybe we'll actually move into our room THIS weekend, we'll see!

Our Beautiful Concrete Floor

2010-10-31T20:42:00.000-07:00

Bedroom Floor with Leather Brown SoyCrete Stain

Floor Closeup

A Preview of the Trimmed-Out Look (the trim won't go in till later today)

Bathroom Floor with Espresso Concrete Stain

I spent all last week laboring over my bedroom suite floor, and at the end of it, I gave birth to a richly varied, stained concrete that warms the feeling of the entire space. As with using any new product in a new context, I worried and fretted over whether I was doing it right. I experimented in the closet first, and it's a good thing, because I don't like the results in there. The second space I completed was the bathroom, which turned out much better, and finally, the big main bedroom, a spacious pallet of color.

The process is multi-step: meticulously scrape all visible remnants of joint compound splats, plaster residue, and structolite off the floor. Sweep and vacuum, leaving as clean a surface as possible. Apply a concrete etcher, to clean and open the pores of the concrete (Ecoprocote EcoEtch), allow to dwell for about 10 minutes, then buff with a floor buffer. This process impressively cleans the floor, which by this point in the house project contains nearly two years worth of construction dirt and activity.

After buffing, vacuum up the wet stuff and rinse, rinse, rinse. Allow to dry. THEN, the fun part. Apply the stain (EcoProcote SoyCrete) with a foam mop, and work into the surface of the concrete. Once dry to the touch, buff with the floor buffer (a rather squirrely machine!) to smooth out the application marks.

A day later, apply the penetrating sealer coat, Acri-Soy. Finally, enjoy the fruits of your labor, and experience the drastic transformation of a blue-gray concrete slab into a lovely, mottled, warm-looking, homey floor.

The Ecoprocote products are a pleasure to work with. Ultra-low VOC, they don't stink, are safe to work around without safety equipment, and clean up with soap and water.

Finish trim details, and MOVE IN. Coming soon, this week.

Comfort Food Recipes

2010-10-30T13:26:00.001-07:00

As the season is winding down towards the winter solstice, and the garden is wrapping up its delights, and putting them away until next season, I am craving comfort foods: casseroles, warm soups, easy-to-chew things that are sweet and nourishing.

Last night's meal was a pesto-eggplant lasagne. Oh, it was good, so I thought I should post the recipe so others can enjoy it.

Pesto-Eggplant Lasagne

Ingredients:

1 package lasagne noodles

2 roasted eggplants (see instructions below)

1 recipe basil pesto (see instructions below)

1 recipe red sauce (or a jar of prepared tomato sauce)

2 large balls fresh mozarella

3 large slicing tomatoes for topping

Begin by roasting your eggplant.

2 medium globe eggplant

olive oil

salt

pepper

Preheat your oven to 400F or so. Oil a baking sheet. Slice your globe eggplants into rounds about 1/4 inch thick. Brush them all heartily with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Bake about 15-20 minutes one side, then flip over and keep baking until they are very soft and lightly brown.

While that is roasting, make your pesto. You will need:

4 cups packed basil leaves

1-2 cloves garlic, pressed

1-2 Tbsp pine nuts or sunflower seeds

3/4 cups extra virgin olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup freshly grated Parmaggiano Reggiano

Place all but the cheese in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until smooth. Add in the cheese and set aside.

Next, make your Ricotta Custard:

1 15-oz. container of ricotta cheese

2 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

Beat the cheese and eggs together, and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

NOW, if you are a superstar, you could make your own tomato sauce: Here's my favorite way:

Tomato Sauce

1.5 lbs sauce tomatoes, pureed in a food processor, or finely chopped

1 onion, finely diced

ground beef (optional)

3 cloves garlic

2 bell peppers

1 med. zucchini

herbs of your choice (basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, sage, whatever you like)

1 cup of dry red wine (merlot or cabernet, for example)

bay leaf

olive oil

salt and pepper

Saute onions well in olive oil (10-12 minutes) over medium heat till very soft. If using meat, add now and stir until cooked. Add herbs, peppers, and zucchini, and saute until beginning to soften. Turn up the heat to high, and pitch the wine. Simmer until reduced by half, and then turn down the heat and add the pureed tomatoes and bay leaf. Cover and simmer as long as you like over low heat, to combine the flavors.

Assembling the Lasagne

Now that you've got all your components, begin your assembly. Scoop some sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Smear ricotta custard onto DRY (uncooked) lasagne noodles and lay into the pan in a layer. Cover with the roasted eggplant rounds. Cover with a layer of pesto. Lay another layer of noodles smeared with ricotta over top. Add more red sauce. Add another layer of noodles. Top with fresh mozarella, sliced, and fresh tomato rounds, if you've got them. COVER, and bake in a 375 F oven for about an hour. Serve with a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and listen to the comforting ooo's and ahhhh's around your table.

Lots of Projects

2010-10-28T09:46:00.001-07:00

We are on a mad mission. Karl is only here a few more weeks, and we are pushing to get as much done as possible. And we are really doing it. Making lots of progress. Every day. It's really thanks to all the great people we have working for us. Yay team!

To start, we are VERY close to being done with our bedroom! We slept out there for the first time last weekend, and today, I am about to stain the main floor. Karl did the ceiling trim and it's gorgeous. Also, a sill for our little recessed lighting cove with this amazing curly redwood. I think he did an awesome job here.

Ceiling Trim and Curly Redwood Sill, look how beautiful!

Meanwhile, I was designing our cabinets for our bathroom and kitchen. We mocked up the kitchen to approximate the locations of the cabinets/counters and the island. I spent a few days on the computer, which was hard on my back, but yielded a solid overall design.

Kitchen Mockup

Then this week, I began base plastering the remainder of the main room walls, and started on concrete staining the bathroom and closet floor, while Karl and Aaron were installing the wood ceiling in our guest/massage room and the entry way. Done, done, and done.

Living Room Base Coat Plaster

Guest Room Ceiling Done

Bathroom Floor with Concrete Stain

It's fully into the rainy time now, so there's nothing to do BUT work on the house. Indoors is the place to be.

Main Ceiling Finished!

2010-10-06T21:01:00.001-07:00

After four solid days of work with the dream team, consisting of Karl and Aaron slinging nail guns, and yours truly running the chopsaw, we completed the entire big room ceiling today. It feels so satisfying. Partly because a project finished is a project finished, but also because it is SO damn beautiful. This wood sings. It is reflective, and warm, and looks phenomenal in that space. Now for plaster in that room, I think the wood will look even better with the plaster right up next to it.

We also had team girl today, Jemma and Hope staining additional boards for our next ceiling project. We had Kai on the roof, slow and steady, too. Jemma also finished the last of the compression in our bedroom, meaning we're now ready to tackle the floor project.

Ahhh. Progress. I'm ready for bed!

Fall Garden

2010-10-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

The fall garden in the Mattole is really where it's at. All you Central Valley peeps have your tomatoes in June, and all you Calistoga folks have your corn seven feet tall by 4th of July, but on the coast, here in the Mattole hole, we have the September/October garden peak. I tend to forget this, when nothing is ready by our Leo Party in August, when my aunt asks me what is ready. Usually only cucumbers. And she doesn't like them.

But once things fully dry out in the indian summer, and the sun is low and hot, we start our tomato pump, and the zucchini ride, and the corn is happening too fast to eat it all, and we STILL have cucumbers. And the winter squash is almost done, and the raspberries and strawberries are still happening, the green beans are still giving 4-5 pounds every three days, and the eggplant has at last begun to make fruit, and the peppers are even turning red, THEN I remember why I labor over those little seeds in flat, struggling to keep them warm in March, when they really should be snug in their seed packets in the shed.

All that, and we already have some of our winter crops, like carrots and beets. It's really a tremendous feeling of abundance to have all this food coming steady out of the garden. We've got extra people here, and we are not short on veggies. I don't really need to buy anything at the store but avocados, lettuce, and cabbage. And we'll have some of our own here soon.

And did I mention the egg machine? If you want eggs all winter, it's imperative to have April chicks, because they will lay eggs through their first winter. At the last minute this year, I bought 12 more laying hen chicks one April day when I was in town. Barred Rock beauties. We've been seeing a few pullet eggs here and there for a few weeks, but two days ago, we suddenly came in with 16 eggs in one day. Usually, we get 7-9. But now we have overlap, the new girls are all beginning to lay, and the old gals haven't quit for the winter yet. Hello, souffle!

I haven't posted a recipe in ages, but here's a summer favorite, to use up some of these veggies:

Cucumber-Cherry Tomato Salad

4-5 sweet garden-fresh cucumbers, cut in half, and sliced

2 handfuls Sungold cherry tomatoes, cut in half

2 sprigs fresh basil, chopped

~ 1/8 cup fine olive oil, or to taste

~ 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, or to taste

~ 1/4 tsp. salt

a few dashes of toasted sesame oil

Mix together in a bowl, and enjoy heartily, around a table filled with family and friends. There really is a lot of latitude with this recipe, I make it a little differently every time, and the quantities of dressing are VERY inexact. Do what tastes right to you, the basic flavors carry through. Bon appetit!

Hanging the Main Room Ceiling

2010-10-04T07:49:00.001-07:00

Last week, Karl and Aaron and I got to hanging ceiling wood over the kitchen/living/dining rooms. After an entire day just hanging the first course, getting it just right so that we didn't need any trim up against our showpiece redwood beam, we jammed on everything else you see here in one day.

This wood is really a treat. It is recycled straight-grain douglas fir. Which doesn't really capture the natural variation of color, grain, and patterning. It looks as though it could be a floor, but it's on the ceiling! Even better is that most of it was already coated with clear sealer, meaning for most of it, we won't have to do this. I'm looking forward to getting more of this done this week.

Preparing Main Room for Plaster

2010-09-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Filling out the sides of the window wells around protruding concrete

Windowsill showing a leveled surface, made from sand and cement mortar

Each step along the way with the building requires so many little steps before, and after. At first glance, why not just slap up some plaster onto those fancy block walls and call it good? Yes, we could, but I've found that once I delve into finish details, the details matter more. If I become unattentive, the final result will be less than desirable.

So to get our windows into shape for windowsills and plaster, the following steps are necessary:

Install an exterior windowsill, that is held in place by metal straps that come inside the house.
Pour a little cement and sand on the sill to level it.
Install wood windowsills (or in the kitchen window, tile).
Apply expanded metal lath over all gaps that can't hold their own plaster.
Apply lath to the top inside of the window wells. (Plaster can't stick upsidedown onto insulation).
Add layers of drywall if the gaps around windows are really big (greater than, say, 1/2")
Build out structolite plaster on the sides of window wells where concrete protrudes from the walls.
Fill in any gaps and holes that can't be filled with one coat of plaster.

After AAAAALLLL that, then we are ready for our first basecoat of plaster across the whole wall. Then we really start to cook! Then, it's a few hours for one coat, and another few hours for a second coat, and then, we're ready for finish plaster.

This is what I'm working on this week. Getting things prepared for large swaths of plaster...I'll keep updating. It's fun work.

Garage Slab and Other Concrete Adventures

2010-09-27T16:48:00.001-07:00

Finished Garage Slab

Last Tuesday, we managed to pull together the pour for our garage, and two smaller landings and steps inside the house. We spent the week before excavating more dirt, replacing it with gravel, building forms, laying welded wire and rebar, placing dough-bies (?), and so on. In all, the day was really three small pour projects: a landing and stair between the garage and mudroom, a landing and stair between the hall and our bedroom, the battery storage box for our off-grid power system, plus the garage floor itself.

Prepped and Ready

The garage floor is such a relief to have done. This partly has to do with how the cats had decided the dirt/sand/gravel that was there before was an ideal litter box (pee-yew!). But also, now we can actually organize and store things in the space, knowing that we don't have to move everything out at some future date.

Greg Smith was our finisher, and we also had Mikey on hand to do some finishing, along with Karl, Aaron, myself, and Drew, to supervise and look on, with his broken collarbone not allowing him to work.

All in all, most things went smoothly on Tuesday. There were a few hiccups, as there always are on a pour day. But really nothing major. I'm happy with the results. I was telling Greg Smith, our concrete finisher, how great concrete projects are because by nature, you can't leave work till later. It's a lot to get it ready, but once you pour and finish, it's D.O.N.E. Then you get to sit back and enjoy the results.

The Landing into our bedroom

Filling Up the Landing into the Mudroom from the Garage

One quarter there in the garage

Finishing the Garage Slab

Finished Landing Inside the Mudroom

The Finished Landing into Our Bedroom

All Mattole Foods Potluck 2010

2010-09-26T15:37:00.001-07:00

Winner for Best Vegetable Dish: Lindsay's Carrot, Onion, Potato Cakes with Sliced Tomatoes and Yogurt Cheese

My Summer Veggie Quiche

Winner for Best Beverage: Ian's Yellow Jacket Apple and Cherry Juice

Winner for Best Dessert: Jim and Kristen's Lemon Blueberry Ice Cream

Winner for Best Meat Dish: Duck Dumpling Stew by Todd and Jessica

Winner for Best Overall: Ryan's Pumpkin Stew with Yogurt Chive Sauce

Each year the Mattole Self-Sufficiency Project puts on an all Mattole food potluck. Anyone can enter a dish, but all the ingredients of the dish must be raised in the Mattole watershed.

For this year's entry, I made a Garden Veggie Quiche. I grew some wheat two years ago, and ground the flour with our hand-powered mill. I made butter and ricotta cheese with milk I got from our friends' milk cow. I mixed up that butter and flour with a little milk and rolled out a crust, and then filled it with an onion, garlic, basil, egg, ricotta, corn, zucchini, and pepper filling. It was delicious.

The potluck featured a lot of lovely dishes, many of which were more complex this year due to the addition and availability of cow dairy. There were soups, stews, salads, veggie dishes, dried fruit, fruit leather, ice cream, grasshoppers, juice, alcohol, applesauce, and more.

The dishes were judged on a combination of flavor, complexity, difficulty of procuring the ingredients, and it seems there was a bonus for using other people's ingredients, as this represents community food sustainability. The winners were:

Best Veggie Dish: Lindsay's Carrot-Potato-Onion pancakes, served with sliced tomatoes and yogurt cheese
Best Meat Dish: Todd and Jessica's Duck Dumpling Stew
Best Dessert: Kristen and Jim's Blueberry Ice Cream
Best Side Dish: Mimi and Harold's Dried Fruit Collection. The presentation of this particular dish was stunning.
Best Overall: Ryan's Pumpkin Stew, served with yogurt chive sauce

All admission prices were paid in Petols, our local currency, which is based on the value of silver, and prizes were awarded in Petols.

I think that the next kind of food category to conquer is vegetable oil, such as sunflower, rape, olive, etc. That's mostly what's missing!

Sunflower Seeds and Dill Seeds

2010-09-25T20:10:00.001-07:00

Home-Grown Sunflower Seeds

A Collage of Sunflower Heads

Ella Harvests Dill Seeds

I've clearly been dismal at posting to my blog for several months now, but I hope to entice you all back into the readers' fold with posting a little more often...there is so much going on at the homestead lately. Aside from Drew breaking his collarbone two weeks ago, putting him out of work for a minimum of 8 weeks, we've been back to working on the house more intensively. We are nearly finished with our bedroom walls, and we poured our garage slab last week. Karl is back on the job for two months, and we're trying to push to get into our kitchen.

Amid doing the basic homestead chores for two people and working full-time on the house, I'm still nurturing our garden along. After a looooooong wait for many of our warm-weather, summer crops, they are at last filling out, plumping up, and reaching harvestable size. All except the tomatoes. Tomatoes are the garden crop that keeps me going, that motivates me in the winter when I start seeds. So it's been a little disappointing that they are just now coming barely, and slowly ripe. We have been eating a lot of sweet corn, zuchinni, green beans, cucumbers, and a few cherry tomatoes, a little basil, and so on. The winter squash harvest looks to be a bumper, and today, I prepared beds for all our winter crops: broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and kale. The carrots and beets are already almost ready. I'm hoping we won't miss the window this year due to gophers or bad weather.

Today, I harvested our beautiful sunflower heads, which were drooping and heavy with the weight of seeds. Once I looked closely, I understood why, as each ten-inch disk was packed with black and white seeds swirling into the center of a fibonacci spiral. I clipped each head below some leaf branches, and wiped off the remaining flower tops to reveal the seeds underneath. Ella helped me carry them to the shed porch, where I hung them up to dry with some twine indoors, to protect them from birds and mice. But not before I sampled some raw, fresh seeds, which before they acquire the gray color you see in the store-bought variety, are pure white and very flavorful. What a rich food we can grow so easily.

Later in the afternoon, as I was preparing the winter beds, I pulled out the workhorse dill plant I had this summer. It was a volunteer that germinated very early in the spring. I carefully left it and weeded around it all spring and summer, and had a fresh supply of dill at all the right times as I made jars of cucumber and dilly bean pickles. Usually, when I plant dill, it's ready too early for the other supplies. The dried plant, before I pulled it up today, was almost as tall as me. (Don't worry, I still have another that is still making dill heads enough for canning and salads!)

Tonight after dinner, Ella and I carefully removed all the dried seeds from the heads, to save for gifts, for making sauerkraut, flavoring pickles, and to plant again next year. A full cycle of locally-grown seed is a good feeling indeed.

Bathroom Plaster

2010-08-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted, summer's schedule is unpredictable and inconsistent, but we are getting back to house work after Drew spent the last 6 weeks building instream rock and log structures in the Mattole estuary for the Mattole Salmon Group. I'd like to make a post about that soon...

But here is the lovely bathroom. This is still first coat of plaster, but it looks like a room now. The shower has the hardibacker in it and we are preparing that for tile. I'm loving the rich colors of the clay plaster, especially when the light pours through the windows in the late afternoon.

Yesterday, Drew and Aaron put the second coat of Structolite on the west bedroom wall. It was the last wall we needed to basecoat. Now we're ready to put clay on that wall, and then we can finish coat all the walls. I'd like to try and organize a work party, to get it all done in one day. Now that would be something. If you live close by, come by and look, and if not, enjoy these little photos....

Finish Plaster!

2010-06-29T13:03:00.001-07:00

From This....

And This.....

To THIS

On the left is the wall that's been done, on the right, a wall with basecoat Structo-lite (Gypsum plaster)

I've been hard at work for six days straight, while Ella has been at day camp. I knew that I wouldn't finish the job, but that I could definitely move the bedroom project a lot farther forward. And how!

Last Wednesday, the first day of camp, I still had some sanding to do as prep, and even some mudding to do, to fill in some gaps in the wall. Thursday, I primed drywall mud with a transitional primer, to prevent variance in color with the final coats of plaster. Friday, I used the "sanded primer", which is basically glue and sand, and it goes on under the clay, so that it will stick, especially to a drywall surface. Also on Friday, Drew and I put the second base-coat of Structo-lite on the south wall.

Saturday was a nice day off, celebrating Adam and Unity's wedding. Blessings to them and their family! We went swimming too, and followed it with a lot of merriment at our wedding site, eating dinner, and dancing the night away to Absynth Quintet.

Sunday was back to it, with more drywall priming, and we mixed up our first batch of clay. It needs to stand a little while, so I mixed it for work the following day. And yesterday, Monday! I got to smear that lovely, smooth, buttery plaster on the east wall of our bedroom. It is a pleasure to work with. The color when it's wet is like chocolate milk, and when dry, it's a light light neutral brown. It's called Nantucket Sand. Today, I put on the first coat on the south wall, and after I finish my lunch here, I'm going to continue around the hallway. It looks awesome!

The clay does require a second coat, but I'm not concerned. The work is fun and easy, and SOOO satisfying. Once we finish this step, it's on to sanding/cleaning the floor and staining it, and then wood trim, and then our bedroom is DONE. I said DONE, as in, we can move our bed into it! Yippee!!! (Can you tell I'm excited?

2010-06-24T21:52:00.000-07:00

Windowsills of 2x12 recycled redwood

Ceiling wood finished, love it. Stained Fir/Pine/Spruce

We're getting somewhere. Slowly. These things, as we've discovered, take time. Lots of it. I've lately taken to quoting Sarah McLachlan, with her album title, "Fumbling Toward Ecstacy". Yeah. So we've finished the ceiling in our future bedroom. And we've finished three of four windowsills. Sexy oiled redwood next to oiled pine. I love how it looks. And now we're ready for plaster on several walls, and all the materials are on hand, and Ella is a day camp all week. So I'm hoping to have more photos to post soon, showing our plaster progress, too.

We stained the ceiling wood with an EcoProcote product called TimberSoy, a totally no-VOC wood stain. It's pretty nice to work with stain materials that you don't need gloves, good ventilation, or skin protection to install, and then can clean up with soap and water. Go eco-groovy.

Also, here's a shot of our wall plaster in it's packaging: cloth bags. Love it. Can't argue with that. Compostable. Or reuseable.

Bee Swarm

2010-06-02T10:34:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, I was walking past the west side of our house with Ella, when I heard a curious sound...which I will illustrate with a quote from Winnie the Pooh:

"Winnie-the-Pooh sat down at the foot of the tree, put his head between his paws and began to think. First of all he said to himself: "That buzzing-noise means something. You don't get a buzzing-noise like that, just buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something. If there's a buzzing noise, somebody's making a buzzing-noise, and the only reason for making a buzzing-noise that I know of is because you're a bee." From Pooh's Bedtime Book by A.A. Milne.

And when I adjusted my gaze upwards, I saw a whole pile of bees clumped on the rafter of the house. Two clumps, actually.

When one is not prepared to have bees of their own, as we are not at the moment, a person in my shoes needs to call Ben, who is very enthusiastic about his bee project right now. He said he'd come over shortly and try to catch the swarm, because he wanted to replace a hive that died over the winter. But by the time he got here, the swarm clump had shrunk, suggesting that they had already chosen our house as their post-swarm location. Which is what we confirmed. They had moved into a chance cavity at the edge of our roof. Darn.

So now we're not sure what to do. We're going to try to vacuum them out with a shop-vac. Short of that, we may need to close them up and allow them to die, as we can't have bees living in the roof. Just our latest homestead adventure...

Spring Cleansing

2010-05-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

Our Raw Meal, Before Doing Only Juice: Sprouted Sunflower and Grain Crackers, Carrot-Beet-Sunflower Seed Pate, Green Salad with Sprouts, and Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut

During this last week, Drew, our housemate Andrea, and I endeavored to clean out our bodies a little by doing a juice f(e)ast. Though all three of us eat very healthy food, and have pretty healthy lifestyles, we felt a clean out would be a good idea. Many natural health practitioners recommend an annual cleanse, particularly in the spring.

The cleanse entailed descending slowly toward the fast: one day of whole foods, followed by a day of eating only raw foods, followed by three days of only vegetable juice. At the end of the third juice day, we did a liver and gallbladder flush. Then, on the way out of the cleanse, we ate mostly raw for a day, then back to whole foods. I can verifiably say that I got clean.

It's a funny experience to consciously alter the intake of food, and even to stop eating for a time. It was a very psychological process, one that we all learned a tremendous amount from, about our bodies, about our relationship with food, and about our regular habits. It was a pretty intense cleanse, and we all found that non-essential activities had to be put to the side. It was almost like a vacation. I would recommend it, for those so inclined.

To make the juice, as well as some of the raw foods, we used our prized Green Star Juicer. Each day, we consumed about a half gallon of raw vegetable juice each, which included an entire bunch of greens, a cucumber, carrots, beets, celery, and apples. After letting go of my attachment to chewing food, this juice is surprisingly nourishing. I learned about the healing power of raw veggie juice from the Juice Feasting website. Before my friend showed me this site, I couldn't have conceived of only eating juice, even for one day. But the basic concept, as with all types of fasting or cleansing, is to lighten the load on our digestive organs, so that they can work on eliminating their backlog of wastes and toxins. I can say, after going through this process that it really and truly does work. I am inspired by my body's ability to clean itself with a little help from my choices on the outside.

There are a lot of great resources on the internet describing cleansing. If you are interested in cleansing, do some research, or consult a natural health care practitioner.

Living Foods

2010-05-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

My Lacto-Fermented Sauerkraut...Mmmmmm

Last year, I was having a health issue, and one of the things I did to improve it was to delve into the world of raw and living foods. We sprout our breakfast cereal grains (spelt, kamut, rye, and wehani rice), we got into sprouting mung beans, lentils, and alfalfa. And we got into raw juice, especially the juice of greens like kale, collard greens, and bok choi, mixed with healthy doses of carrots, beets, celery, and apples for sweetness. (For a great website on juicing, check out Juice Feasting. I haven't ever done it, but may some day).

Around that time, I got turned onto a cookbook called Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. Sally is a champion of living foods, whole foods, and something that I learned a lot about from her book was about the benefits of truly cultured and raw dairy products. I'm not talking about Yoplait yogurt, filled with sugar (or maybe corn syrup?), and flavorings and thickeners, I'm talking about kefir, homemade yogurt, homemade cheese, and whey. I've kind of programmed myself against dairy products as mucous-producing foods best left to infrequent use. Our family meals use dairy as more of a condiment than a main ingredient.

But now we are trying some experiments, as our neighbors are milking a goat. Besides having fresh, raw goat milk to give our daughter when she wants milk, I tried making some kefir last week, and some goat ricotta. The kefir was super easy. If I had real kefir grains, it would have been even easier. I used some commercial culture that comes in a little packet. You heat the milk to 180 degrees, let it cool, and stir in the culture. Then, leave out at room temp for approximately 24 hours, and you have kefir. Kind of like liquid yogurt. SO good with a little maple syrup to sweeten, or in pancakes. I also made goat ricotta, by pitching lemon juice into 180 degree goat milk, and straining the curds through cheesecloth. I added salt and garlic into the cheese, and enjoyed it on crackers. Yummmm.

Making cheese leaves whey behind, and I have been dying to try making sauerkraut with whey, which I have heard makes amazing kraut. I used the recipe from this website. It's supposed to be ready tomorrow, and I can't wait to try it.

And finally, we've been given a kombucha scoby, and I've got our first batch of kombucha fermenting on the counter. I am really excited about this, because even though I love the product, it kind of feels like those kombucha companies are gouging us, given that it's made with plain old black tea and white sugar, and a reproducing culture. It's not like it costs anywhere NEAR $4 per jar to produce. So I'm happy to make my own at home.

Looking forward to sharing the fruits of these labors when I get to try them...hmmm, what do I tag this post with? Maybe wildcrafting, as these foods are about nourishing wild little critters?

Here Comes Plaster

2010-05-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

Our first test area, in the Master Bedroom

Same wall, Done with first basecoat

Other wall, almost done, with basecoat

I couldn't help myself any longer...we've been inching toward plaster-type tasks these last few weeks, and I just had to get my trowel dirty, and dive in. So on Tuesday, we mixed up our first batch of Structolite and sand plaster and applied it to our Faswall block walls. We were pleasantly surprised at how easy the material is to mix and trowel. However, we quickly realized that we're going to need to do at least two coats of this basecoat plaster before the walls are ready for the American Clay. The Faswall blocks have a good bit of variation between rows and courses, leaving some blocks slightly proud, and some slightly sunken. Additionally, sometimes there are some gaps between blocks, and also at corners that need to get filled. So we'll have to see how the second coat goes on. Hopefully, we'll be able to do mostly level it with the second coat of plaster.

Even though we realized there is a second coat needed, we are thrilled with the transformation of the Faswall wall! It looks so nice! And light! And finished! I am loving it! Plastering is addictive. I hope I continue to enjoy it so much as we continue on with it...

Drywall Continues

2010-04-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

The drywall job continues to transform our spaces, one by one, into approximations of the final product. I wanted to post the lastest views of rooms here. First is the pantry, the windowless box that will house our cold storage produce like carrots, cabbages, onions, and beets, our dry grains, our home-canned goods, as well as wine and beer. Oh, and all the canning equipment which currently is stored far away from my kitchen. Can't wait. The best part about it is that little grate you can see near the floor. It connects via 6 inch pipe to the outdoors, to passively let cold, north-side air into the pantry. Bascially, for a plain box, it's a pretty exciting little room.

Next is the north side main ceiling. It feels so much lighter and less busy, now that the raw insulation and rafters are covered up. Now the beautiful south-facing clerestory windows are allowing sunlight to reflect off the white drywall paper. I think it looks really nice.

Next, we have the entry room, which feels similarly transformed, into a lighter, reflective space. Unless it's early morning, this room is kind of dark. It doesn't really need to be any different, but it feels fresher to have it rocked. In one view, you can see the closet, and in the other, you are looking in toward the guest/massage space.

Finally, we have the guest bath, not really an excessively exciting room, but it is still nice to see it undergoing its facelift, too. The bathrooms have colored drywall, as it has some kind of moisture block. The area in the shower has yet to be covered by Hardibacker, which is concrete board. This will be backing for tile of some kind.

Last night, Drew and I made a "punch list" of all that is left to do to finish our room. It's a big list, but it's still a FINITE list. We'll see how far we can get, as Drew is about to begin his Salmon Group estuary project soon, and our star worker will also be on to other projects soon. I'm gonna have to step it up a little bit.

Sack-a-Tomatoes for the Weekend

2010-04-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

Sliding down from Owl's Treehouse in Hundred Acre Wood

Somehow, my only photos of our weekend adventure to Sacramento, are a few shots of Ella from Fairy Tale Land. But our weekend included so much more. It began with duck feeding at the ponds at Real Goods, and elevator rides at Grandma Barbara's house in Oakland, an amazing dinner followed by Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote video, a round-trip BART ride to breakfast in Rockridge, lunch at a delicious Mexican cantina in Oakland, a drive to Sacramento which included a round of the alphabet game, dinner at a very busy Chinese restaurant, a stay in a 7th floor suite across the street from Capitol Park, a visit to said Fairy Tale Land, a trip to the zoo, and a first-ever ice cream sundae, as children were not invited to the wedding, and Ella remained with our friends for the evening. And at the end of the trip, our last piece of fun was a short mini-hike in the redwoods, an hour from home, where we all breathed a sigh of relief at feeling the quiet of the giant trees, the gurgle of Bull Creek, and the songs of the solitary vireo and the varied thrush. Ahhhhh. That experience was complete with warm breezes.

While we were hiking, I asked Ella if she was still sad we were coming home (she was crying and saying she didn't want to go home). She said, "I thought I didn't want to come home, but home is so great!" So there you have it.

Outside Windowsills

2010-04-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

Last summer, we debated around and around about what to do with our exterior finish "look". We wanted to install our windows, as designed, with their nailing fin, but we wanted the windows to have a heavier look that defined them more clearly. So, at Karl's urging, we designed concrete windowsills, which we formed out in the fall, and then stained with a concrete stain. They have metal strapping stuck in the back, which slips under the windows, and inside the house for anchoring. Then, the finish coat of stucco will go right up to the edge, blending them into the exterior.

Drew and Aaron installed the first ones the other day, because we couldn't proceed with the inside windowsills until the outside ones were done. And we can't plaster until the interior windowsills are done. Lots of "in-order-to's".

I'm really happy with how they look. I think they're going to look even more beautiful when the final coat of plaster goes on the outside.

Hanging Drywall

2010-04-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hanging a 4x12 foot sheet with the drywall jack

Hallway and Laundry Closet

Master Bedroom

Second small Bedroom with Clerestory Windows in Loft

We've at last arrived at the drywall hanging part of our house project, which has been the most exciting for me, so far. It's taking the rough outline of the house we envisioned three years ago, and fleshes out the concept into actual rooms with ceilings. In addition, we're able to begin choosing finish details, such as floor and wall colors, and trim details. The finished end is in sight!

Not that I have any illusions about the amount of work required to move us forward to the end of our process. Everyone says, and I think they're right, "drywall hung, half-way done." I can see how imagining finishing the ENTIRE house would feel daunting and nearly impossible. But we are planning on taking it room by room, starting with the master suite, which includes the bedroom, bathroom, and our large closet. It is about the same square footage of the yurt, but it would only be a bedroom. We are hoping to finish this first and move into it. For now, we are mudding and taping, and preparing for plastering.

To try out the product, and evaluate its cost and usefulness, we are going to use American Clay in our bedroom and bathroom. The exterior walls, which at this point are still raw Faswall blocks, will get an initial base coat of Structolite, which is basically a gypsum plaster, mixed with sand. We are also evaluating another product from American Clay called Enjarre, which is clay plaster designed for commercial installation. Whereas the regular American Clay plaster is applied by hand, Enjarre has a different recipe which allows it to be sprayed on and then back-trowled, and it is less expensive. Basically, it's cheaper and takes a lot less time to install. I'll be updating on this as it evolves.

The Latest From Around Town

2010-03-31T20:54:00.001-07:00

Ella Painting The Brat

The Brat Lined Up With its Competitors

Ella Sings at the Cabaret

I haven't written in a while, and of course that doesn't mean we haven't been busy. Now that the weather has returned to a cold and wet pattern, I'm finding a moment to catch up on indoor work.

First of all, we've all been sick for several weeks. At last, it appears we are nearly through it all. Back at the beginning of the sickness, the Mattole School (Booster Club?) hosted the annual Pinewood Derby. Ella is old enough this year to appreciate the activity and the competition, and wanted to make her own car. Drew helped her create the design, called "The Brat" after our actual Subaru Brat mini-pickup. When we went to town, she wanted to buy an octopus and a blue sea horse to drive the car, but alas, we couldn't find such specific items, and we settled for farm animals instead: A white rabbit driving, and a cow riding in the bed in the back. She obviously had a full body experience of painting her car on a warm day. Ella's car came in second place in the kid category!

Next, we have Ella singing "Don't Put Your Finger Up Your Nose" at the Cabaret last weekend. Those pre-schoolers are so cute. It's a good thing we have them around for comic relief and cuteness. More of that with Easter coming this weekend.

Finally, our other big news is that our un-permitted house has been found by the building inspector, so we are now going to have to go through the permit process. After a brief moment of annoyance, we've decided it's really for the better. Now we won't have to feel we're hiding it anymore. So we're actively engaged in figuring out what to do and how to proceed. More will come on that, I'm sure.

Mountain Lion Visit

2010-03-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

Tonight while I was cooking dinner, Drew came inside and asked if I could leave for a minute. "Hmmm, sure for a few minutes."
"I found something you have to see. I won't say what it is, but bring the camera."

I know both of us well enough to know that when we say such things, we've usually found some odd, natural history curiosity, for which either of us will drop everything to explore. We walked out of the yurt and headed south along the loop road, and then Drew led us down an abandoned road toward the place where we were going to put a second yurt. As we descended into the tree tunnel, I could immediately see what it was.

No way. I have lived here for more than three years, and I have spent many years before that looking, and I have maybe only seen definitive big cat evidence once, until today. It is unmistakable. The dead animal, covered with leaves and twigs and dirt, surrounded by raked grass. A look-alike to the small offerings our pet-cats leave in a patch of unmonitored sand, but oh-so-much-larger. Freakishly larger. Frighteningly larger.

Acer, our dog, has been barking more than usual into the bushes, and now we know why. Also, our neighbors have not only seen another lion kill right near their house, but they actually saw the critter itself. So I suppose we should be aware and on the lookout. I don't think I'll be sending Ella out to play in the yard by herself anytime soon.

It's curious to contemplate why there is a cat around now. Late winter hunger? Is it a momma with kittens? Drew also saw another recently dead deer across the creek, though he suspects a coyote kill. Maybe they have pups now, too, so there is extra pressure for food? I once thought there were lions around several years ago, based on the way Acer behaved on a walk home from our neighbor's home across the creek, but it was fleeting, and until now there hasn't been any action aside from coyotes. Though I admit to feeling some fear, I also try to look at it as an opportunity for learning and increased awareness.

House Insulation

2010-03-09T14:09:00.000-08:00

At long last, we are insulating the house this week. It has been a long road to get here. We had hoped this step would have been completed in the fall, but if house-building and construction life has taught us anything, it's that everything takes much longer than you thought it would.

The reason it takes so long to prepare for insulation is that all the wiring, and all the plumbing and roof penetrations, and really anything that needs to travel in the walls or ceiling, needs to be in place before the insulating can take place, because once it's there, that's it. No more access.

We've had pushes like this before. The floor plumbing and drain and vent system, and water supply was like this too, before we poured the slab. It's chaos making sure we have covered all the details, decisions must be made, and all the while, we are praying we haven't forgotten something. The chaos was enhanced in this project because in order for the insulators to do their job, we had to make sure the house was empty. This shouldn't be a problem, because we don't live in the house yet, right? Well, in theory, yes, but the house was full of building materials, tools, and un-cleaned-up projects. So the cleaning/moving out project took a day and a half. But now that it's done, it's really relaxing, to watch the professionals do their thing, AND to appreciate the cleaned out space.

We are insulating with a spray-foam product that is very very cool. Grow Insulation uses a product called Sealection 500, which is a corn and soy based spray foam. They spray it in a liquid form, and in seconds, it expands 120 times it's volume, sealing all cracks and gaps. Once it cures (which happens quickly), it has no odor, is hypo-allergenic, and is totally non-toxic. We are really excited to see how this installation changes the thermal performance of our passive-solar home. We'll keep you posted on that.

Spring Planting

2010-03-09T13:57:00.000-08:00

One of my first tasks upon returning home from five weeks of vacation (besides mowing grass) was to plant my warm weather seeds: tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. I had the wherewithal to remember to make my seed order while I was still shussing the slopes of Heavenly powder, so my seeds were patiently waiting for me in the post office.

Each successive year with Ella right now is more and more fun, as she is able to participate in the regular, seasonal homestead jobs in more and more meaningful ways. I told her I was going to plant seeds, and she said, "Momma, I want to plant seeds too! [giggle]. So I set up the flats with potting soil, and made little depressions for the seeds, and she placed each tomato and pepper and eggplant seed lovingly into the cells, and gently covered them with soil. She also very much wanted to place the variety labels into the flats, to mark the rows: Sungolds, Brandywines, Muscovich, San Marzanos, and Super Marzano 3's. As last year, I am starting them inside the yurt, to avoid mouse predation, and to protect against the frosts we are still having.

In addition to the warm crops, I also planted about 1,000 onions, a mix of storage and sweet onions. They are hanging out in the cold frame, waiting to sprout. I also replanted beets, and transplanted out my broccoli and cabbage, which I started before we left on our trip. Our cold frame performed beautifully (coupled with dear housesitter Andrea's watering ministrations), to produce gorgeous seedlings ready for the soil on our return. I've tucked them in with a floating row cover and they are already growing well. I also transplanted in some bok choi, kale, lettuce and such. The spring garden is so full of excitement, so full of hopes for the whole season, planting fantasies and visions of what we will eat in the fall.

I do hope warmer spring weather comes soon...

Vacation from the Vacation

2010-02-21T18:10:00.001-08:00

The Spring on the Cascades Trail

Last weekend, we vacated the Tahoe area, partly because we didn't have a place to stay, but partly due to the President's Day holiday, which overwhelms the resort mountain with hordes of people. The congestion is a little much. And after three weeks of holiday, we were ready for a break. So passing through Reno for a little fun, we headed to Quincy in the northern Sierra to visit with some dear friends.

Every other time we've visited them, it's either been wet, rainy, snowy and cold, or it's been unbearably hot. This time, daytime was springtime, and we spent our days wandering the hills near their house, in t-shirts, soaking up the sunshine. We hiked along the river, taking in cliffs, springs, bright green turf, rolling waterfalls, and the final day, we foraged as a group for quartz crystals. I've never done such a thing, and never realized you could *find* crystals, right there on the surface of the ground, but we did. It is definitely an addictive practice. We found some beauties. I found a small one that was the whole, faceted, perfect shape, and when I hold it up to the light, there are opalescent rainbows inside of it.

But even more than all the outside time, and the crystals, was the joy of being with our friends, who have created such a peaceful, grounded space. I love sinking into the feeling of timelessness, good food, good company, friends supporting friends all around. It was the perfect replenishing of spirit, needed for one more resort week.

Now we're back in Tahoe, and we were blessed with a powder day, right off the bat. Even better, Karl offered to take Ella for the morning, so Drew and I hit up freshies all over the place. Addictive, too. It's official. I will never be able to go back on this interest in skiing powder.

Polarity

2010-01-27T23:32:00.000-08:00

Nearly Summer Solstice Mattole

Winter Mattole, at ~11,000 Cubic Feet per Second

On my way to the beach early one morning last summer on a solo seaweed collecting mission, the river was looking misty and beautiful and I couldn't resist stopping to photograph the summer solstice dawn flow. I had no idea that I would stop to photograph it again, at the other edge of its range, in full-bodied, raging, muddy winter flow. But as I toured around town shooting images of flooding, high water, and other winter scenes, I instantly remembered the summer image, and wanted to do a rephoto for this blog.

Here are two faces of the same beast. Though the summer image is not anywhere near the lowest the river becomes in October, before the first raindrops fall. When the river is that small, it is difficult to imagine the fullness of bankfull, the trees bobbing in the center of the channel, the little rapids, strainers, and the sounds. The nights before we left on our trip, we were suddenly aware of the sound of rushing water all over the landscape. This as a contrast to the sound of wind, or the sound of silence, or the sound of birdsong, the sounds of summer.

The other contrast here is the green leaves of summer versus the bare, craggy branches of the alders on the banks, wearing their catkin necklaces. The green of summer is pervasive, and therefore unnoticed, but the colors in winter stand out boldly, against the backdrop of browns, grays, and greens. Willow branches are bright red. Alder catkins are yellow, usnea lichen is white-green, and looks like splashes of sunlight, even when the sun is hiding behind clouds. All this reminds me of a quote Drew often cites:

"A warm man can never understand a cold man". Not sure on the origins of this sentiment, but I regularly feel this at the zenith of the seasons, where I lose all sense of the bipolar reality of living close to the seasons. Tonight, far from home, I am contemplating these two, alternating and opposite faces of this thread weaving our landscape together.

Vacation

2010-01-25T17:02:00.001-08:00

Drew, Ella, and I are now on our long winter vacation, and today while Ella naps, I am fiddling with a photograph. I've been severely geeking out on photo literature, trying to learn more about this craft that calls to me more all the time. Specifically, today I was reading about how to take a color photograph and to make it look as though it was done using infrared black and white film. These images turn out with black skies and white foliage, and are very striking, if you've never seen one.

Anyhow, here's an approximation of what it might look like, though I don't have all the necessary software. This is a photograph I took last week on an oak photo shoot. The day was bright green, with intermittent sun and bright, gorgeous, high-piling clouds. I'm also trying on a lot of new digital developing skills, shooting with a tripod more frequently, and trying to get sharp-sharp-sharp photos. I suddenly realize how much I have to learn, but I am having a lot of fun with it.

Here's another photo from that day, though this is what's called an "HDR". It's a digital image that's a composite of several exposures. Enjoy these rich, lovely shots! You can click on them to see a larger image.

Big Rain Falling

2010-01-19T15:36:00.000-08:00

East Mill Creek Raging

The Mattole Flows Straight Out the Estuary

Mainstem Mattole at the Foot of Moore Hill, @ ~ 14,000 cubic feet per second

Today is day three of heavy rain pelting the thin fabric of our yurt roof. The first day, Drew and I were in town on our first ever night away from Ella together, while Andrea held down the fort at home. Of course the tarp blew off the firewood. And she ran out of propane in the stove. But they stayed warm, and had a lot of fun visiting with friends.

Drew and I came home yesterday to ominous skies, ponding water in low-lying areas, and strong, gale-force beach winds. We stepped out of the car to feel those gusts on our trip home, and couldn't look into the high tide spray foaming up from the beach below the road. It seemed that if we jumped, we might just fly away like a kite. But it wasn't raining. The sky held for several more hours, but then opened up sometime after we went to bed.

It's been several years since we had a night like last night in the yurt. Howling winds rattled and shook the yurt, as strongly as when the earth was shaking last week. Only it happened every 20 minutes or so. The rain was always steady-hard, but sometimes so hard Drew and I couldn't hear each other, even though we were right next to each other in bed. Sometimes the hail came down. There was even some thunder and lightening. It felt much like being on a boat, no escape from the elements, even though we were inside. The back of my shoulders crept up and cringed a little, as the rain intensity ramped up. There is a distinct feeling that the roof of the yurt might rip off suddenly, or who knows what else. Like there is some giant and angry but unseen mother-nature monster thrashing about wildly, thoughtlessly swinging her arms around. I kept hoping we would chance to stay out of her way. The strength of it all is mind boggling. And just when you think it can't rain any harder, it opens up the throttle some more, and let's us have it.

As would be expected, the rivers and creeks are big today, and though the rain let up for a few hours this morning, and we even saw a peek of sun, it is pouring down rain again now. I hear we may have a break this weekend, but for now, it's recurring powerful rains, raising the river stage, and creating much excitement.

Looks Like We're in for It

2010-01-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

This image is predicting 12-14 inches of rain in the next 16 days. The last time we had rain totals like this, the river was lapping at my front door at my Old Coast Wagon Road house.

I just caught word that a severe, El Nino-style wet weather period is setting up, the likes of which haven't been seen here since at least 1996-97 New Year. In fact, the way they talk about it on Weather West, Weather and Climate Discussions for California and the Western US, it sounds like it at least has the potential to create heavy rainfall for several weeks in a row, and even the potential for widespread, dangerous flooding.

The prediction of possible rain-on-snow events is reminding me of 1964, the year in which gigantic flooding unraveled our county. We are still dealing with some of the effects of this one flood event. Our creeks and rivers have the general shape they have now due to extremely high flows, which haven't been seen since. Visitors to the Eel River area have maybe seen signs stating "High Water 1964" at certain locations of Hwy 101. It's difficult to even fathom the Eel being so deep, and easy to imagine the devastation from such a flow. For those who have never seen them, the markers are usually about 8-10 feet above the roadway, which in places is maybe 30-40 feet above the average winter flow level of the river. Really.

We are preparing to leave our little valley for our annual winter walkabout, though if things unfold how they're predicted, it's possible we won't even be able to leave the valley. Sometimes, in large storm events, both exits from the valley close. It's particularly interesting to consider these effects given our 6.5 earthquake last week. Hmmm. We may not be going anywhere.

So, get outside and enjoy the non-rainy skies for another day or so, batten down any unsecured hatches, move the firewood pile indoors, do your road work, check your culverts, mulch your bare land, put away your tools, and say a little prayer that all turns out well. May it be amazing, and safe for all.

Rex Passes On

2010-01-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

Rex Walking at Drew's and My Wedding, 2003
Photo by Kira Lillie

Amid earthen rumblings, and blustery winds, one of our most important and loved community members, Rex Rathbun, passed on this past Sunday, January 10th. His 90th birthday would have been March 5. Though I can't say that I have had much of a personal relationship with Rex these last 10 years that I have been frequenting Petrolia, he had many indirect influences on my life and on this community, from which I regularly benefit.

Besides being one of the larger-than-life charicatures that curiously inhabit this remote valley, Rex has had a strong and essential hand in almost every local institution that we use and rely on. He was a major force in creating and envisioning the Mattole Valley Community Center, which has become a regular and quintessential gathering place for many of us. He was a founding member of the Mattole restoration organizations, and was a lifetime supporter of watershed restoration. He was the champion of Mill Creek, assisting in the preservation of over 200 acres of old-growth forest. He was also involved with the Petrolia Volunteer Fire Department, the Mattole Grange, and I don't even know what else. And that's just at a community-wide level.

In the 1980's, when many of the families who live at the farthest outposts of civilized life didn't have phones, they used Rex and Ruth's "Ranch House" as the hub for their communications and family life. And many also talk about Rex's tool lending library. As a skilled tradesman, Rex had just about every tool you could possibly need for many a homestead task.

But Rex's legacy is even more personal for me. His involvement with restoration is directly why Drew, who has become my husband and father-of-my-children, came here in the first place. Drew's college friend Drew's mom was friends with Rex's sister-in-law (I know, this sounds rediculous), and had visited the Rathbuns here in Petrolia. Through this roundabout way, both Drew's came to the Mattole to do an internship with the Mattole Restoration Council. Rex was the person they contacted, and communicated with in arranging their educational experience. Rex was also one of the first people I met when on my field quarter in college, when he loaded up the 16 of us in the back of his white truck, and drove us all up into Mill Creek (before such things were forbidden). And in the end, it turns out that Rex and Drew are related, about 5 generations back, where they share a common ancestor. When Drew and I visited Exeter, Rhode Island to look for grave sites and family history, we found that there was a Rathbun cemetery on Barber Road, dating to the 1800's.

So yesterday, we lost a connector, a mentor, a family member, an inspiration, a man who believed in public good, and wasn't afraid to speak his mind about anything. Rest in peace, dear Rex, thank you for all you have contributed to our collective lives. We will miss you, and send love to your Ruth, and the rest of your family. We will be sure that your grandson knows who you were, and that all your legacies live on.

6.5 Earthquake Rocks the Yurt

2010-01-09T20:47:00.000-08:00

Candy Store in Downtown Ferndale with a Broken Window

Late this afternoon, we were reminded about why our geographic neighborhood is considered one of the most seismically active areas in the United States. A 6.5 magnitude earthquake shook our larger Northcoast region at 4:27 PM. Drew and Ella, along with Shin and Zoe, had just returned to the yurt after a swamp walk. They were in varied states of entry, inside the yurt, in the mudroom with shoes off, in the mudroom with shoes on, and outside, when shaking started.

When earthquakes happen, there's a moment of pause, when one first realizes what's happening, followed by a pause to assess: should I sit tight, or vacate the building? Well, this quake shook, and then shook a little harder, then shook even more. It quickly became clear that we should leave. Hanging items were swinging, glass was rattling, and a few things were falling off shelves. I picked Ella up, and left the house, accidentally bumping her head on the doorknob on our way out.

Once we got outside, the tan oak and bay trees, and garden shrubs were shaking as though giant gophers were gnawing their roots. It looked strangely windy, and I could feel the earth rolling and jiggling like jelly underfoot. A first for me! Ella got pretty scared, mostly because I was reacting a little too strongly (and the bump on her head).

It seems those up north have lost power, and there are many broken storefront windows, but all in all, no injuries or major damage. We continue to feel the aftershocks, so much smaller as they are. 2.8's and 3.5's and so on. I think we're all hoping the big one was the main event and not a foreshock to something much larger. Fortunately, this may be our average 10 year event, which is actually 8 years overdue.

Homegrown Winter Meals

2010-01-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

I find I feel most satisfied about locavore eating when I can create seasonal meals in the dead of winter that use local or home-grown ingredients. Here's a few recent meals I created that made use of stored foods.

First off, basic meat sauce. Who knew? I was pleasantly surprised when I sat down at the table and realized that the only ingredients in the sauce I didn't know it's origins were the onions and the wine. I always feel that it's a bonus when they are things I'm capable of growing. Wine and onions? No problem. Just have to find some grapevines around here somewhere. Mix together with garden canned tomatoes, home-grown herbs, and local beef, and voila, delicious, local, easy meal, even in the winter. Anyway, here's the meat sauce recipe:

Basic Meat Sauce (Double Recipe, enough to eat some and freeze some)

2 lbs ground beef
olive oil
2 large onions, diced
6 or more garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup rich red wine
56 oz. tomato
8 oz. tomato paste
mushrooms, optional
1-2 tsp. dried basil
1-2 tsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
bay leaf

Saute the ground beef in olive oil until browned. Scoop out and set aside. Add a little more oil and saute onions until soft and translucent, about 20 minutes. About half-way through this part, add in the mushrooms and dry herbs. In the last few minutes, add in the garlic. Add the wine and deglaze the pan for a few minutes, then pitch the tomatoes, paste, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Simmer as long as you like. The longer you go, the more flavor and thicker the sauce becomes. Serve over whole-wheat pasta, or your other favorite noodle. Yum!

And last night, I made this screaming good squash soup, modeled after my friend Dana's delicious soup she brought to share on my birthday. I made it last night with home grown Blue Hubbard Squash. It is truly delightful. Please try this recipe! We served it with bakery bread and butter, a green salad, and for dessert, Persimmon Pudding (recipe below, too).

Ginger-Coconut-Squash Soup (enough for dinner, and freeze some for later)

~1 1/2-2 lbs. winter squash flesh
2 tbsp. butter or olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2-3 inches grated ginger root
1 15 oz can of unsweetened coconut milk
4 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
lime juice
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion over med.-low heat in the butter/olive oil until soft and translucent (about 20 minutes). Add the ginger and stir around for a few minutes, then add the squash, coconut milk, and stock. Bring to a boil, and then turn down heat and simmer until squash is very tender. Remove from heat and puree in a blender or with an immersion blender. Taste for salt and pepper, and add according to taste, and stir in lime juice to taste (I used about 2-3 tbsp.) Fresh cilantro would be delicious as a garnish, but we didn't have any.

And for dessert! I had picked a few persimmons before Christmas, and as they sat, they became very very ripe and squishy. I realized that if I didn't use them, they would mold, thus turning them into a useless space user. In rebellion, I remembered my friend Deva's Persimmon Pudding. She dictated the recipe to me over the phone last night. It's from The Joy of Cooking.

Persimmon Pudding

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and butter a shallow 3 quart baking dish.

Cut in half lengthwise 4-6 very ripe persimmons. Remove seeds, scrape pulp, and puree. Measure 1 1/2 cups pulp.
Whisk in a large bowl until light: 4 eggs.
Whisk in pulp, 2 1/2 cups buttermilk, 1/4 cup melted butter

Whisk thoroughly in a separate bowl:
1 1/2 cup sugar (I used 3/4 and it tasted fine)
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (I don't eat this so I used ginger)
1/2 tsp salt

Add dry to wet ingredients. Pour into baking dish.
Bake in oven until the top is deep golden brown and springs back from a light touch, about 50 minutes.
Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or yogurt.

Bon appetit, to all, and to all, a good day...

Ringing in the New Year

2009-12-31T10:26:00.001-08:00

Many holiday parties later, we are now poised on the edge of 2010. What a year 2009 has been for our family! Sometimes, I go a few days without visiting our new house, and then I go wander through the rooms, and marvel at all we have created. And at the end of this giant push of energy, we still like each other, and have a nice energy going between the three of us. I think that may have something to do with Karl's presence, balancing out our energies. Thanks for helping preserve our marriage, Karl :)

The photo I post today is the output from my new exciting photography tool, Photomatix. I took this photo of Apple Tree Ridge, looking to the north from our property, on a lovely, post-drizzley June evening, when the grasses were in full bloom, the hills were still green, and the scotch broom was blooming bright yellow. I can hardly wait to play with this software some more, if only the rain would let up. (I need to get out and shoot some new photos) Photomatix is software that lets you digitally crunch together multiple exposures, so that you can get landscape photos that have the correct exposure in the shadows, highlights, and midtones. How come no one ever TOLD me about this yet?! This is just a sample of what's to come. This photo is the only series I've yet taken with a tripod, which makes the results a lot better. Expect even more dazzling images in the new year. I can't wait to explore the edges of this!

Solstice-Birthday-New Year

2009-12-21T14:04:00.000-08:00

It's been an appropriately moist late December, as we've rolled into the holiday merry-making. We've had a school program, a white elephant party, the Volunteer Fire Department Christmas party, my birthday, and the solstice gathering to come tonight, yet another Christmas party on Wednesday, and tomorrow night, caroling. And we have yet to celebrate Christmas with Drew's family, too. Lots of gathering together.

I've been reflecting on what all this gathering is about. It seems that the solar/pagan holiday of solstice has been divided into several Christian-related celebrations, but really what it's about is reflecting on the year just past, honoring those we appreciate by offering small gifts of appreciation (while simultaneously practicing the spirit of generosity and giving), and considering what we would like to cultivate in the coming year, either in our outward or inward life. I love this meditation! It is extra significant for me, as I celebrate my birthday the day before solstice.

So this year as the light rounds the bend and begins to rise in this sky again, bringing longer days, I am grateful for my family, and all the progress we've made on our house this year. I'm so grateful that I have so many dear friends who support and love me. I've made some great healing work this year, both assisting others, as well as looking inward to move old stuck energy out of the way.

Yesterday on my birthday, while wondering what focus I wanted to choose, I received the answer, "COURAGE". So this year shall be the Year of Courage. As in, a year-long meditation on what it means to choose the path that creates a greater state of balance, even if it feels harder or uglier in the moment. It involves honesty, and choosing personal integrity. No easy thing. But I'm looking forward to it.

So many blessings to you all in this darkest, reflective time of year. May you each find the appropriate path for your year, and feel blessed by all you received this previous year. May we all see each other as our higher selves.

Real Rain

2009-12-12T12:32:00.001-08:00

At last, today, we are having a true rain event. There have certainly been bigger and heavier ones before, but take a look at this radar image from the National Weather Service...

All that yellow and red stuff is HEAVY RAIN falling right on top of us!

After a nice drizzle-y morning, things have turned to earnest rain, allowing our fresh road gravel to get watered in, giving the newly MRC-planted fir trees a drink, and I suspect bringing the water in the creek up. It does make yurt living a little loud, but since I'm going to work in a moment, that doesn't bother me so much. Besides, when it's been so long since we've had the real stuff, I admit to a feeling of excitement when that rain pounds the tent roof we dwell under. Here's to running rivers and happy frogs...

The Secret Life of Meadow Voles

2009-12-10T21:22:00.000-08:00

Today was a beautiful day, high popcorn clouds heralding a coming storm, but mostly sunny and a little warmer. After Ella came home from school, I suggested we go on an "adventure" to see if we could find anything interesting. Sometimes Ella is a little hard to enroll in such an undertaking, but today, it didn't take too much influence.

When she stepped out and noticed the clouds, she insisted we bring an umbrella because "I think it's gonna start to rain soon". I obliged, and we set off down the driveway. I offered that we might head out into the grass, and see what we could find. So we ambled freely for a while, following Ella's whims. We sat for a bit by an old scotch broom plant, where Ella peeled old straw stalks to chew on, like Drew does. Then she was drawn to an area she called a pond, which is really just a depression in our land.

When we arrived there, we found several areas of blond, lying-down grass. They made a nice, soft, comfy carpet of grass, and we laid down and remarked that it was kind of like a bed. Then I began digging down to the dirt, because sometimes, in this way, you can find a whole, tiny universe you weren't aware of before: insects, tiny mushrooms, miniature plants. I parted grass here and there, and found an animal runway, and there were droppings in it. Hmmmm....let's follow this and see where it....ACK! I found a mouse carcass. All that remained were its incisors, its spine, and its tail. Well, now I was really intrigued. Who killed the mouse and ate it in such a fashion? Why was it in this runway? Was it the original inhabitant? Or did it just end up there, deposited by the eater? Or had it died of natural causes, and decomposed? So many questions!

Now that my curiosity was piqued, I began uncovering a vast network of tunnels all throughout the grass. Just like our streets, there were crossroads, where the paths lead off in several directions. I found a hole, with some grass and broom branches sticking out. And I also found some cut grass lying in the pathway.

On researching, I find that I am likely uncovering the runs of the Meadow Vole, a grass eating rodent. So that answers that question, but not the wondering about whether the carcass was a vole, a mouse, and in either case, how did it die and who ate it? I had thought there was a carnivorous small mammal that might eat mice, but I'm not finding reference to it. Maybe it's not a mouse but a vole? Maybe I won't ever know...such is the mystery of natural history.

Snow at Sea Level

2009-12-09T15:14:00.000-08:00

On Sunday night, Drew and I were awake in bed talking, while Ella snored away beside us. Being in a yurt, we are privy to each and every nuance of precipitation that passes this way, cringing when the winds pepper the sides with rain, and dozing off when the light, wispy, misty rains fall. In our talking, we didn't notice right away, but a moment after it began, Drew said, "That doesn't sound like rain." I agreed, and Drew said he wanted to have a look. So we grabbed flashlights, descended the creaky ladder, and opened the door of the mudroom out to the north.

AH! Our breath caught in our throats, as we saw with our own eyes that it was, indeed, SNOWING. I suppose it's really not such a big deal. It wasn't really more than a light dusting. We definitely see it on the ridges surrounding our home at least once a year. But it is a little unusual (though not unheard of) to have snow down here at our lowly elevation. It's so unusual that I found myself feeling the thrill of the first snow of the season that I remember when I was a kid. For those of you growing up in many snow-free California locales, this won't mean much for you. But for those of you who lived in snow country, the first snowfall was like magic, speaking of exciting things to come: snowed out school days! sled riding! snowmen! mom making hot cocoa! snow boots! ice skating! and white christmas! Bonus points for that.

We are still in our little cold snap here, with lows in the 20's the last several nights, and daytime highs in the 40s. We've had to keep the water running at night to prevent broken pipes and so we can have kitchen water in the morning before the day thaws. I've had to scrape the car windshield to take Ella to school. The cats are very unhappy. And we've been running the woodstove most of the time. But I have to admit that it feels kind of nice, encouraging a cozying up inside the house, drinking tea and reading a good book. Our mild winters here in California kind of cheat us out of the purpose of winter, to hole up and reflect on the year that has just passed. Normally, it's not nasty enough outside to warrant retreating indoors, and we feel guilty snuggling in slippers and scarves, because there is so much to be done. I mean, what about all the stuff we were too busy to handle in the summer?

So here's to snow and cold, frosty night, and to each of you who will hibernate a little, and enjoy the memories of your past year.

Giving Great Thanks

2009-11-26T13:38:00.000-08:00

Once more, I arrive to this day of reflection on giving thanks. I find every year, I have a much longer list than I thought possible. There are certainly things one could focus on that I feel less than thankful for, but more and more, I find that it is important to remove the spotlight from those things, and to focus instead on all that we want and love. Spending time dwelling on the parts we don't like only seems to attract more of what we don't like.

So an abridged list of what I am grateful for:

Drew and Ella, and all the rest of our family
Our good fortune at being given the opportunity to buy our land
Our unbelievable ability to manifest our amazing house.
The plethora of food we grew this year, and will eat throughout the winter.
A community of helpful, loving, and supportive neighbors and friends, close to home and far and wide, who contribute in more ways than they can imagine.
Good health.
Physical ability to pursue the things we love.
Good music.

It's good to be alive...

On Our Way to Indoor Toilets

2009-11-18T22:10:00.000-08:00

Last week, our neighbor-friend-backhoe operator Cedar dug the hole for our septic tank, and we had the tank delivered the next day. The pit seemed quite large, until it was filled with an equally voluminous concrete box. It arrived on a truck, with an intrepid driver who expertly operated the fancy hydraulic arm with great precision, to ease it into the space.

Now this tank can hold a lot of poop. You may ask why we chose such a large tank, especially considering that most of the wastewater from our home will go into a graywater system. The septic will basically handle the three toilets, and the kitchen sink. The answer is not so spectacular. Only that another system was recently installed nearby, and it is the same sized house. Evidently, the tank sizing goes by the number of bedrooms, which stands to reason that it would effect the amount of effluent a household would generate.

At some point, Cedar will return to connect the plumbing, backfill the hole, and dig the leach line trenches so he can install the infiltrator. We are genuinely on the path to becoming a civilized household! Soon, I can invite you over to "do your business" in my flushing toilet. Ahhh, what a day that will be. It's not that I mind the outhouse so much. Well, maybe our roof-less, frigid-seated, insect-infested bucket pooper is kind of a bummer. Outhouses need not be as skanky as ours, but when I consider that I haven't had indoor plumbing to call my own since I moved to the Mattole almost eight years ago, well, let's just say I'm looking forward to not needing to don a polar fleece suit and a headlamp and walk 30 yards if I've got to shit in the middle of the night. It doesn't happen often, but the times it does are enough to remind of the advantages to come.

The Larder

2009-11-13T16:53:00.000-08:00

I seem to be having difficulty regularly posting here. It's largely due to the new habits of my three-year-old. She no longer naps in the afternoons, leaving me without my mid-day space out, web-surfing moment, in which I have written a lot of my posts. I also used to write a lot after she went to bed, or even in the evening while she was playing with her dad, but the computer is now occupied with her nightly obsession with Angelina Ballerina, or one of her other DVD's, until we are all dead tired at about 9 PM. That pesky time change leads us all to the barn earlier these days.

Anyhow, back on topic, the subject of my post today is the larder, particularly how excited I am to take stock of the wares I've canned, accumulated, dried, grown or otherwise stashed for our family's consumption between now and April and beyond. The weather of winter has fully and completely arrived, meaning very short days, regular cold, cloudy, and rainy days, and cold nights. I've noted over the years here that all growth of plants basically stops, or progresses painfully slowly, during these months. Even though many of our local plants don't die back as in places where it snows, many do, while others simply pause as if mid-sentence, and wait for longer days and warmer nights to begin to stretch again. Even the grass tends to pause.

While the garden and native plants are stuck in winter limbo, we still have plenty to eat, though not as great a quantity of fresh produce as in the summer. Here is a list of what I've canned up to line our (forthcoming) pantry shelves:
2 cases of tomato
6 tomato paste
10 zucchini relish
35 or so jars of jam (apple ginger jelly, blueberry, strawberry, peach, and blackberry)
16 quarts of apple juice
1.5 cases of red tomato salsa
2 cases green tomatillo salsa
~12 tubs of pesto (frozen)
about 30 winter squash
6-8 cups of dried white beans
dried herbs
two frozen chickens whole
a several month supply of cured garlic
about 8 cups of home grown wheat berries
frozen strawberries
locally-grown frozen beef

I still have yet to can/put up:
pumpkin
green tomato chutney
saurkraut

Even though it's winter outside, we're still eating:
fresh cabbage
fresh carrots
fresh broccoli
fresh greens
fresh beets
the dregs of the tomato, eggplant, and peppers

I don't think our garden produce will last through like I always try to manifest, but it will only be a few months where we won't have anything.

Days left until the first spring planting: About 90.

Recent Additions: Interior Walls

2009-10-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

Looking down the Hall toward the front door

Kid Bedrooms

Master Bedroom

Kitchen, wall between the kitchen and the master bedroom

Looking down the hall toward the kid bedrooms

I thought I would take a moment to share some photos of the interior walls in the midst of their framing. They've been up for several weeks, but the big rain and roofing project has taken priority, and we are not yet back to framing. However, even at this point, the walls are exciting, because it now allows a visitor (or future occupant) to feel the flow of the rooms, and begin to feel the shape and dimensions of the rooms.

Roof Metal

2009-10-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

Maybe I just need to whine a little that it's going slowly to enable a faster rate of progress, because yesterday we made a great push on the metal. We finished the north roof, and most of the carport, and started on the south roof before it got dark last night. Today we are rained out, but we'll get back to it tomorrow. It feels SO great to get so much weathered-in space.

Beyond roof, my house is full of people I love right now, dear friends who come to visit every fall. People are camped out, struggling to stay dry, but we all pile in to the yurt for dinner, collectively cooking, sharing music, laughter, play, and love. I can't wait to have our house available to house everyone under one big embracing roof.

The Painful Slowness of Roofs

2009-10-17T16:28:00.000-07:00

I realize I haven't written a lot lately. I'm sure you can all forgive me, once you find out that we had our first true storm of the season beginning last Tuesday morning. And guess which day our roof metal arrived. Yep, Monday. There were two holes in our roof that we couldn't cover until we got two particular pieces of metal. The subsequent trim, detail, and plywood in that spot took the better part of a day, and in the dark, Karl and Drew had to resign themselves to the fact that no more metal, nor tarpaper, would get onto the roof until the storm was over.

So we went into the storm without tarpaper on the north sloping roof. Which, though I've come to see wasn't the end of the world, meant that half of the house behaved rather like a sieve. And though the south roof was tarpapered, and therefore mostly dry, the entire house was wet, dripping down the north walls, through the skylights, and between each gap of plywood. It felt rather like an abandoned warehouse, except for a few glorious moisture eddies, where our remaining windows and our brand new woodstove were stored.

And, as luck would have it, Drew was busy with an aikido workshop this week, so work was slowed yet again. And FINALLY, late this past week, we have resumed laying metal. I've had a few moments to drill sling and feel like I am accomplishing something. We laid the tarpaper on the north roof on Thursday, which feels like a huge relief. It's lightly raining today, and the house is dry. We're pushing again, since we're supposed to have more heavy rains Monday. It appears the winter weather has fully arrived. I am looking forward to getting fully weathered in! After the roof is on, then it's clerestory windows, and doors, and then we're completely dry. I hope that can happen this week.

Finishing the Wheat: A Backlog Post

2009-10-04T21:53:00.001-07:00

This post has been on my backlog list for some time now. For convenience, I am linking to previous wheat entries: Walls and Wheat, and Eat Your Wheaties.

Way, way back in July, I harvested my long-awaited crop of hard red winter wheat, which was growing in two long beds inside the garden fence all throughout the winter. It took a long time to ripen, since we had a lot of cool, foggy weather in the late spring/early summer. But at last, I harvested it, and dried the bundles in the mudroom and in the open sun.

Now, this process is one of those lost homesteading arts that everyone in the old days knew how to do, but since no one grows wheat anymore, there isn't anyone around who can tell me what to do. I do have the luck of having a written source that describes how to "flail" the wheat, which basically involves beating it with a stick to get the grains loose from the dry seed heads. The ideal flail is a broom handle with a shorter stick attached to the end with a leather "thong", as the literature puts it, so that it can swing freely. You know, you get a little momentum going and it really whacks the stuff.

But since I haven't grown wheat before, nor has anyone I know, I don't have a flail. So I found a stout piece of redwood, left over from another project, with which to beat my wheat. I assumed it wouldn't be so hard, since the grain was pretty dry, but it actually took quite a bit of beating, and thorough beating at that, to get the maximum wheat grain out. Thoroughness normally wouldn't matter, but since I had such a small harvest, every last grain was VERY important to me!

Once the grain was flailed, I then winnowed the chaff from the grain, which involves a very high tech process of slowly pouring the grain between two containers outdoors where there is the right amount of wind. Pour too quickly, and none of the chaff blows away. Pour too slowly, or when the wind is gusting a little, and the hard earned wheat berries dive into the grass, never to be seen until next winter.

Wheat Berries with Chaff, ready for Winnowing

All told, my dear wheat harvest readers, I collected eight precious cups of wheat berries. Not even enough to make one batch of bread. Nor enough to sow the same amount I planted last year. Certainly, I made some gardening mistakes, which I will remedy this year. But still a bit disappointing. I'm aiming for a better turnout next year. Partly, this involves planting the wheat in the area where the chicken run was, hoping that the chicken poop will feed the wheat, will feed the people, will feed the bucket, will feed the fruit trees, will feed the chickens, will feed the wheat, and so on.

I've got some more work to do to finish closing those loops....

Mattole Valley Horse Races

2009-09-29T15:12:00.001-07:00

It's taken me a while to get to it, but ten or so days ago, anyone with a cowboy/cowgirl heart gathered at the McWhorter's field for an afternoon of horse and dog sport. Seems like the winners are usually the same folks, the diehard horse people, which I appreciate from the perspective of understanding just how much work it takes to successfully train a horse to do what you want, when you want it. I still hope I will have the time and patience to go there someday, but for now, I honor the experts and enjoy watching their horses run!

There was a spoon-egg race, where you must walk or trot your horse while carrying an egg on a spoon. There was a ribbon race, where you and a partner hold a piece of flagging while riding at top speed side by side. In this race, your horses must be rather evenly matched, or you end up breaking your ribbon and losing. There was a relay race. And an "all-out" race, as in, ride that horse as fast as you can. And a trotting race, which doesn't sound so hard, but convincing your horse to trot is maybe harder than making it run.

You could bet on the horse races. You could also purchase home-baked desserts and bid on silent auction items to support the Mattole School. You could eat hamburgers cooked and sold by the Mattole Grange. And you could buy drinks from small children wheeling Radio Flyer wagons with coolers on board. Bev brought her miniature horse, too, which all the little kids wanted to ride.

There were also two dog races, one for small dogs and one for big dogs. We are pretty convinced that our little cattle dog is the fastest dog in our humble little valley. We trained with her ahead of time, having her run between Karl and Drew here at home, knowing that if she could just maintain her focus, she would win hands down. And she would have, too, if she hadn't gotten confused by Karl standing off to the side. I had asked him to take pictures of the race, so I could release her to Drew. In spite of wavering off course to say hi to Karl, and then completely overcorrecting on her way back to Drew, she still took second place. So WE still know she is the fastest girl around.

Waiting at the Start Line with Acer

She's Off and Running Fast

Now, some people I know from my former city life ask me what I spend my time doing up here in the kuntry. Obviously, they don't realize what fun it is to kick back with friends and watch the horses run.

Chicken Egg Jackpot

2009-09-27T14:32:00.001-07:00

A few days ago, Ella and I went out to the chicken run to let them out of their stylish, turquoise horse-trailer coop, and lo and behold, there was an egg lying quietly next to the chicken water dish. Oooo! Ella, Look! So we collected it, and I was SO delighted that our little hens have begun to lay eggs!

For weeks, we've been hearing the characteristic call the chickens make when they have laid an egg, but we haven't yet found any. We would rush out and have a look around the coop and the run, and walk away empty handed. But the best part of the above story is that later in the day, when I went to make a delivery of kitchen scraps to my grateful feathered buddies, I noticed an egg near the back of the trailer, and when I bent down to pick it up, I noticed a whole PILE of eggs under the bumper of the trailer! There were a whole dozen in all, two of which Ella broke before we got them all put away in an egg carton.

So the next morning, I had my first all homegrown breakfast from our land, some fresh tomato cooked into home grown scrambled eggs. Mmmmm. Nothing like it.

Here's to chickens and their fabulous ability to create so much useful resource for us humans.

Big Changes Unfolded This Week

2009-09-25T22:16:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a week for our construction project, and some other assorted homestead endeavors...Read on...

ROOF SHEETING

The Roof with All its Plywood

The crew finished sheeting the south roof on Tuesday, and the north roof, with the exception of where it joins the garage roof, and the entry way (due to sequencing needs), on Wednesday. It's really different inside the building now, darker. We can now clearly see where the sunlight is traveling, especially with the clerestory windows, and we can track the day across the southern slab.

However, even though the roof now has plywood on the whole thing, we do not yet have our roof metal in hand. It is on order, and we're hoping it will arrive next week sometime. In the meantime, we are hoping we won't have any major rain. Should the weather deteriorate to precipitation, we will likely cover the ply with the roofing felt, as a temporary measure. But that's not going to happen, right?! Here, in Humboldt County in September?

WINDOWS

Living Room

Clerestory and Windows in Kid Bedrooms

Office Area and Music Nook, with High East Windows

Windows on the Outside, on the West Wall

On Wednesday, the Valley Lumber truck delivered all of our windows, except the ones we ordered the same day, and the three sliding doors. We're holding off on those until we fill up the house with sheetrock, for ease of delivery. Drew couldn't help himself from installing just one that first day, before he unleashed his full installation prowess on Thursday. He and Aaron installed all the main windows in the house. Today they worked on getting to the clerestory window installation, but had several details to work through, specifically the eave of the clerestory, and the venting at the top of the south roof. All in good time.

Having the windows in dramatically changes how it feels to be inside the house. It just feels so much more INSIDE. Like a real house, even without the doors. I couldn't have anticipated that difference. One thing we are fretting about a little is that the windows we bought have Low-e glass, which basically means it is coated to reduce the amount of infrared heat that can pass through. The windows on the north, west, and east walls all have a super-duper performance coating on them, but we have a reduced coating on the south windows, because we WANT heat to come through our south glass. We're hoping we aren't cutting out too much of our solar gain.

EXTERIOR WINDOW SILLS

Michael Bringing in a Melanine Form for Windowsills

Today, Michael poured most of our exterior window sills, which are made from concrete, and burnished down to expose the aggregate. The idea is to give the windows a little bit more of a beefy appearance.

INTERIOR WALLS

Wall Between the Massage Room and the Living Room

Wall Between the Entry and the Main Room, with Three Windows

As if all that wasn't enough, we built some additional interior walls this week. The wall between the entryway and the music area had to get built to finish the roof, because it connects the two levels of roof. This wall provides the main living space of the house with three zen view windows to the east, which will allow morning light into the otherwise south facing living-kitchen-dining room. I like it. Also, Karl continued that wall onto the lower level, which divides the massage room from the living room. When I took the photos this morning, it looked like shown here, but by this afternoon, it was covered in plywood. Karl also built the wall between the entry way and the massage room, and framed in the coat closet in the entry.

Me thinks it was a rather good week!

Roof Roof Roof

2009-09-19T10:51:00.000-07:00

There is the roof, going on!

Inside our bedroom, with a ROOF!

Undereave detail, with the rim joist, and cedar tongue and groove, and redwood faux rafters

The patio overhang lattice, all recycled redwood...it will have clear covering

At last (breathing a sigh-of-relief), we reached the place where we could begin placing plywood on the roof. We have been dramatically slowed the last several weeks by our choices of finish on the outer edges of the roof. There are faux redwood beams/rafters sticking out, and on top of that is tongue and groove cedar wood, and there is a cedar rim joist/fascia board. All these steps had to be completed around our crenulated roof edge before we could begin putting on that sheathing.

But yesterday was the day, and it feels SO good, and exciting. I'm grateful that it's moving forward after so long of a time of it feeling like nothing was happening. Karl thinks that maybe the ply will be done on Monday. Even better, our window order is arriving next week, and pretty soon, we will be building interior walls, and preparing for a sheetrock crew. There's still a lot of other things to do, too, like the septic, and utilities, and a garage slab, and and and and. Well, you get the point. I need to keep reminding myself to take it one step at a time. And breathe! Construction life can get one a little riled up.

Reaping What We Sow

2009-09-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a harvest day, of sorts. It's one of those days when I become present to just what I've done by planting those little tiny seeds in pots back in February, or March. This year, I wondered if I should even do it at all, since we are so busy with our house. I am definitely distracted from our house during my Ella-free time by the need to put food up. But I can't really help myself, because when I contemplate the alternative, eating food that someone far away grew, I just can't quite stomach it. I truly prefer growing my own, and immensely enjoy the satisfaction of watching it emerge, bulge into ripeness, and disappear into my body, my cells becoming the very land we live upon. So no regrets here. Quite the contrary, I feel like dancing a little jig!

I'm glad I did harvest yesterday, because today it is raining and some of my produce would have been set back a little. Once again, my instincts told me to do it. I didn't realize the rain was coming. I was just guided to harvest. I continue to find that those little voices are worth listening to.

Ella and I descended into the garden with cardboard boxes, scissors, and clippers, picking ripe tomatoes, a flat of tomatillos, a bucket full of Bingo beans (like pintos), and about 13 delicata squash. I also canned some zucchini relish, something I've never done before. It's a recipe Deva likes to use. It's basically pickle relish, with zukes instead of cukes. What was so remarkable about the experience for me was that I grew all the produce: the onions, zucchinis, and the peppers. Usually, if I want to make something like that, I need to buy at least the onions. But not this year! It feels like a milestone for me.

There are a lot more tomatoes still to ripen, and more tomatillos than we could possible use or can. In fact yesterday I gave the tomatillo plant the name of "The Giving Tree". It just keeps on giving, and at this point, I'm confident we will never need to plant them in our garden again. I kept thanking the spirit of that generous plant, for giving us material to make salsa and enchilada sauce!

May we all experience the abundance of our own sowing seeds, real or symbolic...

The OTHER Downside of Animal Husbandry

2009-09-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

...is when one of your animals didn't get the message about how to treat the other animals. And, especially when this doesn't happen at a convenient moment. This one hen kept getting out of the chicken pen, and this morning, the dog, in trying to herd the bird, mortally wounded it. On my way back from the house site, with Ella in arms, the two of us preparing to go to pre-school, I caught a glimpse of the dog carrying a chicken in her mouth.

Ooooooo, bad dog! She dropped it, and I went to catch the chicken, who had run back to the pen, and when I caught her saw a large flesh wound that wasn't going to heal. So Drew had to quit what he was doing and dispatch her, and butcher her, while I took Ella to school. I guess we'll be having chicken for dinner tonight. Darn it, it was a hen, too.

I guess we'd better figure out how the chickens are getting out.

The Downside of Animal Husbandry

2009-09-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

When we brought home our chicks last April, we knew some of them would be roosters, but that only one could stay. Too many testosterone-touting red-combed dude chickens are bad news for the ladies of the house. They argue, and take out their frustrations at not being top dog on the hens, trying to prove who's who. And they all crow, which some feel to be a rather endearing and acceptable trait. But when you live 100 feet away in a tent, and one of them wakes up because the moon is full at 2 AM, let alone when ALL of them wake up at the crack of dawn like they're supposed to, the matter takes on a little extra urgency.

So at last, today, our three "extra" roosters met their maker. Neither of us thought it was a good idea to let Ella witness the actual slaughter (though we could have an interesting discussion another day about whether or not this is so), so I took her out visiting, while Drew stayed home to operate the guillotine. Which brings me to the "downside" of animal husbandry. The remaining chickens are terrified of us.

Many people try to intimate that "lower" beings have no feelings, don't think any advanced thoughts, or grieve, etc. There are many variations on this theme. But the mood in the chicken pen this afternoon is decidedly morbid, as though they are mourning for their lost comrades, even though they were a pain in the rear. When I went out with a bucket of kitchen scraps, they all took cover under their trailer. Ordinarily, the moment they see the silver bowl from a long ways off, they come running to the door, eager to see what goodies I have brought. Not today.

The problem, for me, is my ability to empathize with their grief and discomfort. If someone came and mysteriously removed several members of my family, I probably wouldn't feel comfortable either. I might not have an appetite. And yet, we need to eat. I have dabbled in vegetarianism, for many years, and find that my body cannot adequately do what it needs to do without meat. I have been buying chicken from the store, but I would rather grow it here, on our own land, and treat it right until the moment of its death, than buy the meat from a bird that never saw the open sky, even if it was allowed to "free range" shoulder to shoulder with thousands of other chickens in a barn. The obvious choice is to raise the chickens with integrity and love, and offer them an honorable passing.

I've roasted one of the three for our dinner this evening. For me, it always causes a more measured pace and style of eating, to eat what you have known when it was alive. We will surely honor tonight's rooster, in the many ways it has enriched our life, and the ways in which it will allow us to continue to enrich our own lives. I give thanks for the multiple ways in which the land continues to feed us.

Incidentally, as the photos show, when Ella and I returned home, Drew had finished plucking the chickens, but had not yet gutted and cleaned them. I set to work immediately removing pin feathers, while Drew did the butchering. Ella was not in the least bit disturbed by this part of the process, and we had a very real and hands on kind of anatomy study. She asked about why we were eating these, and were these our roosters? And we explained that too many roosters aren't good for the flock. She wanted to try touching the chickens. She wanted to hold the feet. I guess we'll cover the earlier part of the process when she's older.

Canning Moments

2009-09-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

Collect jars and pots, large and small;
Slice, pitch, slice, pitch;
De-top, slice, slice, pitch;
Wash jars, squeeze lemon juice,
Consult with Carla Emery.

Wonder if women
Did this work together,
Or if they did it solo, in their own kitchens
As I
Slice, pitch, slice, pitch, slice, pitch.
Wonder how many jars this will fill.
Wonder how many jars my garden will fill.
Think of lasagna in January,
Of white bean and sausage
Stew
With canned tomatoes.
Wonder about the sanity of
This.
Homesteading. What does this mean
For us still living between modern and not?
When I run out of tomato jars,
Because I didn't grow enough,
I run to the store,
Filling up on tin cans.
Slice, pitch, slice, pitch, slice, pitch.

Realize that every pizza I've ever eaten
Has contained tomatoes that someone canned
Even if it was a giant machine;
A tomato that grew in the sun somewhere,
And was bottled up, and shipped to the Italian restaurant.

But now I eat my own.
Slice, pitch, slice, pitch.
Stir.
Squish.
Stir, squish.
Boil, scoop, cap, ring.
Sputtering pressure canner, steamy house.
Clattering stainless bowls and knives.

Silence in the pantry.
Hush.

A Little Taste of Late Summer

2009-08-31T13:31:00.000-07:00

I was thinking last night, as I was cooking a little feast for my family just for the fun of it, that I wish I could bottle up the smells of my summer kitchen to send over the internet to my far away readers. I've been whipping up delicious showcase entrees using the freshest of the fresh veggies from my garden and our CSA farm. It is so very delightful! Here's a few recipes from last night:

Eggplant and Summer Vegetable Gratin

olive oil
2 lbs globe eggplant, preferably on the small size, sliced into 1/2 inch thick rounds
2 large onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large bell pepper
2-3 large, ripe tomatoes, skinned and seeded and chopped
10 basil leaves, chopped
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
sausage or other meat (optional)

Oil the eggplant slices and roast in a 425 oven for about 30 minutes, flipping over halfway through. Remove from oven and salt and pepper. Turn the oven down to 325. Meanwhile, saute the onion in 3 tbsp olive oil until it wilts. Add the garlic, stir for a moment, and add the bell pepper and tomato. Cook for a while, stirring every once in a while, until it forms a jam. Turn off the heat and stir in the basil. Layer the eggplant and tomato sauce in thirds in a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish. Cover and bake at 325 for 45 minutes. Moisten the breadcrumbs in olive oil and mix with the parmesan. Uncover the gratin and add the breadcrumb/cheese mixture and bake uncovered for another 25 minutes.

Pear Almond Pudding

1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

4 ripe but firm pears, peeled, cored, and sliced thinly
Crumble topping: 3 tbsp. butter, 1/4 c sugar, 1/2 cup flour, pinch of salt, cinnamon to taste, 1/2 cup chopped almonds, all mixed together.

Mix the first set of ingredients in a blender or with an immersion blender. Place the sliced pears in a 2 quart dish. Pour the pudding liquid mixture over the pears. Top with the crumble. Bake at 325 for approximately 50 minutes, until golden and puffed all over. Serve warm with whipped cream...mmmm.

My New 55mm/Macro Lens

2009-08-30T13:02:00.001-07:00

A few months back, I had the pleasure of test driving a really fun, old-school 55mm macro lens that belongs to my photo-friend Kira. I really enjoyed it, and to my surprise, Drew bought me one! I've had it now for at least a month, but I haven't had a chance to play with it at all, until today. Here's a sampling of this morning's shots at the beach.

Be Careful, the Things You Imagine

2009-08-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

Maybe it was coincidence, maybe a sixth sense that works over a longer time span than I realize, but last evening, after viewing that autumn sky and early dark, I decided to check the weather, only to discover that there was some actual rain forecast for today. And though true raindrops descended from the sky for only a short 20 minutes or so, it fills one-without-a-roof with a certain, hmmm, je ne sais quoi, deeper anxiety?

No harm done, at this point, but still. This early season sprinkle, which happens with regular regularity, serves each year to remind: the rain WILL return, and soon.

Keep Moving

2009-08-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

I keep avoiding writing, because it feels as though we are in a holding pattern. I keep looking for charismatic completion tasks to highlight, but mostly what this week has been about are unseen details, such as blocking, sister joists, end-wall joists, rim joists, etc. Nothing that looks very exciting, unless you are familiar with building process, and what it really means. I keep leaving home for a half day, and hoping it will be different when I return, but it's not.

Karl is leaving tomorrow for two weeks, to head to Burning Man, so our crew will be without the master-brain for a little while. And I am beginning to feel a little pressured about weather, as we are almost to September. At any turn here, we could expect a little or a lot of precipitation. I guess nothing would be very damaged at this point, if at all, but it still creates anxiety. Just this evening, as I collected the laundry off the clothesline, I looked west, and saw a decidedly autumn looking sunset sky. And I notice, with a hint of alarm, that it is getting dark much earlier, seemingly all of a sudden.

Thankfully, the garden makes up for anxiety, nurturing my gastric senses. Eggplant, beans, zucchini, cucumbers, arugula, carrots, kale, tomatoes, raspberries, and herbs, with a whole crop of brassicas on the way behind. And some onions almost ready. Mmmmmm. I love the summer garden.

Roof Rafters and Clerestory

2009-08-19T16:15:00.001-07:00

Clerestory, as viewed from the living room (you won't be able to see them from here when the roof is finished).

I-Joist Rafters over the Master Bedroom section of the house

Roof rafters are going on the house, as I type. This step, more than any other so far, feels the most significant and exciting! Karl finished building the clerestory this week, and things are really getting going out there. There's not much more to say about it, the photos speak for themselves...

Another Potential Disaster Averted

2009-08-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, while I relaxedly exited my massage studio after giving a nice rub to a client, I heard an airplane flying low. I thought to myself, that sounds like the CalFire spotter plane. I waited to catch a glimpse before I carried on my way, and indeed, noted the telltale double tail of the white spotter plane, circling low over Petrolia. Hmmm. That's not such a good sign. Next, I contemplated whether or not I could smell smoke. I could not. But my internal alarms began to go off a few moments later when a much larger bomber airplane circled in and flew overhead, barely above the tall fir trees in Seth's backyard. Then I knew that they were dumping retardant on a fire in the immediate vicinity. Knowing the geography, I surmised that the fire must be in the direction of my house. It was time to go investigate.

I knew that Drew would already be at the scene with the Petrolia Volunteer Fire Department, in his wildfire turnout gear, running an engine, but I wasn't sure where Ella was, as she had gone with a babysitter that morning. As I drove to the firehall to drop off Drew's wayward two-way radio, I quickly saw the smoke, billowing in a tall column just above Petrolia, on the west side of the knoll that borders our property, in a thick stand of scotch broom. Uh. Oh.

But fortunately for all, the day was not so excessively dry or windy, as the fog and dew had been heavy the night before, and the wind was rather calm. CalFire was quick with their air support. Not long after the three bombers arrived to dump borate on the fire, the helicopter with a bucket arrived, and made quick trips to the river (?) or the estuary (?), and two private bulldozers cut a fireline to the east of the fire. The fire was less than a mile from the fire hall in Petrolia. Drew had also mowed a little of the broom on that hill a few months back, which allowed the firefighters to get better access to the active fire. Within an hour or so, it was under control, and everyone went back to their regular day.

Each time it happens, we all get a little rattled, and are reminded that it's not a matter of if, but when a fire will happen. We wonder if we'll be ready. We have so much more we should do to be prepared, including storing more water, having a stand pipe with fittings that work with the fire department's hoses, having an independent pump, and of course, having really solid "defensible space". May we all be more careful, and prepare as our means allow, so we can all help keep each other safe.

Winter Garden in the Ground

2009-08-15T13:49:00.001-07:00

Spent a few hours digging in the dirt this morning with Drew and Ella, getting the bed ready, pulling out old lettuce and spent cabbage and broccoli, to make room for more broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, and spinach. It feels so satisfying! It's not only right on time, but I am very happy with how the plants turned out, they look very healthy and solid. May they flourish and feed us well all through until next spring!

Meanwhile, Drew did a little weedwhacking around the garden paths. I so need to do some sheet mulching on the paths so the grass can't grow anymore. Sometimes it's hard to find time to do ALL the small little projects I want to do to make our place nice. Anyhow, after all that, I harvested a whole basket of green beans, 7 full length Japanese cucumbers, and a large zuchinni (oops!). I am loving the garden right now, it is full of food. Late summer is amazing!

Chick on the Jobsite

2009-08-14T22:35:00.001-07:00

It hasn't happened very frequently in the last several years, since I became pregnant, and subsequently, a parent, but today I donned the tool belt, laden with tape measure, speed square, and other miscellaneous macho tools, and kicked it with the boys on the jobsite. The project for today: hang our long, 27-foot rafters, over the master suite section of the house.

It's actually quite hard work, schlepping 27-foot I-joists around, each of which required a plumb cut on each end, attachment of some plywood scabs, and a level cut at the building end. There were 14 of them, and it took all morning just to do the cutting and hauling of all of them. I was beat by lunch, and sent Drew out to do the hanging after lunch. It dramatically changes the feeling of that section of the house already, giving a semi-permeable ceiling of wind-waggling joists, allowing fantasizing about what the room will be like when finished. Clerestory construction also began in earnest today.

If you'd like to see me in my construction getup, you can check out this link:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=155701&l=473c7c1c67&id=1306971081

It's an old picture, but you get the idea!

It Must Be August

2009-08-13T16:26:00.001-07:00

It must be August, as we are roofing, and there are raspberries, and I have a whole crop of winter garden starts begging to be put in the ground immediately. We are eating fresh tomatillo salsa and cucumber salad, fresh strawberries in our breakfast cereal, and crisp green beans, lightly steamed with butter with our dinners. The zucchinis are out of control, and we are anxiously awaiting that first, garden-ripe, home-grown tomato, which I just noticed is beginning to yellow around its shoulders--AT LAST! We even have bell peppers and eggplants. There are pickles fermenting on the counter, and the fridge is full of produce from our garden and the local CSA. I hear that pears are ripe, too. It's not too far until the first apples, probably just a few weeks. My raised bed crops are poking their seed leaves above the soil, ready to get big before the nights cool down: arugula, beets, carrots, radishes, scallions, and spinach. It's amazing to me how the garden schedule really doesn't let up until it begins to rain in November. To keep food on the table, I need to continue to plant from February all the way through August, culminating with the garlic and winter wheat in October.

Regarding roofs, the crew just started raising rafters on the main house today. Earlier this week, they did most of the carport rafters, and they have been working on trimming the main beam, getting it ready to build the clerestory, which will support the north side rafters.

Big Beams

2009-08-05T15:25:00.001-07:00

The building process has led to this: two solid days spent wrangling and getting all Egyptian with some large pieces of redwood. Jim Groeling found us these 10"x12" beams from his latest reconstruction project: taking apart Field's Landing. Field's Landing is a little unincorporated community south of Eureka, located on Humboldt Bay, and the wharf that our beams were a part of served as a way for redwood products to ship out of our area, and from the 1940's until 1951, Field's Landing was the last operating whaling port in the United States. Our beams were girders on the wharf.

A little mechanical brushing wiped away the salty flavor of the sea, and the tar from the spots where they rested on posts. They truly are gorgeous, with very tight grain. We are so grateful to have these amazing pieces of wood.

In the above photo, our crew wrestled with the shorter of the two, with a scaffold, a come-along, pulleys, webbing, and a static jin pole to maneuver it into position, before successfully lowering it onto the posts with metal buckets on top. Today, the crew decided that it would be easier and safer to lift the beam with the forklifts on the tractor, if I was willing to allow them to drive the tractor into the house. Well, I think that's all going to work out fine, I hope!

Firemen's Muster

2009-07-29T14:03:00.001-07:00

Backpack Sprayer Relay, that's Drew on the Left

The Petrolia Team Cuts a Fire Line Down to Mineral Soil

Firefighter Papa

The Petrolia Team Puts out a "Wildland" Fire in the Hose Lay

Petrolia Team Captain Chris Gilda and Engine 6632

Every year at the Roll on the Mattole, a music festival fundraiser for Honeydew Volunteer Fire Company, there is a firemen's muster. In other words, the departments all put together a team, and have firefighter games, work to win a trophy prize, and furthermore, demonstrate how awesomely prepared they are for the possibility of wildland firefighting.

There are 3 competitions: a backpack sprayer relay, a fire line competition, and a hose lay. They need to demonstrate teamwork and technical skill, and they are judged by CDF firefighters. It's a heckuvalot of fun to watch. And it helps the folks keep their chops up, too.

This year, there was an additional cool-factor, which was that the Honeydew team was all women. As a woman, I feel a little swell of pride for these ladies, it isn't easy work being firefighters. Although I live in Petrolia, I was secretly rooting for the Honeydew team! Woman first, village second! But Whale Gulch Volunteer Company won, instead.

Topless Party

2009-07-28T16:57:00.001-07:00

Drew really wanted to have a topless party for his birthday, as in, a party in our topless house, once the walls were done. But the walls weren't done in time for his birthday, so we had to have the party last weekend. We furnished the house with our meager and humble furniture options, and set up "counters" in the kitchen, and an air bed in our bedroom, and dragged out a bunch of toys for the kids, and played groovy music all evening. We watched the waxing crescent moon set over Moore Hill, and waited until the stars emerged from the darkness to go back inside to bed. After most of the guests left, Drew, Ella, Ryan, and I sat on our couch in our future living room, area rug underfoot, all tucked under my grandmother's afghan. It was such an extraordinary sensation of fulfillment. It was also so nice to have the house full of people we love, sharing food and enjoyment. Even without walls, windows, and doors, the design worked very well. I think we're going to love living in it, and I'm looking forward to having lots more gatherings with our lovely community packed inside.

Can't wait for the full completion!

Redwood Vacation

2009-07-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

Once the walls were finished, it was time for a vacation already, sheesh! So as fast as we could muster, we threw together our backpacks and gear for a short-distance trip to Redwood National Park, about an hour north of Arcata. Our first night, we went out for sushi, and tried to camp at Patrick's Point State Park, but they were full, so we (oh darn) spent the night at the Lost Whale Inn, a fabulous B&B in Trinidad. Took a hot tub. Slept on soft sheets. Ate their phenomenal breakfast, mmmmmm. It was truly the breakfast that swayed us.

After all that gorging and relaxing, we drove up to the park, collected our permit and bear canister, and drove 10 miles or so out of Orick, to a locked gate, and then another 6 miles down a dirt road to the trailhead to the "Tall Trees Grove". More organizing, and then finally we were ready to disappear into the backcountry for three days, and headed down the trail with heavy packs. Ella carried her pink Kung Fu Panda pack full of her own clothes, and she ran ahead of us on the trail, so excited about the adventure. The hike to the nearest camping is about 1.75 miles, which was just far enough for this not-so-recently-gone-backpacking gal. We set up our camp on the banks of Redwood Creek, on a soft, sandy bar, beside a lazy, glassy, quietly murmuring stream, which was packed full of fresh-water snails, cutthroat trout, and perfect skipping rocks.

We proceeded to relax for the next little while, taking small walks as we felt, swimming in crystal-clear, cerulean pools, tracking the otters, elk, and other wildlife, listening to birds, and taking in the breathtaking grandeur of mature redwood trees with very large diameters. We heard marbled murrelets calling at dusk and dawn, and sank into another universe for a short little while. Ahhhhhh. Ella loved it, though her tantrum rate went up while we were there.

We watched cliff swallows gathering insects for their babies, diving in and out of a tiny hole in a cut bank. We saw osprey fly far overhead, calling out midday. We saw what we think was a mink, hopping and leaping along the bank, after taking a swim across the creek. We heard the pileated woodpecker drumming in the deep forest. We experienced ourselves as small little people, while trying to travel off trail through the forest, crossing downed logs that were 7 feet high, tumbled across other 7 foot high logs, requiring balancing travel along tree highways. We heard a fox bark in the early morning. It is truly magical to feel the old-growth forest, in its undisturbed state, it really does have a different sensation, a deeper pulse. Please go and find out what it feels like for yourselves.

We all emerged deeply calmed and rejuvenated. Ready for more construction, time to move on to the roof!

Finished Walls

2009-07-15T20:14:00.001-07:00

The Entire House! From the Southeast

The Whole Thing, from Due South

West Wall from the Outside

Looking East Through the Entire House, on the Lower Level

Looking East on the Upper Level

Looking West Through the Entire House

The North Wall as Viewed from the Living Room

Three solid days of pushing endlessly, even a few sunup to sundown marathons, but today we completed the exterior walls of our house. We can now see the shape and slope of the roofs and the clerestory, and grok how tall the north wall really is. We can see what it will look like from the outside, and begin to have a feeling for the interior spaces. It is spectacular! Not only what we've accomplished, but watching this vision, one that we have nurtured along for several years now, emerging into the flesh. I can hardly believe this is my life!

Now, we take a little needed vacation to go play in the redwoods, and then we get into setting the ridge beams and the rest of the roof. The main visible beam is going to be a gigantic recycled redwood bridge timber, and the posts that will hold them up are tree sections that Drew harvested last week from the Petrolia School, the land where we met (thank you, Dr. Dick!). It's going to be so beautiful, I can hardly wait to see the boldness of the feeling of the beam.

The Silence of the Birds

2009-07-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

Each summer, the day when the birds stop singing comes too quickly for my taste. It's not that they stop entirely. I am still hearing the swallows at this moment, amid the roar of the concrete trucks (pouring our walls), and I did hear a spotted towhee yesterday morning. It's just that I feel a little sad when the luxurious and rich orchestra of morning bird dawn chorus becomes a lonely, quiet solo.

I guess it is truly the turning of the seasons. It means the singers have found their mates and have hunkered down to hatch some eggs. They're now in a lovely family way. I suppose I should feel happy for them. And now we can try to hear the juveniles drive their bird parents crazy with constant requests for feeding, like their human, teenaged counterparts. It means we are moving closer to tomato harvest time, and this year, closer to a roof being on our new house. But wistful I remain, over the loss of beauty in the early morning. I look forward to it each year, and it always seems to fly by too fast. Especially the end of the merry, melodic black-headed grosbeak soliloquies. *sigh*

To tomatoes!

Mill Creek Forest

2009-07-11T17:08:00.001-07:00

It's a funny phenomenon, that you don't necessarily do the interesting things there are to do around your home until out-of-town guests come to visit. A few days ago, we decided on a walk into Mill Creek Forest, thinking it would be a short walk, and do-able for Ella. But when you take a hike with the Lillie-Schneider clan, I forgot that you must be prepared for anything. We began climbing up out of the creek, up the near vertical slopes, up into the old-growth Douglas-fir forest. It really is spectacular. There is so little forest that looks like it, large, well-spaced trees, with the fern and spindly tan oak understory.

It was a satisfying hike, in that I got to nerd out on taking photos, with another fellow photo nerd, my dear friend Kira, who is a rock star fashion photographer in Paris. She had lenses that would fit my camera, and I got to play with a true macro lens for the first time. Meanwhile, Ella was barging ahead with Kai and Karl, leading our whole entourage. None of us could believe how far she walked, nor how enthusiastically she was doing it. Who needs a nap?

All was well, until the end of the day when Kira walked through a yellow jacket nest, and she got stung several times. Once she was done with that, a wasp decided she needed to be stung too! Insult to injury! The burning and stinging led to a mandatory stop at the Drury swimming hole, for an end of hike dip. Ahhhhhh. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Supplemental Wall Blocks

2009-07-11T16:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a full-sized semi arrived with his roll up sided trailer with ten additional pallets of wall block. The trucker looked a little green, and described, while shaking his head, his harrowing journey over the wildcat. He seemed in good humor about it all, but definitely said he'd never driven a road quite like that, and wasn't sure he was going to make it on several occasions.

But the worst part is that he decided to try to leave the valley over Bull Creek, since he had deliveries farther south. We investigated the bridge clearance in Honeydew, which was ok, and cautioned him about the trip through the redwoods, but offered our opinion that we thought he could do it. But. We forgot one minor detail. About a single lane bridge with a right angle turn just before it, right next to the place we got married. We got a little more worried after his boss called to check in on him twice, asking us to call him on his cell after hours. And then today, we found out he got stuck trying to cross said bridge, and somehow had to get the trailer pulled back, and I don't know how he managed to do it, but he had to turn that truck around and leave the way he came, through Ferndale. We are hoping he's alright. I guess his boss hadn't heard from him, as of this morning.

Keepin' On Keepin' On

2009-07-07T15:11:00.001-07:00

The Western Wall of the House

Master Bedroom

Full House, as Viewed from the Southeast

House as Viewed from the East

View out the West Wall of the Master Bedroom: Moore Hill

Karl Threads a Block over Rebar

View Looking South through what will be a Hall, Closet, Bathroom, and Master Bedroom

Work continues on. We fly for a little, then we crawl, then we fly, and walk, and crawl. Such is construction! After the first wall pour, we stacked pretty quickly up to the tops of the window and door bucks, although now the crew has to thread each and every block over varying-height, tall pieces of rebar. And once we got the the course above the plethora of windows on the south side, we needed extra rebar reinforcement, to make sure the eventual concrete lintels will be strong enough to hold everything up, and so each block needed to be customized to allow extra reinforcement. At that point, we were hoping for wall pour # 2 sometime this week, but then we ran out of block, and tried to get it shipped, but couldn't get it until Thursday of this week. So the pour will be next week.

So now we find ourselves having a little bit of a break. Drew is outside today trying to get his new (used) baler running. As I sat here typing, I heard the motor fire up for the first time. Our neighbor had it in his barn but hadn't used it in many years. But it looks like we can bale up some straw from our incredible stand of the dry, waving grass for use in the garden this winter.

Also, dear friends are coming to visit tomorrow, and they're staying through the weekend, while one is visiting right now! What a full life, and what fullness summer brings.

Homestead Construction

2009-07-02T13:28:00.000-07:00

Whenever we are working towards a roof for a building before the rainy season, which we have done 5 of the last 6 years, I think of the old-time homesteaders, who arrived with their whole families, and needed to get shelter established before our wet, wet, dank winters, and still had to feed themselves with their own labors, while also raising their kids. I think of this when I am struggling with our garden gophers, watching a crop failure of my storage beans, and broccoli, trying to get a house built, and to parent only one child. How did they do it? Were they miserable? Did they have tons of help?

Living here in the 1860's, the journey to town for supplies you couldn't produce took two days on horseback. People might only do it twice a year. Our less than two hour car trip is nothing compared to this. It's just kind of interesting how low the stakes are for someone like me to "try" to grow my own wheat. Granted, I've never done it, and we are learning, but it would be unacceptable in that era to make the mistakes I made. My family would go hungry.

Back to our roof...it's no wonder the old, old-timers started out with small, one-room cabins with available materials, and their whole families suffered through the crowding together because there was no other way. Having a large house would be unthinkable, without the luxury of temporary housing that we have available, everything from trailers to yurts. And don't even get me started on sheet materials. I count ourselves lucky, given what we have available a short distance away.

Health Care for All

2009-06-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Hi all, I'm a little fired up right now, as I get periodically, and right now it's about health care. This status quo HAS GOT TO CHANGE! People are dying preventable deaths, or suffering long, slow humiliation, because they can't afford insurance, can't afford Dr. visits, treatments, medications, preventative screenings, etc.

Three action steps:

1. I recently received this communication from my great aunt, Nancy, who has been active in calling for Single Payer.

"Our House Democrat, Mike Thompson, District One - when asked about Single Payer answered:

"There is no public support for it." and "If 2,000 of you had been here to ask, I might have thought there was."

We are in the process of generating at least 2,000 letters to him From His District -Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Yolo.

ACTION STEP: IF YOU LIVE IN ANY OF THESE COUNTIES (I.E. IF MIKE IS YOUR REP), PLEASE SEND HIM A LETTER. I JUST DID IT, IT ONLY TOOK A MINUTE. Here's my letter below.

Dr. Representative Thompson,

I generally find I agree with your positions and votes as a legislator. Thank you for your ongoing service.

It recently came to my attention that you said there is no public support for a Single Payer system.

You are wrong. I support a Single Payer system, and nearly everyone I know in my community supports it, too. I hosted a Health Care for America public meeting here in Petrolia back in December. We are a small community and 8 people came, but ALL EIGHT OF THEM AGREED: Health care should be a right, not a privilege, and that the insurance companies are all ripping us off left and right. It is criminal that people are left to fend for themselves, and even if we are insured, we are one illness away from bankruptcy. Two of the participants at our meeting were health care providers, and they too agree that Single Payer is the way to go.

Frankly, anything short of that isn't going to do anything, but preserve the predatory practices of the insurance industry that doesn't give a damn about taking care of people and their health. Please support AT LEAST a public health insurance option, but if I had my druthers, I would suggest that you support ONLY A SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM, PROVIDING HEALTH CARE ACCESS FOR ALL AMERICANS! We deserve it!

Thank you,
Amanda Malachesky
Petrolia, CA
Mother, Massage Therapist

2. Visit Barack Obama's Health Care Page and submit your own health care horror story about why we need health care reform:
http://stories.barackobama.com/healthcareOr just read the stories and bear witness to how messed up the whole thing is.

3. If you're really ambitious and are You Tube savvy, submit a video of yourself asking Barack Obama a question about health care. He might answer it on his online town hall meeting tomorrow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY7HccFXjZU

Thanks for reading this public service announcement. Now get out there and perform your civic duty!

Wall Pour #1

2009-06-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

The house the night before the pour, with reinforcement and bracing

Ryan holds the concrete hose while the pump operator fills the walls.

Karl using the stinger, which vibrates the bar to make sure it gets into all the wall cavities.

The extra pad, ready to go!

Drew working the chute

Screeding the form

My burly stud muffin, splattered with concrete

The whole crew: Ella, Samuel, Chris, Karl, Ryan, Ryan, Drew and I, in front of the dining room door buck

Yesterday, we poured a little more than four feet of the walls of our house, all the way around. It's been a bit of a push to get through to the pour, it required some challenging tasks...epoxying rebar into the foundation (our engineer determined we needed more than we had originally put in), building window and door bucks, and correcting the mistakes of the masons who set our first course of blocks.

At last, we finished all these (and more!) tasks, and dialed up the concrete. Drew did the estimating, and the number seemed a little large, but he checked it twice, and Karl checked again, and came up with the same number. We ordered 21 yards. Well, turns out we over-ordered due to a small math error. Oops. We did figure out what went wrong, so we won't make the mistake again next time, but we had 6 extra yards at the end of the wall pour!

Drew asked me, "Do you have any good ideas?" I thought for a moment. "Water tank pad?" "Where?" "Over there, behind our future barn?" "That's a good idea..." So after a few moments hesitation, Drew set the crew on building a last-minute 16' x 16' form, compass-oriented, for some future water tank(s). The crew manifested the form in approximately 30-40 minutes, which was pretty impressive, considering everything. People were rifling through the grass to find the scrap concrete stakes, running wildly with jiggling lengths of rebar, swinging hammers, and wildly gesturing over the din of the concrete truck. I really think they should all win an award for their performance.

At last, we were ready to dump the last of the concrete, and filled the form. We got to the last 9 square feet or so, and truck was empty. Uh oh, now what? Cold joint later, or lower the level of the slab? Karl guessed if we lowered the level 1.5 inches, it would be just about right. Turns out (how does he DO that?!) he was right. Luckily, the concrete hadn't set up too much to allow such a mid-course correction.

The following day, the crew stacked a large section of the north wall much taller, to the top of the window bucks. It's really starting to look like real walls! We're hoping for another pour next week before the holiday, or if not, shortly thereafter. We're not far from complete walls. After that, we'll need to wait 28 days for the concrete to cure completely, and then we can begin the roof. We'll probably do the septic and the garage slab in the meantime. Wow. Our house is happening!

Alliums

2009-06-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

At long last, I harvested my garlic and onions today. I planted the garlic last October, and the onions I started from seed last August. Wow, talk about long-term commitment! Overall, it feels really nice to have produced these lovely bundles of storable food, but I would like to strive for more consistent and ripe results. The onions and garlic both vary greatly in size, and one of the garlic varieties would have liked to be harvested a few weeks ago. The outer paper skin was nearly rotten all the way through on most, and all the way through on a few. They kind of look naked, without the skin, their cloves bulging out at odd angles.

In any event, next time, I would feed them more regularly, and make use of the automatic water, which I set up a few weeks ago, after they were nearly done. But really, who can argue with over 70 heads of garlic, and approximately 50 onions? This year we won't need to buy garlic for our pesto, so long as our basil makes it through, which I'm sure it will.

Toad in a Hole

2009-06-17T13:09:00.001-07:00

The other day, I was walking back from the house to the yurt and noticed a small black hole in the driveway. I've seen it before, though I've typically only had a subconscious recognition of it. Well, I decided to try to collapse it a little bit, assuming it was a gopher tunnel. I began kicking at it, and lo and behold, a western toad hopped across the opening underneath, such that I could see it, for only a split second!

And then it dawned on me, "Hey! That's a toad in a hole!"