As November winds down and December begins, we are rapidly getting ready to move the tiny home Cabin to Camp Creekside and things are getting done daily.
We were able to get a 275 gallon "IBC tote (a re-purposed industrial liquids carrier) for $60.00 (about half price). This tank will become our black water tank, handling toilet waste. The tank will need some improvements: an intake port for the waste, a paint job so that we don't have to look at the waste, and a vent to dissipate water vapor out of smell range and extend the time between pumpings. But all of this is relatively easy. We will need to have the tank drained about every two-hundred flushes so at first we won't need much. After we move there full time we will have to have it pumped out about every two months.
I am nearly through with the interior stuff. I will get this all done this weekend and finish the plumbing as well. Also, the cables to plug the cabin into the power panel should be here tomorrow or Saturday. We are well on our way to having a cabin at Camp Creekside.
Then real stuff can happen.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Sunday, November 26, 2017
November 26, 2017 A Thanksgiving Weekend We Are Thankful For
The long weekend might have given us time to finish the Tiny Home Cabin, but we got busy acquiring things we needed and doing things that needed done, instead of nailing things that need nailing.
- On Thursday we got the $499 rolling toolbox (for $154) to use in our Cabin's Kitchen.
- We found and retrieved the free Bamboo from Kailash Eco-Village on Friday.
- Did the Exterior Christmas lighting at our home and at Camp Creekside on Saturday.
- On Sunday (today) we found a very nice (very cheap) propane range for our Cabin.
Saturday, November 25, 2017
November 28, 2017 Camp Creekside Christmas
Like so many things we have done with the Farm property, the Christmas tree lighting was a compromise.
We intended to light the big Doug Fir tree "Doug" this year with the 50000 twinkle lights I bought last year on closeout at Home Depot. The tree is at least sixty feet high, so you would be able to see it from a great distance away. We had a bucket lift rented a few days ago. But things just didn't line up. So we compromised and decided instead to decorate Doug's little brother which sits at the north-western corner of the driveway. We always intended to keep this twenty foot tree for decorating, but didn't think it would be the first one.
The morning was fairly nice, merely cloudy and cold with just a hint of drizzle, so we loaded up and journeyed out to Camp Creekside with about 2400 multi-colored twinkle lights, fifty feet of extension cord, and a light sensing timer to keep the electric bill lower.
Twenty feet of tree is quite a thing to light. I have done Christmas lighting professionally since 1997 and this provides a few tricks. But having ladders and a pole to push things where you and them only makes the job do-able, doesn't do the job for you. But we got the lights up.
Our first display is small, but significant.
The little tree can be seen from Highway 26, starting at about 4:30 and turning off about six hours later. Next year we'll do "Doug" at Creekside Farm. This year we'll make due with the little tree at Camp Creekside.
Friday, November 24, 2017
November 24, 2017 Bamboo from Kailash Ecovillage
Looking at Craig's List for stuff paid off once more, and just as it did before, we found something interesting.
I watch Craig's List pretty regularly so I knew that some Bamboo would likely come along when needed. We wanted some to start making irrigation stakes and maybe plant stakes ahead of the need for them and I figured this would be a good time to start looking seriously. Bamboo is interesting because it can be used for anything a stick can be used for, but that's not what this is about. This is about the place we found it.
I watch Craig's List pretty regularly so I knew that some Bamboo would likely come along when needed. We wanted some to start making irrigation stakes and maybe plant stakes ahead of the need for them and I figured this would be a good time to start looking seriously. Bamboo is interesting because it can be used for anything a stick can be used for, but that's not what this is about. This is about the place we found it.
Kailash Ecovillage calls itself a model for sustainability and community and is set on a two acre piece of land in South-east Portland. It is nearby Reed College and has a low rent housing component, and about half the place dedicated to growing food for the community. A great many groups use the space for their individual and group gardens.
I immediately called it a commune, but this is an outdated term for what this place is. They also do a great many other things which ought to be supported in addition to gardens and housing. You can go check their site out by clicking on their name.
Ole (perhaps the leader of the group, I don't know) came out to meet us and show us the piles of Bamboo to be carted off. He seemed a nice man, interested in new things.
The ad did not mention the amount of Bamboo, but we took all of the big stuff (which I am sure they needed gone). We didn't have room for the smaller stuff, but took as much of it as we could. It now sits at the ready in a pile along side of the pile of rocks from Polscher's place, and the plastic pallets from Gathering Together Farm.
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That's a whole lotta Bamboo.
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Saturday, November 18, 2017
November 18, 2017 A quiet evening
Ann and I went out to the Farm late this afternoon to put out about twenty-five pounds of Crimson Clover seed. The Clover is intended to begin the long process of choking out the weeds and grasses we don't want. We also spent a bit of time spraying those few pesky berry vines missed in the last spraying. It looks like we'll actually tame the berry problem in the first year of cultivation.
While there, we added a truck load of leaves to the compost heap, which has grown to twice the size it was when we pushed it together in the Spring tractor day #6. The heap sits in a two foot deep depression just inside of the front gate, now a mound about four feet high. I figure there's maybe five cubic yards of compost in that pile. The compost will be the basis of MacGregor's Garden's organic fertilizer once we get it all sifted out. We planned this compost pile from the start of the project and have been seriously composting everything we could for two years. Sifting compost is a project designed for early December, but we won't get to it until early January, once we are spending the weekends at Camp Creekside and building the first market garden.
I am planning to re-purpose the trailer from my landscaping business into a box trailer to haul things around in. I'll put a chain link cover on it and then throw the compost on top of the fence to sift the big pieces out, leaving a fine mulch to use as soil amendment.The result of the compost screening might cost as much as twelve dollars a cubic foot to buy at the garden store and if all goes well we will be able to keep the compost heap producing for us indefinitely. A real savings, and better produce. Eventually I will need to make a real compost sifter, something with a fine mesh and a powered screen shaker. I have seen these screens made into a motorized barrel which sits at a slant and the big stuff fall into a pile suitable for burning, but I have no idea if I can build such a thing. So a flat screen will need to be the thing for the time being.
After our work was done (not a big work day), we walked around and had a great time talking about things to come. This is one of our favorite passtimes, talking about where the tiny home will sit and how much fun the dogs will have once we make the permanent move to Camp Creekside.
Darkness falls pretty early in late Fall, at the base of Oregon's coast range, so we headed home just before dark.
It may seem to be too much information to continue this, but it is important to the history of Ann and I as a couple, and also the history of the Farm.
After returning home we made a dinner of fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I also made biscuits using Ann's new pancake and biscuit pre-mix (something we might wish to sell in our Farm Store someday). This new biscuit and pancake mix uses all non-GMO flour and non-GMO sugar. This is important because the GMO flour and sugars have so many downsides. I've used Bisuick brand biscuit mix since I was old enough to cook, but the GMO flour and sugar made continuing to eat the stuff impossible. The heart burn and upset bowels stemming from the herbicides and pesticides used in making the grains, beets, and corn is a national tragedy in the making. Now, having a new mix, I can return to making a simple pancakes and biscuits instead of waiting for Ann to do it from scratch.
Though I am a good cook, I am not to sort to use measuring utensils or recipes, so a mix is better for me if consistent results are your goal. I once heard the WC Fields could never read the same line from the script twice the same way. The food I cook tends to come out well, but I make it up every time so things come out different.
The flavor of our new mix is really very good. Perhaps a little sweeter and the baking soda flavor comes through more than with Bisquick. But the mix works the same for me as the Bisquick once had and the results are very good.
Dinner was superb. But the day did not end there. Afterwards we took a bottle of champagne out to the Cabin tiny home sitting in our driveway. Drinking champagne in front of the electric fireplace watching Amazon Prime on a smart phone while pretending to already be living at Camp Creekside was a nice way to end the day.
While there, we added a truck load of leaves to the compost heap, which has grown to twice the size it was when we pushed it together in the Spring tractor day #6. The heap sits in a two foot deep depression just inside of the front gate, now a mound about four feet high. I figure there's maybe five cubic yards of compost in that pile. The compost will be the basis of MacGregor's Garden's organic fertilizer once we get it all sifted out. We planned this compost pile from the start of the project and have been seriously composting everything we could for two years. Sifting compost is a project designed for early December, but we won't get to it until early January, once we are spending the weekends at Camp Creekside and building the first market garden.
I am planning to re-purpose the trailer from my landscaping business into a box trailer to haul things around in. I'll put a chain link cover on it and then throw the compost on top of the fence to sift the big pieces out, leaving a fine mulch to use as soil amendment.The result of the compost screening might cost as much as twelve dollars a cubic foot to buy at the garden store and if all goes well we will be able to keep the compost heap producing for us indefinitely. A real savings, and better produce. Eventually I will need to make a real compost sifter, something with a fine mesh and a powered screen shaker. I have seen these screens made into a motorized barrel which sits at a slant and the big stuff fall into a pile suitable for burning, but I have no idea if I can build such a thing. So a flat screen will need to be the thing for the time being.
After our work was done (not a big work day), we walked around and had a great time talking about things to come. This is one of our favorite passtimes, talking about where the tiny home will sit and how much fun the dogs will have once we make the permanent move to Camp Creekside.
Darkness falls pretty early in late Fall, at the base of Oregon's coast range, so we headed home just before dark.
It may seem to be too much information to continue this, but it is important to the history of Ann and I as a couple, and also the history of the Farm.
After returning home we made a dinner of fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I also made biscuits using Ann's new pancake and biscuit pre-mix (something we might wish to sell in our Farm Store someday). This new biscuit and pancake mix uses all non-GMO flour and non-GMO sugar. This is important because the GMO flour and sugars have so many downsides. I've used Bisuick brand biscuit mix since I was old enough to cook, but the GMO flour and sugar made continuing to eat the stuff impossible. The heart burn and upset bowels stemming from the herbicides and pesticides used in making the grains, beets, and corn is a national tragedy in the making. Now, having a new mix, I can return to making a simple pancakes and biscuits instead of waiting for Ann to do it from scratch.
Though I am a good cook, I am not to sort to use measuring utensils or recipes, so a mix is better for me if consistent results are your goal. I once heard the WC Fields could never read the same line from the script twice the same way. The food I cook tends to come out well, but I make it up every time so things come out different.
The flavor of our new mix is really very good. Perhaps a little sweeter and the baking soda flavor comes through more than with Bisquick. But the mix works the same for me as the Bisquick once had and the results are very good.
Dinner was superb. But the day did not end there. Afterwards we took a bottle of champagne out to the Cabin tiny home sitting in our driveway. Drinking champagne in front of the electric fireplace watching Amazon Prime on a smart phone while pretending to already be living at Camp Creekside was a nice way to end the day.
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