Non Electric Homestead McMinn County (hardwood floor, new house, fence)

[Forest Breath]

It is a Washburn B9. I can play about 1/4 of Dueling Banjos now and try to learn just a tiny more every week. I am having a blast with that and also just started learning how to play Rocky Top. I had to take a break from struggling with those two songs and doing the Scruggs Roll over and over...and over...and well....over....lol...so I taught myself three short songs I can play fairly easily. Amazing Grace, I'll Fly Away and Mountain Dew. So now I can break it up a little and enjoy it more. Of course, I am sure Chris is not enjoying hearing Amazing Grace played 50 times in a row...lol...but it is soon followed by what I KNOW of Dueling Banjos..so it is OK. I am loving it and hope I can stick with it. I just wish I had someone in the area, affordable, that could teach me. I cannot read music and just have to figure it out myself. Luckily I have a decent ear!

On the homefront!

Oh My Goddess it has been so hot the past few days! I enjoyed the few drops of rain we got Saturday night, but that was about it. It has been very hot but still not terribly unbearbable. About 2pm it starts getting pretty bad and we either have to head for the woods to find trees to cut later or head for the swing by the branch and pary for a breeze to come through once in awhile! We get back to work on things about 6pm. So that 4 hours, on a very hot day, we just cannot get much work done. It will be better I think when we get some insulation in the house and the front porch roof up. We are still working on that. Funds are just tight right now.

I got some produce Saturday and by Sunday morning it was well wilted. That is not a good thing as with gas as high as it is, we cannot make trips out every day to do shopping for ONE day. It is not bad if we just eat the processed food we have already canned. But if we want anything fresh, it is wilted in no time in this heat. My daughter brought over a nice cooler. We can freeze gallon jugs of water in the deep freeze up in Jimmy's workshop and put a gallon of it in the cooler each morning. It should keep the produce in good shape, the butter edible, the opened jam and jelly from turning to juice and even cool a bottle of water for a nice drink at about 4pm. We can re-freeze as needed. The heat has definately been one thing hard to deal with the past week or so.

We are still digging the Spring. We have a decent hole dug and I suppose we should rent a bush hog but I am trying to save money, so we are digging by hand. We dug into a yellow jacket's nest and that was certainly no fun at all. We are still working on the root cellar as well. We have been picking blackberries in the early morning hours and making jam/jelly. I found several black walnut trees, lots of hickory trees and cool things like hackberries, chokecherries, mulberries and such. We got all the bird feeders up and I have been enjoying the titmouse, chickadees, cardinals and even hummingbirds stopping by. Lots of deer come through every day as well.

So far we still have not regrets. The heat is tough, but not so bad that we cannot stand it. The nightly baths are just wonderful, especially if a breeze is blowing. Things are good....I think we will be putting the screen doors up today! (YAY....less flies and skeeters!)







A few pics of the property, down by the branch where we have a nice swing in the shade!

[Pam& Bill]

Forest Breath,
Glad to see your update. I think the first year doing anything new is a learning curve and in the coming years, you'll be an old hand with having your own gardens for the produce. Your root cellar will be finished as well as the insulation and roof for the porch.
When each stage gets completed it will help with your daily life. I do enjoy following your story and I admire you and Chris both for choosing to do this and sticking to it.
Pam

[jabogitlu]

Very cool. I have a Gibson RB-250, which I adore and would never part with (if somebody were shooting at it, I'd probably step in front!), but I also want something more like a tackhead to play songs like June Apple. Wish we were closer, I'd love to jam with ya. Playing the banjo is so much fun, but playing it with a guitar picking rhythm behind you gives it a lot more meaning and cohesion.

The pics of your land look beautiful. Reminds me a lot of my great mammaw's homeplace. She was non electric too, and had been since she lived there as a girl (1920s). Only time I got to use an outhouse, and boy was her cooking on the old woodstove amazing. In her later years she used a lot of coolers too. Her kids (she had 13) would bring her ice every day or two, taking turns.

I feel for you in this heat though. I was born and raised here, but seems like I'm tolerating the heat less and less. Some days (especially in the heat wave we had earlier this year) just walking from the car to the house was a chore. Shew.

Hmm, I wonder if choke cherries are the same thing as autumn olives? Do you know? If so, you should send us all some of the jelly you make out of those. It's great.

[Beretta]

Great to hear from you Forest Breath!

[txgoddesschild]

In back issues of Organic Farm and Gardening there was an evaporator cooler. It was basically a box on legs with screened shelves. Another version was a smaller box attached to a shady window. The sides and front door were also screened. Underneath was a tray that water was kept in. Attached to the sides and back was material ( the ends touched the water). The entire unit was placed so it would receive breezes. The material wicked the water upward and the breeze passing through caused a cooling effect. This helped keep food. If ants might be a problem, place the legs in lids with liquid dish soap. Another version of the box in the window is for winter use. The box was solid. It was attached to the window and you placed items in it . Then you just opened the window to retrieve them. If you ever come across the old Organic Farm and Gardening magazines in the small cover format, get them. There is a wealth of non-electric ideas for the home and farm. Lots of plans for building. The founder or his son were in charge back then. Also in Lehmanns catalog they sell butter keepers. This is basically another form of evaporator cooling. Go on line and check out there catalog. Some things you can do with items around the house. Good luck.

[Forest Breath]

Wow thanks...I will check it out!



Life is a learning experience, no matter how “experienced” you think you are!


Saturday we got the gutter on the house, the downspout ran to a 55 gallon barrel. It was a nice set up and looked beautiful. Sunday morning brought rain early. Me, Chris and Lakota were excited to see the new gutter in action. I had hopes of collecting at least half a barrel of water so we would not have to haul so much this weekend.



We rushed outside in the rain to watch the glorious event, only to discover that we are always making mistakes….but at least we are learning from them. The gutter was three pieces, plus the downspout piece. The gutter leaked in the two joined places and not a drop was going into the barrel. We worked in the rain to place containers and funnels under the leaks to catch as much water as we could. We were soaked….and tired…but within an hour or so we had collected about 100 or so gallons of water. Not bad!

After the rain, I was battling a horrible headache, so Chris worked on the gutter while I had a nap. We had started the front porch (making it bigger and starting the roof). He left to visit his Mom and Lakota went home. I napped and when Chris returned, more rain came….lots of rain, heavy rain. I was excited as we would get to trap more rain and I could maybe have a good get down in the water soaking bath! I looked out the window to see rain leaking from the same places as before. The caulk had not dried and well…..it was not good. A little later Chris came in and said “honey, I need you”. I just headed outside naked because I knew that I had already soaked 3 changes of clothes and when you have no dryer, you pay attention to avoid things like that. So there I was, naked as a jaybird, Chris in his wet shorts and discover that he had tried to fix the downspout and managed to rip the whole thing lose from the gutter. Rain was POURING down the wall, to the inside of the wall and into the kitchen area. We get on a ladder, get soaked and fix the downspout. Meanwhile we are gathering containers and collecting as much water as possible. After we filled every container we had, the water pouring form the gutter was too tempting. Forget the bath…it was shower time. I grabbed the shampoo, razor, etc. and had a nice LONG shower in the cool rain under the gutter and it was WONDERFUL! It did not make my headache go away, but it was just so nice.



I made a trip to the outhouse and was overjoyed to see it did not leak. Altogether we collected OVER 230 gallons of water! PLUS, the Spring filled the large hole we dug and the water is running from the Spring through the small gulley we dug to the pond and the pond is completely full of water again.


On a side note….the rain also turned the branch into a raging creek and washed out the first culvert. It can be fixed, but more work to do needless to say.


I am enjoying the hawks, deer (there is a Mom with her fawn hanging out in the backwoods that we get to see every day), grey fox and I have tons of birds at my feeder….even hummingbirds.


Today we will be fixing the gutter and hopefully finishing the front porch. Video of the washed out culvert seen here….

4th236.flv - Video - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[Shenandoah]

Just in case you or anyone else is in need:

Plans for an Integral Passive Solar Water Heater:

The Integral Passive Solar Water Heater Book

[txgoddesschild]

I have been trying to find some sites I used to visit about non-electric living. It seems to be getting harder to find the nuts and bolt items. Most sites want to sell things not even related. Walton Feed Old Timers page has several articles that might help. The Many Tracks Homesteading site of Sue Robishaw and Steve Schmeck also contain several helpful articles. He has a free download ebook "How to make a treadle lathe". This basic concept can be used for many wood workshop tools (non electric). Joseph Jenkins, Inc. site has a free downloadable book about sawdust commodes made from 5 gallon buckets. There are plans in the book. This would be a lot nicer in the winter months. The book explains composting methods in detail but in laymans terms. I read a lot about non electric living in the past. A lot of my books are in storage and I don't always remember things. Getting old. I will try to find some more places for you. Some of the things I read about are not easy to find on the internet. As a teenager, I lived with my grandmother in an old house built in th e 1800's in Ky. The electric was always going out. She had oil lamps, a coal/wood cookstove, and an outhouse. The kitchen sink was connected to a cistern. We pumped water from outside and heated in a wash tub over an open fire to wash clothes. I helped chop wood among other chores. This period in my life hold some very fond memories. As I remember things I have read or we did, I'll try to write them for you. Have a wonderful day.

[jkmewright]

Originally Posted by Forest Breath

It is a Washburn B9. I can play about 1/4 of Dueling Banjos now and try to learn just a tiny more every week. I am having a blast with that...

This weekend, I saw a fella wearing a shirt that read "Paddle faster, I hear banjos" and immediately thought of you lol

[Forest Breath]

ROFLMAO.....they sell those shirts at the Ocoee Whitewater Center where I use to work for the Forest Service.

Well we had our first emergency room accident in this entire process. Saturday Chris and I were cutting 12 foot cedar poles for the porch roof. I was holding one up, dropped it and it landed on a 2x4 and bounced right back up and proceeded toland on the top of both my feet. Of course it had to be the heavy, thickest end of the pole.

I could not move for awhile and Chris had to bring a chair over so I could sit down. My toes went numb and I had sharp pains up to my knee. Then my left foot started swelling up the size of half a baseball and turning black. So we went to the ER at midnight.

Thanksfully neither foot was broken/fractured. I have some nerve and tendon damage but it is already feeling a lot better. Just get weird sharp pains when I am not expecting it and it is hard to climb steps and such. It could have been much worse, so I am thankful.

Yesterday, we got a good wind test. Storms came through with hail, heavy rain and high winds. At the first gust I told Chris this was going to be a good test on the roof and such. As the winds grew stronger and we sat in the house with much anticipation and hope....we were very pleased to find out the house did not even creak or strain a bit. It stood steady and firm as the winds pounded the north/west side. Needless to say, we are extremely pleased with this. The outhouse, chicken coop and woodshed all faired well too.

As for the front porch, the foot injury has delayed the roof a few days. We are doing it all in cedar poles. The railing is going to be done in limbs from the cedar trees. We are also doing the steps with cedar logs and planks, with cedar hand rails.

We discovered in the last rain that one downspout on the back of the house was not enough. So we have bought another downspout and will get it up this weekend. We lost a lot of rain water because of having only one downspout. We still collected over 250 gallons of water and that is lasting us longer than we thought it would. We make sure the animals all have plenty and use it sparingly for baths, dishes and laundry. I treated some of it with a little bleach since we got so much and it will be lasting longer. We don't need things growing in our water. LOL

HEAT: My goodness it has been just horrible so far this week. But living like we are, you just have to set priorities and plan around the hottest parts of the day. We have picked a nice cool, always shaded spot on the property. We put swings, the hammock, a table, grill, chairs and such in that area. On days with temps above 90, we just get a few books, the banjo, supper, and a few pillows. We head down to the branch and sit in the shade, have supper, relax and enjoy some mega good quality time together from about 4pm to about 7-730pm. By that time the Sycamore has the front of the house shaded very well and it is much cooler. We get work done later into the night as needed and do most of the work first thing of a morning when it is very cool. So far the nights have been really nice with only one hot, muggy night I can remember. August will be a big test though. We hope to have the root cellar done by then and if we need to cool off we can have a seat in there for a bit.

I got a new kitten. I have not names her yet, (pic at bottom). She is adorable. Someone set her out in Decatur and the woman said her husband and dog were not thrilled. So I took her. All of my cats are over 10 and I felt a new home needed a fresh face. LOL I am going to look to adopt a friend for Cletus someday as well.

I made arrangements to buy a hog from my Amish friends. They are going to help me slaughter and process it. That means of course that we must get the smokehouse done in the next few months. That pork, plus the cow we processed in the Spring....and the 3-4 deer I processed last Fall, will be plenty of meat to last me, Chris, Jimmy and Hazel through the Winter months. I have canned a ton of food already and am still working on more. I plan to dry some apples this weekend as well. We are also spending a lot of time cutting wood for the Winter. We will go stove shopping ina few months.

So that is the update. I hope everyone is doing well!





Lakota playing in the hole we are digging, eventually a Spring House will be there.


Perrin helps fix the outhouse sink (Funny story, I was at his house Sunday and had dinner there. I told him I needed to use the bathroom and asked where it was. He looked at me like I was stupid and said "it is in the outhouse silly".)


Chris was hauling wood the the shed in his wagon and Perrin decided to help with his red Radio Flyer pulling a load of Oak to the shed.


Morning in the livingroom area. Some day I will get real curtains up....seriously! LOL I am making them by hand.