First Night in the Tiny Off Grid Cabin

Well, the first night in the tiny cabin/house is complete! Thanks to finishing installing the woodstove last week. -14c outside. 24c inside at bedtime.

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..besides having to climb into the loft ( ladder/steps to be built) things went well. It was warm and cozy all night. One thing I will be doing in the future..crawling under the structure to attach rigid insulation..the floor was really cold and while high in the loft we were warm, the floor was very cold and cold air was streaming in between the gaps..

..mattress..finish the walls..and a whole lot more to come..but easier now that we can heat the place up while we work. Exciting times!

 

Finished Digging!

Some of you might remember us finishing our digging out of the new garden bed in October. Editing progresses. Slowly.

..and A* gives me a covid-19 Haircut.

 

Lighter Lugging

Lugging wood is much easier thanks to the road implement and some chains. Fairly balmy temperatures make for a muddy working area..although last winter was a mess this year and the extra 2 months of mud have not been much fun either.

We cut the trees off with 4 feet of trunk left on.. Saw some neat YouTube videos of pulling them out with a tractor with the stumps this length so we are gonna try it out in a year or so after the stump is dead.

And a couple nice bonfires too..this one burned for 24 hours at this point.

We also get a nice view of the treestand (we inherented) from our bedroom window.

 

Sour Grapes…(to be determined)

..we had bought some grape plants around a month ago and they have been sitting in our window growing..and growing..and were beginning to take over the windowsill..so we took matters into our own hands and got them in the ground. We had big plans for a trellis but for now we opted for not killing the grape vines by keeping them indoors for too long.

During the ‘planting’ I accidentally crushed one when I tripped..it looked to be in bad shape so I planted it anyway..in its own space..if it makes it it makes it.

The location for the ideal setting for the grapes was right where the boler was parked all winter..so first thing to do was to move the boler ( which became clean the boler, go into the attic for the boler cushions and start the propane fridge (horray, cold beer!)). For the other 3 vines ( and there are 3 different varieties in total) I dug a hole, amended the soil and planted..then surrounded them with rocks so the grass would not take over.

..and gave the grapes a stick to climb..grapes are like monkeys and need something to climb otherwise they get bored…but in all seriousness, something more elaborate for the vines to climb is coming soon..hopefully before next spring.

 

More Space to Grow

So we wanted more space to grow..and we also wanted to rock pick out the area which was destumped last summer..so we combined tasks and created 8 more garden boxes. Nothing too compicated, we took the rocks from around 1/2 of the cleared area and put them into 2 rows of boxes. Then we got out the pick-axe and shovels and tilled/dug up the soil..mostly clay (which will have to be amended if we want to grow anything this summer..but not now)

This picture gives you are idea as to the area which is partially cleared..some rocks were too big to move so we are going to leave them then keep on bringing in more and more horse manure to cover the whole area ( besides the garden boxes)..we are hoping to have a good portion covered this year.

..looks like this weekend we will be bringing in some additives for the boxes…we are also hoping that once we amend the soil the soil will remain more moist then the raised boxes..and we are also hoping not to have to cut down too many of the offending shade trees!

 

Crap!

Got a load of crap dropped in our yard..again. Our last load turned our ordinary squash into super squash so we figured we should get some more before the snow flies..which makes me sad.

Manure, shit, feces, poop..it’s all crap to us! hehe

 

Limey

Our most productive part of the garden..too bad this part is just a pile of dirt that was on the other side of the yard..we put down some extra squash plants which would not fit in the garden and they are 20 times the size of the ones we put in the garden…

..and final prep work for the summer landscaping..lime pellets for the soil..takes time to release and work its magic but the grass is going on this weekend..one way or the other..

..hard to get an idea for the whole area but it looks like a bigger version of the picture above..We can’t wait for grass and hopefully the end of Spring mud being trodden into the house.

 

Decorative Road Rock Flowerbed

…we put in a bunch of strawberries where my mother had no room in her yard. Everblooming variety. We put them with the other dug up strawberries at the end of the driveway so the deer or rabbits can eat them in peace next summer. Around the rest of the flowerbed we placed rocks that we dug up. A* poses with a monster we dragged up. We actually went down to the edge of the property line and got most of the bigger rocks out. With the freezing and thawing it was possible to get down enough between the rock and soil to begin wedging them out…in the summer I tried and none of them would budge.  Not sure about the berries in the picture..looked festive. Hehe