Dark Side of the Moon

Allan is on the dark side of the Moon. He shall return (hopefully) January 18th. Cheers!

Rollerskating on New Year's Eve...

I took the girls off the mountain today to go rollerskating...

OK. So Jazmine needed an ice bag for her hip.


Roller rinks are a rite of passage. Only the music has changed since I was a kid. I half ways expected the Rolling Stones or Elton John to be played. Instead, the music was of an ilk that I have never heard before. But the ambiance is the same...

Happy Solstice! Merry Christmas!

Our stockings are hung...

And the Reindeer are out...

And the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree is decorated...

We haven't done much work on this project lately. Early nights, cold temperatures and rain make for some cozy "off grid" living.

We took down a little scraggly tree. It was growing in a small cluster of white pines on our property (and needed to be thinned). Joni asked the tree if it would like to be our Christmas tree; we cut it, and then Joni gave back a strand of hair in order to give something back to the land. A family ritual. It is a small tree. Beautiful, none-the-less.

After tonight the days start to get longer. And more hopeful.

From all of us here at the Solar Compound, Joni, Jazmine, Kylie, Angel the dog, Rocky the cat and me (Allan), we wish you a blessed Holiday season! May this be the year that all good things happen. And may this be the year we finally finish this darned house!

Frozen Pipes and Copenhagen

On the first day of the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, we experienced record low temperatures. The result: all our pipes froze! Yes, they were wrapped in insulation.

The pipes froze from the cistern to the pumphouse. From the pumphouse to the Cabin. I had previously broken the inlet to the Cabin--but now we also busted the one water pipe outside the Cabin.

All of this is fixable. But for now, it is back to filling buckets and hauling the water for use in the Cabin.

This is the path from where we fill the buckets to the Cabin. Just like Jack and Jill--up the hill...

Luckily, the well didn't freeze--and we are still able to pump water from there. I have a hose attached to the water inlet from the well pump which provides us with natural spring water...

But Is It Fun?

Our uncompleted house...made of logs we cut, strawbales and mud from our land...

Playing fetch with Angel the dog, in our front yard. Note the fire pit...which we can use now that it is the rainy season. Smores anyone?

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With Joni away in San Diego (taking care of her Mom), I sit down to a dinner of Bacon, Baked Beans and Beer! Breakfast was Baked Beans and Coffee. This is living!

We have been living up here for 1 1/2 years now. Our Addition still isn't done. I've been sleeping under the exposed elements of our new Addition for 1 1/2 years now. Some nights have been spent outside, sleeping under the stars. The temperature has been in the 30's during the night. I sleep with a stocking cap and thermal underwear. And two sleeping bags. Most nights I fall asleep listening to blessed Coyote songs.

We don't have hot water. In the summer, some shower bags left in the sun meets those needs. In the summer, we shower butt naked outside. Now that it is colder, we heat water on the stove. When Joni mentioned this to her sister (who lives in a McMansion in a cookie cutter suburb of San Diego), she couldn't fathom it. That was just not okay: "You have to have hot running water!" she said. "How can you live that way?"

Right now I don't have running water into the Cabin because I broke the water inlet pipe. Haven't gotten around to fixing that yet.

And we have one wall left to build. And only one layer of mud on the house...although that is holding up well in the rain due to building eaves that extend quite a ways away from the building.

So, is this fun?

Yes! I am having the time of my life!! All those accoutrement's of modern living will show up eventually. But in the mean time, I have beauty all around me. Space to play with the dog. A campfire pit! Skunks! Deer! Mountain Lion! Bear! Fresh air! A hiking trail that leads to the bottom of the canyon--with no one on it!

I have a funny looking house, incomplete, that Joni and I designed. We helped cut the logs and stripped them of bark. We have made all the mud for the house. Collected all the rock for the foundation and mortared them into place. We have made very few trips to Home Depot.

This isn't industrial living...this is living close to the Earth. With Earth for walls! This is how 50 percent of the world lives!

We have an anemic garden and chickens that we can't tell if they are boys or girls. We have Rednecks and Apocalyptic Christians for neighbors.

So never mind that we stink a little. Or that we have to haul water. Or that we have to ration our television and computer time. This is how I want to live! And we are thriving!

Hanging Out With Amy Goodman...

With Joni out of town for the week, I snuck off to Chico to meet Amy Goodman. I described meeting her on my other blog.

Amy Goodman is one of my heroes. Frankly, the left side of the ledger has some pretty good talent: Amy being one of them; Thom Hartmann is another. The work they do on Free Speech TV and their radio shows certainly bests the hefty, barbed wire loving, talking heads of the Right.

Amy Goodman had a booksigning and then a speech. I've heard Amy before, but this time she was much more comfortable at the mike. And also much more real as she talked about her experiences over the past couple of months watching her Mother die in a hospital.

Amy said they had to "stand guard" over the ineptitude of the doctors and nurses who took care of her Mother. The problem to me (since I am an RN) is that her Mother was in a hospital that doesn't value the skills and talents of the nurses.

Doctors need to have a good relationship with their nurses. After all, it is the nurses who actually are with the patient. I am blessed with having a good relationship with the doctors I work with. I can suggest treatment modalities; bring up things the doctor has overlooked; I can have knock down drag out fights with the good Docs I work with. All of this means that there is less of a chance for mistakes. And things do not get overlooked.

The more empowered the nurse, the better the care provided. When doctors and nurses work together in an atmosphere of respect and collaboration, better care is given to the patient.

Back to Amy. She gave a hell of a speech. Witty. Graceful. Informative. Filled with snippets of wisdom--I'm glad she is on our side. If you haven't watched/heard Democracy Now!--I heartily implore you to give the alternative media a chance!

A Frustrating Day...

I got some tin up on the back wall today...

I like how it looks. Now we can complete the last straw bale wall...

The backdoor. Even has a workable doorknob now...


And the front door is fully operational. A doorknob and additional lock adds non-security..

And we have our wood stove. The only problem is my piping is the wrong size (used)...got to get a few more parts before that will go in. Don't worry...I have a Fellah helping me with this. Don't want to build the place--just to have it burn down!

Now the frustrating part. I dropped a bit of tin which severed the water line into the house. Off to the hardware store...only to find this is PVC c pipe. My fittings were the wrong size! So we will haul water for the evening. Or maybe a tad longer...

You gotta expect a few challenges now and then...

Tin from the Year 1915!

I bought 35 sheets of recycled tin and had it delivered this morning (I need a pick up truck--anybody have one they want to sell me? Or better yet: donate?).

This tin is from a barn that was deconstructed (for you post-modernist fans!) down on the valley floor. Royce, who sold me the tin, told me the barn was built in 1915.

This is from the same barn that graces our roof. By the way, we haven't had any leaks...

The tin is also on the side of the building...

I plan on attaching this tin to part of our newest framed in wall...

We also will use it inside the family room--along the wall that houses our bookshelf in this photo.

I wrote about tin yesterday on my other blog. Today, I ran across this excellent indictment of our economy. The video is long--but nicely done. Reusing tin (that is almost 100 years old) is, hopefully, a way to help build a new economy. I hope you will peruse the highlighted video. It is quite excellent!