Breaking ground!

I haven’t written anything on here in a long time about the cabin. That cabin is the biggest first challenge to overcome and will also stand as the first major milestone in turning this homestead utopian dream into a living farm. Living on the land will be the first step in accomplishing all sorts of other projects including the majority of animal husbandry that I’m interested in.  Shortly put, living on the land is the first step toward living off the land. That cabin has to go up.

After looking at the slope of the land, I discovered to my chagrin that I’d need to build up pillars at certain points as a foundation and leveling agent for the base of the cabin.  Eleven pillars of cinder block at measured points along the walls and in the center as support for the walls must be erected before log stacking can begin.  The pillars along the bottom obviously need to be higher than those toward the top of the hill.

Staking out strings

With the help of my friend Danny, a fantastic gardener and natural living enthusiast, I cut some stakes, got some string and a line level and set to gridding out the footprint of my cabin. Let me tell you there is a huge difference between imagining 12’x20’ and seeing it laid out in actuality. It was really exciting to see the site, size and layout of my cabin!  After the site was mapped out with string, I measured to the middle of the shorter wall and placed a wooden stake; I then measured 8’ down the length of where the long walls will stand and placed a stake.  Another 8’ after that with stakes in the centers and I had the placement for my pillars.

After mapping out where the cabin would sit, we could actually begin breaking ground. This is not to be confused with ground breaking work. It was just digging, scooping dirt, digging out the roots of trees that were in the way and generally getting very sweaty and dirty.   As I was chopping away brush to start digging at one spot, I felt a pain in my wrist followed by the tell tale buzz of angry bees.  Apparently, this little piece of property was already claimed as a home for a nest of yellow jackets. I felt another sting in the soft part of my arm just above the inside of my elbow and the buzzing was uncomfortably close to my face.  A marionette in the hands of an epileptic puppeteer would not rival the jerking, swinging, terrified dance (and subsequent flight) that ensued.  While I understand that my current endeavor is under the auspices of the natural, traditional way of building and living, sometimes situations call for modern chemical warfare.   The traditional mountain method of getting rid of yellow jackets is to hang a fish above a pan of water and wait for them to fall off the fish and drown.  The other tried and true method in this neck of the woods is to douse the entire area with gasoline. It’s your choice whether or not to light it. In light of these options, I went with the Raid. I can say with certainty that nothing eases the pain of multiple bee stings like emptying can after can of industrial strength poison on the offender’s nest.

Levelling strings

Once the war was over, building could begin again! In order to make the floor of the cabin level, I knew that I’d have to design a system to dig the holes all appropriate depths.  I decided that I’d measure everything off of the corner that was highest in elevation.  Once the lines were totally level I could measure down from the string to the base of the hole, subtract for gravel and for concrete and divide by the height of a cinder block and mortar, which is 8”.  Basically I needed the depth of the holes be at equal depths so that the pillars would be level at the top, no matter how many cinder blocks were used. Once that was figured out I went back to all the holes, measured and either dug out 4-6 more inches or filled in a couple inches.

A huge surprise came when I got those strings all nice and level. The top string was only a couple inches off the ground. When I went down to the bottom, I was reaching above my head just to reach the string! When I measured, it turns out that the bottom pillars are going to require upwards of 10 cinder block rows.  That means that I’m going to have to hoist the very first logs above my head to put them in place.  Another challenge, I guess. The nice bit is that I’ll have a cellar almost premade once the cabin is built.

After all twelve holes were the appropriate depth; we poured gravel and inserted wire reinforcements before pouring the concrete. Megan, the lovely editor of this blog and log peeler extraordinaire came up from Fond du Lac, WI to visit and I set her immediately to work peeling logs, digging holes, pouring gravel, and setting the wire reinforcement for the concrete foundations.  I like to offer an alternative vacation opportunity for those souls not interested in traditional notions of vacation. I’m calling it eco-constructo-tourism. 

These last few weeks have been a halting procession towards progress.  I’ve been mixing concrete and pouring footings a few at a time, as I can afford to buy materials.  However, at this writing, all the footings are poured and cured! I’m ready at long last to go vertical! Building walls and using the logs that were cut and stripped months ago is a ways off yet, but I will be building vertical starting this week! I’ve already bought the cinder block and mortar for the first layer of blocks. I can’t wait to get those done and tackle the ensuing challenges that raising the logs will bring.  Though it’s August, I can feel Old Man Winter breathing down my neck and I know that I’m running out of time.