Slap'n Down Some Foot Stomp'n Room

After some last minute changes in plans on Saturday morning and searching for the best price/availability on the wood needed, we managed to get most of our supplies for the floor out to the build site....at dusk. A fresh start on Sunday got our butts move'n but with multiple trips left for gear, I spent most of the day on the road. Luckily we still managed to get a solid start, thanks to our bud Shaun.

It's all coming together

A late night Tuesday work-light session was needed and luckily Shaun was up to the task despite being in the stages of recovering from a nasty sick day. Frustrations mounted as his air compressor decided to stop working about 20 nails in. We were forced to strip the nail magazines for the gun into individual nails and hand hammer the whole thing down. Boooo! It was a lovely night though with the light catching the fresh snow as it fell between the trees and we were protected enough from the wind that the cold wasn't too much of an issue.

A place to drink beer

Progress came slow and at the cost of sore knees and backs but morale stayed high! We were able to get the base floor and insulation installed and got a start on the tongue and groove locking top layer of OSB. The first time we looked at a watch we were surprised to see that it was 11:30pm and we both had work in the morning so we were forced to call it quits and pack it up for the night. Big thanks to sick boy Shaun for his help and mad math skillz.

This Saturday is our friend Christmas potluck extravaganza so I think we'll take the day off and relax and prepare our dish. Sunday's plan will be to finish up the floor and start thinking about how to slap walls on this sucka.

We were quite focused on our tasks and I kinda dropped the ball on pictures but there are a few here

Mmmmmm Turrrrkkkeyyy...Until next time

Doss

Tree Eating Terror Machine! And Victory over our Piers!

When I was told that there was a machine that could make short work of clearing a build site on our densely treed land without leaving a trace of the trees that stood, and without making piles of waste that a bulldozer would leave in it's wake, I scoffed a little bit thinking that such a beast surely couldn't be in existence. How wrong I was...and it is what nightmares are made of. When Stan rolled up in this beast and told me to walk the outline we'd flagged and he'd follow me so he didn't miss any flags, I imagined I'd spend the next hour walking from flag to flag with minimal hustle as this thing lumbered along behind me. He kept me at a steady jog through the thickest bush on the land...the beast's teeth gnashing at my heels spitting out fine mulch in it's wake and laughing at dead fall, stumps, and trees 6-8 inches in diameter.

I can still hear the beast yearning for more...

It really was impressive that in the span of a few hours he was able to clear several acres and our to be build site and yard started to take form! Pretty drastic change in landscape!

That bush never stood a chance

While Stan was making a mockery of what I had previously thought to be pretty thick gnarly bush, our team and myself were busy finishing up the foundation on the cabin by pouring the columns on the bases we put in two weeks back.

Tube town

We ended up having to stick it out into the darkness to finish but thanks to some solid help we were able to get all 12 piers poured and brackets mounted and everything measured and set up just how we wanted.

Burning the midnight oil

It was right about this time that my phone died and thus my picture taking ability with it so i have no shots of the finished product...but i assure you, it is a thing of beauty! Much thanks to Aaron and Melissa for coming out and lending a hand and some string line expertise, and extra thanks to Ger for stick'n it out for the after hours concrete party!

Here's some more pics and some videos of the tree destroyer!

Next up will be Outhouse construction, and foundation hole back filling as we wait for the columns to cure. It was a milestone weekend for us and we couldn't be happier as things start to take shape and ideas start to become realities.

Until Next Week

Doss 

Grown up Lego Blocks!

Well last week was a big week for us and it started off with the purchase and pick up of our bale supply for the cabin! Between our bud Andy's flat bed and my severely overloaded 1/4 ton we managed to pick up 116 bales in one trip...only losing 10 off the back of my load (all recovered undamaged) due to a shortage of straps, and Andy would tell you a  "speed issue", but i swear it was so very windy that evening. Yea the wind...damn wind...

Never thought she'd hold that many..

They look much nicer in the pile we made in our little clearing.

Perfect Fort material

Big thanks to Andy and Dawn for all their help sling'n bales in the dark for no pay and a shortened dinner plan...Also thanks to Andy for the pallets that they rest on.

Things are starting to come together!

Doss

And now...we wait.

Well we've got holes dug and bases poured. The site is covered up and insulated so hopefully the weather doesn't get too crazy cold and everything cures properly. Concrete tube form placement is next and back filling up for support.

In other news we got a very encouraging quote from our gravel guy to clear land for the main house and garage area. He's got a mulcher that attaches to his skid steer that can chew down the trees we need to move without issue. He likened it to mowing the grass! So we will be marking off our to be lane and yard site and getting it done hopefully before snow flies! Anything we can get done before winter will help speed up the process come spring time.

Here's some photos!

Dig'n a Hole!

Making Chili for the masses

Niki doing her best ostrich impersonation!

Chili was mutt approved!

The view after the last base was poured...

Here's the rest of them!

Doss

Real Quick-a-like...

Hey folks,

Sorry for the non activity over the last few weekends. Been rainy and crumby here on the weekends we've been workin but not taking many pictures due to the weather. We did manage to get some holes dug and celebrate an 85th birthday! Happy Birthday to Granny P! Big push this weekend coming up....fight the snow and get the rest of the pier holes dug and bases poured...gonna be fun. Can't wait to get back out there. I find myself daydreaming often of the time we've had out on the land and the time to come out there. So exciting! Great news on another eathship front! The Clandeboye crew is making crazy progress! All the best to Kris and Nicole! Here's some links to their adventure

http://www.facebook.com/groups/103156719722938

https://plus.google.com/u/0/100247406869562882402/posts

here's a few snaps we got

wooooooood

sunset over soon to be cabin

Shitter's Full, First Fires & Suitcase Dogs!

Another weekend passed and we're still at a standstill with the foundation on the cabin as the snow is making life difficult and gravel delivery next to impossible. Regardless, we got out there and built the box that will be in our new outhouse hole! Also big thanks to Ger (and Bella!) who brought his chainsaw out so we could get to clearing some of the downed trees and endless downfall that litters the forest around the build site.

We were good and wet as the sun started to set so we made a little fire to dry gloves and raise morale. The first fire on the land at that! Gravel is ordered for this weekend so hopefully we can make some more cabin progress....if not, there's always wood to stack.

Here's an album from the weekend and a few that I really liked.

https://picasaweb.google.com/104916400028967851191/October8th?authkey=Gv1sRgCJaPz-Oy_bCM_wE

Can't pile wood in the cold without TP for the runny noses

Bella grab'n some heat and steam'n gloves

Suitcase Dog!

Ger-in-the-box!

Foundation Time

So due to the timing issues of getting permits and blueprints drawn up it's looking more and more like we won't be able to get out garage/apartment up before winter this year. So for the sake of keeping busy and finding a way to enjoy our land in the upcoming winter we decided to build a 200 sq/f cabin in the woods.

Here's some pics of the foundation dig from the weekend of Sept 29-30

https://picasaweb.google.com/104916400028967851191/Cabin

a few of my favorites being....

Morgan has a "Laid Back" approach to supervision

Thanks to all our digging team!

Holy Winter Wonderland Batman!

So we'd heard about south eastern Manitoba getting hit with a crazy snow storm this week but we were not prepared for what we pulled into....

No Problem for the ol Nissan

Mutts didn't seem to mind

The tamaracks seemed to take the worst beating as they collect the most ice

Many bent trees from ice build up

This one would have hit the cabin! (if the cabin existed yet....hehe)

Mmmmmm 4x4

surveying the damages

Guess it's just more firewood for the future

I guess it was a pretty serious storm, hydro lost over 100 poles and many communities in our area were without power for more than 24 hours. Crazy stuff considering there were wildfires and it was 26 degrees not even a week before this came along.

Mmm tasty snowballs

Taking a break....we didn't even do anything!

Welcome!

Hey Guys.

Welcome to the first post on our new blog dedicated to this ridiculous project we're about to undertake.

Guess I'll start out by going over just what we're about to do. My lovely girlfriend Niki and I have been living together in the Winnipeg for the last few years and have recently purchased 76.67 acres of land 60km east of the city and are going with a green approach to building a home for ourselves and our two mutts Morgan and Klowee.

Building with straw bales, tires, plaster and recycling everything we can get our mitts on we plan to try and build comfortable responsible off the grid living on our little slice of Manitoba!

Stay tuned as we try to keep everyone in the loop with what we're getting into out there!

Laaaaaaand!

Doss + Niki

Klowee

Morgan

PS. Here's some good links to some of the ideas we're going to be implementing

http://earthship.com/
http://www.strawbale.com/
http://tinyhouseblog.com/