Today, I went up to the property to accept delivery of a new electric golf cart. We had one at the old house, and we used it to transport the bins up the hill to the street every week, as well as for carting stuff around between the outbuildings. It had a towing attachment, which… Continue reading Concrete Progress
You Want Progress?
We visited our construction site today. Remember a few months ago when our original geologist resigned because he didn’t think we were taking him seriously about the ground being unstable, and how a pier depth of 20 feet wasn’t going to be good enough? Well, earlier this week we finally got sign-off from our new… Continue reading You Want Progress?
Boring (not boring)
Our builder has started drilling holes for all the foundation piers for the ADU. These piers will be different from the retaining wall piers, in that they won’t have half ton steel girders at their cores — just rebar and concrete. The rebar is supposed to show up this week, so right now the area… Continue reading Boring (not boring)
Let It Pour
With all the steel on site, we can start putting the piers in place for the retaining walls. Note, these retaining walls are not even for the ADU, they're to stabilize the site of the main house. Also, they're much more extensive than the "retaining walls" that were in place before the fire. So, our… Continue reading Let It Pour
We Have Permission!
It's been a long, tedious process, but we're finally allowed to construct! There are an awful lot of permits that one needs to rebuild a house. First, there was the debris removal permit. Then, the permit for the temporary power pole. Then the septic inspection, the fire safety inspection, and the geological inspection as well… Continue reading We Have Permission!
Buried Treasure
You know how if a story takes place in someplace that's been continuously occupied by people for hundreds or thousands of years, there's a decent chance that one of the characters is going to dig up some forgotten treasure? Yeah, so that happened. The meadow where Lise used to practice archery and where nothing has… Continue reading Buried Treasure
Sweet Pickles!
Our cucumber vines are bearing many fruit. So many that, despite eating the cucumbers in salads every day, we still have a lot. It must be pickle time! Today, I picked 8 pounds of cucumbers and processed them into 8 quarts of sweet pickles. Recipe and procedure below the fold… Brine 4 cups sugar 8… Continue reading Sweet Pickles!
The Rain Falls
It's been a long, dry winter. The alstromeria have given up and decided it's spring again, sprouting up fresh leaves in just the past couple of days. And now, we have finally received some rain! I spent some time last week getting a second cistern, Seena, hooked up. I got up on the roof and… Continue reading The Rain Falls
Fresh Salsa
It's fresh produce season again, which is wonderful. That plus a little encouragement from Thug Kitchen has got me making fresh salsa and guacamole pretty frequently. Hooray for our house! In case anyone was wondering, here's the OCD salsa I just made (OCD because I did all that tiny chopping by hand, sort of a… Continue reading Fresh Salsa
Continuing Our Dogs’ Education
When we first got our rat terriers, we got them to attack the rats that were gobbling up our chickens' feed (and eggs). It took them a couple of years to figure out that they were supposed to chase the rats and that if they weren't fast enough, the rats would get away. Eventually, they figured it… Continue reading Continuing Our Dogs’ Education
The Quintana-Beitzel Coprosperity Sphere 