Mini Orchard and December Snow

Right after Thanksgiving, we planted our fruit trees. We now have two peach, two pear, three apple and two fig trees. Peaches are Elberta and Contender, pears are Bartlett and Moonglow and apples are Gala, Granny Smith and Pink Lady. Brown Turkey figs apparently do well in this area. We planted the figs in a "sun trap" on the south side of our beautiful shipping container. We also planted raspberries and twenty asparagus crowns. We ordered our trees from Stark Bros. Nursery as we wanted to attempt to get the highest quality for our long term investment.

We woke the other day (Dec.5th) to a nice blanket of snow! A freak for N. Georgia. So much for global warming, hooray!

Finally Some Pictures!!

We have been on the land now for almost a month. I finally had the time to take some pictures (after we finally found where the camera was packed).









It feels like home. It is compact, but seems spacious enough and quite comfortable.
Most of the finishing touches are done on our renovation of the camper so we can start focusing attention on the house plans.











We have begun throwing ideas around again. Continuing to develop the land is also a priority and we plan to plant some fruit trees this fall. We prepared our first garden patch over the past few months and will put our garlic crop in next month.

We're in

Here is just a short note to say "We Moved". We finally renovated the camper and now call it home. Tonight is night # 6. It feels really good to know that we own where we are living. It is still a bit chaotic with our stuff piled up everywhere. The project list is a mile long. Everyone is asking when we are going to start the building project, and it depends on a few factors, but we hope to break into it sometime early next year. This winter will be all about planning the project and working out our financial abilities. The best news is that we only have the small payment to make on the land, and no more rent! We hope to be saving some startup money quickly. Stay tuned.

Renovating the Camper

Well, I promised I would have photos up and I still don't. It has been a while since I posted anything, but a lot has happened. We are close to getting the camper liveable and our septic system is in. We built the smallest allowable septic system we could. Dade county had almost no building codes but they require a septic permit and inspection. We plan to build an outdoor sawdust toilet for humanure, but we will use the septic system for the indoor toilets in our house. We will make a greywater trench for washing machine wastewater and showers. We are still designing this system. Some of this "wastewater" may be recycled for irrigating orchard trees.

Our hope is to be moved in to the camper by September 1st, which means finishing the repairs to it and building a small addition for an second bedroom. We also have to trench the water line from the meter at the street. So far, all our improvements have been paid for as our funds have permitted and we will continue with this method of financing as long as we can. Eventually we will need to borrow money for construction. We are investigating ways of alternative financing through individuals, where we could pay 7 or 8 percent apr. These would represent investments from the individuals at a rate they would not likely see on the stock market or most other investments going these days. We are working out what would be the total amount we would be comfortable paying on while we build. We will be saving $500 a month as soon as we move out of the house we are renting and that could all go toward paying loans. Initially it will go towards our savings as we have depleted it with the latest improvements.

We are pleased with the progress. We have over 20 trees laying on the ground soon to be turned into more beams for the timberframe project. I mentioned in the previous post that these have all been recovered from nearby properties that saw a lot of downed trees from a windstorm. The framing system is mostly designed as is the floor plan for the house. It is going to be a great relief to finally be on the land. That's all for now. Until next time. Peace--

Getting on the Land

Our next step is to get on the land. We need to get out from paying rent so that we can devote everything we can to New England road. We have recently put an RV on the site and will ready it for the extended stay it will require to make our home.

Since I started this post offline some weeks ago, we experienced an intense storm season. A lot of trees blew down in the area and we have delayed improvements on the RV and are spending our free time collecting downed trees from adjacent and other local properties to be sawed into posts and beams for our house. Our friend Mark lent us a log trailer and our friend Scott has made his van available to use for moving the logs. We hired Mark to mill the three trees we harvested last November and will hire him again to mill the logs we are collecting now. Thanks to George, Doris, Pat and Alan for making their downed trees available. These trees are truly a windfall for us and we may be able to gather most of the lumber we will need for our house over the next several weeks. We hope to make some progress on the RV also and be able to move there soon.

First Entry Homestead Dreams

Welcome to our Homestead. We bought 1-3/4 unimproved acres back in October 2008 and are planning to build a permaculture site. Historically, the land has been part of a small farm and most recently a pasture for a few cattle and a horse. It has fertile soil and a southeast facing slope. It is ideal for the plans we have to build a passive solar home as well as for the many elements we will incorporate into the permaculture design; multiple gardens, small orchard, rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, solar hot water and natural building. So far, we have already begun solar drying large timbers harvested locally. we are planning a timberframe with straw, clay and earth plaster wall systems constructed from local materials. Ultimately the homestead will operate as an integrated, low energy and partially self-sufficient mini-farm.

These are the only pictures we have of the land as it was before we started making plans on it. They are fairly low quality, but here goes.