A 24'x18' straw bale lodge

[Drew]

I'm still seeing the high-end cars in Silicon Valley, including the occasional Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Cannelloni.  I have to imagine that they are mostly leased or millstones around the necks of the guys who bought them and can't afford the brake jobs anymore.

If ever there was a time to build your own house, I think this is it.  I'll likely have to hold onto my mortgaged house longer than I thought until I can sell it.  Maybe rent it if I can.  I dunno.  It's all spreadsheetable.

My wife is off at St. John's in New Mexico getting her graduate degree in Liberal Arts.  It's an utterly useless degree to the HR recruiters (She's a systems analyst, not a teacher) but invaluable to a human being.  What do YOU want to be now that you're grown up?  Anyway, she'll spend 8 weeks every summer for 4 summers in Santa Fe.  She has a dorm room about the size of a monk's cell.  She writes to me, "I have only one of the most utilitarian tools.  Sure, someone cooks for me, but everything else is at a bare minimum. I am loving this.  I can live on our farm in a trailer and our lodge."

Our farm will be a bit bigger than her dorm room if you count the 20 acres outside as part of it.  There's still the question of whether you are comfortable with less, or perhaps even crave it.  Less means fewer things to fix, fewer things to burn in a wild fire, all of that.  It also means less change in our assets' perceived value when the market changes.  That can be good or bad depending on where you stand, but it's a lot to worry about.

At least I won't have to vacuum the grass.

[glenn kangiser]

Drew, let me get this right -- you sent your wife away to live in a monastery to teach her to live without worldly goods so she will be able to live with you on the farm? hmm


Good job.  I'll bet you could talk the leg off a chair.

[Drew]

That's what it means to be a Consultant, Glenn.  I would have been an attorney but for this horrible birth defect called a heart.   

[glenn kangiser]

That's rough Drew, but you are probably a better person for it.

[jwv]

"she'll spend 8 weeks every summer for 4 summers in Santa Fe."

I'm opening another window and Googling St John's right now

Judy
(Will plaster for space to park the Airstream in Cali  )

[jwv]

"she'll spend 8 weeks every summer for 4 summers in Santa Fe."

I'm opening another window and Googling St John's right now

Judy
(Will plaster for space to park the Airstream in Cali  )

OK, I thought St John's was familiar-one of the schools following a Great Books curriculum.  Wow, does that sound like something to do when I grow up-oh wait, maybe that's now!  I tried to get my sons interested in Deep Springs.  Their response;  "Mom, that's a hippie school!  You should go there"  Isn't it funny how others see you.  J

edited to fix url gk

[glenn kangiser]

I could swear that Deep Springs looks like Saline Valley.;

[Drew]

I wonder where my kids will want to send me.  I'd better be nice to them.  Maybe a little less ditch digging and stuff...   

[considerations]

I wonder where my kids will want to send me.  I'd better be nice to them. 

Worry more about when they want you to come and live with them.  That's scary!

[Drew]

I've already left instructions.  My home care givers will be called "ranch hands".

"Dusty, roll me over to that pen.  Now move the pen.  Are those feeders full?  Okay, good.  Go get yourself some chow."

[Drew]

I'm unemployed.  Again.  Well, I'm getting used to it.  I'll probably be working again in a week or two, but until then...

Dan is back home from being at school for 2 months.  We were in our room.  She was getting ready for work.  I was on the floor doing yoga.  Yeah.  I love California.

"I don't want to go to work," she said, "I'm tired of working."

"Mrmmrmrm," I said.  I was in Pigeon Pose with my forehead on the floor and knee under my chin.

"What?" she asked.

"Mama, take this badge offa me...  I cain't use it anymore...  It's gettin dark, too dark to see... Feels like I'm knockin' on heaven's door."

"You're an a**hole."

There was a cold snap in Palermo and the temperature was down to 92.  I decided to go up and lay out a test line on the new irrigation system.  Here's Drip Line Alpha.



It's 200' of poly tube with 5 1 gph drippers at the far end.  At the near end is a filter, anti-siphon, and timer.  I ran it and it didn't blow apart.  The idea is to start as cheap as possible and improve it where I need to.

No, the real idea was to get the hell out of the house and do something, anything with the place.

Here's the line going north toward Roberto's place.



The tank at the top is 200 gallons.  The timer will drip 5 gallons per day for 40 days minus leakage.  If it doesn't turn to steam maybe I'll get a green spot.

While I was filling the tank I shoveled dirt into the trench over the exposed PVC line.  Unfortunately I had taken all my spades back home and only had a trenching shovel.  The dirt was pretty hard, too.  It was hot.  So I shoveled and shoveled.

"Man, it's hot," said I to myself.

"I don't feel so good. I should stop."

"But I only have 10 more yards to that rock."

"Maybe if I barf I'll feel better."

"Maybe you'll look stupid when they find you passed out providing shade to a couple of rattlers."

"I'm almost ... done..."

"Maybe if I barf I'll feel better."

The temperature is supposed to get to 106 for the next few days.  I think I'll stay in Pacifica.

Anyway, I don't remember doing this before, but here's a Google map of the place.  I can't get the iFrame to work, but it's pretty cool.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=114019495688590192627.0004349bef44e4c3a9876&ll=39.412457,-121.490019&spn=0.003129,0.004699&t=h&z=18

As soon as the temperature drops below 90 (or even 93) we're going to start the framing on the straw bale.  I can hardly wait!

[MountainDon]

  The idea is to start as cheap as possible and improve it where I need to.

Just like the railroads were first built.

[Redoverfarm]

Drew glad your back. Thought Dan had the key to your computer.  The weather here is down to the low 50's at night and high's in the mid 70's.  I started to insulate planning only to workthe AM til the lofts got hot then move to a cooler location. But as it turned out have been working all day up there.  Haven't posted any new pics of the straw bale lately. Interesting to see what has transpired.  Too hot to ride the bike also isn't it.

[glenn kangiser]

How do you run out of the room in a yoga pose, Drew.  Especially when you are in deep doodoo? hmm

"Palermo Sun Dried Drew Jerky". Has a nice ring to it.  Sounds Italian.

Nice to hear from you Drew --- even if you have put your foot in it.

[Drew]

We haven't done much with the straw bale once we got the floor cross-braced.  My dad and I disinfected the well a couple weeks back (Sulfur bacteria. Punks.).  Dave and I put in most of the PT 2x4s that will serve as the base for the bales.  We finished the floor and cross braces just before Dan went off to school and filled in most of the irrigation trench.  We took turns working then sitting under the floor chugging water.  I think we coastal types are better suited to the cooler months, but we'll adapt.

The Old Man is in Mexico but comes back this weekend.  Dan is back in town.  Dave has a job (At a hardware store!  I get the Dave's Dad Discount!) but has Sundays off.  The temperature is supposed to ease off half past September, which is perfect for the rice harvest and my bales.  The frame should go up pretty fast.  The roof will be tougher.  I can make the window and door bucks at home.  Once I get the roof done I'll get my bales in and then we get to play Big Person Legos.  We should have something to show for ourselves by the middle of October, weather, wrists, and 4H willing.

Our county is a tricky place to build (And whose isn't?).  Dan and I are thinking of building a set of four 10'x12' accessory buildings based on the small house plans with a peaked roof.  They would be oriented on the points of the compass surrounding an outdoor kitchen.  Two would be offices and one would be the outhouse with Envirolet toilet, sink, and tub/shower.  The fourth couldn't be used for sleeping in because that would be illegal so we'll have a camper instead.  Yup.  Solar panels feeding a power system in one of the offices (probably not the outhouse).  Gray water system for the outhouse.

Minimum footprint, minimum permitting.  Just a thought.

[Drew]

And John, it's been foggy here in Pacifica/San Francisco for weeks.  It's actually going to be nice enough to ride tomorrow.  I think I'll ride over the bridge with the rest of the tourists.

[Sassy]

Hey Drew, great to hear from you again, I missed your stories!  Gave me quite a few chuckles 

[Drew]

It was Dan's birthday weekend so we did what Dan wanted to do.

"Let's go to the farm and work on the lodge!" she said.  Man, I'd marry her all over again.

So we got a good day's work in on Saturday (Well, as good as you get at 95 degrees) and were sitting up top in our camp chairs reading our books by battery-powered light.  We heard some rustling in the trees to the north, over near Roberto's place.  I turned off the light to see if we could get a better look by star and moonlight.  The noise stopped.  I turned the light back on and we got back to our reading.

Then the rustling started up again, and this time it was coming up the hill to where we were near Casa Guacamole.  It sounded like deer, not one but a couple or so.  "Hey, this is nice," we thought and turned the light off again to see if we could see them. 

But there was no them.  There was a one.  A big one, low to the ground, black, and very big.  Did I say it was big?

"Bear!" said Dan, who took off for the casa. 

My wife grew up in Alaska.  Had she grown up in Berkeley I might have said, "Yeah, right," knowing that there are bears in California, sometimes even in the foothills.  But she was from Alaska.  She knew moose, oil pipeline permanent fund checks, long winter nights, and bears.  So I followed her to the casa.

Once inside our shed we turned to look at the big beast.  Big he was, and black!  And with a tag in his ear.  Our interloper was a steer.

Aaaanyway, here are a few pictures from Saturday's and Sunday's (Since the steer didn't eat us) work.



Here's a picture of Dan using the palm nailer on the post caps.  She's wearing eye protection, which is good.  I wonder if they make prescription eye protection so that one might, oh, perceive the difference between a bear and a steer.



Here's a picture of where we left it for the day.  We have 14 more posts to put in on the back and front walls and everything needs cross bracing at the top.  We also get to lift 4 14' 4"x6"s into the post caps on the front and back walls to form the 28' headers for the rafters to rest on.  Once we get the roof on and the base flashed we'll be ready for the bales.  I want to be able to cover them if we get early rain, or if we run late.

We started work early both days, like 6:30 on Saturday and 7:00 on Sunday and worked until about noon when the heat got to be pretty rough.  Living on the coast doesn't make us very heat tolerant.  I bet it will get a lot better once we're up here for good.  Until then its early mornings and movie theaters in the afternoon.

[glenn kangiser]

This is the thread I was thinking about...posted in the other one.   Drew -- told our friends Friday night to watch what you are doing - they want something similar.

Looking great, Drew.  The bad bears have tags in their ears -- that way if they eat you the warden will know which one it was. 

One more thing, Drew.  Whether it's a bear or a steer......don't try to milk it.

[ScottA]

I always get a kick out of reading Drew's stories. Good job Drew.

[glenn kangiser]

Sassy and I also wait impatiently for the latest update ..

[Sassy]

Way to go, Dan!  I'm with you...  when Glenn isn't working on other things, I'd rather be working on something for our cabin than doing much of anything else... 

You guys are making good progress!  Drew, you are quite the story teller...    

[Drew]

You folks are great and a wonderful inspiration!  The encouragement and advice is invaluable.

I'm at home today reading through John D. Wagner's book on house framing to get ready for the rafters.  I'm okay with the math and glad that someone figured out how to make a carpenter's square so incredibly useful.  I still get hit with the occasional vocabulary word that is so basic that no one defines it anywhere that I can find on Google.  To wit:

Crown Edge:  Is that the edge of a rafter that invariably bows slightly up, or perhaps the edge where the grain arcs toward like the lower case "n"?  Am I even close?

I'm hoping to go back up this week to get more things ready for the coming weekend.  Gas prices be darned, we have a rainy season coming and we need a roof! 



Here's another picture of our heroine.  Our combined Northern European roots are very grateful to the makers of SPF 50.

And that's my new saw.  I loves my saw...

[MountainDon]

Crown Edge:  Is that the edge of a rafter that invariably bows slightly up,

Correct!   That is it boes up if you install it that way.   

[PureCountry]

Good evening all.
Introductions first I guess...I'm an Alberta cattle rancher/grass farmer(that's in Canada), with plans for an off the grid Earth-Sheltered home next spring. Just wanted to say Drew that reading through this thread has been a ball of laughs, and also very informative.

Had to chuckle at someone's comment on 16" of rain being considered dry. 12 is our annual average. But, then again, there's those amazingly repetitious 6 months every year that find us under a blanket of white, either cussing the man who devised the scheme to sell natural gas, or praising the cave-dweller who discovered fire as a heat source.

Oh and Drew, love your idea for Organic goods....we're working towards having all of our 2500 acres certified. Makes it alot easier to justify your marketing claims for grass-finished beef to the Hippies and their Dells.

Take care folks, look forward to reading more of your posts and following your progress.