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Homesteading Entries

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...

Permitting Our Projects

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

This season, we're starting four structures: an 18'x24' timber frame workshop, a 12'x16' timber frame cottage, a small shed to house batteries and electronics for a future solar array, and another small shed to enclose our wellhead and water storag...

Getting Our Poop In a Group, Part One: Our Composting Toilet

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

Last year, Tyler and I read The Humanure Handbook, a fantastically eye-opening book about how to safely compost your own waste and return it to the soil as fertilizer. The simple system this book describes uses sawdust toilets (a receptacle with a ...

Off Grid Cable Internet Access w/ Power Over Ethernet

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013

I am thrilled to say that I am posting this journal entry from a high speed cable internet connection, on our land, nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont! Today was a triumphant day, and at the moment, I couldn't be happier. It feels as thoug...

Truck Upgrades

Thursday, April 18th, 2013

With just a week before Tara and I move to Vermont officially, my brother-in-law Paul helped me install several important upgrades for our work truck. Among them were a snow plow mount with quick releases for the hydraulics, some handy auxiliary fl...

Timber Framing Course: Norwegian Grindbygg "Trestle Frame"

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

This August, join us with master timber framer Peter Henrikson to hand-craft and raise a one-of-a-kind Norwegian Grindbygg workshop in Arlington, Vermont. This unique style of roundwood construction is the oldest known building technique in Norway...

Timber Framing at Going Slowly HQ

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

Last summer, Tara and I fell in love with timber framing, thanks to a fantastic course offered by North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. There, in an idyllic workshop on the shore of Lake Superior, under the instruction of Peter Henri...

What We're Up To

Sunday, March 17th, 2013

We're in Minnesota again! Our last days in Vermont this winter were busy, a whirlwind of cleaning and packing and readying our camper for two months without human inhabitants. The day before we left, we were treated with a snowstorm which deposit...

A Visit from Kyle the Forester

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

Yesterday, as snow fell softly, we met with our local county forester, Kyle. After he pulled on his hiking boots and donned a warm hat, he joined us on a hike around our land, happy to escape the drudgery of office-work in favor of being in the wo...

The Kids of Common Sense Farm

Monday, March 4th, 2013

One of my favorite parts of our Common Sense Farm tour was getting to see all the BABY GOATS! We had warm bottles of their mama's milk to give them, which whipped them into a frenzy of excitement. It was the most adorable pandemonium I've ever se...

Feeling Settled

Saturday, February 23rd, 2013

With over a month of camper-living under our belts, all of our concerns about buying a travel trailer have vanished. We've worked out the kinks, adapted to its challenges, and are now certain that we made an excellent decision. In retrospect, our...

Waking Early

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

We've been waking early these days, aiming to find balance between laboring on our land and typing in our camper, eyes glued to our computers. If we get outside at first light and do some work with our hands, we seem to be happier and more product...

Informed Decisions

Friday, February 15th, 2013

Over the past few days, I've become increasingly uneasy about our woods cleaning project. I'm not wild about having a big, hulking excavator here, and I feel like we're "wasting" perfectly good wood in our burn piles. So far, I've rationalized aw...

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 Four

Thursday, February 7th, 2013

Today, while Tyler was busy programming, I was outside in my work jacket and chaps, tackling the massive cleanup operation in our woods. I spent most of the morning dragging smallish logs and dead treetops out of the woods with our truck. I ...

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 ...

Installing a "Simple Pump" Well Pump: Part Two

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

After our friends have gone home, I head out into the darkness to put our tools away. Outside, the cleanup operation is quickly cut short when I survey the back of our truck. We're just four little screws away from fresh mountain water—with so li...

Installing a "Simple Pump" Well Pump: Part One

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

Today, with the help of our new friends Jeremy & Hercilia, we're going to install a hand-powered Simple Pump in our well. This will be the first time any of us has ever worked on a well, and it will also be the first time I've ever read and fo...

Heat

Thursday, January 24th, 2013

It's 4 AM and the camper is freezing. Tara and I are cuddled together under our down comforter, a minuscule bundle of tenuous warmth atop a freezing hill, flanked on either side by the frigid Green Mountains. Our camper furnace is running, but it...

We Have a Mailbox!

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

While we were in Vermont with my family this past October, we managed to complete one of our first goals in the creation of our homestead: obtaining an address. This turned out to be a simple matter of measuring the distance from the center of our...

Character Building

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

It's January in Vermont, and we're smack dab in the middle of a major learning curve. Once again, we're settling into a more rustic lifestyle, and once again, the transition is more intense than we anticipated. Emotions run high, silly little thi...

Adventure Mode

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013

On our bicycle tour, Tyler and I were living in what we've now dubbed "Adventure Mode." That is to say, every day was an epic journey unto itself, containing within it the highest highs I've ever felt, along with the lowest lows (and enough cramme...

Clearing the Clearing

Saturday, January 19th, 2013

We had planned to spend the afternoon working at a coffeeshop in Bennington today, but we never made it off our land. Early in the morning, Tyler went outside to see if he could get a burn pile going to clear up some of the brush that's been litte...

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...

A Snow Day

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

As if to welcome us to our new home, Nature decorated our woods with a snowy white blanket last night. Fat, wet flakes continue to fall throughout this morning, filling us with childlike joy and excitement. We bundle up and head outside for a wal...

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...

Second Thoughts in Vermont

Friday, October 5th, 2012

Burrs and sweat clinging to our clothes, we bid our land goodbye and head into town for a bite to eat. As we drive together in silence, evening falls, smothering the landscape in a misty blackness. For reasons unspoken, our triumphant mood is dar...

Clearing the Drive

Friday, October 5th, 2012

After a three day cross-country road-trip, we've finally arrived at our land! As we pull up the drive, I hop out of the passenger's seat to open the gate. There is a palpable gravity in the moment as part of me realizes, perhaps for the first tim...

Off Grid Power: Tim Sefton's Stirling Engine

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

One of our homesteading goals is to generate all the electricity we need right on our own property. During spring, summer and fall, it looks like we'll be able to accomplish that with solar panels and a battery array. For winter, however, when th...

Thatching Research: Deanne Bednar's Strawbale Studio

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

The second stop on our roadtrip to Vermont is to see a woman named Deanne, a natural builder, and the illustrator for several cob-related books such as The Hand-Sculpted House and The Cobber's Companion. Her land is home to the Strawbale Studio, ...

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 Eight

Saturday, July 21st, 2012

Today, I took a break from doing layout to make the knee-braces for our house. The tenons were quick and easy, just a few 45° cuts on the chop saw. Shaping the curves that Tyler and Peter had drawn on them was serious business, though. One false...

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...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day Six

Thursday, July 19th, 2012

We had an optional half day at the shop today, and it came at just the right time. I started getting grumpy this morning about some difficult cutting on our primary posts, and Tara was cranky about having to redo her timber markings three times to...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day Five

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

It is so rewarding to be making something tangible for our homesteading project. For the past eight months, the only thing we've done to pursue our goal of moving to Vermont is continually drain our bank account in an effort to pay off our land. ...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day Four

Tuesday, July 17th, 2012

It feels so good to be building a home for ourselves, and to know that our future life as homesteaders is just around the corner. Today's woodworking session was another round of lakeside, house-building paradise. We spent most of the day working...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day Three

Monday, July 16th, 2012

During the past two sessions, I felt like I was barely treading water in a sea of new information. Without so much as a single high school shop class under my woodworking belt, I just couldn't visualize what I was doing or why. Even though I was ...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day Two

Sunday, July 15th, 2012

Today, I will be facing two fears I have been harboring about building our house ever since the idea started approaching reality. One, my inability to make a straight cut in anything, free-hand or otherwise, and two, the fact that I consistently m...

North House Timber Framing Workshop: Day One

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

Before class this morning, we talked with our instructor, Peter, and negotiated some changes to our little house to make it more livable—a slightly taller loft area, longer gables and eaves to protect our intended straw bale walls, and two feet of ...

To North House Folk School

Friday, July 13th, 2012

I was poking around on the internet about a week ago when I randomly discovered the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. As I was paging through their tempting list of classes (stuff like birch bark weaving, black ash basketry and k...

Starting a Homestead: Our List

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

With a twinge of nervousness akin to the moment we purchased our tickets to Scotland, we've declared a moving date. On April 1st, 2013 (exactly four years after we began our round-the-world bicycle tour), we'll bid our friends and families in the ...

Getting Out the Map Again

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

If a self-sufficient lifestyle was the only goal for our next project, we could probably make do on a quarter acre of land just about anywhere. What we're really yearning for, however, is a quiet spot in the woods—a place where we can be intimatel...

Dreaming of Our New Life

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to lead a self-sufficient life. As a child, I was inspired by children's book author and illustrator Tasha Tudor. I wanted to follow in her footsteps, living off the land, growing lush gardens and caring...