tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87557312441590724392024-02-16T11:57:14.712-08:00Dirt & FatJessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-4233681983745989372013-12-03T10:55:00.002-08:002013-12-03T10:55:22.753-08:00The house is mostly done<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So the structure is pretty much complete and we've moved in, hurray! It was a long, difficult at times process. But it feels really good to look at the results.<br />
Right now we're actually in Kansas City visiting family, so I'm trying to take advantage of having internet available 24/7. <br />
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Maybe someday in the future I'll do a step by step "here's how we built it post". For now I'll just say, I'm happy we have a place to stay warm and spread out a little. I'm always looking towards the next thing that needs to be done. Next year I'd like to plaster the walls and finish the floor in the house. I'd like to get started on a combo bathhouse/greenhouse. Miles is going to build a recording studio/guest area. I'd like to really get the garden going and start planting fruit trees. I'd like to get some animals, definitely a dog, and maybe some quail for eggs.<br />
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When we get back to the house in a week or so, we'll start doing Christmas decorations, then we'll hunker down for the winter. I requested about 20 or so seed catalogs this year, and I'm really looking forward to some intense catalog studying. <br />
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Hope everyone is well, I definitely am.Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-51004153535770680082013-05-08T09:16:00.001-07:002013-05-08T09:16:55.512-07:00Woah....the past 7 months recapOh hello again. We've been on quite the adventure the past couple months and I thought I'd tell you about it.<br />
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Last time I posted here we were in Germany. Sounds nice doesn't it? Well it was in some ways (meet some very nice people, experienced living in a different place, kids learned some German), but it was definitely not a vacation. Glad to have done, was very glad to get back to the states (with the exception of the god-awful customs line/rat maze we had to wait in when we first got into Philadelphia and consequently missed out connecting flight).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhIN5_BzruVwr5gvkoYxVOdGcDdspmD0oYhrsgIkEKEysk-4dAku4MwcdiGfrTYFvzL2QxrSHOBGIqj1FRnWpo1ktMypCoCFoZ8G5TDVqGizJtBWayKDVz69mwNMtS6_u_WvBqC47H5ZA/s1600/books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhIN5_BzruVwr5gvkoYxVOdGcDdspmD0oYhrsgIkEKEysk-4dAku4MwcdiGfrTYFvzL2QxrSHOBGIqj1FRnWpo1ktMypCoCFoZ8G5TDVqGizJtBWayKDVz69mwNMtS6_u_WvBqC47H5ZA/s640/books.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our studio apartment in Cologne. All those books and only one was in English: a book about Kylie Minogue.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Georgia eating some fish eggs in our apartment. That's my baby.</td></tr>
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After Germany we stayed with my parents for a couple weeks through Thanksgiving and then the girls and I planned to head to our new neighbor's house in New Mexico to stay the winter while they were house sitting in Hawaii. Miles was going to stay in Kansas City and work. One of our goals of building a house was to not incur any debt. So to save money we wanted to live rent free for a couple months before we starting building.<br />
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Our neighbor's house was not totally complete (something they had fully disclosed to me), and that combined with the extra chilly weather and me being alone with two kids and having to almost constantly manage the wood stove left me looking for another option. I signed up for the World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farmers website (wwoof.org), which was one of the best $30 I ever spent. I found a woman in Tucson who needed help with her gardens and welcomed children. We exchanged some good e-mails and decided I could come down after Christmas. I had a couple delays (transmission went out in my car and we spent the New Year's Eve and the first couple days of the new year in a hotel while it got fixed, then we realized Miles still had the key for the lock that was on the hitch of the trailer and it had to be mailed). <br />
So finally I got to pack up the trailer in negative degree weather and we headed for a warmer climate.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brrrrr</td></tr>
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Once again the trailer came in super handy as we traveled south through New Mexico and west into Arizona. I love road trips! We stayed just at a couple campgrounds and Wal-Mart parking lots, but the best spot was a dispersed camping (free camping) spot in the Cochise Stronghold in Arizona. I highly, highly recommend camping in the National Forests and BLM land. One it's free, two, it's usually very private, and three it's beautiful. Dispersed camping is like a library of land. You can pick a spot and it's yours for 14 days. I've honestly never felt so free in my life as when I'm out camping on public land. It's great. The only downside at this particular location was we had no cell phone service, so I couldn't let anyone know we were just fine and dandy, so I left earlier than I would have liked. But we came back on our way back to New Mexico.<br />
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So, yes, on to Tucson. We parked our trailer on the land of a very lovely woman who enjoyed the kids and taught me about her gardens and kept me company! I would work for her for 2 hours a day (which was challenging at times with the almost 2 year old Georgia constantly needing my attention). I dug a big trench for humanure, pruned her apple and almond trees, double dug a garden bed, oiled all her garden tools, and weeded a lot of grass. Her land was in a small semi-intentional community several miles outside the city. So we could take walks out into the desert, walking though the sand washes. It was so nice to be warm (most of the time). We did arrive right at the beginning of a cold snap, and we saw it snow! We left at the beginning of March, I was pretty frazzled by that time, having spent 3 months with the kids by myself. I was ready to be with Miles and to be at our new home.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exploring the desert</td></tr>
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Once we got back on the land, we started working on the house right away, digging into a hill. It took about a month to dig out the house area, then we dug a trench below where the walls will be, and then dug holes for concrete for posts which will be on the inside of the walls. We just poured the concrete last week and the next step is the harvest the posts out of the forest and get those up and the roof on. Meanwhile, I love exploring the forest around us. We have an amazing spot here and I'm so grateful.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On our land</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love our neighborhood forest</td></tr>
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Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-44244142005829853042012-10-16T12:19:00.001-07:002012-10-16T12:19:34.018-07:00In DeutschlandSorry I have not posted in months and months. We had no internet in New Mexico, then we were staying at my parents house for a couple months, and now we are in Germany. We're half way through a 2 month stay. We have a little flat in Cologne, but we're just outside of Berlin now. Staying with some friends who have a beautiful place that used to house pigs 100 years ago (they asked me what a pig house was called in English and I couldn't really say: pig stall, pig sty?).<br />
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Alles ist gut, but it can be hard to do simple things like grocery shop in a place you don't really know the language. We are all learning a lot.<br />
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...uhhhh, innanet's not letting me upload pictures now. I'll try again soon!<br />
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<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-88635639189007206342012-07-25T13:01:00.002-07:002012-07-25T13:01:29.812-07:00Enjoying lifeNot a whole lot to say right now, just taking in all the great sites and great people around us. <br />
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<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-25751880364311569652012-06-26T19:54:00.002-07:002012-06-26T19:54:37.138-07:0090% in the trailerSo, we've been sleeping/mostly living in the trailer a little over a week now. I haven't written much here because I haven't been on the internet as much and because the thought of breaking down all that we've been doing into blog form seems pretty enormous to me.<br />
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<a href="http://ancientish.tumblr.com/post/25973213223/makingthetrailer-quick-walk-through-of-our-16" target="_blank">Click here</a> to see a quick video I made of the trailer.<br />
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Since I really don't know what to say, I'll just make a couple bullet point thoughts:<br />
-great to be outside all day long<br />
-lots of bugs! flies, ants of all sizes, spiders, mosquitoes, etc. hold a lot of our attention. I think because of our non-winter here there are even more bugs than usual<br />
-it's been 90+ degrees here for the majority of our time our here so far, but it's been OK. I think it's really great for the kids to build up temperature tolerances. I imagine it's healthy to follow a seasonal temperature cycle in much the same way people are realizing that it's important to eat seasonal foods.<br />
-cleaning the trailer is awesome, everything has it's place and it's all within a 90 sq ft. area. <br />
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I'll post some pictures as soon as I can, please feel free to ask any questions!Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-85914220679401344082012-06-14T19:08:00.000-07:002012-06-14T19:08:49.269-07:00Sad sight<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was very excited to get our solar panel so we could try and hook it up. But when I opened the package today the glass had shattered into a million tiny sharp little pieces. You can see where it got dropped or slammed into something somewhere along the road. Kinda bummed that we have to keep waiting on this. We are otherwise really, really close to being done and itching to move in.<br />
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I wanted to give a couple other updates on some previous posts:<br />
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-All my talk about moon time and my second period came 6 weeks after the first! Pretty sure my hormones are still regulating themselves and I'm still breastfeeding A LOT. 95% sure my period started again because I was trying to nightwean Georgia, but I decided it was too early so the frequency of feeding picked back up. <br />
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-Water only washing update: I have gone back to shampoo, about once a week. My hair seems to require constant experimentation, and I still don't feel totally satisfied with my routine.Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-10746780088661350722012-06-06T19:32:00.002-07:002012-06-06T19:32:47.474-07:00Getting close now...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here's some of the latest pictures of the trailer, although we have a lot more done now. If you have an iphone and want more up to the minute trailer updates, you can follow me on instagram, I'm "dunniedun".</div>
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Soooo, here are the beds and the kitchen counter. There's a toilet seat there because I was getting ready to make our composting/sawdust toilet. You can see the cork floor here too.</div>
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Installing the cork floor was a fairly easy process. Cutting the edges to size was the hardest part. I ended up having to special order the adhesive ("water based latex contact adhesive") because no stores carried it around here. Well worth it though, as it was really easy to use and any extra came up easily within 24 hours. There were a couple spots we didn't get up within 24 hours so there's a sticky section by the door. I think we'll just put a rug there.<br />
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We used e-track for the beds. Pretty easy to install also. Here I'm making sure the 2x4's line up.<br />
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Miles is a good driller, I'm getting there. <br />
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<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-36136926623464621262012-05-25T21:10:00.001-07:002012-05-25T21:10:26.754-07:00Living without a fridge-food postIt can be done!<br />
I thought I'd share a some of our set-up and some typical meals.<br />
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Sorry for this poor quality phone pic. Most everything is out where we can see it which is nice. There is some stuff in the cooler there, but we don't buy ice or try to keep anything cool. It's more of a dark, secured area. I keep my potatoes, ground corn, and my big bag of sea salt I got for making kimchi in there for now.</div>
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On the shelves we have condiments and canned goods mostly. I'm buying a little more canned things than I used to. Mostly beans, coconut milk and fish: we almost always have salmon, sardines and tuna on hand. There's also some nori, which is a nice dried green to have, good for iodine if you don't buy iodized salt (which we don't). Also one of my most prized kitchen tools: fish sauce!! It's really key for a lot of dishes: egg drop soup, curry, pho, I use it in my kimchi. Gives that good umami flavor for otherwise meatless dishes.</div>
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And then the wonderful hanging basket. I put produce in there, we always have apples and maybe one other fruit, usually bananas or oranges. Garlic and onions, there's some beets and kale that my dad brought me from his garden (thanks Dad!).</div>
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Butter and kimchi on the counter. We go through a pound of butter in a week or so, so I haven't gotten around to buying a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_butter_dish" target="_blank">butter keeper</a> yet, might be in the future some day.<br />
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What else can I say about kimchi? It's one of my joys in life! I've come up with a pretty simple recipe:<br />
-1 Napa Cabbage sliced top to bottom<br />
-generous amount of sea salt<br />
-8-15 cloves of garlic, grated<br />
-roughly 3/4 cup Korean chile flakes<br />
-roughly 5 tablespoons of fish sauce<br />
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Put the sliced cabbage pieces in a bowl (or 2). Dump some salt in the bowl and stir it with your hands until it seems like most of the pieces are covered with salt. This will draw out a lot of the water and bulk out of the cabbage. Let it do it's thang for about 4 hours.<br />
Rinse the cabbage, get some of that salt off. Drain as much water off as you can/care to. Mix together the grated garlic, chile flakes and fish sauce. Slather the mixture all on the cabbage, try to get every piece coated. Put it all in a nice container. Voila! The longer it sits, the funkier it gets. One head of cabbage will usually last me 1.5 to 2 weeks.<br />
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Eggs on the counter. We get some unparalleled eggs from the farmer's market (I exclaimed that the other day while I was cooking: "These eggs are UNPARALLELED!"). I go through about 2 dozen a week. 2.5 dozen pictured here, but some of them were small, so I bought more. Do you guys know about the egg test? I rarely do it, if I was buying grocery stores eggs I'd probably do it more.<br />
You put your questionable egg in a container of water, if the fat end starts floating up, NO BUENO. Or it's just old, I don't know, proceed with caution if you have a fat-end floater.<br />
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Examples of what we eat:<br />
-Every morning I have either rice or pre-cooked potato, which I shred, fried eggs and kimchi. Yum.<br />
-Lunch is usually either rice or potatoes again with beans or canned fish<br />
-Dinner can be a curry (I make a pretty good massaman), lentils and fried corn mush (I love the pressure cooker for lentils!!), if we've been to the farmer's market/store within the last day, we'll have meat, or sometimes it's just salami and bread and butter. I used to be a lot more anti-bread than I am now. Nobody in this house seems to have a bad reaction to it, so we usually have some sort of locally-baked sourdough loaf here (I still avoid the bread aisle in the grocery store).<br />
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So yeah, the only things we seem to be missing out on are:<br />
-stocking up on meat/eating meat daily<br />
-milk and softer cheeses (but I wasn't buying milk since we stopped getting raw milk, once you go raw....)<br />
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I'm enjoying it so far!<br />
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I almost forgot to say, I try to eat as many "wild" greens (shit that grows by itself in my yard) as possible. Don't need a fridge for things that are alive. Right now we eat: dandelion, plantain (not the banana-like thing, the green, leafy plant [it's also medicinal]), and sorrel. The kids love sorrel, they can't get enough, it's like nature's sweet-tart. Also our blackberries are ripening!<br />
<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-13015255918830069432012-05-18T08:40:00.000-07:002012-05-18T08:40:16.262-07:00Progress Report<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We took out the side walls and the floor because of rot issues.<br />
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Didn't get a picture of the chassis after it had been treated for rust and painted, unfortunately. But here you can see we have a new plywood subfloor put down. This will eventually be covered with a cork floor.<br />
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Outside walls are up! We used birch plywood, painted with some water seal. I'm super excited at how fast this is coming along, Miles is doing most of the work-so most props to him. <br />
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In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out a solar panel set-up. I'm not sure why, but it's really difficult for me to grasp all these electrical concepts. I'm slowly trudging my way through information I can find on the internet.<br />
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So far I think we'll need<br />
-135 watt panel (apparently Kyocera is a good brand)<br />
-a charge controller (you want PWM not MPPT says <a href="http://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/the-rv-battery-charging-puzzle-2/" target="_blank">Handy Bob</a>, btw it took me like 3 days to read that page)<br />
-12 volt battery<br />
-inverter<br />
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We'll mostly be using electricity to power the vent fan (which is DC, will run straight from the battery), and to charge the laptop and phones (which is why we need the inverter). I got a couple stand alone solar lanterns for lights, but we may want a plug in light eventually. We'll see.Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-53842663649967532492012-05-14T19:52:00.001-07:002012-05-14T19:52:38.813-07:00Visitor/No FridgeThis guy hung out with me in the back yard most of the day. I saw him hiding in some bushes when I got home, so I gave him some water and some beef jerky I made. He was super sweet and marking his territory in our yard like nobody's business. He stayed with me for about 4 hours and then left, I hope he found his way home. Can't wait to get a dog once we are settled.<br />
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Also wanted to mention we are officially fridge-less, have been for almost a month now. The fridge quit working one day and we decided not to fix it since it would be good practice for trailer living.</div>
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It's been pretty easy so far, the only incident I've had has been with a bag of baby carrots.</div>
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Maybe I'll do a "recipe" post eventually, (I kind of hate recipes, a food idea post?). Feel free to ask me questions if you have any.</div>
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I'm really hoping we get the trailer walls up this week!</div>
<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-41680795658698700892012-05-10T19:33:00.000-07:002012-05-10T19:33:02.704-07:00NewsSlowly but surely going over here. We got the floor and side walls of the trailer out. Treated the chassis with "Rust-X" rust inhibitor and spray painted it. We have the new plywood floor laid out and we're trying to figure out how to attach it. The self-drilling screws the guy at the hardware store recommended aren't working (big surprise). <br />
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In other news our house is officially on the market! Crazy.Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-45892731478761993372012-04-30T19:19:00.002-07:002012-04-30T19:19:37.322-07:00We have trailerAfter many disappointments, much anticipation, and countless hours of browsing craigslist, WE HAVE A TRAILER!!!<br />
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She's a little rough around the edges, but we're going to tidy her up real nice.<br />
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It's made of fiberglass which I think will be a benefit to temperature maintenance. <br />
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Here are the pics:<br />
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First on the to-do list:<br />
-Take out plywood floor (it's rotted through in the back corners)<br />
-Scrub off rust on the bottom chassis, add rust inhibitor and then paint<br />
-Put new plywood on the floor<br />
-Take off walls<br />
-Insulate<br />
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We'll see how long that takes. Excited to get started! Feels incredibly good to get to work after doing so much planning.Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-8129383437345564622012-04-21T12:00:00.002-07:002012-04-21T12:00:27.552-07:00Back on Moon-timeBecause I've fairly successfully night weaned Georgia (she doesn't eat from 8 PM to 3 or 4 AM), my period came back! I've been excited to get back on moon-time for awhile now. It is insanely incredible that our monthly cycles line up exactly with the moon (if yours don't, get a lunar calendar and start observing the moon at night, your body should take care of the rest)! So sad that we live in a culture where this is not more celebrated.<br />
One of my favorite books where this topic is discussed at some length is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hawk-Woman-Dancing-Moon-Medicine/dp/0871318024" target="_blank">Hawk Woman Dancing With the Moon: Sacred Medicine for Today's Woman</a> by Tela Star Hawk Lake. <br />
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She talks about giving yourself alone, quiet, restful, meditative time when you start your period (do as much as you can within the confines of our culture). So I am trying to do that.</div>
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Here's a good video I found on youtube last night (I must have known I was about to start my period), Russell Means talking about women/matriarchy/moon-time:</div>
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<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-53426727259715056412012-04-18T19:48:00.000-07:002012-04-18T19:48:03.320-07:00I'm nearly spentThere's like $2.17 left on the gift card that is my SANITY. Searching for the perfect trailer is taking it out of me. <br />
The trailer I thought was "the one" was apparently owned by a guy who likes to put stuff up on craigslist and string potential buyers along for a couple weeks, and then decides not to sell.<br />
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So after I was through with all the craigslist dicking around, buying new sounded like a great idea. Except I forgot I would be dealing with a salesman and there would be even more dicking around.<br />
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So now I'm back to craigslist, checking every major city in a 300 mile radius to find what we are looking for. <br />
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Send me trailer finding energy, send me "you're not crazy" energy, send me whatever leftover positive energy you have laying around. (Yes, I realize this is just the beginning....)Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-61148610134479358342012-04-09T19:34:00.001-07:002012-04-09T19:34:37.222-07:00Small projects to bide my timeI swear once I have more stuff to post about, I'll make entries more often. We have possibly found "the" trailer, but the owner has it filled up with furniture and we have to wait for him to unload it. I'm super anxious to get started on that.<br />
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In the meantime-in-between time, I'm trying to come up with little projects for myself.<br />
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1. Night weaning the baby! Hoping she'll start sleeping better soon.<br />
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2. Easter Eggs-we decorated with markers.<br />
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3. Trying to come up with as many storage ideas as possible. This one is based on those hanging stuffed animal holders, the white plastic chain with the little clips on it. I just took a cotton rope I had, tied some knots in it, and slid a black paper clip thing on the rope after each knot. It's got 6 clips, and it can hold anything that's not too heavy.</div>
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4. I'm making my very first batch of kimchi tonight! Following <a href="http://neo-homesteading.blogspot.com/2012/01/kimchi-101-two-recipes-for-korean.html" target="_blank">these instructions</a>. I've recently become addicted to store bought kimchi (which is like $7 a small jar), so I need to figure out how to make my own. Hoping it works cause I'm fiendin!<br />
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<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-26582588851270638192012-04-02T08:54:00.000-07:002012-04-02T08:54:01.116-07:00The Secret Life of PlantsWe watched this documentary for the first time the other night, and it's pretty mind-blowing. It seems like a lot of the books and movies I'm coming across lately have a central theme of pan-consciousness. There is energy in most everything (does anything not have energy? man-made polymers?), but we are just conduits for this energy, the source is the thing that people have come up with so many different names for: The Universe, God, The Great Mystery, That Which Is Which Was and Will Always Be, etc.<br />
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The movie also strengthened my feelings on intention. Life will always take life, whether it's plants or animals, but I believe my intentions should always be of gratitude and respect when eating anything.<br />
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Here's a clip:<br />
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<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-62662603990389246562012-03-31T18:27:00.000-07:002012-03-31T18:27:10.236-07:00Yard SaleHad the yard sale today, it was a success and now we're all totally exhausted. <br />
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Most of the our earnings came from the records Miles is getting rid of. The shelf in the picture below is one of 3, he's getting rid of 2 shelves worth. <br />
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Taking it one step at a time, I'm sure I'll look back at this period in our lives with fondness someday, but right now it just seems really hectic. I am so thankful that these changes are happening though!Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-37626412427077055442012-03-21T08:54:00.001-07:002012-03-21T08:54:24.896-07:00Things are happening!After we move out of the house, we'll be living in a trailer for the next year +, until we get a structure built on the land.<br />
Yesterday we bought our tow vehicle! I needed something that could pull quite of bit of weight, had room for the kids and was also a 4x4.<br />
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So we bought this 2000 Chevy Tahoe Z71. It has a tow package, V8 engine, and it's obviously roomy. I believe the towing capacity is 6,500 lbs. It's very strange to own such a large vehicle, but it will be used very purposefully. <br />
Once we get the car inspected and registered and all that fun stuff, we'll get a trailer. Right now I'm really leaning towards doing a cargo trailer conversion (read all about those <a href="http://www.tnttt.com/viewforum.php?f=42&sid=d76d338283322ebb7d11b6587d2bd276" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://tnttt.com/">tnttt.com</a> is an incredible wealth of knowledge). I'm thinking about converting a cargo trailer (as opposed to just buying a camper) for a couple reasons:<br />
-so we can have the exact set up we want (everything we need, nothing we don't need)<br />
-I can make it more space efficient and use a smaller trailer<br />
-quality can be much higher (even when using salvaged materials)<br />
-aesthetics can be whatever we choose<br />
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We're also getting ready for our massive yard sale. It's amazing how much stuff you can just put away in your closet/basement/attic and forget about it. You look around the house and you don't see much, but it's all hidden! It's hard work to remove yourself from "the system". I keep reminding myself that nothing would change if I was just moseying along. So things are going well, I'm very excited that after all my years of planning for this, it's finally coming into fruition. Things are happening!Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-1045682292653996162012-03-12T19:54:00.001-07:002012-03-12T19:55:11.615-07:00Still HereThings are happening, but it feels like nothing is happening.<br />
Gathered some more dandelions today to make some dandelion chips, a la kale chips.<br />
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Turned out pretty good, a bit more bitter than kale obviously, but good. I cooked these for about 3 minutes at 350 degrees.<br />
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In other news:<br />
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-I got my pressure cooker! I'd highly recommend getting one if you're thinking about it. I'm not at all into technology for technology's sake, but this thing is a great invention. So far, I've cooked beans with a ham hock (in under half an hour!), and potatoes. Not only does it save energy by shortening the cooking time, but it saves water too. I cooked 8 medium to large potatoes with 1 cup of water! <br />
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-We are officially land owners, yay!!!<br />
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-My baby's turning 1 on the 17th. So glad to have her in my life.<br />
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<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-71267464883193861242012-03-04T19:45:00.001-08:002012-03-04T19:45:35.872-08:00Trailer Hunting on Craig's List<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been searching for a decent trailer on craigslist lately, it's pretty fascinating really. Learning the difference between 5th wheels, goosenecks and pull behinds. We missed out on a '75 Argosy ("sister to the Airstream") because I didn't move fast enough: lesson learned. Whatever trailer we get will probably be our home for the next year plus until we get the house built, I really need to choose wisely!</div>
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Meanwhile this video I found on the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/kirstendirksen" target="_blank">faircompanies youtube channel</a> is giving me LIFE!</div>
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<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-30754947090712175992012-03-01T18:37:00.000-08:002012-03-01T18:37:18.990-08:00It's Dandelion Time!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Around here we seem to be at the tail-end of "the winter that never was". Lots of warm days, no major snowfall, and plenty of signs of spring by February. One that I was excited about this year was dandelions coming up. They're best to eat (less bitter) before the flowers come up. I gathered some today, boiled for a couple minutes, drained the water and drank it and then added the greens to some cheesy hash browns and eggs.<br />
<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-84618322232985174412012-02-27T09:38:00.000-08:002012-02-27T09:38:10.511-08:00becoming post-consumer<br />
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I posted this little rant of my <a href="http://ancientish.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">tumblr</a>, but thought I would share it here too. We watched "<a href="http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Trouble_the_Water/70084142?trkid=2361637" target="_blank">Trouble the Water</a>" last night, and that really brought a lot of these thoughts to a head. I'm crying again just thinking about people being left to suffer and/or die because they didn't fit into the government's (aka the corporations) desirable demographic.</div>
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Things in this world are just becoming clearer and clearer to me, and I’m feeling an obligation to at least start a conversation.</div>
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Much of the people in our capitalist, Western society are being controlled by needing to buy everything. Shelter, temperature control for poorly designed structures, food, transportation, health care, communication, clothing, entertainment, these all require a constant stream of money. And in order for wealthy people to keep a big stream of money coming into their pocket, more and more things are becoming “necessary” to buy.</div>
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The bottom is falling out, obviously it has been for awhile. We took out a mortgage for a house 5 years ago. Our loan was for $97,000. We now owe $82,000. That’s 5 years of monthly payments of $760. A lot of months we paid extra thinking that would help pay off the loan sooner.</div>
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760x12x5=45,600 </div>
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There is only $15,000 taken off our original loan. That’s $30,600 in interest directly into Bank of America’s pockets. This alone makes me feel sick, but on top of that our house is now worth less than $50,000, maybe not even $40,000. We might end up having to foreclose if we can’t get a short sale, which is fine with me because I’m never taking out a loan from a bank again.</div>
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I’m telling you all this so you can possibly avoid it, and we can stop giving crap loads of money to banks and be more in control of our lives. <strong style="margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px;">Save money and buy something small with cash! </strong> Maybe a little rundown place that you can do repairs on. A travel trailer/camper is a good idea too. Even if you’re paying rent, you’re paying the landlord who is then paying a mortgage.</div>
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<a href="http://www.house-energy.com/Walls/ThermalMassFloors.html" target="_blank">Passive solar combined with thermal mass can heat and cool your house for free</a></div>
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I also think people should stop going to college without a specific goal, and start learning real skills. Learn a skill that you can barter with: construction, food production, sewing, healing, car repair, electronic repair, carpentry, cooking, baking, hunting, etc. Learn about the natural resources in your area and how you can cultivate and replenish them. </div>
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I just can’t sit back and watch more and more people getting shit on because they don’t have the money or the means to fulfill their basic needs. If we can’t take care of each other, we have nothing. <strong style="margin-bottom: 0px !important; margin-top: 0px !important; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: 0px;">We need to get our money out of the corporations</strong>. The more they get, the more they want, literally. They have to see their profit go UP every quarter. There is a lot here to wrap my head around, and I know we are living within a structure that has been set up for the benefit of the few and will be very difficult to change. But I feel like I have to try at this point, to at least start talking about it.</div>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-72338158836522173442012-02-24T08:39:00.000-08:002012-02-24T08:39:09.892-08:00Wish listWhile we are getting rid of a ton of stuff now (gigantic yard sale at our house March 31st!), there are still a couple things on my "to buy/find list" right now.<br />
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<b>1. Pressure Cooker</b>-apparently this will cook stuff really fast, especially good for beans, potatoes, stock, rice. <br />
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<b>2. Plastic totes/any type of water containers</b>-these plastic totes with the metal cage are usually around 275 gallons. Of course, finding a big (1000-2000 gallon) cistern would be nice too, but I should probably wait until we're actually on our land to get one of those. <br />
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<b>3. Luna Sandals</b>-made for barefoot runner/minimalist shoe folks, but I just like how they look. Plus you can get them custom made for your feet at no extra cost <a href="http://lunasandals.com/sandals/2-the-original-luna" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-15792917226439450312012-02-16T17:42:00.000-08:002012-02-16T17:42:50.962-08:00Random videos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y2EsZpobWJs?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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"Smokey Robinson & The Miracles-You Really Got A Hold On Me" </div>
This is the only "lullaby" that consistently puts my youngest to sleep. I feel bad singing "I don't like you" to my baby, but it works. I probably sing this song at least 6 or 7 times a night.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/qwHcFxForzM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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"How to Wash Dishes With Dirt"</div>
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Always thinking about water conservation! </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/3-AOPFRXebg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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"Queens of the Stone Age-Spiders and Vinegaroons"</div>
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QOTSA has been my favorite band since I first heard "Rated R" in 2000. They fulfill my musical tastes to such an extent that I rarely seek out new music. I am satisfied by this song and their early stuff especially in ways that I can't really put into words.</div>Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8755731244159072439.post-78154265703519056952012-02-15T09:49:00.000-08:002012-02-15T09:49:30.622-08:00Evolutionarily Appropriate Parenting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD6DmsfTTOCdrw-l3KvMnOUEyRLIYgxKO-D8bHA6V8diIGZn9THoDzpUtR8ssvgWm0S84LmxvWWJDcSWjtaXt3L8x0-7tN4Ol3aNfSTj-EIc73I8Drr7Ux1md5xA0i2hhROMb-T-dAo5g/s1600/scene_cro_magnon_big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD6DmsfTTOCdrw-l3KvMnOUEyRLIYgxKO-D8bHA6V8diIGZn9THoDzpUtR8ssvgWm0S84LmxvWWJDcSWjtaXt3L8x0-7tN4Ol3aNfSTj-EIc73I8Drr7Ux1md5xA0i2hhROMb-T-dAo5g/s400/scene_cro_magnon_big.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I'm fascinated by genetics and epigenetics (environmental factors that affect how genes are expressed), I think mainly because they are a link connecting us to our ancestors and all the ancient wisdom they were attuned to. Our genes have expectations for us before we are even born. They expect we will live in an environment with plenty of light, so we grow eyes. They expect that we will walk on two legs and our body structure is set up accordingly. They expect us to develop language, tools, and culture. They also have expectations for how we will be cared for in our incredibly long and arduous stages of baby and childhood. From all the information I have gathered about this, it seems some of our genetic expectations for child rearing (what I've dubbed "Evolutionarily Appropriate Parenting"/EAP) are:<br />
-breastfeed for a minimum of 2 years<br />
-kept in close body contact (at birth the baby should be constantly in bodily contact with a caretaker<br />
[does not have to be the mother], and then it can gradually lessen as baby starts exploring it's<br />
surroundings, but it should never be cut off completely. Even adults need bodily contact with<br />
others.)<br />
-baby sleeping next to caretaker<br />
-children learning things contextually and at the appropriate time<br />
-group of adults and adolescents looking after a child ("It takes a village")<br />
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The last one is key and it does not fit in at all with our 21st century American lifestyle. By placing so much emphasis on independence and individuality in our culture, it is now incredibly difficult to rear children in a evolutionarily appropriate way, the way our genes expect. So, I totally get why most people don't do it this way anymore. At times I question my sanity for trying to do all these things, but these are things I can't unlearn. I've already taken the red pill, so to speak. But I do think this is one reason that media (tv, computer, movies) is so entrenched in the lives of kids in our modern age. It offers not only a relief for the primary caretaker, but it offers the additional stimulus children would be otherwise receiving from other people. So, I really don't have any answers here. I can only try to find a balance between EAP and living with fulfillment and gratitude in our current culture. <br />
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<br />Jessehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08096001413369115209noreply@blogger.com1