Walkin' Our Property Line

Last night was the first time that B and I have been able to walk our property line ('Walk Our Property Line' is a great Marshall Tucker Band song, by the way).  The snow as you know was very deep this year.  We've been itching to go.

B is quite familiar with the land since it is where he grew up.  It's not just a piece of land, but a land with connection and meaning.  I have fallen for this land ever since B started taking me for walks through it.

There a lot of things to think about when planning to build.  How close or far from the road can the home be?  Is there sufficient southern and western sun exposure?  Is the site zoned for a small hobby farm?  So far, the lay of the land and what it's zoned for is right up our alley.  We couldn't ask for a more compromising piece of land.  I am anxious to get a site plan together.  I'm not excited about the cost of the permit, but excited to start placing and planning our life on the property.

It's so diverse.  Ponds, wetlands, fields, ridges, natural springs, our own sugar bush, some hills, cedar woods and such lovely white pines.  I can't wait to be on the land permanently and start a relationship with it.

We didn't see much, just a few deer, rabbit and turkey tracks.  We did however find moose tracks.  It would be unbelievable to look out the window and see a moose.

I can't wait to look out of the windows at the TS at life in the country.

The Building Lot Beside the Road

Water Runs Through it

 Field No. 1

Pond and White Pine

 The Beaver Dam

More Water Runs Through It

Our Sugar Bush

Field No. 2

Field 2 and Sugar Bush

Field No. 2

Electricity!

We have electricity!

It's unbelievable and is going to make such a huge difference for us in the TS (temporary shelter).  B snagged us an incredible deal on some heavy duty electrical cord to run a 30 amp service to the TS from a nearby building. 

The vinyl cabinet is coming along with a few other things that will help us get by during the next couple of years.

Hooking it up wasn't that hard.  We had B's dad help with that.

Our heavy duty electrical cord - 300 metres of it!

Our TS (temporary shelter) in the sugar bush

Running the electrical cord

Sap buckets at the TS

We have electricity!!

Our bedroom!

View from the upstairs looking out the back window

I can't wait to put bird feeders up, put in a vegetable garden, walk our property line, watch the wildlife and enjoy privacy and simpilicity in our TS.

Life is good.

Alignment

It's truly amazing how happenings in life can just fall into place; how things just seem right.  Decisions are easy, flow is effortless, the sun shines down on you almost every day.

Since B and I have started this journey, things have been falling into place left, right and center!  A plan to move into the TS (temporary shelter) turned out to be a viable option for us.  Yes it has no running water or electricity, but something has changed there.

It was suggested to us to run an electrical cord from the barn nearby to the TS.  When I first heard this suggestion, I certainly didn't get my hopes up!  It was too good to be true.  Upon looking into this option further, we have found out that it is possible (and at an incredible rate $), and we're going to pick up the electrical cord today for 30amp service in the TS!  UNBELIEVABLE!  This means that we don't have to spend $2,000 on a propane fridge, or run the existing lights on propane.  For us, that would mean a trip into town with the propane tank every 10-12 days.

One of the challenges for me personally is having to part with my gorgeous piece of vinyl cabinet that B had made for me (by his brother at Tall Tree Farm) for Christmas a couple of years ago.  The cabinet is gorgeous, and the vinyl stocked in there is treasure.  Every time you open the drawers, there's treasure just waiting to be heard.

I could potentially bring it all to the TS, if there is space for it of course.

Aside from the cedar logs not being ready to be debarked, everything else seems to be working out for us.  We know it's not always going to be this easy, but we're going to enjoy the ride while it's easy for us right now.

Defeated!

Well, we had good intentions.  We were even out before the sun came up.  Debarking the cedar logs didn't quite go as planned.  The temperature overnight was -10 and the logs were still frozen.

We managed to fell 2 cedar trees and partially debark them, but not all of the bark came off.  Our homemade spud tools were sharp enough, but the bark is still frozen to the trees.

Feeling defeated, we collected our gear; the chainsaw, our homemade spud's, safety glasses, coats and gloves and went back to the farm.  B's brother had some encouraging advice for us... it's just not the right time of year.  While we were told that you could easily debark in the months that had an 'R' in them, it wasn't the case on Saturday.  So, we're just going to keep trying to debark every couple of weeks and see when the sap is running in the cedar's so we can debark much easier.  To be honest, if we had the struggle to debark like we did Saturday morning, I'm not so sure that I could handle 100 logs or more!

We got over our disappointment and instead went to the sugar bush to help B's brother collect sap for the day and spent some time in the sap house watching him boil down.  All of our efforts were rewarded with some homemade venison stew for dinner and some fresh maple syrup as part of our dessert.

It turned out to be a great weekend!

B retrofitting a hoe into a spud

Good morning Mr. Golden Sun!

Our 1st and only debarked (well, sort of) cedar log

B looking defeated

Onto better things for the day - tapping maple trees!

B on Big Blue, goin' to collect barrels of sap

 That's a lotta sap

 Pumping sap from the barrels to Big Blue

Sap runnin' romance

Boilin' down!

May 1st

It's official!

We're moving into the TS (temporary shelter) on May 1st.  We gave our landlords notice this week and we're going to be de-junking and bringing as little as possible to the TS.  A simple life deserves simple things.

Thanks to Dave (my soon to be father-in-law) for giving me a pair of work gloves.  I will be using those over the next few weeks while B and I fell our cedar trees, de-bark, cut into 16 inch length logs, split those logs and then stack our wood!

This all needs to be done before May 1st.  Apparently it's easier to de-bark in the months that have an R in them.  Also, we need to get the wood drying so that we can start building next spring.

Happy life changes.


                                                   Our TS in the sugar bush

Sponges

B and I are sponges right now.  We can't get our hands on enough information about cordwood or "stackwall" building as they call it around here.

We have done a drive-by of the 4 cordwood houses around in the country near to our property and have noticed that they all use round log ends.  Through our research, we have found out that round log ends tend to expand and shrink slightly and have more of a risk of splitting in the walls which creates an open draft into the house.  If you split the log end, then you reduce the risk of the log splitting because it is already split, and it dries out a lot quicker than round log ends.  We wonder if there have been any issues with drafts in the homes we have looked at.  We need to contact the homeowners to ask questions!

In at least 2 cases, we know that the cordwood homes were built a very long time ago, so the builders probably didn't know the risk in using round log ends.

I have a great book written by Rob Roy called Cordwood Building: State of the Art that discusses the new technologies in building cordwood.  I am happy about this book, because it seems like most of the research we have done is dated back at least 30 years ago!  I would feel more confident with recent research and information.

We're just about to sign up for a cordwood building workshop at Rob Roy's Earthwood Building School in upstate New York.  In the meantime we're just sponges absorbing as much information about cordwood building as we can.

A Journey into the Unknown

We are building our own home!

We will accomplish this making many sacrifices, the first one being a move to a hunting camp near our property.  This camp will now be known as our temporary shelter or "TS".

Are we crazy?  Maybe.  We're just two people who are determined to have a mortgage-free home and will do anything to get there.

The decision to embark on this journey came about when we both read a book called 'Mortgage-free!: Radical Stragegies for Home Ownership' by Rob Roy.  The strategies we will be taking will definitely be radical, and not just anyone can accomplish a mortgage-free build for the first time.


Many factors play a role in how feasible this option is for us.  In the book, Rob talks about living in a TS while building your home.  The temporary shelter will alleviate having to spend money on rent, and instead putting that money into building your home as it becomes available month by month.



We plan to live in the hunting camp for a couple of years.  The camp has no electricity or running water.  What a challenge for us newly wed's come August of this year!  Nothing will make our relationship more stronger.

There is a regular sized stove up there hooked up to propane, as well as lights.  We'll need to get a propane fridge.  To tackle the water issue, we'll have a few rain barrel's about for dish water, etc.  We can shower down at a nearby house.


It's going to take some getting used to but we're up for the challenge!

We would sincerely like to thank our families for being SO supportive of our plans.  We have the best parents in the whole world.  Your encouragement and support will spark our enthusiasm for this happy life change.