June 21, 2009 - Logging and Fishing

So far we've opted against putting water cisterns underground. The ground here is clay and shale silt, and lots of rocks, so digging is a slow process. Backhoes can do a lot of damage to a landscape pretty quickly, and so far we prefer to move slower than that so we don't go too far in the wrong direction. But, above ground tanks freeze, and when transparent tanks are exposed to sunlight, bacteria grows in the water. We attempted to resolve both problems to a degree on our summer kitchen tank by covering it with a layer of Astrofoil (foil faced bubble wrap) insulation left over from insulating the yurt. We'll still need to drain the tank during the coldest part of the winter. Eventually, we'd like to build simple, insulated, passive solar heated structures around each of the larger cisterns.

One of the priorities for the summer, with time off from work, was to get a greenhouse built so that greens could be grown to eat during the winter, and for starting seedlings in the spring. We'd planned to build a peeled pole timber frame structure, with a rubble trench and earth bag foundation featuring shallow frost insulation, strawbale infill walls plastered with earthen plaster, recycled sip panel roof covered in recycled metal roofing, salvaged windows made from old sliding glass doors, thermal storage in the form of an interior light clay infill wall and water filled barrels, a masonry rocket stove with flue heated bench, and a sauna room, plus rainwater catchment. Whew!

We first started harvesting Ponderosa Pine for the frame from the hillside below the yurt. We selected trees that were crowded or ailing, felled them with a two person crosscut saw, limbed them with an axe, and attempted to drag the 9" diameter, 12' long trunks up the hillside. Couldn't do it! I got out the welder and some old bike parts and welded up a log carrier (photo). It didn't work well, and I ended up modifying it and attaching it to the solar dehydrator so that we could wheel that around and reposition it to follow the sun.

Finally, we got out the come-along, and took turns cranking the trunks up the hillside (photo of Jeanne cranking). We can also access the hill from a road at the bottom, so will be able to move some trees down the hill instead of up. We finally opted to get the remaining large poles from the national forest. For $22 we obtained a pole permit to harvest all of the wood needed for the frame. On the national forest, we were able to drive close to the tree, fell it, limb it and load it on our trailer, easier than cranking it up the hillside. Even so, after a few days of this, we realized that if we were going to get a greenhouse built for the winter, along with wood sheds, more garden clearing and other projects, we'd have to lower our ambitions a lot. We still want to build that earthbag/strawbale sauna/greenhouse, and will still keep gathering materials for it when there is time, but will put up something more temporary to get us through until the final building is ready.

Having decided that, we got up early the next morning and went fishing. We didn't catch anything this time, (still learning a lot about fishing) but had a good hike. On our next fishing outing, we camped at a lake, and following a friend's advice regarding lure and technique, caught six Rainbow Trout (the score so far is Jeanne 4, Linc 2). So far, fishing isn't a sustainable living skill for us. We're spending a lot more on fishing licenses and gear than we are getting in fish, but we're learning!

Wow! As I was writing this, sitting outside at a small table, I saw (in the reflection of the computer monitor) a cat approaching me from behind. I turned and saw a large Bobcat! He turned and ran off slowly. I went around the yurt to tell Jeanne, who was sitting below the garden, and there he was again, between us. He turned and ran off into the woods. The birds and Chipmunks are alarming like crazy. That cat was a beautiful site to see, and I've never heard of a Bobcat attacking a person, but it's a wake up call for us to keep aware of what the birds and chipmunks are saying as we work around here. We're not the only predators here.