Lots of Activity!!

Joni applies Linseed Oil to a crossbeam.

While a delivery truck brings us 2 x 6's and plywood...

And we get the next post ready to set...

And tied to the Tripod...

And up it goes into place...

Recycled Barn Wood Ceiling is Started!

There are six of us working today. GG brought some family and a few others with him. Here Martin starts the ceiling of what will be our (Joni and me) bedroom...

The thinnest one of us gets to climb around up there...

Red, aged barn wood against the Ponderosa Pine...

Another view...

And again...

First Attempt at Clay and Straw Mixture...

This round straw/dirt brick was a quick attempt to see what would happen if we scooped some of our soil in with some straw--mixed it with water and left it in the sun for a couple of days.

It set up fairly well. It's pretty solid. We will need to sift the soil to remove the pebbles and rocks. And use less straw. Other than that, it should work.

So what's the plan for this? The floor's second level (of four) will just be clay (our dirt) and straw. We also are toying with the idea of using this for a few nooks and crannies in the walls to the addition. We will have some "triangles" to fill...so this could be our solution.

Looks like a drunken bird built this...

The Slow Wood Movement...

On this Black Monday, when maybe a few of us thought about dusting off our old copy of the Whiskered One's, "Das Kapital"--Joni and I (almost) finished stripping the last few logs.

Joni sanded and bleached the log below, as it was taken down in April and had a tad bit of mold on it. A day in the sun helped it. We will apply a coat of linseed oil to it--before we put it up tomorrow.

The last five logs...almost done. I kept thinking while laboriously stripping the bark off the log in ninety degree heat, that building like this is an art that has been lost.

Much like Fast Food destroyed culinary America---Fast Wood has done the same with building. It's just too easy to head to Home Depot and buy it.

So long live the Slow Wood movement! Slow Food. Live Slow!!

No work done today. Remember this project is being done by a couple of Registered Nurses (GG and me) and a Teacher (Joni). GG called to state he had one of those weekends where he couldn't leave the hospital he works at. Turns out another nursing supervisor had an accident, no qualified person was available to do his job...so he worked for nearly FORTY hours without a replacement. It happens sometimes. That sucks about nursing: You don't get to leave without passing off your assignment. If you do leave, it's neglect (and you could go to prison).

GG needed a day off. He deserves it! So tomorrow we will have the whole crew here. And we hope it is fruitful.

Debarking and Barking Canines...

A quick word of welcome to the new "Followers"! The journalist Alexander Cockburn states that the average blog has 1.5 readers (including the Writer's Mom and pets). So, thanks for reading this! I'm honored.

A word of warning: you may be watching a disaster in progress! Or maybe that's why you are reading this?

Joni working. Dogs playing.

Rough work. Ruff. Ruff.

Almost done with this post...

The Ceeeement Pad (not Jed's pond). With luck and good fortune, we should complete the Post and Beam, with two additional log Rafters today. Or maybe tomorrow. Then the ceiling will go in with the wood that was just delivered...

Wood for the Ceiling and Tin for the Roof...

I got up before dawn and drank my coffee. Then, with the sun rising, I continued (a seemingly endless process) to strip some bark off of some posts and beams. Three of the last five are done now. Just two more to go!

Roy of "The Restoration Company" dropped off our recycled Tin roof and the recycled barn wood which will be the ceiling of the addition.

The stacked Tin and Barn Wood. These came off a barn that was "deconstructed" about fifteen miles away. The barn was built in the 1940's of local lumber. The Tin and Wood will have a new home as our ceiling and roof.

Roy...the owner of "Barn Deconstruction" company...and also a maker of furniture, delivered the materials. The wood is aged to perfection--like a really fine Cabernet.

It's been my pleasure to meet several "Green Entrepreneurs" through out this project. Most are in their fifties. Fit. Relaxed and dressed casually. Yes, they want to make money; they also want to be a fish swimming upstream; march to a distant drummer; money is important--but so is "making a difference". They tend to be humble with good senses of humor. And they have great bumper stickers and posters in their shops!

Roy had an "Obama" bumper sticker on his truck (probably a fatal business error on this Redneck Republican Ridge). However, most of his business is in the college town of Chico (which has a reputation for being one of the most hardcore party towns in the United States). Assistant English Professors tend to like recycled, aged barn wood in their libraries and dens.

You don't want to be driving about Concow with one of them "liberal" bumper stickers on your vehicle. And God help you if you are one of them "Sierra Clubbers". You might have a bullet whiz by your Truck! That actually did happen yesterday...as we had a shooting on the Ridge.

Ed, the Turkey Vulture...

This is Ed. He's a Turkey Vulture. (I wrote about him for Mother Earth News.) He flies over the house everyday. Sometimes he flies by quite close. It's really, really hard to take a photo of a moving Turkey Vulture with a cheap, Kodak digital camera. The delay is a couple of seconds from when you hit the clicker, til the photo is taken.

Ed is kind of un-nerving to see, when you are hauling 1,000 pound logs with just human power, dangling to a frayed rope, on a pulley--without wearing a hard hat. Makes you think Ed wants some lunch....

My Son on the Bailout...

I asked my son what his impressions of the bailout were. He's a decent kid. Early Twenties. Lives in a model "high tech" town in Virginia. Computer Programmer. Youthful. Idealistic, in a practical way. I must admit I was disappointed when he cut his hair and got a very decent job. Smart as a whip, that boy is; liberal too..and an ardent Obama supporter:

Hey pops,

I don't see much other choice. We face some pretty severe problems ahead in our economy though, and I don't think a simple bailout will do much to solve our crisis long term. With India and China becoming global players and starting to consume, its going to make a lot of problems for us. Not to mention our education system isn't up to par with other countries, and we're just not cranking out the intelligence needed to compete.

But as for the bailout, I think that it should target the lower end of the work force, and help out the people that are struggling to make a living. Granted, if these companies go under, they wouldn't have a job. But so long as the assets we're buying are purchased at a market price, I think its a good idea. I don't think tax payers will bare much of the responsibility, since these assets should stand to make a decent gain as the market recovers. We did the same thing in the Great Depression and it seemed to help then.

Watch the debates Friday? McCain did considerably better than i figured he would... disappointing... he plays that emotional sympathy card way too well.

A good precise, Liberal answer. Filled with the hope (as most people I talk to have--being in California), that the Real Estate sector will recover. But might not the answer be that all empires collapse? The arms race led to the Soviet Union going under. It just took twenty years more for the American Empire to follow suit. Debt and poor investments ruin a country.

Hopefully this crises will lead to a shift in the country's priorities. I'm not so certain that bailing out Wall Street is the best use of money for that needed shift.

Stripping the Last Logs.

Got up early this morning, had my coffee, watched the sun rise and started to strip the bark off of the last five logs. The one on the left we finished last week. It will be the most solid post needed on the cement pad. The corner post.

I just stripped the long one on the right. The shovel gives an indication of it's size. This log will spend the day in the sun. We will then use a bleach mixture to arrest some decay (the log has been sitting with the bark on since April). We will also sand it. Treat it with Linseed Oil. It should be good to go by tomorrow.

I started on the middle post for the pad. Using a shovel to make long strips down the log seems to work best. Then you turn it and make another long strip. Lastly I use an iron to pry off the bark between the long strips. Fun!

Cats and Dogs; Vomit and Grass

With Joni and the kids gone today (they went to the Napa Valley to visit friends), I was left alone to my own devices. Plenty of work to do; I did nothing.

It's hot. So I opened a bottle of bathtub-temperature-Merlot and watched the sunset--and also our animals.

Companion animals have been around for at least 14,000 years. Dogs came first (my cat certainly would quibble with that assertion) and then cats. Out of respect for Rocky (our cat) I'll start first with cats.

As humans became agricultural, cats became in favor for their mousing abilities. Cats protect granaries. They show up in Africa first (as did Humans). Amazing creatures, they hunt hundreds of creatures. Some say that having a "subsidized predator" has led to the decrease of song bird populations in the United States. So, if you have a cat---help to even the score for the prey, by putting a bell on the feline.

So how is Rocky doing out here on the edge of the wilderness? Just fine. He prowls around all day--but has the wisdom to seek shelter in a cage we set up for him. He spends his nights there...and enters it on his own, without prompting. One night Joni heard a commotion outside. She went out to chase some critter (she thought it was a coyote) attempting to have a kitty snack.

Dogs were the first animal to be domesticated. There is evidence of humans being buried with dogs from 14,000 years ago. One such burial occurred in Utah 11,000 years ago. They probably originated (as in most civilized things) in China.

The theory goes that dogs and humans have a symbiotic relationship. Dogs got our table scraps (Angel gets ours). Their job was to sound the alarm for other larger predators hanging about--looking for a human snack. The relationship has worked well ever since.

We got our dog because we wanted to have some protection from Mountain Lions for Jazzy and Kylie (aged 7 and 8). Some folks say that having a dog around just invites the Cougar into the neighborhood as a lure. We do have neighbors who have lost dogs (always tied up in the yard) to Cougars. But I quibble with the "lure" part.

First off, the dog/human relationship wouldn't have developed if it didn't work. Sounding the alarm for protection is a dog's duty. They do it well. At least our dog does.

Secondly, in looking over the history of fatal Cougar attacks on Humans, there isn't one reference to there being a "Canus Lupus Familiaris" (dog) about. We see Yuppies on bikes dying. Female runners. Elderly hikers being attacked--none protected by dogs; I'll take my chances with our companion guard dog to protect this family from Mountain Lions.

So what prompted this? I watched our dog vomit tonight. After vomiting, she would eat some grass. She doesn't normally eat grass...so I wondered about this behavior.

Angel eating dried grass...

Vladimer Megre (a Russian) in his most excellent novel (?): "Anastasia" recommends observing the behaviors of our dogs. They eat grass when they need something. It's an old wive's tale for dogs to eat grass after vomiting. And probably helpful. Instinctual. Megre states we should watch what our dogs eat...and then have some ourselves--as their Canine intelligence leads them to eat what is missing in their diet (I abstained from that!).

Megre also asserts an intelligence for our gardens. He recommends walking barefoot in our gardens so that the food we grow can figure out from our bare feet what nutrients we need. He states the plants will provide such. That is an experiment I will try.

By the way, Megre's "Anastasia" series is quite interesting. Worth reading. Despite it's absolutely hokey book cover, it provides an excellent, natural, and quite spiritual, way for humans to live in the world. Russians can write. Those Soviets did teach something correctly in their Brezhnevian schools.

This book has evidently led to a reawakening of the "dacha" movement in Russia. A back-to-the-land movement whereby some ten million Russians have moved to rural settings in the last ten years. And with good results: 75% of the vegetables consumed in Russia are now grown on small family "dacha" plots.

The Russians have also managed their population well...to the point that the Russian Government gives a couple time off to go home and copulate to make babies. Seems that Putin wants to ensure a population of males to go to war with surrounding states (my interpretation) to reassert the Russian Empire. Let's hope he doesn't succeed.

As the American empire starts to crumble...perhaps we will be as smart as the English and the Soviets--who both let their empires go without too much bloodshed. Anybody want to take any bets on that one?

On Technology and Culture.

My response to a friend by e-mail---talking about technology:

On technology? I think that any technology that brings us together, and uses very little energy, is worth promoting. Computers, Laptops, Ipods, the Internet: all are worthy. As citizens, I think we need to be a bit more discriminatory of technology. The Luddites had it right. Large Scale Industrialism may well be the death of us as a species.

So, as a citizen, how do I promote the appropriate technology that is gentle on the Earth, enhances life, promotes community? We are going to need some factories. But I hope for a return to more artisanally produced products. As for our work life? It seems to me that most of us need to be in the service and agricultural sectors. We should make less stuff--and the stuff we do make should have a socially useful function.

Things we need more of:

Organic Farmers.
Mom and Pop Restaurants.
Products that enhance information.
Public Libraries.
Unions.
A 20 hour Workweek.
Public Space.
Gardens.
Greenhouses.
Free Time.
Solar Panels.
Wind Turbines.
Public Transportation.
Ice Boxes.
Agricultural Products other than the five subsidized by Government.
Local Cheeses.
Local Foods.
Goats.
Herbs.
Walks.
Compost.
Dinner with friends and family.
Wilderness.
Birds.
Humility.
Books.
Railroads.
Beer and Wine.
Fruit Trees.
Home canning.
Pantries.
Medicare for all.
A Guaranteed Basic Income.
Gravel Roads.
Bikes.
Fresh Air.
Kindness.
Micro Logging.
Local Economies.
Birth Control.
Sleep.
Inexpsensive Travel.
Hostels.
Public Education.

Things we need less of:

Gadgets.
Most things made in a factory.
Anything put in a Container Ship.
Fast Food Restaurants.
Chain Restaurants.
Coal and Nuclear Power Plants.
Clothes made more than 500 miles away.
Corporations with more than 1,000 employees.
Military Spending.
702 Foreign Military Bases.
Day Planning Books.
Cell Phones.
No Trespassing Signs.
Hate.
Food Stamps.
Full Time Jobs.
Employer Health care.
Commercials.
Billboards.
Fast Cars.
Meals consumed in a car.
Pesticides and Oil Based Agriculture.
Ego.
Paved Roads--especially Interstate Highways.
Road kill.
Fox News.
Large Closets.
401 K's.
Bottled Water.
Two Buck Chuck.
Clear Cutting and Salvage Logging.
Free Trade.
Hyatts and Hiltons.
Copyright Laws.
Large Families.
Lawns.
Houses over 1000 Square Feet.
Garages.
Feed Corn.
Homeschooling.

This would be a start of my list... And you? What would be on your list?

Coffee...

For the most part, I find this "free trade" thing silly. The idea of chopping down forests in northern Minnesota, ship the wood to China, make chopsticks, and then ship it back to a Chinese chain restaurant in Minneapolis, might be "efficient" for some MBA grad working for Lehman Brothers---but for the rest of us, it's down right goofy. It doesn't make sense (only cents!).

Let's use local products for local consumption as much as possible.

Of course, coffee is the exception. Why? Because I like it. Am addicted to it. I woke up early this morning on the deck. The Pleiades were right above me. I watched the stars fade, as the first hints of light came about. The problem? No coffee. Joni forgot to buy some yesterday when she was in town.

So I left my sleeping family, hopped into the car and drove the forty minute drive to Paradise, where the Safeway store lies. I bought three pounds of the sacred bean...and drove forty minutes home. Just for coffee.

The next step...

Here are the last of the logs which need to be stripped. My job for the weekend. We have two posts left to strip plus two rafters and one crossbeam. Labor intensive, but fun.

As they dry, we will treat the wood with Linseed oil. We also will use a natural citrus product which helps to keep any bugs away. We have found a few bark beetles in some of the pieces. A few of the logs we have used were taken down in April by a neighbor. They are ready to treat now, and we did apply one coat to a fifteen foot post.

The lumber above will be placed on the already existing cement pad to finish the post and beam work. We hope to have this completed on Monday. Tuesday thru Thursday we hope to have the paneling up on top of the rafters (which will be the ceiling... recycled from a salvage place in Chico).

On top of the paneling we will then use FSC certified 2 x 6's. That will create a box for the insulation we will have delivered next week (recycled blue jean insulation). On top of that we will then nail in some eco-friendly plywood...followed by the recycled tin roof. The only new lumber we will use will be the Forest Stewardship Council certified 2 x 6's and the Green certified plywood.

We still are using the outdoor kitchen for dishes. Here is Joni cleaning up after last night's supper (and the night before too). Cleanliness is important to keep the critters away. A neighbor, a mere few hundred yards from our place, is troubled by Bears. They have become acclimated to humans and have discovered that garbage and chickens taste good. So far, we haven't had any problems. We attempt to keep up with the dishes. We lock away our garbage. We don't leave any food outside. And we haul our garbage out every other week.

We keep the animal food locked up and clean too. We don't want to have any Rattlesnakes hanging about under our shed. Keeping the pet food in tin pails (plus having a mouser for a cat) keeps the rodents away. Keep the rodents away and you keep the Rattlers away. That's the theory anyway. So far, so good.

Gymnastics!!

But life isn't all construction. Jazzy and Kylie go twice a week to Oroville for their gymnastics lessons. Gymnastics is the passion in this area. The private center, where they go, is quite impressive. And the kids are too. Hundreds of kids from age 5 to 18 play and compete there.

Here Jazzy and Kylie practice their lessons on our trampoline.

Jump!
And tumble!

How the long rafter connects...

The top part of the rafter attaches fifteen feet up. It's lagged in with a one foot lag screw. A metal strip across the top and the end of the rafter is then lagged (and nailed) in with six, four inch lag screws.

The bottom of the post is cut to rest on the post. Then a one foot lag screw is lagged in to it.

The rafter is saddled into the middle post. Then a one foot lag screw is put down into the posts underneath.

Sweaty but happy...

The Largest Rafter is in!!

Maybe it was because we were tired? Maybe it was because we had to put in one last 27 foot rafter? But it took us all day yesterday to strip, cut, lift and lag in the longest piece below. It was cut two weeks ago--thus it is not dry.

Joni mentioned the other day, that in this ecosystem, the trees hold all the water. True. Since it doesn't rain for eight to nine months, the trees gobble up the moisture when they can---and hold it. All that water makes for some very heavy logs when building. Especially when you are relying on simple technologies (a tripod and pulley) to heft it into place.

We don't have a scale--so we can't really estimate how much it weighs.

Before the last long rafter:

Mike putting a "strip" on to help secure the building. These metal strips go over the rafter at the tallest point; they help to hold the rafter in place.

Mike lagging in the middle post (which will be in the middle of our bedroom).

Eight hours of work to get this into place. We got the rafter up on to the short side. We then pushed it to the middle. We put a rope on the front and then used the ATV to pull it up and over. We finally secured it with the tripod and finished putting it into place.

A boy and his dog...

After lifting, groaning, snorting, grunting, hoisting, sweating, eyes bulging and moaning with logs all day--a boy gets tired. So does his dog:

It stands on it's own...

We finished a "box" so that the posts are self-supporting. We took off everything that was assisting with holding up what will be our bedroom section (two of them in this portion). It's pretty tight. Not much of a wiggle to the structure. When we get the roof on it (and another rafter through the middle of it today), the building should be very solid.