Tipi Repair
Many thanks to Shelley and Kathy for being such troopers in the rain yesterday! The tipi is repaired! And with all the rain, it is significantly whiter now. 🙂
Bird watching
Maya’s got a great perch for studying the local birds!
Moss
I love the little mosses blooming on the land right now!
Our permits
Hallelujah!! Our final permit arrived today! These 3 pieces of paper mean it is finally legal for us to live here on our 6 acres. Many thanks to the kind folks at the zoning office for their patience with our unconventional plans. It’s been more than a year of paperwork and phone calls, (not to mention the $4300 gifted to us from supportive friends!) that finally earn us the right to build our life here. Thank you for your ongoing support!
The Making of Our Cob Rocket Stove
Thanks so much for all the amazing help from friends in the past couple weeks! We are so thankful to be warm and cozy in the bus now! The rocket stove is complete except for the final coat of clay plaster. It has such a sweet presence, almost like a new member of the family. This clay has been living under the prairie grasses on our hillside since the glaciers dropped it off, and now it keeps us warm. Pretty dang cool!
Arranging the insulated fire bricks
Mixing the clay with water and shredded straw..so squidgy!
Placing the barrel upside-down on top makes this a mass heater
Adding the clay around the barrel will capture the heat and release it slowly in the bus, like a radiator
The finished stove, and a pile of Jonathan’s hard work
Plan C Has Arrived!
Many of you have been asking our winter plans, and have heard the long story of our logistics. With these colder nights and shorter days, believe me, we have been working hard to find those answers too.
The short answer is: Plan C!
Plan A (building the house/barn/classroom) ain’t happening, yet anyways. Plan B (building the outdoor classroom and temporarily insulating it for the winter) was just too tricky to sort out, with permits and building time etc. Worst case scenario was that we’d move off the land to a rental or house-sitting gig for the winter. On a brainstorming whim, I mentioned to Jonathan that maybe we just need to find an RV or something. 20 minutes later he texted me a Craigslist ad, and a few phone calls later, we have this tucked into the oaks up on the hill!…
Yup. It’s a school bus!
And it’s fully insulated and finished with tongue and groove cedar.
With a sweet little wood burning stove.
One bunk is already built, and some extra cedar for us to use.
And the beginnings of the kitchen.
This nook will be little benches and the kitchen table.
So obviously it still needs some work to make it move-in-able, but wow, we are so grateful to have a warm place to live on the land this winter! Many thanks to Tom, who graciously let go of this dream project of his so that our family can occupy it! If anyone has an afternoon to help Jonathan with setting it up for us, please let us know! We can feed you and send you home with eggs!
It truly has been a beautiful summer, and I feel so blessed to be able to live here, however humble our living situation may be. A friend stopped by a week or so ago and heard the story and conundrum with our building plans. His response was, “Well, it sounds like a fun problem to have!” Ha! So true, my friend, so true. Aren’t we lucky to have this blank slate upon which to create our future!
Love to you all! Many blessings for this Fall Equinox time, may your harvest be full of beautiful friendships and warm memories this year.
Love,
Heidi