44

found

searching for rick

An Ordinary Sunday

Sunday, December 28th, 2014

It’s a grey, snowless day, and we’re warm and cozy inside our little house, preparing for our very first guests. Sure, we've had friends and family over to see our progress, and we've had folks here to help, but this morning, Rick and Greer are com...

Designing Our House: The Roof

Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

For the past few weeks, I've been doing loads of research about roofing. Our main goal for the cottage is to have something with substantial r-value. Living in a trailer for two winters has made the importance of insulation abundantly clear. Our se...

Timber Frame Cottage Frame Raising: The Big Day, Part Three

Sunday, April 27th, 2014

After lunch, we finish raising the last bent and place the two wall plates. Next up, we check to see if the assembly is square. Our first measurement shows we're out by a whopping five inches from corner to corner. At this point, Rick and Charlie...

Timber Frame Cottage Raising: The Big Day, Part One

Sunday, April 27th, 2014

As I arrange bananas, a water jug, and several containers of snacks on a makeshift plywood table this morning, I do so with a feeling of peace. With the stress of non-stop preparation and the uncertainty of assembling the first bent of our home be...

Timber Frame Cottage Raising: Preparation

Friday, April 25th, 2014

While Tyler spent the week working in sunny California, I held down the fort and got us ready for the long awaited frame raising of our little timber frame cottage! I set a date, invited some friends, and then proceeded to obsess about the weather ...

Thirty Today

Saturday, January 25th, 2014

Today is my thirtieth birthday. I'd never understood the stigma that surrounds milestone birthdays… until a few months ago. Suddenly, an uneasy voice in my head started saying things like: "oof, you really should up your usage of facial moisturize...

Aftermath

Monday, August 19th, 2013

It's 4:00AM when our alarm sounds, and we miraculously manage to rouse ourselves to stumble out of bed. Trent is up, packing, making coffee for the last time in the kitchen tent. Soon after, Peter and Amy join him for their morning brew. Together ...

Grindbygg Timber Framing Course: Day Five Evening

Friday, August 16th, 2013

It's the last day, and everyone is working like mad to ensure we'll be ready to raise the first bent (or grind, if you're Norwegian)… Once that task is successfully completed, we drill peg-holes and hammer in the first of our h...

Grindbygg Timber Framing Course: Day Four

Thursday, August 15th, 2013

It's day four of the workshop and we're starting to feel slightly competent! Here are some pictures from another day at the worksite: Tomorrow afternoon, our final class day, Rick will be here to raise one of the bents...

Peeling Bark with Friends

Saturday, August 10th, 2013

When I was little, one of my favorite books was A New Coat for Anna, in which a young girl and her mother spent an entire year getting all of the components ready for her new winter coat. First they visited the shepherd and his flock, bartering for...

Grindbygg Timber Framing Course: Site Staging

Thursday, August 8th, 2013

Yesterday evening, our timber framing instructor Peter, his wife Amy, and their two girls, Robin and Linnea arrived! This morning, we went through the workshop site, making sure everything was in order. Peter showed us where he wanted all of our f...

Roundwood Spruce Rafters

Tuesday, July 30th, 2013

With the workshop slab ready for our timber framing course, it's finally time to shift our focus to something other than building foundations. Today, I am picking up rafters logs from Capital Sawmill in Nassau, New York. I have to thank John, ove...

Workshop Slab Concrete Pour: Part Two

Friday, July 26th, 2013

Immediately, I am brainstorming places we can use the extra concrete. Maybe we could pour another slab somewhere? Tara doesn't think we should make rash decisions that we'll be stuck with, but I'm able to convince her when I remember a spot along...

Workshop Slab Concrete Pour: Part One

Friday, July 26th, 2013

The day we've been preparing for is finally here. The workshop foundation is being poured! Our masons, Pete and Chris are the first to arrive, at 6:30AM. Next comes Rick, and then the concrete trucks, right on schedule at 7AM. Though we've only ju...

Ready to Pour

Thursday, July 25th, 2013

With concrete trucks due to arrive at 7AM tomorrow, we spent the day putting finishing touches on our workshop form. Somehow, the final details always seem to stretch on forever! The first job of the day was to snip all the ends off the zip ties ...

My Construction Nightmare

Tuesday, July 16th, 2013

It's time to pour the concrete floor for our worskhop, and we have like twenty people here to help. For some reason, the form is really long and skinny, like a lap pool. Tara and I have been running around with the attendees all morning, doing la...

Last Day in Maine

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

With Mike and Eliza in the midst of restoring an 1800s farmhouse, and Tyler and I busy hacking a homestead out of ten acres of land, we're trying to cram as much summer fun into one weekend as we can. It's our last day in Maine, and we've decide th...

Raking Rocks

Thursday, July 11th, 2013

After finishing my indexing quota for the day, I headed "downstairs" to help Tyler rake the stone that was dumped in our workshop's concrete form yesterday. Using Peter's slab plans as a guide, we shaped the material into a flat mound with carefull...

French Drains and Fill

Wednesday, July 10th, 2013

Today, we received thirty tons of 3/4" stone: Rick scooped most of it into the concrete form for our workshop: After that, we made a french drain around the back wall: First, we put down a layer of stone: Then, a layer of st...

Road Building

Monday, July 8th, 2013

Our alarm sounds at 7AM, ringing in another day of construction here on our homestead. Eyes barely open, I fumble around for the phone, ready to get started. Half asleep, I ring our truck driver, Richard, confirming that he is still available to ...

Indexing

Monday, July 8th, 2013

While Tyler and Rick worked on our road today, progressing ever closer to the finish line, I spent a productive day in our camper poring over my bicycle touring cookbook. With so much going on since we moved to Vermont, I've had trouble focusing mu...

Do-Over

Sunday, July 7th, 2013

Tara Tyler wants to do a daily journal. Just a paragraph, he says, about anything he says. We won't even edit it! My eyelids droop. So much to say and so little energy to say it. I'll write more tomorrow, about the blazing sun and the torrential ...

Our Cottage Foundation, Wing Insulation & Backfilling: Part Seven

Thursday, June 27th, 2013

Yesterday, we removed the form bracing and laid the wing insulation for our cottage's frost-protected foundation. Today, Rick brought his excavator up to the site and helped us back-fill over it. It was an easy job—the whole process took all of t...

Our Cottage Foundation, Part Five: Pouring Concrete

Tuesday, June 25th, 2013

At long last, the day has arrived—we're pouring the foundation for our cottage! Things kick off bright and early with Rick pulling in at 7AM. He's here to check on us before the cement truck, pump truck, and masons arrive. Right off, he spots th...

Our Cottage Foundation, Part Three: Adding Reinforcements

Saturday, June 15th, 2013

In order to support point loads from our timber frame posts, the outside edge of our cottage's concrete foundation will be roughly 12" deep, while the central portion will slope up to 6". To create this shape, we filled most of the form with 3/4" ...

Our Cottage Foundation, Part One: Concrete Forms & Insulation

Thursday, June 13th, 2013

Last month, after we cleared the building site for our cottage, we started work on our foundations. With some instruction from Rick, we built our first-ever concrete form: a wooden frame to contain the frost-protected slab for our house. After me...

Weekend Road Trip, Part One: Buying Slate

Saturday, June 1st, 2013

Last night, we stayed up into the wee hours, re-living some of our travels and travails in Vietnam. It's not often that we read our own journal entries—we're usually focused on the present, busily writing new stories. But, I'm having my second an...

Dinner with Dan & Tambra

Friday, May 31st, 2013

This past February, Tyler and I received a message from a woman named Tambra who had found us via our friend Jenna's blog. She and her husband Dan live in the DC area, but visit their property in Sandgate, Vermont every chance they get. We've kept ...

This is David & Andrée

Friday, May 24th, 2013

We are David and Andrée, a French-Canadian couple from Québec City, and longtime readers of Going Slowly. Passionate readers should we say! In fact, we both read Tara and Tyler's story "from cover to cover", and still follow it with assiduity, lik...

Cleaning the Drive

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

Today, we spent nearly ten hours clearing logs along the edge of our driveway. We've worked at this project on many occasions, but today we were armed with Rick's dump-trailer, and it made a world of difference. Once we had the wood chainsawed in...

Building Sites

Saturday, May 11th, 2013

So, I've been meaning to write an exhaustive journal outlining all the pros and cons of various foundation styles, why we've chosen to build frost-protected slabs for both our workshop and cottage, what they are, how they work, why we chose EPS foa...

Maple Hill Maple

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

A few days ago, we received an email through our website from Greer and Rick, a local couple who happen to be our neighbors—they live just a few minutes down the road from our land. They kindly invited to watch their maple sugaring operation, "Map...

Cleaning Our Woods: Part Five

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

Tyler: Rick and his dog Oliver arrive late this morning, ready for another round of clearing downed trees. At first, I'm not thinking there will be much news to report. I'm expecting another long day with more of the same: pulling downed trees ...

Cleaning Our Woods: Part Three

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

This morning, as I chat with Rick about what we want to accomplish with his excavator, I'm feeling overwhelmed by the scale of what Tara and I have set out to do with this homesteading project. When I look closely at our land, the work to be done ...

Cleaning Our Woods: Part Two

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

Today, Rick showed up with his excavator. It's flipping huge. Tomorrow, we'll get to work. I can't wait! ...

Cleaning Our Woods: Part One

Sunday, February 3rd, 2013

We're not sure how long it has been since our land was inhabited, but we do know that the woods haven't been managed in many years. For every ten trees standing, there are probably one or two laying dead. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if we ...

Our Side of the Mountain

Thursday, January 17th, 2013

Tyler: Last night, as we pulled into our drive after a day of running errands, the snowpack was too slippery for us to make it in. Half-way up the steepest portion of our driveway, we lost traction and began drifting slowly backwards. Unable to...

Up the Drive We Go!

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Now that Tim is gone, Tyler and I have a little chat to decide what we want to do next. Though we're touched by Rick's offer to let us park on his land, we're both eager to be settled, once and for all, in our very own woods. It was muddy here ye...

Home at Last

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

After last night's drama, we drove non-stop, straight into this morning. We're exhausted, but we have an appointment to make: Tim Schmalz of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture is coming to inspect our land, to make sure it won't be susceptible to ...

Unpassable

Saturday, January 12th, 2013

Last October, during a vacation in Vermont with Tara's family, we all stayed at a beautiful house in rural Bennington. When it came time to leave, we serendipitously crossed paths with its caretaker and builder, Rick Carroll. We hit it off immed...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day Nine

Sunday, July 22nd, 2012

Today was our last day in the shop, and we spent most of it adding flourishes to our wall plates and rafters. Since they were too long for Tara (our designated bandsaw baller) to cut on her own, I played a supporting role in the effort. First, we...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day Seven

Friday, July 20th, 2012

It's a typical morning at the Folk School. About an hour before class is slated to begin, we leave camp and head for the wood shop, idly chatting about the work we're planning to complete when we get there. As usual, we're the first to arrive. O...

Florence with Family

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

The morning began with some harried navigation on busy Italian roads leading into Florence. Traveling by bicycle is definitely easier than by car! After several wrong turns and subsequent complicated GPS/written direction consultations, we finall...

Food All Day

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Being the only one in our apartment that a) isn't jet-lagged, and b) hasn't been awake all night long fixing and setting up our new HP Mini 5101 laptop, I bound out of bed this morning refreshed, full of energy, and ridiculously happy. Most everyo...