Making your own tools

Putting a wonderful day to good use

We are learning that there are a few special tools required for our build. Tools that we can make ourselves. We made our own tampers and bag holders awhile back and that was fun. The newest handmade tool, although no proper name can be given, is to hold down the barbed wire between the rows of bags while working on the walls. It is basically a brick with a string attached and a clip to keep the string in place. 

We had a few bricks from the house which we took when we moved knowing these tools were to be made. We purchased 2000 feet of nylon twine and had wire clothes hangers that could be used to make the clips. With all this in hand we set out to make 30+ of these. 

First the hangers had to be cut. If you have ever tried to cut a hanger it's not all that difficult but in this  case each hanger had to be cut in three places. Starting out doing so with a hand held set of, not too sharp, wire cutters, 90 odd times, was not something to look forward to but we could fix that. You see we were doing this at our very good friend's house and he has a couple of massive garages that contain just about anything you are looking for and can makeshift anything. So we took a rather large set of bolt cutters put them in the vise and in less than 5 minutes had the wires cut. The twisting and bending of the wire into clips took quite a bit more time but the vise again was utilized. We had already cut the 2000 feet of twine into lengths that were double the width of his deck, our approximation of 50 feet, and were ready to start putting the pieces together.
 

We sat at the front of one of the garages in the full sunshine of a lovely Easter Sunday evening affixing the clips to the twine, using the knot used to tie fishing line to a hook, the twine was then wrapped around the brick and clipped so it all stays together until ready for use for the building of our walls. We had quite a production line going and actually the time passed quickly as the sun set. 

It was both an extremely pleasant and productive day.

Weekends away will become a thing of the past.

We'll enjoy them while we can.

We have been warned by many who have experienced a self sustaining lifestyle - you will not be able to just pick up and leave for days at a time. We have been educated. Animals require daily care and your 'friends' are not going to come over twice a day to milk your goats or feed your chickens. This is what we are being told and are in no position to be argumentative. But we don't have animals, yet. In fact we have not even begun our build so this past weekend we took off. A last ditch get away and an educational one to boot.

As we had mentioned on the Northern Dirtbags Facebook page we had arranged a consultation with Cam and Michelle Mather. If you have not yet checked out their blog,  we highly recommend you do so. There is a wealth of information available there at your fingertips and hopefully you will see the enormous educational opportunities offered by partaking in a consultation or one of the bi-annual workshops offered. If distance is an issue be sure to check out their books and DVDs.

The Mathers live about 3 1/2 hours away from our current location and the route to them takes us right through Toronto traffic. We've lived with that reality for most of our lives so we know, just leave early. That meant a 4:30 am alarm. An early start is a wonderful beginning to a day and this was no exception. We had good weather for the drive. 

Arriving at Sunflower Farm we were welcomed by Jasper, the wonder dog, and Cam, offered our choice of hot beverage and Michelle's homemade muffins. We chatted, Cam asked us a few questions and then took us outside to go through his solar system. Cam can explain his system in a language that is easily understood and always had a good response to our questions. We were shown their hot water system which as explained has been an evolution. The gardens also have evolved with the start of their CSA a few years ago which they now share with 40-50 members. We had a wonderful lunch provided and then chatted more about their journey as well as what we believe ours will look like. The gorgeous weather allowed us to go outside without coats and soak up the sunshine ever if there was still snow on the ground. We talked about such a variety of topics, from appliances through to raising chickens. The 15 years worth of experience means there are no stupid questions. The Mathers have gone through the learning curve and openly share that experience.

We ended the day after another 4 1/2 hour drive to Bala and the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen (if you were in Ontario on April 10th I am sure you remember the amazing shades of purple and pink). We spent a couple of days with dear friends that we do not get to see often enough. Ed was able to go over the plans with our friend who is a builder by trade. We left confident that we are building a sound structure. 

We may not again have this kind of freedom to come and go but we will have so much more joy in staying put. 

PS This blog post was delayed as we awaited the birth of our first grandchild. Welcome Daniel Robert James born during the lunar eclipse this morning to Kristina and James. All are doing well.

Building Our Dirtbag Dream

The Learning Experience

The internet is an irreplaceable technological advancement. Through it we have been able to be in contact with other like-minded people and also find sources of information that, prior to the internet, would likely have been unavailable. Books, videos, how-to's all at our fingertips. While the ability to access a seemingly unlimited source of information has it's benefits, there are also drawbacks. Having so much information available can make for difficult decision making. One source says one thing, another source has different suggestions.  What does a person do? 

We spent many years researching options with the help of the internet. In our vision to build a self sustaining homestead we also looked at gardening as well as animal farming (both to be done on a very small scale) methods. We found books and blogs and read them, found videos, movies and television and watched them, and we found like-minded people and asked them questions. Each time that we added new information we would reassess our plans. Was there an option that worked better? Was there a less costly means to accomplish a task? What had others tried?

Today we're sharing some of the documentaries and tv series that we found over the years.

The godfather of North American sustainable building without a doubt is Mike Reynolds. His documentary Garbage Warrior is available online. It is from this documentary that most of our build ideas were initially formed.

And if you want to see that there are no limits to building an earthship check out the video of the one built for Dennis Weaver. The quality is not the best as it's from the 80's.

 

Some of the most interesting and inspiring tv shows were found on UK television.  

The farm series done on BBC which you can find online or through your local PBS station is wonderful for those who are planning to work with less technology. We found them both educational and entertaining.

Tales from Green Valley

Victorian Farm

Edwardian Farm

Wartime Farm

Tudor Monastery Farm

Another very educational show on farming is  A Farmer's Life For Me. This was a reality series where the winners were given a farm for a year. Great series if you can find it.

Also a couple of shows done by Kevin McCloud are terrific. Check out Kevin McCloud's Man Made Home as well as the series he been doing for years, Grand Designs. 

There have been a couple of seasons done of George Clarke's Amazing Spaces and there is some unbelievable work seen on those episodes. 

Recently we found another documentary series called Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild that made us feel a little less crazy. ;-)

Having a dream and pushing through all the obstacles has shown us what is truly possible. We hope that sharing will be the same inspiration for you.

Have you watched any of these shows? Share your reviews in the comments. 

Waiting for things to fall into place

It's all perspective

We first listed our house in May of 2011. We firmly believed that within a few months we would be up in Cochrane building our dream. As you may or may not know we had our house on the market for 21 months, listed with 5 different agents before we had an Agreement of Purchase and Sale via our For Sale By Owner kijiji ad. That deal closed on Friday. Now we are waiting for the weather to warm up slightly before we make our final move and begin the build.

How often have you heard we are exactly where we are suppose to be? Well,  it has been quite a ride these last few years and many times we wondered why were we  being held back, why were we going through so many agents without offers? It was frustrating to put it mildly. Then the offer was made with a close date of March 28th.

We were hoping for a closing date a couple of months later so that we could move directly to the property and get started. This offer meant we had to find a place to live for a couple of months. We took that in stride. Surely it was not going to be difficult to find someone to rent us a place for 2 months. That was the first surprise. Generally landlords are looking for long term tenants. We were very lucky to find a couple of guys who were willing to cut us some slack. To Adam B and Adam W, thank you for being so generous to strangers.

We decided, to make things slightly more appealing to a landlord, that we would rent for two weeks prior to the close date. Well that's what we thought was the why at least. As it turned out moving out of a house that you have been in for over 15 years is quite daunting. It was so very nice to have those two weeks to move in a little more gradually. If you have that option we would highly recommend taking it. 

We thought moving in March would be horrific. Once again things worked out in our favour. The Saturday that we chose to make the move we were able to do so with no coats. The next few days were bitterly cold. This long winter gave us a beautiful moving day and for that we must say thank you. 

As we begin to go through our packed boxes again, to lessen the load even more, we are once again surprised by exactly how this ride is moving along. An extra walk through of our stuff has made for donations to help others. We are always grateful for that chance.   

             

The timing of the close began as being considered another obstacle. We look back and see with gratitude how wonderfully everything turned out. 

Now we have two months to put all our ducks in a row. Building a home with no experience is not the life path chosen by many but we pride ourselves on going slightly off the beaten path in most life choices. It makes for a journey with a view that is seldom seen and one that is extremely exciting.

Getting ready to move

A practice session helps

This process began a couple of years ago when we decided we were ready to list the house. There was a lot of purging done or so I thought. We packed up a storage locker full of items we were not ready to part with but realized we would not need in the near future. This was done in an effort to  declutter the house for showing purposes. We never expected the sale to take almost 2 years. That turned out to be a blessing  as we have realized that much of what we thought was important is now so much easier to part with after it has not been around for so long. We did have to make our build  plans smaller than we had originally thought so a go through of our 'stuff' is required to lessen its amount after the reduction in home size. It is still a daunting task to pack your whole life into boxes.

The fact that we are moving into an apartment for two months while we wait for the warmer weather does make things different.  As we prepare to move on Saturday we have found a very easy and inexpensive means to mark boxes. For us we have boxes that are not needed until the build is complete, we marked them red. Boxes that may be wanted before the build is complete but are not necessities are marked blue. Finally boxes that are required while we are building we marked green. We made sure to mark every side of the box so the mark is visible and it was easy to know what type of box it is regardless of how it was stacked. And what did we use? Bingo dabbers! You could use them to sort for each room if that is what you needed. Much better and cheaper than markers.  

This practice move is helpful but I would not suggest it as a preferred method. Moving an entire household three times in 7 months is not something I ever want to do again. Putting the building of a house in there is looking like crazy when it is in writing but this is going to happen and we are crazy enough to share it with all of you. Hope your comments can keep us inspired. :)

Sourcing Material for a Passive Solar Build

So You Want To Build In The Bush.

As we near the closing date of our house sale, March 28th, the reality of the build has really begun to sink in. Our circumstances (unheated living at a northern build site) means a two month apartment rental here in Hamilton before we head up to the property. That means in addition to packing up our household contents, while attempting to pare them down, we are trying to source out the build materials and the obstacles of our location are becoming clear.

Here is a partial list of materials/services for which we are trying to source out local connections and the associated hurdles. We must preface this by saying that when we first looked at our property we knew no one in the area. But, thankfully, we have made a few friends, and continue to make more through the wonder of social media, who have been extremely helpful in our search to find locally sourced items.

The first hurdle we have to overcome is that our road has weight restrictions for vehicles after the Spring thaw. That could be removed as late as July 1st. At this point we are not certain of exactly what materials that are to be delivered to our build will be delivered via a vehicle that is on the weight restriction list. Once we have that worked out we can begin to schedule deliveries.

The next hurdle is getting small items to the build site. We are on the lookout for a reasonably priced used 4x4 pickup to allow us to do our own small deliveries.

On site water delivery - As easy as that is down in Southern Ontario, in Cochrane there is only delivery for non-potable water. We may have a connection for potable drinking water now thanks to our new found social media friends.

Solar panels, batteries and other electrical - we have tried to connect with local installers but they seem most interested in grid tie-in. They do not appear to have an interest in selling small off grid systems. Looks like we may be much better off building our system from scratch ourselves. If you have any connections to suppliers of solar systems/parts please leave us a comment.

A few other considerations for the interior of our home. 

Bottles and cans - our plan is to use the local schools as a point of contact.
Appliances - we are planning on a wood cookstove, a freezer and a freedger (a term coined by Shane of Canadian Dirtbags for a chest freezer converted to a fridge).
Hot water - working out the details of a thermosyphon with our cookstove and an electric water heater tied into the battery system overflow.
Composting toilet - at this point we are looking at a build your own.
Plumbing - thankfully we have a plumber in the family.

Here are some general build tasks/materials we are still sourcing. 

Hiring someone to clear the building site 
Wood for frames

Finding someone who does spray foam insulation Insulating materials for under the structure 
Sand 
Bags for building 
Materials needed for inside the bags

In Cochrane proper, which has a population of 5,500 and is about 25km away, there is Castle Building Supplies and Canadian Tire. Many of our materials can be purchased through these vendors. Timmins is the closest large center being about 105 km away with a population of close to 45,000. There you can find what are known as 'big box' stores however we choose to stay away from these vendors whenever possible so will avoid purchases in Timmins if other local sources exist. Kapuskasing is another small town, at just over 8,000 people, that's about 120 km away. We have actually chosen to use the U-Haul drop off depot there, for our rental moving truck, over Timmins mostly due to the more pleasing drive.

As we have no building experience we are extremely grateful for all the guidance we have received and will continue to share our experiences as guidance to those of you inspired to consider what's possible

Passive Solar Off-Grid Building - So many options, so little time.

How we got to this point.

Our journey to our final choice of building structure has taken a few years. The first type of building we considered was an Earthship. That is the name given to a type of structure developed, in the 70's, by Mike Reynolds in Taos, New Mexico. The basics of an earthship are a building that is constructed using rammed earth filled tires as bricks, which are then parged to make the load baring walls. Interior walls are made using bottles and cans along with cement. This is why the movie explaining the journey of Earthships is call Garbage Warrior. You can watch the entire documentary on YouTube. The structure is also bermed on the north side as well as a major part of the east and west sides. The entire south face of the building is windows which allow for solar gain during the day. This heats up the interior thermal mass (all those earth filled tires) which then releases the heat throughout the cooler night. We researched this building option at length. Purchasing books, watching videos, even attending at a few earthships built in Ontario to see how it was done.

Why an Earthship? 

We gave serious consideration to this type of structure because many of the materials used for the build are recycled - tires, bottles and cans. That is important to us. We try to be good stewards of the planet. Additionally an earthship provides an efficient means of dealing with your grey water (the water from your kitchen and bathroom sinks). We did not want to incur the cost of a septic system. We believe that everyone should recycle their water, a precious commodity, as much as possible. It is important to get the most use of your water before it goes back to the ground. The Earthship design includes an interior grey water recycling planter system. This planter allows for growing food and in a colder climate that can be quite useful. It can be used for starting plants as well as lengthening the growing season, giving you free food. Built correctly and given time to acclimatize an earthship does not require additional heat, although cooking and fire for ambiance can provide additional warmth if desired.

Why not an Earthship? 

As a test Ed decided to pound a tire. After almost half an hour of hard work he looked rather done in.  Knowing this would need doing close to a thousand times for our home we thought this was better suited to the younger crowd not a couple in their 50's.

 








What other options are out there? 

Having decided against using tires for bricks we looked into other options. One that seemed doable was drystack block building. Our thinking was, at our age, we could handle hauling cinder blocks around more easily than tire pounding. There is more cost involved with this type of building over an earthship however many of the same design principles can be utilized as we would still be building a passive solar, off-grid structure. This site is where we found most of our information on this type of building.

Along the way we also found information on dirtbag building. This method of building uses 50 and 100 lb feed bags filled with a dirt mixture which is wetted, tamped and put down in rows, with barbed wired between them, to make walls. We felt this would be a little easier on the budget than drystack blocks. Once again videos, books and blogs were the best sources of information. A special inspiration and turning point was when we found the Canadian Dirtbags blog. By reading about the journey of this couple we felt we had found the perfect style of build for us. They have been extremely helpful. In fact without their expertise and experience we would have gone with our original design plans and never have been able to complete the build in the required time. You see Cochrane has a rather lengthy snow season that we need to work around. We now have a reasonably sized build planned, about 700 square feet, with the option to add on over the years. Thank you B&S!!

So here we are. Packing up, prepping for a summer of unknowns. Excited beyond words to begin this next stage.


Addendum

In case you think this earthship thing is just for hippies. We had a hard time convincing some of our friends that we weren't crazy. Some still think we are. Or if you believe that you have to do without to live this way. It is all about choice. Have a look at the build done by Dennis Weaver on YouTube