12 Acres and a Dog

Masonry Heater Part II

2012-01-14T21:10:00.000-06:00

I wanted to finish the center channel of the masonry heater today before I updated the blog, but I ran out of time and almost out of mortar. I decided to do the update anyway.

Inner firebox finished.

Lintel in place. The slots underneath will hold firebrick splits to form a heat shield.

My inner firebox ended up a little shorter than my outer firebox so I used some leftover castable refractory cement to bring it up to the same level.

The 2 inch gaps form a bypass channel that runs underneath the bake oven floor.

Bake oven floor is set in a bed of refractory mortar.

The back wall is gasketed with 1/8 inch ceramic paper and it sits dry.

Firebrick walls and back wall of the bake oven is gasketed with 1/8 inch ceramic paper.

Top of bake oven in place.

Channel behind the bake oven.

Flared rear channel tilted up so you can see the cuts.

Flare bricks in place.

In order to bring the front and back up to the same level we needed to rip 5/8 inch off the top course of the front bricks.

This is the start of the angled transition header that holds the capping slabs.

This is a view from the front.

Once the angled transition header is finished we will start to lay up the side channels.

Masonry Heater Part I

2011-12-28T18:10:00.001-06:00

Our latest project is the masonry heater. I've been excited to start building this monument since day one. We are building a 22" finnish contraflow. If you are unfamiliar with masonry heaters, think of it as a fireplace with a lot of mass and a flue that winds about a bit before leaving out the roof of your house. The mass is for heat storage and the winding flue is for gathering up all that heat. It is one of the most efficient ways of burning wood.

Here is our account thus far. The first thing we did was to make some molds in order to pre-cast a few pieces of the heater. A masonry heater burns really hot. So to make the pre-cast pieces we needed to purchase what is called castable refractory cement. When all is said and done it is basically a concrete with a very high heat tolerance.

We ended up using two different types of castable refractory - Harbison Walker KS-4 and Alsey Hi-cast. I prefer the Alsey. It seemed much more workable.

The molds were made out of lumber, but we had to take extra care to make them water tight. Castable refractory (and common concrete) get their strength by curing; the slower the better. So in order to make our molds water tight we wrapped the interior surface with house wrap tape, stapled on plastic and mounted them to a plywood sheet. A side note, use heavier plastic than painters plastic. It tears too easy.

After they were mounted, a bead of silicone was applied to all the seams.

We had to pour the slabs in my garage since the castable refractory is temperature sensitive. This was a very messy experience.

After the refractory was poured into each mold, we vibrated it by putting a piece of scrap lumber up against the mold and beating on it with a hammer drill. This proved very effective for those of us with limited tools.

After each piece was poured, they were covered with plastic to cure.

Three bake oven slabs, two capping slabs and one hearth slab.

This is the base slab laid in place in a bed of common mortar. The base slab is not refractory. It is 3 parts vermiculite to 1 part portland cement. FYI vermiculite concrete cures extremely slow.

The following photos are a course by course synopsis of the progress so far. All joints are thin and laid with refractory cement - Meeco's Red Devil (because of availability)

The space in the front middle is the where the ash box is located. The hole in the back is where the flue connection is. The two side holes are clean outs for the side flue channels.

This picture shows a port I left open in order to try to have an under fire air source to speed up the hot coals phase of the fire. It is something I read about here, but wasn't included in the plans I purchased here.

Hearth floor with ash drop.

Firebox outer shell.

Expansion joint in the rear of firebox.

Firebox inner shell.

This is the progress so far. When I am completely done, I plan to compile the total photo sequence into one link to try to make things easier for anyone building the same heater.

We Do Acid

2011-11-26T18:10:00.001-06:00

I can't wait to see what kind of traffic the title of this blog draws. Over the past week we have tackled the acid staining of our concrete floor.

Parts of the project were as easy as I thought they would be, and other parts were much more difficult. I'll start from the beginning.

We used kona brown colored stain from Butterfield - mainly because I could get it locally. Most experts recommend doing a test spot in an inconspicuous area. So we did. Our test spot revealed a color we liked and gave us the confidence to continue.

We started by moving everything out of the room.

This is the first time we could see this much of the floor in months. Then we masked off the walls with some leftover landscaping plastic.

Next, we cleaned the floor and cleaned the floor and cleaned the floor. We used a CHO concrete cleaner that also came from Butterfield. I would not recommend this cleaner unless you have really old or dirty concrete. The cleaner needs to be neutralized with a solution of baking soda and water, which was the start of our problems. We must have scrubbed and wet vac'd the floor a half dozen times trying to clean up the remaining residue. If I had it to do over again, I would use something like 'simple green' or another degreaser style detergent.

Once we were finally done cleaning the concrete, it was time to do some acid. I mean stain the floor. We used a hand pump sprayer, just like a garden sprayer. The manufacturer warns you not to use a sprayer with metal parts. I don't know what will happen, but I envision a MacGyver style explosion. Laying the stain down is pretty simple. You just work your way out of the room and let it dry.

Here is another mistake I made that you don't have to. Make sure your stain is completely dry before you neutralize it. It will save you some clean up time. The stuff that is still a bit wet contaminates your clean up solution and makes cleaning up take longer. It may also make some designs you aren't happy with. After it is completely dry, you need to neutralize it with a solution of baking soda and water. Then you need to work your tail off trying to clean up the baking soda residue with clean water - before the residue drys on the surface.

We ended up doing a second coat, mostly to hide some of the mistakes I made when I washed my stain off too early - but partially because we wanted a darker shade.

When all is stained you need to seal your creation.

The sealer we used was also from Butterfield. It is solvent based and very nasty stuff. Get in, get it sealed and get out. Make sure to follow the directions on the can. For example, ours said that it is highly flammable and temperature sensitive. Two things that could have made everything go horribly wrong. We used two coats of sealer followed by three coats of Halloway House floor finish. Even though mistakes were made, we couldn't be happier with our floor.

This last picture is a teaser for the next blog post.

The End of Tuckpointing

2011-09-18T20:23:00.000-05:00

The tuckpointing is finished! It was an ongoing project for the bulk of the summer and today my wife finished off the last bit. The pointing ended exactly where the slipforming ended last year - the south peak.

We are ecstatic that we can move on from another very large project. Hats off to my wife and my mom for doing all the tooling.

Today we also started putting trim around the windows.

And on Saturday ... watermelon harvest!

Closed Cell Spray Foam

2011-08-31T20:59:00.000-05:00

This week we hired a crew to spray in closed cell spray foam. It was an expensive option, but it was a lifetime choice. It doesn't settle, compress, take on water or mold (according to research). Also, it fills in all air gaps. Today was the first day after insulation, and the upstairs was noticeably cooler. I think we will be happy we chose it.

In poplar news, the Op-367s either look like this

or this.

The larger ones are doing great. The smaller ones are starting to succumb to the grasshopper plague. Also, because of the house building we didn't plant them all at the same time ... or the right time. Another thing that I started doing about mid-summer (should have been earlier) is spray deer repellent on them regularly. It seems to be helping.

One last tidbit. We found another little friend.

This marks the 4th species of snake we've found on our property. This is called a smooth green snake (a highly original name). It was wicked fast. Pretty cool.

Tuckpointing

2011-08-14T20:02:00.000-05:00

Amongst other things, we have been spending a lot of time tuckpointing the joints between stones. We started out doing this by hand, which proved to be a painfully slow process. Then we tried a grout bag, which we never got the hang of. While doing an internet search, my Mom found this little gem - the quikpoint mortar gun. We were hesitant to buy it because of the expense of a tool we weren't sure would work for us. After I called the company I was convinced we should buy it. They were very courteous and seemed to sincerely want their product to work for us.

This tool has greatly increased our speed. I would highly recommend purchasing one if you have a lot of pointing to do and not a lot of skill. Here is our process.

Stones in the wall.

Errant concrete chipped out of the joints with a rock hammer.

Joints filled with mortar gun. We have been using quikrete's mason mix mixed with Gibco's MRF. You can find information about Gibco's plasticizer on the quikpoint website.

Tool the joints with hi-tech pointing tools (bent butter knives).

Voila! The unskilled mason's solution to pointing a stone wall.

We also (finally) finished putting in windows. The last window we installed was the arched one on our south peak. In order to make the arched buck, my dad cut arches out of treated plywood and sandwiched them together. To our surprise, it actually went in quite well.

More Windows

2011-07-25T21:13:00.000-05:00

While working on the tuck point (blog to come), we have been working on a handful of smaller projects. One of which was cutting in some windows. Up until this point, we had never framed a window into a wooden opening. We had only put windows into concrete openings. Once we figured out the first window, the second one went in pretty easily. We found our instructions online, so I’m not going to go into detail on how to do it. It is fairly straight forward although, just like everything else it comes with its own terminology – king studs, jack studs, cripples etc.

We are about 2/5 done with the tuck pointing, but I am taking pictures of each stage on one section of wall that isn’t done yet. We should be done with that soon and then I will relay the results.

We Finished Shingling

2011-06-30T16:28:00.000-05:00

In the interest of saving our sanity, we decided to rent a lift in order to finally finish shingling. We finished this project about a week and a half ago but I am just now getting around to blogging about it.

Let me tell you, this is a project I won't miss. By the by, shingling from the lift greatly improved our shingling speed. A big thanks to my Dad for helping us put the shingles on our roof. He is a apparently a glutton for punishment.

Blog Catch Up

2011-06-18T18:20:00.000-05:00

It has now been over a month since my last blog. I figured I better get back to it, so here is a hodge podge of what has been going on.

We are nearly done shingling. It is going well and believe it or not we’re getting pretty good at it. Shingling on a steep pitch as ours is, is largely a function of weather. We just haven’t had that many days without extreme winds or rain or both.

On top of that, we spent some time helping our community fight a swelling Missouri River. We’re not out of the woods yet and the river is still rising. We continue to pray for the folks in the flooded areas.

We have been working on the second floor flooring on and off. The flooring is one of those projects (rare as they may be) that is turning out exactly how I wanted it to. We are blind screwing 2x6 tongue and groove down with 3” trim head screws. Here’s a tip. Get yourself some reversible bar clamps and use them as spreaders. It is so much easier to force errant boards into place.

My Mom and wife have starting tuck pointing the north wall. That process deserves a post of its own. Stay tuned.

This year we didn’t want to miss out on so much planting like we did last year. So, we planted (at least half of) a large garden.

We added 18 Canadian Haskaps to our Honeyberry plot. AND

We have finally started getting our poplars in the ground. So far we only have about 70 of 150 in the ground. We have mostly Op-367s, but I cut some ‘native’ poplar cuttings from my wife’s parent’s house last fall. It will be interesting to see which we get more growth out of. I plan to document the growth this year, as a lot of people seem to be interested in poplars as fuel for the woodstove – the Op-367 in particular.

One Year Of Construction

2011-05-05T19:59:00.000-05:00

It has been a year of construction for the Barnhart family. In one year we have gone from this

to this.

Looking at those two pictures definitely makes it easier to haul our butts out there each night and weekend (although I do miss all the green grass). However, I can tell you at least two of us are tired of burning the candle at both ends. We are definitely not working at the same feverishly furious pace we were last year at this time, but we are still dedicated. Whenever I find myself burned out, I step back and look at the big picture. I step back and look at our massive and beautiful stone walls. So, happy constructionniversary to all involved.

Shingling Progress

2011-04-27T21:34:00.000-05:00

We've finished shingling the north side of the house. Now for the south side.

You can still see some mud from our boots up there, but I think we'll let the rain wash that off.

We've also started putting up the 2x6 tongue and groove planks that make up the second floor. I don't have any pictures of that yet so I'll write more about that later.

Shingling

2011-04-10T20:28:00.000-05:00

Since we've had all the fun we can stand putting up ice and water membrane, we decided to start shingling as soon as the temperature would allow. But before we could start shingling we needed to do some prep work.

We decided to go with 1x6 cedar fascia and standard drip edge. I spent the extra money to purchase stainless steel ring shank nails for the fascia boards. We could have used galvanized, but I didn't want to risk them eventually corroding and staining the cedar.

We also needed to put up some flashing in any area that could potentially be at risk for a water leak in the future.

The system of shingles we chose comes from the Novik company. It's a company out of Canada. The product is Novislate. It is a polymer panel made to resemble slate tiles. I won't go into to much detail about the panels since the website does a good job of describing the system.

We chose them because they are a good choice for collecting rainwater and they come with a 50 year warranty. A long lasting shingle is important for a roof with a steep pitch like ours. So far they haven't gone on as easy as I thought they would but we are getting the hang of it. One thing I'm a little concerned about is the fact that they tend to scratch easily. Only time will tell if this will be a problem.

We are a little further along than the pictures show, but we didn't snap any pictures the last time we were out.

Mini-Roofing

2011-03-27T19:47:00.000-05:00

While we are waiting for some of our shingle supplies to come in, we are working on some "smaller" jobs. One of them is the small section of roof beneath the shed dormer. We wouldn't have to have this roof here, but it makes it so we can run a gutter the total length of the north side. This is what it looked like before.

We started by cutting mini-rafters. I took us a little while to figure out the angle and get the length right. But once we did, my Dad and I didn't have any troubles cutting them with the miter saw.

Next we ripped a piece of 1/2" OSB on the table saw and nailed it on with 16d nails.

And then we covered it with the same ice and water barrier.

I have to say, if you are going to do any roofing - do it from the ground. It's so much easier!

It Happened Again

2011-03-13T19:50:00.000-05:00

Thursday was a beautiful day, so we worked on the house wrap for the gable ends. We were able to get the east end completely done. For some reason, the store I bought the wrap from only had red seam tape. So for now our house looks like a candy cane.

Everything went swimmingly. We used 2 inch plastic cap nails to secure it to the OSB.

I'm not sure if they had to be 2 inches long but I was sick of pounding nails that I couldn't fit my fingers behind which was the case for the ice and water barrier on the roof. Speaking of the roof.

As I said, Thursday was a beautiful day. Friday was a different story. Friday we had a blizzard with winds gusting at 60+ mph. I wanted to go check on the house, but by the time I got off work the highways were already pretty dangerous. So ... this happened.

In light of the recent events in Japan, our little bit of destruction is insignificant. While we were picking up scraps of ice and water barrier from our house up to 1/4 mile away, I couldn't help but think about how awful it would be to wonder if your family was still alive.

So, today we cleaned up the ragged edges and began putting it back up. This time we'll use more ... everything. More nails, more wind strips, more nails in the wind strips. It's a good thing I married a woman as stubborn as I am.

We Finished Covering The Roof

2011-03-09T19:07:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we finished covering the roof ... finally.

I have the day off tomorrow, and we are going to work on putting the house wrap on the gable ends. One step closer to being truly dried in.

A shameless plug
Each year, this being the third, I participate in a charity called St. Baldrick's Day. We raise money for childhood cancer research. You can read more about it (and donate - hint hint) here. All donations are appreciated.

Back In The Saddle

2011-02-21T19:22:00.000-06:00

We fixed the storm damage

And then some.

In the first two photos the seemingly random pieces of lumber on the roof are actually strategically placed roofing protectors - we are calling them 'wind strips'.

The second two photos are the work we got done tonight. We covered the shed dormer on the north side of the house. It goes really fast when you can actually stand on the roof.

We Had A Set Back

2011-02-14T19:58:00.000-06:00

We were all fired up to work on our house tonight. When we left the house on Sunday, it looked like this.

Then, a wind storm came through with wind gusting to 60 mph. And tonight it looks like this.

When we pulled up, our hearts sunk into our stomachs. In the grand scheme of things much worse things can happen to a couple. Nothing is broke that can't be fixed. Nonetheless, tonight we cry in our beer.

The Roof III

2011-01-29T17:38:00.000-06:00

One cold day whilst I was doing some engineering (more on that later), the sun came out from behind the clouds and shone brightly on our little cottage. Soon after, I heard a sound that now makes me cringe each time I hear it. Drip, drip, drip. The sun was strong enough to melt the snow that was on the roof and it was dripping in between the panels of OSB.

I decided it was time to cover the roof. Not exactly a job I wanted in the middle of winter. Nonetheless, it needs to be done. So I borrowed a harness from work and I bought some roof jacks (sometimes called roof brackets). This is how far we've gotten.

The shingles we have are a polymer faux slate. They require the entire roof to be covered in ice and water barrier. It's more expensive than regular roofing felt, but it's also more water proof. At first the goings were pretty slow, but I quickly learned that I needed a couple more sets of roof jacks. Once I bought more and mustered up some bravery, things started to speed up a bit. It's still a lot slower than a roof you can stand on, but we'll get it done.

The ice and water barrier needs to be tacked on with roofing nails when the temperature is below 40 degrees. Once the temperatures warm up it will adhere to the OSB.

Odds and [Beam] Ends
The engineering I was talking about had to do with attaching the beams to the concrete walls. I think it is a little overkill, but since we paid an engineer to design our roof I suppose we should probably listen to him.

The beams are clipped to the wall with 1/4" steel brackets that I had made up at the local steel fabricator. There is one on each side of the beam. They are through bolted with 5/8"x7" bolts and bolted to the wall with 5/8" wedge anchors. This "little" job was tedious and I'm glad it's done.

Also, I plumbed in a propane heater to warm our hands and feet.

Windows and Doors

2011-01-05T21:37:00.000-06:00

We installed the first floor windows and doors. I was surprised by how easy the windows were and how uneasy the doors were. I had never done windows before, but I had done doors before. I dislike installing doors, but they are in.

Before putting each unit in, we sealed it with a polyurethane caulk.

The windows came with an integral nailing fin used to attach it to the window buck. We used normal galvanized roofing nails.

We shimmed the windows and doors in the areas that the directions suggested. When doing the doors, we used the shimming to make sure the door jamb was square and plumb. That proved to be tedious, and thus my distaste for installing doors.

This is how it looks with them all installed. In the spring we'll paint the doors to match and we'll also put trim around everything.

You'll notice that the windows have a bluish tint to them. That's the Low-E coating that I inadvertently ordered. Normally people are happy with Low-E. It helps to keep the heat outside out and the heat inside in. That's all well and good, unless you were counting on the sun to help heat your house in the winter. It's called passive solar design and there is much more to it. I'm no expert but the basic principle is to let the low winter sun into southern facing windows warming up a thermal mass such as concrete. To keep the house cool from the high summer sun, passive solar design calls for shading the windows with the use of overhangs or deciduous trees.

Back to the windows. We didn't want Low-E. We wanted clear glass. So today I ordered the upstairs windows the same size as the main floor windows only this time with clear glass. When they come we'll trade the clear sashes for the coated ones. It's an extra step, but I think we'll be much happier with the result.

The Roof II

2010-12-23T13:31:00.001-06:00

We have a roof! Toby and his crew did a great job building us a (very) solid roof. I guess this means that I have to get off my duff and get back on the project.

Here are some pictures that my Dad shot during the process. We're grateful for him being able to be there and take pictures for us.

We obviously need to cut some windows in on the second floor. But at this point, I figured it was more important to keep the weather out than to have the holes for the windows ready to go. Next, we'll start putting in the first floor windows and doors.

The Roof

2010-12-11T19:46:00.000-06:00

The contractor we hired to put the roof on, Tobias Marman Construction, began work this week. So far they've been great. I would recommend them to any owner-builder that may need some help with framing up their roof.

First they put down some OSB across the beams to give them a platform to work from.

They put in place the gable ends.

Then they got a crane service to come out to lift up the ridge truss.

They fit it into place.

And this is how far they got. Toby said they would likely be out on Monday to hit it hard again.

Putting The Roof On

2010-11-29T18:07:00.004-06:00

For all intents and purposes winter is here in ND. Sure it is still technically Fall, but our daytime temperatures are no longer breaking 32 degrees. You would think that I would be really worried about getting a roof on our house. I would be, except after thought and consideration we decided to contract it out to a professional. Were it mid September I think we would have tried it ourselves, but at this stage of the game speed is important.

At first we contacted a truss company, but because of the complexity of the loads, they recommended having it hand built. They also recommended a framer. We couldn’t be happier with the contractor that is going to put the roof on. We haven’t seen his work yet, but he has been very easy to work with and very patient with us first time owner-builders.

Before he could get his job done we had a little work to do. We needed to put the wall plates on the top of our stone walls (I apparently forgot to take a picture of this, I will next time we go out). In order to do that, I ground down any high spots we had on top of the wall. This wasn’t rocket science but it was a dusty, messy job.

Once we had it ground down to an acceptable level, we proceeded with the plates. We chose to put down AC2 treated 2x12s. Normally I wouldn’t be a fan of treated lumber, but these days they say it is safe (no longer contains arsenic). I still wouldn't use it near plants or crops but in this application it seemed fitting. A note of caution here, only certain fasteners work with AC2 lumber. It can be corrosive so make sure you use approved materials such as hot dipped galvanized or stainless steel. Before putting the 2x12s on top of the wall we put on a double layer of 30 pound roofing felt. I call it cheap insurance against moisture.

We are also working on putting in the window and door bucks. I don't have photos of the complete process yet, but here is what it looks like when they are in. I will document the whole process in the next blog.

Taking The Forms Off And Back Filling

2010-11-06T20:51:00.005-05:00

After finishing the stonework, we had a date with the scaffolding one more time. We had to get all those forms off. It took some time but it felt good to be done with form work for the year.

Now that the walls are up we decided we better get the back filling done before winter rears its ugly head. The code book has a chart containing the R-Value and dimensions of the insulation required for frost protected shallow foundations. The chart references the amount of heating degree days in your area. You don't have to understand heating degree days, just be able to read a map.

We put in a loop of drain pipe around the footing to drain water away from the foundation. In order to maintain the right slope, our method was to snap a chalk line and then make a ridge out of gravel to rest the pipe on. It worked pretty well.

We also insulated the berm wall.

Then we called on Jenn's Uncle Tom to help us out once again. It was only fitting that the man that made the hole, filled it in.

He did a great job and this is what it looked like at the end of the day.

Here's our stonework with the forms removed and the sand washed off.

We Lay The Last Stone

2010-10-30T19:10:00.004-05:00

Approximately four months from the time we laid the first stone, we laid the last. It feels great to be moving on to a different phase of the project.

This is what it looked like after we finished for the night. We were really trusting our stone working skills, by finishing in the dark.

Then, we celebrated our success.

Today we began putting the GluLam beams into the pockets we made in the walls. FYI, if you need to make box outs for beam pockets in a concrete wall, don't use wood. If I had to do it all over again, I would try foam. The wood was jammed in there tight even though we oiled them before their use. It took us a long time to remove them.

With the help of good friends with strong backs, we picked up each beam and hefted them into place.

We wrapped the ends that would be inside the wall with roofing felt to protect them from condensation that can occur when wood comes into contact with concrete in the right conditions. We left the plastic wrap on to protect them from precipitation until the roof goes up.

Jenn was a master at stapling the felt on after wrapping them in Christmas present fashion.

We got 5 of the eight beams into place, we'll finish the rest tomorrow. There are four 21 footers and four 24 footers. We estimate that they weigh in at about 500 pounds or so. We were tired and very thankful for the help that showed up. Stay tuned for the reveal of the south gable.

The South Gable

2010-10-26T19:21:00.005-05:00

After we finished all the stone work on the first floor. The only stone work left was the peak on the south side that extends up to the second floor. Due to the weather getting colder, we considered doing the peak in wood frame. Ultimately we couldn’t decide on a facing material that would equal the beauty of the stone. So stone it is. We also took a time out while the weather was warm to do some prep work on the back filling.

The peak went as fast as I expected it too, which was a comforting change to how things usually go.

We are using buckets and rope to get the rocks and concrete to the top.

The speed picked up even more after a surprise visit from my Aunt and Uncle. Thanks!

We are really racing the clock at this point. Not only are the temperatures getting colder, we also have much shorter evenings. Needless to say, we are very eager to set the last stone. We are very close to being able to put a roof on and make it weather tight.

The Process

2010-10-18T20:07:00.004-05:00

I’ve been promising a few pictures of our actual stone laying process for a while now, and haven’t delivered. We are getting closer and closer to completion, so I figured I better snap a few.

Set the rocks.

Sand to a depth of about 1 inch. Poke holes in the sand marking the joints.

Cover with concrete.

The next set of rocks ideally covers the previous joints, using what masons call the “two over one, one over two” technique. Just like bricks.

We're living on borrowed time in our ND, fall climate - but we're getting close to being done with masonry work. More about that next time.

The South Wall

2010-10-04T19:37:00.005-05:00

After topping the north wall we moved around to the south (and east) wall. This is very exciting to us since it closes off the stone portion of our house.

The south wall contains the bulk of the first floor windows to achieve maximum solar gain in our frigid North Dakota winters. Setting the window boxes is time consuming, but once they are in the wall takes a lot less concrete and stone.

Here's a look at the finished north wall. We put only one window on this side so as not to let in the cold winter winds.

Bailey found a new friend. She scared this little bugger out from underneath the trailer. Before we got a visual of it, we thought it might be a rattler. It was doing a darn fine impression. Turns out it was just a bull snake, a welcome rodent eater.

Here's some pictures of the progress.

Bailey's Queen of the sand pile.

This is a cross section of the wall that gives a glimpse of how it all goes together.

We Top The North Wall

2010-09-16T19:42:00.005-05:00

Last night we topped the north wall around the corner going south on the east wall. We began taking the forms off tonight, and then a storm rolled through. Weather delays at this stage of the game are really frustrating, but such is life. You can see from the pictures that we didn't even have time to wash all the sand off. We also got our septic system installed today, They came and went so fast that I didn't even get to take pictures. Anyway, not much else to say except that we are super excited to start on the south wall. From here on out, we start a series of 'lasts'. It's going to be fun to start closing the gap and making it look like a house. Here are some pictures of the progress.

The North Wall

2010-08-26T16:04:00.006-05:00

Even though it looks like not much progress has been made since the last blog, I swear we haven’t been slacking. Well, except for the blog author, he’s always slacking.

After we topped the west wall, we decided to work our way around the north wall, leaving the south wall for the grand finale. In order to do this we built up a small section on the east wall bringing it up to the four foot level of the north wall.

Setting forms where there wasn’t anything to set them on proved to be difficult. What we did was used 2x4 stilts. This in its self wasn’t the difficult part. What was tough was plumbing and leveling forms that were basically hovering in the air. Once we got everything straight and true, the pouring wasn’t anything different.

Also, in the spirit of multi-tasking, the well has been drilled and Jenn started doing the pointing. The well is 190 feet deep and the water line is fished in under the foundation. The water has been sent to the lab and we are eagerly awaiting the results.

It didn’t take Jenn long to get her pointing system down. Just like everything else, it takes longer than we would have thought but she’s getting pretty good at it. We plan to do a before and after of the pointing process, but we haven't gotten around to it yet.

Even Bailey came out to help.

We Top The West Wall

2010-08-08T19:48:00.006-05:00

Well, despite the heat and ridiculous humidity, our crew has completed a portion of our house all the way to the top. The west wall is topped. We leap frogged our forms up to the 9'4" total wall height using scaffolding and ladders. The work gets tougher the higher you get, but thankfully it's also exciting the closer you get to the top. The bandanas may make us look like really cool pirates, but they actually serve a purpose. It keeps the sun off my shaved head and allows more air flow than my ball cap, which I think just received it's sixth layer of dirt and portland cement. Oh and .... ARRRRR shiver me timbers!

In the last set of forms we embedded threaded rod into the wall every two feet. When the wall is completed all the way around, we will use the threaded rod to attach wooden sill plates in order to fasten the roof trusses.

Once the concrete was all the way to the top of the forms I used a piece of 2x4 to screed them smooth. I also troweled them to make them look more finished (I don't have a picture of that). I don't think it was necessary, but I had the trowel and I couldn't just leave it.

Today, we went out there and removed the forms so that we could ooh and ahh over our beautiful stone wall. We recovered most of the sand that was used to keep the concrete from oozing out all over the faces of the stones. What was remaining we hosed off so that the paparazzi could snap a few photos.

As a special feature, we placed a heart shaped stone over our first door box. We plan to put them over all the doors.

And, voila!

Oh look, it's the happy homesteaders in their natural environment.

Stonework Revealed

2010-07-30T20:05:00.006-05:00

Since I last posted an update on the house, we have finished the earth bermed portion of the north wall and moved on to something more exciting - actual stonework. This picture is Jenn and her Dad working together on the bermed wall.

This is what it looked like after all the slipforms were removed. A hefty concrete wall. The little white circles towards the bottom of the wall are PVC sleeves we put into the wall to house things like electrical and propane lines into the house.

The inside of the bermed wall has 2 inches of insulation, the rest of the house will have six. In order to make the six inch panels, we glued three two inch panels together. We inserted the galvanized wire through them the same as we had done before. These wires tie the foam to the wall and leave a loop on the inside in order to tie on lath when the house is closed in.

When building a masonry wall, you need to pre-plan your openings quite carefully. We went with standard sized doors and windows. In order to make a hole for said openings you need to box it out. In order to make window and door boxes that would span our 18 inch walls, we tacked 1x2 pieces on the outside of 2x12 lumber. A 2x12 is actually 1 1/2 inches by 11 1/4 inches. 1x2 measures 3/4 of an inch deep making our depth a true 12 inches. That plus our six inches of foam made the 18 inches of wall.

This picture was taken while we were setting the forms. You can see the homemade insulation panels.

This is the door box in place.

We started laying up stones using the knowledge we had gained from books. The bad part of slipforming is that you can't see the work you have done until you have another level done on top of it. We used sand at the front of the forms to keep the concrete from running all the way to the front and staining all our hard work. This is Jenn applying the sand.

I'll post a more detailed account of the process later. I get into such a flurry that I often forget to take pictures. The picture below shows the window box.

This is what the stonework looks like when you take the forms off.

This is what a section of it looks like washed. We were very happy with our first attempt at slipform stone masonry. There were very few spots where the concrete had dared creep out farther than I would have liked. When all is said and done, we will do what is called "pointing". Basically, it is like grouting between the stones to leave a more finished look. We still plan to leave the stones extending beyond the mortar, but the joints will look more uniform.
I'll try not to go so long before I do another update, but building stone wall leaves me a bit tired.

Cast of Characters

2010-07-14T20:24:00.003-05:00

Mike "the Mix Master" Barnhart

Becki "Portland Power" Barnhart

Jenn "Law and Mortar" Barnhart

Jared "Crack the Whip" Barnhart

Not Pictured:
Don "the Rock Pile Destroyer" Hermanson
Pat "the Hydrator" Hermanson

We Begin Slipforming

2010-07-11T18:50:00.008-05:00

We were finally able to go vertical on our house! We are now 16 inches up ... on 1/3 of the house. To us, it is a great victory. We started out on Friday by tying 10 foot vertical pieces of rebar to the rebar sticking out of the footing. We opted to start on the north side of the house since this side would be bermed into the earth up to the four foot level. The only downside of this is that the rocks are inside the wall rather than showing like a stone wall. That means that when we take the forms off, all we'll see is a concrete wall.

After we tied the vertical pieces on, we also tied on a horizontal piece making a rebar grid that will add support to our concrete and stone walls.

We made sure that none of the splices were anywhere near the corners, which are very structurally important.

My Mom and my Wife poked pieces of galvanized fencing wire through the insulation. The extra wire on the inside of the insulation will be embedded into the concrete, holding the insulation in place.

The loops on the inside of the wall will be used to tie on lath that we will plaster over when the house is done.

My wife had to take some time to set up the temporary 'facilities'. We bought a camping toilet that we lovingly call 'the cabana'.

After the rebar was in place (on Saturday) we bolted all the forms together and started locking them into place. We used two different methods. To keep the forms together we put a spacer in place and wrapped tie wire around two 1x2 pieces cut to 18 inches long. I used a nail to twist and therefore tighten the wires.

Method number two was some 1x4 pieces of lumber cut to 25 3/4 inches - the exact distance from the outside of one form to the outside of the other giving us 18 inches in between. We screwed them on the top to keep the forms from bowing out.

In the meantime, my Dad built these two knockouts to house some future plumbing. We oiled everything that would be touching concrete and called it a day since the temperature was in the upper 90's.

On Sunday, we were ready to start filling in the forms. We started the day using a 1:3:3 mix of concrete. One part portland cement, three parts pea rock and three parts sand. We quickly turned to a 1:2:3 mix of one part portland, two parts pea rock and three parts sand. Joe Kohler, in his book, has termed this mix 'morcrete'. It isn't quite mortar and it isn't quite concrete. It is strong yet easy to smoosh around the rocks. My parents graciously mixed all the morcrete for the first wall. The large rocks in this wall were more or less filler to save on cost.

We put in an eight hour day to fill in this section of wall. It was tiring but gratifying. And, unless we can find a way to live behind a 16 inch section of wall, it is only the beginning.

The Big Pour!

2010-07-01T18:58:00.004-05:00

We finally got to do our foundation pour, and I have to say that I am very satisfied with the final product. This is due, in no small part, to my cousin Josh and the crew he brought with him – Gary, Cody and Barry. I was very impressed with how well they worked together and just knew what to do. I definitely learned a lot. We started on the front end and worked our way around screeding off the masonry heater footing as planned.

Josh finished up the more difficult area that contained all the plumbing.

While Barry the hired finisher ran the power trowel ...

I installed the wall anchors.

Like I said it went well, but not without a couple incidences. The forms bowed out in one area (not a big deal) and lifted in another (a big deal). The lifted area ruins the ability to screed off of the form and retain the same grade. Josh and his team acted fast and screeded it by eyeballing it. When all was said and done, we put the four foot level on there and it was spot on. I was very impressed and grateful that they were there.

I ordered 20.5 yards of concrete and when we were done we had less than a wheelbarrow full of concrete left. I'd like to say I'm an expert estimator, but sometimes it's just better to be lucky than good. I had estimated 19.5 yards and added an extra yard to cover any errors.

We returned to the site today to check it out. The power troweled floor looks great and I can't wait to acid stain it. I'll snap a picture the next time we go out.

Next, we go vertical!

The Big Pour ... Almost

2010-06-27T20:29:00.004-05:00

I took Thursday and Friday off of my "day job" in order to finish up the prep work for the big concrete pour. My Dad and I worked like mad men for two days so the site would be ready for the inspector. The inspector came and we passed even though we weren't quite finished. After he left we still needed to finish up with some of the insulation and most of the rebar. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me go back to the beginning of the labor intensive long weekend. I started out by installing a loop of 4" corrugated plastic drain pipe in the event we should need a radon mitigation system.

This is what it looked like all buried. One spot near the masonry heater didn't get as low as it should have, leaving a bit of a speed bump. I don't think it will matter too much, but I probably should have pulled it out and reburied it.

I began Thursday morning by laying down an 8 mil plastic vapor barrier. I had read that if moisture wicks up through a slab on grade, it can cause flooring problems. I figured the plastic was a cheap enough insurance policy. I was joined shortly after I got on site by my Dad who probably regrets he showed up at all. We spent the day sweating and cutting XPS insulation to fit in a life size game of pink tetris.

The temperatures were hot and the humidity was high which makes for miserable working conditions. Nonetheless, we got it all just about done with the help of my Mom and my Wife. And then a storm rolled through.

We waited out the rain and decided we could still get it all cleaned up and the rebar completed before the big pour on Saturday morning. My Mom and my Wife sucked up water with the shop vac for three hours while my Dad and I finished up the steel work.

My Dad cut more that 75 32" pieces of rebar to anchor the wall to the footings. He's become invaluable to the project and we very much appreciate his help.

While all that was going on, I tied all the splices together in the footings. We used three runs of 1/2" rebar (aka #4). We used a 5' piece of pipe as a cheater bar to make the bends. Once they were in place and tied together we chaired them up on old paver bricks.

By ten o'clock Friday night (picture was taken earlier) we were all ready for the pour the following morning, provided it didn't rain again. We received a lot of rain and we don't have paved roads, so there can only be so much moisture in the ground and still allow a concrete truck carrying 10 yards of concrete to drive across our land.

It didn't rain through the night ... but it did rain Saturday morning. My cousin Josh (the foreman of team concrete) and I made the decision that it was too wet. It was a hard pill to swallow, but it was probably the safe bet. We're hoping to get it done one night this week since next weekend is a holiday weekend.

Our First Concrete Pour!

2010-06-20T19:14:00.006-05:00

After we dug out the hole for the masonry heater footing, the next step was to insulate it and tie the rebar together. Code required us to use half inch rebar tied together six inches on center. Tying the rebar together took me a lot longer than I thought it would. It was suggested that this would be our new mantra, "well that took longer than I thought it would." The suggester was correct.

Next we had to set the form for the heater at the right level and cut the insulation to fit. The conglomeration of wood surrounding the form was my way of giving us a place to set stakes since the hole got a little wider than it needed to be.

Jenn is eagerly awaiting the use of the new mixer.

We started filling it in, one wheel barrow at a time.

Until it was full! I should leave this next part out, but I think people would know better. I calculated 41 80 pound bags of ready mix. Of course it took 44 and I had to run to the store at the end of the pour. I'll learn my lesson, eventually. By the by, we are considering marketing a new work out DVD. It's called P-lift-80-pound-bags-of-concrete-90X. Your legs and back will scream for mercy after just one session.

After the hole was full, we screeded it and I troweled it smooth.

The forecasters were predicting a storm so we tarped it heavily. It did storm ... hard. But, to my surprise the tarp held in place.

Here's the final product. The smudge is a clump of dirt that I should have removed before taking the picture. I call it focal art.

Now that we had one pour out of the way, it was time to prep for the big pour. I rented a laser transit in order to set the footing forms to the right level. That thing was slick, much easier than the old scope style. Geez, my chicken legs are really pasty! Who took that picture?!

To keep them at the right level, we drove stakes we made out of 2x4s. Thanks are owed to my Dad (for many parts of the project) for making the 24 vampire slayers with the miter saw. I am continually impressed with how much work my Dad and my Wife put into the project even though I can be a relentless task master. Relentless task master is a euphemism for what they usually call me.

Up next, the big pour!

Progress Report

2010-06-12T21:30:00.006-05:00

After we finished the site prep and had a base to put our foundation on, we needed a plumber. I thought I had one locked up, but he didn't call me back. After that I started calling many plumbers. I'm not sure why, but at first I couldn't get anyone to call me back. I was an inch away from getting some books from the library and doing it myself when the clouds opened up and a ray of plumberness shone down from above. All of a sudden I had four estimates to look at. There was one clear choice at the end of it all. They happened to be the lowest bid, but more importantly, they asked the most questions and I just had a gut feeling about them. So, to be ready for them we oiled and set the footing forms in order to have our proper measurements in line.

The only bad thing about the perfect plumbers was they couldn't get to it for a week. That was Mr. Murphy and his law punching me in the gut. Then, after I was standing upright again, I calmly told Mr. Murphy that I had plenty of other work to do in the meantime. So, we decided to pick rock. We took the trailer and the pickup to a friend's farm (thank you Allens!) and got a load of rocks.

During the week, the plumbers came followed by the inspectors. During that time, I decided that the foundation pour would go more smoothly if we would pour the masonry heater (did I mention our house would have a masonry heater?) footing prior to the foundation pour. I was worried that our lack of experience would show if we needed to set screed rails in order to cover the distance from one end of the house to the other. The masonry heater footing in the center of the house would give us an edge to screed off of, thus shortening the distance between screed points.

Next, I constructed the heater form, read the code book and calculated the amount of concrete it would take to make the hefty footing for the masonry heater. After we determined the location, we marked it and began digging it out.

We dug it out so that the total depth would be 12 inches. Next we need to get the rebar cut and ready. We'll put the insulation and rebar in place and use our cement mixer to pour the heater footing. After that, we'll pour the rest of the foundation.

By the by, I haven't had time to report on my hybrid poplar cuttings. I will do a full report, but for now I can report that I have approximately 225 mini hybrid poplar trees in grow bags.

Site Prep

2010-05-25T21:34:00.005-05:00

Tonight we finished the base underneath our slab and footings. It came with a lot of hard work and I think my parents may have earned their sainthood. Some time, money and definitely a lot of hard work could have been saved, but I made a mistake. I shouldn't have had the entire excavation site dug to the depth of the bottom of the footings. If I had it to do all over again, I would simply strip the top one foot of topsoil and make a wide trench deep enough for the footings and wide enough for the footings plus the insulation. But, I haven't perfected my time machine yet so we were forced to go with what we had. Here is what we did.

First, we put down a layer of crushed stone throughout the entire excavation site about 4 inches deep and compacted it.

Then, we built up the perimeter wide enough for the footings and insulation with more crushed stone. We used screed rails and screeded it level and then compacted it again. This totaled another 4 inches (8 total inches).

The stuff in the middle is class 5 road gravel. That's what we used to build up the center under the slab portion. Once we got the perimeter done, I could no longer get the skid steer in there. This is where all the hard work comes into play.

We had to build up the middle using form boards. We built the form boards out of 1x12 boards. They should have been 2x12s instead. We got it part way filled in and then it rained really hard. The extra water pressure caused the boards to bow out. I'll have to carve the class 5 out to make them straight again before we can pour the concrete.

We filled and compacted each run of class 5 - wheel barrow by wheel barrow. I figure we probably moved better than 45 tons with wheel barrows and shovels between me, my wife and my parents.

When we got to the top of the forms we screeded it level. It feels really good to be done with the wheel barrows for a bit. Next, I'll compact it once more and then we'll be ready for the plumber to put in our under slab plumbing. Once that is in we'll set up forms outside of the class five to make our footings. I can't wait to cover all this hard work with a whole bunch of concrete.

Holey Moley

2010-05-03T19:48:00.006-05:00

We have a hole in the ground. This is how it went. We staked out the area.

The topsoil was taken off.

Eight hours later we have a hole in the ground.

The man in the Bobcat is my wife's uncle Tom. He handled the Bobcat with precision and expertise. Perhaps that's because he has owned said skid steer since 1978. Jenn's Aunt Anita also showed up in the afternoon to help us check for level. By the by, I now know how to use a transit (another skill Tom brought to the table). We owe them both big time.

Our hole in the ground is 2 feet deep, 39 feet long and 32 feet wide. We are utilizing what I believe to be a very under used footing/foundation method. We are going to be pouring a slab on grade with frost protected shallow foundations (fpsf). Basically you use vertical and horizontal insulation around your footings in order to protect the footings from frost heaving. Here is a more in depth explanation.

The method is more widely used in Scandinavian countries but has been in the International Building Code since 2002 (if I remember correctly). It falls under section R403.3. The next step is to get ready for a concrete pour.

It's Time

2010-05-02T17:26:00.005-05:00

It's time for my wife and I to reveal our inner crazy. Since we purchased our 12 acre piece of earth, we have been planning and dreaming of building our country home. Even before we found our land, I had begun researching building techniques and floor plans.

Through my research I found all kinds of books and websites on building techniques I had never even heard of. So I began reading ... and reading ... and reading. I read books on everything from stick frame to cordwood walls to strawbale building and everything in between. I liked all the alternative building methods and after every book we kept coming back to one technique in particular. Slipform stone masonry. If you don't know what that means (like I didn't) for now I'll refer you here (about mid-page) and here (some good pictures). It looked like a great system for a couple of novice builders.

After about two years of planning, drawing and redrawing - we have a set of plans and a permit. I think we have exhausted the "paper and pencil" stage and there's nothing left but to do it. We're facing a summer full of hard work and long days. My wife is a teacher so she will have half of the summer off, but I work a regular day job so much of our work will be done during nights and weekends. Wish us luck.

Next step - excavation.

Broccoli Prom Dress

2010-04-16T19:30:00.006-05:00

Today we planted out the broccoli and brussels sprouts.

Last year we used row covers to keep moths out,thereby keeping out their larva. It worked brilliantly, but I wasn't too impressed with the strength of the floating row cover that I ordered. I ripped a couple holes in it during its first year. Not the durability that I was hoping for. Over the winter I had an idea. I thought I had read an article about people using tulle as row covers. This sounded like a good idea to me, but would it be cost effective. My Mom is a crafter, so I asked her what the cost would be. I did some figuring and it would cost me more than the row covers, however my Mom also informed me that she gets frequent coupons from one of our local fabric stores. I waited until she got a 50% off coupon and I bought enough tulle to cover half of one of our garden beds. It wasn't wide enough so I had to have my Mom cut it in half and then sow the two halves together. When it was done, she called me to inform me that my broccoli prom dress was ready. Time will tell if it will be a more durable solution.

Big Ol' Broccoli

2010-03-22T20:16:00.007-05:00

We planted the broccoli at the end of February, I just hadn't gotten around to writing a blog about it ... or any blog ... since January. Nonetheless here they are today, they are looking great.

On of them is a brussels sprout. We bought some seeds and are seeing how they do in the ND spring. Also, as an experiment, I took a cutting from one of the poplars I have dormant in the garage and it actually rooted. Promising.

One more thing, this past weekend we planted some leafy greens in our cold frames which had some spinach already growing in them.

Winter Garden Update

2010-01-20T11:07:00.005-06:00

I haven't posted anything in a while, and I apologize that I don't have any pictures (I forgot the camera in the house) but I do have an update. We had three types of vegetables in the two cold frames alive and well before winter struck. Swiss Chard, Spinach and Parsnips. I am happy to report the spinach is alive and well, even the sprouts that didn't have time to turn into full sized plants are still green. The chard looks dead. And the parsnips still have green growing crowns (the rest of the leaves look dead).

The winter temperatures thus far have dipped as low as -35 degrees F. While the spinach and parsnips aren't growing, the important thing is they are still alive and with any luck they will start to break dormancy near the end of February.

I have made a couple of observations this year on the subject of cold frame gardening.

1. Keep your cold frames close to your house. Mine are really hard to get to without going through large snow drifts.

2. In my case, the cold frames are in a pour spot in regards to sun exposure. They face south but the low winter sun gets blocked by the trees in our yard. In town, this might be unavoidable.

Cold Frame Part II

2009-10-14T17:37:00.004-05:00

I realize it has been a long time since I have written anything, but time kinda got away from me. So what better time to pick it back up again than when I have constructed cold frame v2 (or is it cold frame 1.2). It is similar to my first cold frame, only with some slight improvements. But let's start from the beginning. First I purchased cedar 2x2's and cut them to length. I butt them together for a simple joint.

On the last cold frame I bought metal brackets for corner supports. This time I decided to save some money and cut the leftover 2x2's into corner braces.

This is what it looks like with all the braces in place. The lids were much easier to put together with store bought 2x2's rather than twisted scrap pieces off my wood pile.

Then I clamped my pieces of plexi-glass to the lid frame and drilled holes in it. I used a drill just slightly larger than the sheet metal screws I planned on using. A word of caution, when drilling through plexi-glass drill gingerly. It can crack easily.

Once I had all the holes drilled, I screwed in the sheet metal screws with a nut driver.

Next I cut the side pieces to length and cut them at an angle from 12" down to 8". I don't have a picture of that, but here is how I attached them to the back 2x12 and I did the same with the front 2x8.

This is the whole frame put together. After I got it put together, I had a thought. The the joints where the angled pieces meet the front and back pieces don't allow the lids to lay exactly flat (a problem I had with the first cold frame). So it dawned on me that I could just flip it over. That worked really well and the lids now lay completely flat on the frame. I don't know if I explained that very well, but it will make sense if you ever build one.

The other improvement I made was to use heavy duty hinges on the back. I also wanted hinges that would allow the lids to be removed in the summertime. The perfect solution was recycled door hinges. I didn't pay anything for them and they are really sturdy. As you can see from the picture they are a little to big to fit all three screws in on the top side, but 5 out of 6 screws in the hinge is plenty to hold it all together.

On the next version I plan to try to recycle some old window sashes instead of using plexi-glass. The plexi was also free, but I think that window sashes or storm windows will last longer than plastic that isn't UV resistant.

I'm a Tree Herder

2009-08-21T18:38:00.006-05:00

I had a thought the other day. Why am I trying to keep 10 tiny trees alive from ten miles away? Wouldn't it be easier to pot them and bring them into town? "Absolutely!" said Frank Gomez of hybridpoplars.com. Ok, so I'm a little slow with my epiphanies.

So, I loaded up my tools and some containers into the trusty rusty pickup and began herding the rogue poplings into town. 10 out of 300 lived, not a great outcome. One might think that I would be upset. At first I was, but I am choosing now to chalk it up to experience or lack there of. I will be wiser next year, and by the by, Frank has graciously agreed to replace the ones I lost next year and he has given me tip after tip along the way. If you want to look at it with a positive spin, I now have the strongest 3 percent of the trees for propagation purposes!

So, until next year this is where the little buggers will live (well, they have a winter home in the garage).

Sláinte Slugs!

2009-07-14T19:35:00.004-05:00

While my wife was picking lettuce this afternoon in the garden, she found a few slugs. We have had a very wet year, in fact we have surpassed our yearly average already. So, I decided to toast the little buggers and give 'em a drink. I have read about beer traps, but never needed to use one. So, I buried a dish up to an inch from the top and put some Keystone in it. We'll see if I catch any.

After finishing the rest of the 'stone, I had to take a picture of the beans. They have completely outgrown their allotted space. If you look closely you can see a few ticked off pepper plants getting caught up in the mix.

I reached a personal record in my compost pile, 150 degrees. Yes, I have a compost thermometer (pause for snickering). The science of compost fascinates me to no end. I have been experimenting with composting coffee grounds obtained from a local coffee shop. I have been mixing them in with a little wood ash (to counteract any extra acidity) and then buried with last fall's leaves (and of course kitchen and garden scraps).

We are saving peas as next year's seeds for the first time. These are snap peas. I ended up saving way more than will fit in my garden, but they won't go to waste.

This tiny little guy is an alpine strawberry, we started them indoors this winter for funs and we finally got to eat one. Although they don't get much bigger than this, I picked it a bit too early and it didn't taste that great. I picked it in my zeal to win the harvest over the birds. I won, they lost, it was very tart.

Random Updates

2009-07-05T19:13:00.003-05:00

I haven't had much time to blog lately so I thought I would lump a few brief entries into one ball o' randomness. This first picture is a pretty decent sized harvest of snap peas and broccoli. We ate some and froze the rest. The broccoli was two years in the making since the rabbits ate it before we could last year.

This is one of the poplars. It is doing well, most are not. The weather this spring was not great for these guys. The guy I bought them from said the heavy rains we received likely caused them to rot before they grew. Even though they could be considered a failure this year, I am still optimistic for next year. You can click the tag at the bottom for the rest of the story.

We were so excited about the broccoli that I decided to grow a second round of it as a fall crop. The seeds were planted in peat pellets that we received as a gift one year. They work just fine, but I still like soil blocks much better for moisture retention and size.

This is one lonely maple that lived from the maple experiment. It is the only tree standing from the 15 seeds planted. About 4 seeds germinated, but only this one is still going. One out of fifteen doesn't sound very good, but for free seeds I gathered in the neighborhood I think it is encouraging. I will try again next year with a lot more seeds. I also plan to harvest some acorns to plant this fall.

That's what's going on in brevity at our household. Hopefully I can keep up and dedicate enough time to certain topics in future entries.

Hello Neighbor

2009-06-23T19:48:00.008-05:00

I went out to our acreage for a status update (I'll talk about that in a bit). Upon leaving I was walking down what will someday be our driveway, when I decided to say hello to the neighbors.

I don't know their names but they sure like attention. But that's not the story. While I was having a chat with my equine friends, I heard a rustle in the grass. I didn't think much of it. Then I saw something moving through the grass. I got a visual on it. It was a snake about 18 inches long. At first glimpse I thought it was a juvenile bull snake. But then I thought to myself, that is a bit too stout for a bull snake and the head is a bit too wide. So then I begin to worry it is a rattle snake. Bull snakes are common in this area, rattle snakes are not as common but not unheard of. So, I backed away to try to snap some pictures. It didn't work so well, but I did get one that would allow me to identify it. Actually, my Dad identified it. My Dad taught biology for many years and has far more knowledge on the subject than myself. Anyway this guy

is a western hognose snake. Not dangerous to humans. Being an amateur science geek, I thought the whole experience was pretty exciting. I hope to see more of the little buggers. I love the country! Here is a better picture from google images.

On a different note. I now believe that the poplars are doing better than I thought. Our spring was just too cold for them to sprout. I counted 46 of them showing green. 46 out of 300 hundred doesn't sound good, but it tells me that I gave up on some of the buds too early. I think I may meet my benchmark of 75%.

I haven't done a garden update lately, I don't have pictures nor the time right now but hopefully this weekend I will. I can tell you though, that we are now eating broccoli, leafy greens and snap peas.

OP-367 Update

2009-06-11T20:31:00.007-05:00

I'm starting to smell the stench of failure. Don't get me wrong, some of the poplars look like this.

Most of them do not. I was looking for about 75% of the cuttings to survive in order to call it a success. Granted I have never done this before so I could be wrong, but it is looking to me like I am going to get about a third of them to live. Not a success in my book. Tomorrow I'm going to email the guy that I bought them from, and see how many of the cuttings he will replace and how I can do better. So far his customer service has been excellent. I think it is important to share failures as well as successes. Along those same lines, here are a couple of things I would have done differently.

1. Weather - Ok, so I can't control the weather but I can tell you we are having an unusually cold spring complete with the occasional frost.

2. Longer Cuttings - Since we have sandy soil on our land, I think longer cuttings would have been in contact with more moisture. Also, our soil seems to "float" the cuttings to the surface when it rains. Longer cuttings would probably anchor down a little better.

Only time will tell how many poplars are really going to live. The good news is, I can take my own cuttings in the future if I do ever get them to grow.

The Maple Experiment

2009-06-04T19:06:00.004-05:00

While walking through the neighborhood, I noticed how many "trees" go unplanted each year or become "weeds" only to be plucked out of flower beds. Stay tuned for the results. And ... yes that is the color of the floor in our laundry room.

In other news, I made a little hoop house to keep the bugs from eating the broccoli before we do. It is made from 9 gauge fencing wire and floating row cover. I hope it works. Never mind the extremely tall grass just outside the garden. I better go do some trimming.

Operation OP-367

2009-05-21T20:44:00.004-05:00

If you know what an OP-367 is, you might be as big of nerd as I am. Last night my wife, my parents and I planted 300 hybrid poplars on our acreage. Clone OP-367 to be specific. What was the purpose, you may be thinking. It is the birth of my future wood lot. Why poplars? Poplars grow fast and can regenerate from the stump once cut down. Poplars are a hardwood, albeit a softer hardwood.

Here's the plan: you plant a quarter acre a year of the poplar cuttings for four years in succession. Every year (after the fourth year) you harvest a quarter acre for firewood. The trees will be about 4-6 inches in diameter, a good sized log that doesn't need to be split. Just cut it into length for the wood stove. Each quarter acre should yield 3 cords of wood their first cutting and 5 each cutting after.

Poplars aren't as good for firewood as say oak, but they will yield more BTUs per acre when planted on 6' centers.

The little buggers came in bags of 25.

You plant them so that only one bud is showing out of the ground. That's a Sakakawea dollar next to it. It was the only change my Dad had in his pocket.

My Wife and my Mom doing some final watering.

I tried to mulch around each one with mulch to retain moisture.

Garden Update

2009-05-05T20:40:00.001-05:00

Our first salad cut from the garden. This was cut for our supper last Saturday. It contains giant mustard and spinach. We discovered that my wife severely dislikes the mustard greens. I think my immense pride overtook my taste buds.

One of our favorites, Sugar Ann snap peas!

The broccoli is still hanging in there, despite mother nature's efforts to destroy it.

Cold frame plants are doing well.

I planted a stick on our 12 acres! Actually I planted three raspberry canes. Two Boyne and one Fall Gold. I'm excited but I am trying not to get my hopes up since I killed a few of the same varieties last year. To be fair, the wild life nipped off all the leaves. Still, I blame myself. This year I protected them with chicken wire. Cross your fingers.

These are our tomato seedlings indoors. They are about ready to potted up.

Frost and Snow

2009-04-24T20:42:00.000-05:00

I haven't had time to post about the broccoli adventure lately, I've had a million things going on outside the garden. But, if there is anyone out there that may have stumbled upon my blog and thought that I was a seasoned veteran gardener, well I should let you know right now that I make mistakes - a lot. I think it is important to share my pitfalls as well as successes. That's what makes the global gardening community so tight knit.

So here goes. Remember when I told you all how perfect the day was for planting broccoli. It was perfect, but the next morning I awoke to frost ... a lot of frost. I made the rookie mistake of trusting Mother Nature. I went to bed without even checking the weather report. When I woke up, I noticed the frost and immediately grabbed my watering can to wash the frost off. I saved the plants, but there was plenty of damage. Needless to say, I was pretty upset with myself.

Along those same lines, I made the mistake of trusting the weather report. Today I woke up to trace amounts of snow. The forecast was calling for rain, so I didn't cover the broccoli in order to give it a drink from Big Momma Nature. When the wife announced to me that it had snowed, I promptly let out an expletive and threw on a jacket. There I was green watering can in hand, wearing my sweatpants and a gray hoodie and cursing under my breath. I washed all the snow off. Once again it is still alive, but could look healthier.

I apologize for not having any pictures but I was much to busy cursing at inanimate objects to think about the camera.

Live and learn.

Planting Out the Broccoli

2009-04-18T15:07:00.003-05:00

Today I transplanted my broccoli seedlings into the garden. It actually turned out to be the perfect day for transplanting broccoli. It's overcast, not too warm and not windy. Broccoli likes cool weather. From here on out it's a race with time. It's best to get your broccoli harvested before the warm weather brings in the bugs. Bugs like to lay their eggs in the broccoli heads and that's not good. Kinda nasty actually.

The Marvel that is Spinach
Spinach surprise number one: the over-wintered spinach plant is alive and well!

Spinach surprise number two: we allowed a couple spinach plants last year go to seed, but never got around to harvesting the seeds. Where they died, a whole host of volunteer spinach plants are sprouting.

Cold Frame Gardening in April?

2009-04-13T18:47:00.006-05:00

It's mid-April and it was 64 degrees today, so perhaps it is about the end of the cold frame season. Nonetheless, I finally got some plants underneath my cold frame. I transplanted the spinach and mustard, and also planted some swiss chard, lettuce and more spinach. Even though the cold frame season is probably coming to an end in most of the country, here in North Dakota we could easily have another cold snap or two. None of that matters anyway. My beaming pride would have forced me to stubbornly put the cold frame in the garden even if it had been 90 degrees.

So far the transplants don't seem to be any worse for the ware. It will take a few days for the roots to begin venturing out and then I'll see some new growth. In this picture you can see the mustard in the back and the spinach in the foreground. You can also see the Univent automatic vent opener that I installed. I ordered it from this company. It is temperature sensitive and expands and contracts with the heat and cold cycles of each day. It was a little spendy, but I'm not home during the day to manually vent the cold frame to keep the sun from scorching the plants.

Upon strolling through the newly snowless garden, the wife spotted something interesting. Something green. These are a couple of spinach plants that didn't get out of the garden before the snow flew last fall. Now that the snowy blanket has lifted, they have emerged and almost look lively. I'm going to monitor them to see if they start growing again. If they do, it will give me great hope for winter gardening. Even in zone 4!

Spring is Here

2009-04-11T15:39:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was one of the first days where the weather felt good enough to be outside. So I took the opportunity to screen some compost so I can be prepared to plant under my cold frame. Which, by the by, finally made it outside. We planted our leafy greens within the cold frame, but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I digress. It may be a true testament to how big of nerd I am that I am very proud of my compost. So here it is.

The screen is 1/4" hardware cloth. I realized right quick that I need to construct a larger one approximately wheelbarrow sized. The last picture is my two bin compost system. I turned the full side over into the side I just emptied out into the wheelbarrow. I'll leave it there to finish and I will start a new pile in the now empty side.

Tour of the Farm

2009-03-24T17:56:00.013-05:00

I thought it was time for a seedling update, mostly I thought it would give me something to do while a spring blizzard wreaks havoc on my home town. First on the docket, the spinach. They have their first "true" leaves and I have almost been tempted to cut and taste. But, thus far I have refrained.

These little beauties are red giant mustard seedlings. They purportedly have more folic acid than even spinach leaves. I got these seeds from Markham Farm. I can't recall ever having eaten mustard greens so I'm pretty excited about them.

This leafy jungle is the broccoli seedlings. They are growing very fast. Last year we didn't get to eat any of our broccoli. A group of rogue bunnies in leather jackets (maybe) helped themselves to the plants before they had a chance to head. It looked like someone had run over them with a lawnmower. Shameless gluttons. Shortly after that I enclosed the garden with chicken wire. That kept the buggers out.

Last but not least these tiny little guys are called alpine strawberries. They're a bit of a fun experiment. We got these seeds as part of a Valentine's Day gift. They grow a small strawberry about the size of your thumbnail. Everything that I have read about them says that they are very tasty despite being rather small. They took a long time to germinate so I was pretty pumped when they came up. Only time will tell.

Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get my cold frame out in the garden. It would have been nice to get it out there before the recent snows, but I had to go out of town for work on short notice.

Sprouting Spinach

2009-03-14T13:44:00.015-05:00

Spinach kinda looks like grass, no? People may be wondering why I am so garden gung ho when my garden still looks like this.

I have constructed a secret weapon. Well, it's not really a secret to gardeners that routinely use season extenders. This week I put the finishing touches on my first cold frame.

The cold frame is a bit like a mini greenhouse. It takes in sun and warms the soil throughout the day, then at night the soil slowly releases the warmth back into the cold frame. It's a really simple means to extend the gardening season. The design of my cold frame is an amalgam of this design and the thoughts of Eliot Coleman in his book Four Season Harvest. By the by, I highly recommend anything written by Eliot Coleman. He's not only a master of his craft, but a very talented writer to boot.

I made my cold frame out of 2x12 and 2x8 stock. The back side is 12" tall and slopes to 8" in the front. The slope is meant to face south in order to maximize the amount of sunlight in the lower winter sun. The lids, or lights, are made out of a 2x2 frame with salvaged plexi-glass screwed to it. I put corner braces in each corner for support.

There are 2" hinges on the back side of the lids for opening and closing. Next time I'm going to use beefier hinges. The 2" ones are a tad flimsy.

The initial test of the cold frame was a success.

The power of the sun warmed the inside of the frame 34 degrees more than the ambient air temperature. I speculate that both temperatures were a little high since the test was done on the concrete right next to the garage. Nonetheless, the difference is what I was looking for. Now, I just need to dig a 4'x3'x3' hole in the glacier covering the garden.

12 Acres and Almost No Dog

2009-03-06T19:08:00.009-06:00

In Bailey's 3 1/2 short years, she has tried many times (unwittingly) to leave this earth. First, she found and ate a box of Decon. When such an incident occurs, one must learn how to make a Rottweiler/Husky vomit up a nasty green mass with only his wits and hydrogen peroxide. Here's a tip - turkey baster.

Next, she took herself and me on a 3 mile wild dog chase across the prairie which only ended when she was kicked by a horse. She limped for a day, but my anger lasted a week.

Her latest escapade is escaping from the dog run followed by the yard. This is only dangerous to animals that lack the ability to watch for cars. Two times this week she has jumped her chain link fence dog run and then the chain link fence that surrounds the rest of the yard. I can't really blame her, we have had so much snow this year that the fence has gotten increasingly shorter. So, yesterday and today I spent a lot of time chipping away the glacier-like snow around the perimeter of the yard. To her credit, she did stay near the house instead of bolting for the nearest highway, or mountain lion. Maybe she's growing up.

We often say that Bailey is lucky we found her before someone with a lot less patience did, but how can you stay mad at a face like that.

In other news:

The broccoli has sprouted!

Let The Gardening Begin

2009-03-04T20:21:00.015-06:00

Ok, so I'm not sure if the indoor season really counts as gardening, but it cures the winter blues. At least for farmer nerds like me.

The wife and I start our gardening season indoors with the aid of grow lights (4' shop lights) and soil blocks. If you are unfamiliar with soil blocking, this is the basic gist of it. You wet a potting mix, fill a soil block maker, plunge out the blocks, plant your seeds and water daily until they germinate. In picture sequence it looks a little something like this:

Last year, I used a commercial mix of potting soil. this year I tried to make my own. The first recipe I tried consisted of

1 part finished and screened compost
1 part worm castings
a small amount of soy meal

As it turns out the soy meal used as a fertilizer activated some fungal spores and my soil blocks grew a feathery white fungus. It smelled like a pair of sweat socks that you wore to the gym for a month. I revised the recipe on the advice of Brett Markham of Markham farm. He is the author of a great book called Mini Farming for Self Sufficiency.

I followed his recipe only I omitted a couple of things. Not because I didn't trust his expertise, but because I try to buy as little as possible to start my seedlings. The mix is:

3 parts peat moss
1 part finished and screened compost
1 part worm castings

It worked great. My broccoli seeds sprouted after 4 days. I'll have an update on that soon.

My First Blog!

2009-03-03T19:09:00.000-06:00

As I am new to blogging, you must be patient with me. I still don't have this page looking like I want it to, but this will do for now.

This is the story of a man, his wife and their dog in search of a country lifestyle. A reprieve from the confines of a suburban lawn. We'll trade non-native grass for sweeping prairie. We'll have the opportunity to build the home of our dreams (someday), and eat the food we've grown in our giant garden. But, first things first...