Painting

I spent the afternoon working on painting the siding for the tiny house. It is too cold to paint outside so I am set up in a heated space. Painting is going fairly quickly and I am hoping to finish next week.

Announcing My Tiny House Project

Tiny house scale model exterior view.

I am announcing my major project that I will be working on this winter and into the spring. I am going to be building an 8’X18’ tiny house on wheels!
I have been planning this project for the past few months, but I am just now starting to do actual physical work. First up is painting the wood siding.
The tiny house will be built from SIPs panels (structural insulation panels). With SIPS panels you don’t need as thick of a wall as you do with a stick built wall to have adequate insulation, and when you are constrained to have you house be under 8.5 feet (the width limit for a trailer without a wide load permit) every inch counts.
These SIPs panels are made from two sheets of oriented strand board with polyurethane foam insulation in between.
The walls of my house will be 6.5 inches thick and R40. This number will be significant to some of you and mean nothing to others, for the benefit of the others, I will say that that’s good insulation.
I am purchasing the SIPs from a company called Eco-Panels. The SIPs are made with window and door

Boston Trip

I took a bus to Boston yesterday for a big climate rally. I brought my guitar and played a few songs on the bus (which as it turns out is really difficult! You are constantly having to focus on not falling and you can't really hear yourself or your guitar. But it was still fun!) It was a beautiful event with about 2,000 people in attendance.

The Shed is Finished!

Cliamte Rally (last monday)

Last Monday, I went with my mom and sister to a rally that was part of the Global Climate March. Over 735,000 people from 175 countries attended a total of over 2300 events all over the world. The event I attended had over 70 people in attendance (a very good turnout for a small rally in the upper valley). It is so inspiring to see people in such numbers coming together to demand that our leaders take action on climate change.

I'm almost done with the garden shed, hoping to finish this weekend!

Last weekend I had a chance to speak at Hartland's Unitarian Universalist church as part of a climate change themed service. I also played a few of my original songs. For anyone who is interested, below is what I spoke about.

 

It is my dream to have a small farm of my own someday, a farm that can provide food for me and my family while we enjoy the luxury of doing what makes us happy. Every one of us has a dream. I’m sure all of you do. I’d like you to take a few second what you dream of doing in the next 10, 20, or 30 years.

Garden Shed

I have been using the nice weather this week to make progress on my garden shed. It is an 8' X12' shed and I bought it as a kit from Jamaica Cottage Shop. I have been really happy with the kit so far, it is well designed, and all of the wood so far has been cut accurately. The estimated assembly time is 20 hours, and although I have not been keeping track of time spent, I would guess that I am getting close to halfway done.

Root Veggies

I harvested celeriac, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, and cabbage over the past few days! 23 lbs celeriac, 53 lbs carrots, 81 lbs rutabaga, 71 lbs turnip, and 112 lbs cabbage...Yikes!

Pressing Cider

 It has been such a great year for wild apples that I decided to make some cider. I spent a few hours picking apples, and got 100lbs. I spent the majority of an afternoon pressing the apple with my dad. Operating the cider press is a two person job. From our 100 lbs of apples we got 5 gallons of cider. It was so much fun that we decided to make more cider with our neighbors the next weekend.

Cider from two different apple trees.

Apples ready to press.

Washing apples.

Pressing cider with some friends.

Beans

Four and a Half Pound Turnip

Five Types of Corn

Two ears of each of the five varieties of corn that I grew this year. From left to right: Minnesota 13 Dent, Painted Mountain, Dakota Ivory, Early Pink Popcorn, Calico Popcorn.

Peppers!

Winter Squash

There is a small chance of frost tonight, so I decided to harvest my winter squash! The salmon colored squash are a variety called 'Australian Butter' and they are supposedly a very good keeper, this is my first time growing them. The green and orange pumpkins are called 'Kakai' and they are grown for pumpkin seed. Their seeds don't have the tough hulls like normal pumpkins. The blue-green squash is called a Jardhale. Not pictured (because they are buried at the bottom of the heap) are 'Butternuts' and 'Delicatas'.

Maine Ocean Sunrise

I was lucky enough to see some beautiful sunrises while in Maine!

Common Ground Fair

I spent the weekend at the Common Ground Fair in Maine with my family. This fair specializes in organic and sustainable agriculture and always has many interesting demonstrations and talks as well as great local food, music, and craftspeople selling their crafts.

The incredible array of tomatoes.

Beautiful prize-winning purple cauliflower

Draft goats!

Beautiful beans, unlike any I've ever seen. The variety is called 'Bahimba', and I am really hoping that I can get my hands on some seed.

 

 

 

 

Peppers and tomatoes!

More Popcorn!

This incredibly beautiful variety of popcorn is called 'Calico'.

Rabbit Wool

 I plucked Mocha, my angora rabbit for the first time last week. Angora rabbits molt every few months, and their loose wool must be plucked out. This does not hurt the rabbits since the wool slips out easily. The pictures show Mocha before and after being plucked.

 

The first egg from my Icelandic chickens!

First Popcorn Test

I couldn't wait any longer, I had to test out my 'Early Pink' popcorn, and it worked! Although most of the ears still need to dry more, a few were ready (or almost ready and I couldn't wait any longer) to pop.  Because the corn I used could have dried for a bit longer, quite a few kernels didn't pop, but it won't be long until it is all dry. The picture shows and ear of dry popcorn sitting next to a small ear's worth of popped corn.

The beginnings of my popcorn harvest!

The beginnings of my popcorn harvest! This variety is called 'Early Pink'.

Dry Beans

I'm all finished harvesting and shelling dry beans.