Bye, bye Buckthorn, hello view!

On Tuesday, Dad and Christopher came over and helped me clear trees- white pine limbs that had fallen, an elm too close to the cabin, maple tree overhangs, and LOTs of buckthorn- a nasty invasive species that now gone, I have really noticed how much of my view it was taking!  I can now see from my backyard down into my beautiful ravine, and all the moss and beautiful plants down there.  I am loving it!  It also clears out the home of many mosquitos and gives me more of a yard! 

A busy Sunday!

Sunday we woke up and got quite a few things done...some things we weren't even counting on!  Here are some pictures of Jim's "dungeon" as I like to call it- the battery vault for the solar power.  These things have had quite the beating the last couple weeks, as this 1,000 gallon septic tank has aquired more than what we expected for water! With our unfilled trenches filling up with water and then making a waterfall into the tank, our batteries have seen better days.  We installed a sump pump, and then on Sunday Jim built up the walls so that now we are only getting rain water that falls in that area into the tank.  Tarring the tank was not the most fun, and I definiteley had the most tar on me after we finished.  Four days later, I am still picking tar out of my nails and off my leg.  But- for a water-proof tank, it is well worth it!  Here is a picture of what the tank looked like a couple weeks ago! Thank goodness the batteries are in casings and appear to be OK.

While I worked on finishing up the covering for our foam around the slab, Jim worked on getting air bubbles out of the solar hot water.  This turned out to be a much bigger project than anticipated with soldering required and spewing hot water everywhere. Not fun.  Besides handing him towels, there wasn't much for me to do, so I put my eyehooks on my kayak rack to tie down the yaks, and then finished up my slab covering.

Before...and after.

Our next project was getting one of the empty water tanks onto the truck, so Jim could take it into work and get us more water.  These tanks have been working out very well!  With a nice shower and brushing my teeth, I apparently use 4 gallons of water- so a 330 gallon tank lasts us quite while. While pulling back the cover off the tank we discovered this on top.....

As Jim pointed out, I had a moral dilema.  I don't want mice in my yard, but I can't kill babies.... I moved the nest nearby to an area on the ground where there squeaks can be heard by mama mouse and covered them with some tarp so they didn't get wet.  The next day the nest was there but the babies were gone...eaten or moved, I choose to believe the latter. I'm OK with my cat killing them when they are older, I just can't kill anything that defenseless....even something I don't want.
We then riggeed the pump up to the other tank with zip ties so it is now off the ground.

Our next project was sheathing the house.  I took a break when my friend Jill, an aid in my classroom showed up with her husband on motorcycle, but we otherwise just hit it and got it done fairly quick.  Jim cut out all but one window, which I took the sawzal to yesterday when my mom was visiting so we could sit inside and enjoy the view =)
Overall, I think we had a pretty productive day!

Framing the cabin!

Last Wednesday was a busy day, as Wayne, Matt, Christopher and Dad helped me put up all 4 walls on my cabin! Since then, Jim and I have sheathed it as well.  We picked up the trusses yesterday, and Thursday looks like the day for raising the roof!  It has been a lot of fun seeing things progress, and I am learning a lot!  Thanks to all that have helped me so far! I definitely would not be able to do it all on my own.  With 2 1/2 more weeks before work....crunch time has begun =)  Surprisingly, I am not stressed out by this. I am expecting to get quite a bit done this week, and I am hoping the temperatures drop so I can work outside longer.  Apparently it was 94 today, and even with a bit of wind, that is way too much for me.  I still put in an almost full day, but it definitely takes too much out of me....so Jim and I went to the movies and sat in air conditioning tonight....and now I am headed to bed with air conditioning.  So, to all of you that think I am roughing it out on my land....not really.  I am loving it out here!

Changes....

In the short 2 1/2 months that Jim and I have been dating, we have both made quite a few changes.  For him, he took down his wind mill out in Fremont MN due to issues with the county planning department and then moved his 6x10 house- first to the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in mid June, and then to my land out in North Bend.  A week and a half ago we poured the piers for it to sit on, and put in a pole for the solar panels on my land.  Last week we set up his house, renting a big forklift as it was too heavy for his tractor, and within that same day we hooked up water from 2- 330 gallon water tanks and have pressurized water, and ran the wires to get solar power hooked up.  2 days later, Jim got up early and hooked up the solar hot water panels, so now we have hot water coming out of our shower head hose and can take wonderful showers!  We also have a mini fridge, air conditioner and internet here on my land!  The last picture shows the tent that my uncle gave me- a 16 foot army tent where we store many things and can have guests sleep =) Yesterday we spent the fourth of July hooking up 2 more solar panels to our pole, making an amplifier so we can have music inside (he taught me how to solder and I got to make most of it), and then taking the truck out to Fremont to get the outdoor shower, where we got stuck in the driveway and met some nice neighbors, Bob and Crystal who helped us out.
I now have my building permit, and the front end loader got fixed on the tractor today, so as soon as it is nice out, I will be renting an auger and starting the piers for my cabin =) My original plans of building a 24x28 foot cabin have been currently put on hold, and I will be building a smaller, 14x16 foot cabin this year.  In a  way, I guess it is my practice cabin, and may be my workshop or art studio later on.  But, it will give me time to figure out which direction my life is headed, and still give me a place to live and be on my land in the meantime.  I am pretty excited about it!  I was hoping to start sooner, but apparently permits and all that paper work were entirely under estimated.  It seems everything takes about 3 more steps and twice as long as anticipated, but I am still excited about all the progress out here.  I now have a small flower garden and have been planting a lot of wildflower seeds in one part of my yard I have decided to keep meadow. I have also planted 2 apple trees and 2 blueberry plants, thanks to my Mom.  Apparently, I also have TONS of raspberry and black raspberry plants also growing out on my land.  I am still hoping to plant pear, plum, and a few more apple and lilacs, but those might have to wait until next year.
The Midwest Renewable Energy Fair was a lot of fun!  Jim worked the whole time, but I went off and went to hear speakers about building green, building smart to save energy, composting, building with stone, biodiesel and grey water systems.  I came back with lots of ideas and a lot more knowledge about building.  I look forward to going again next year!
On Saturday, Jim and I celebrated his Mom's birthday by paddling the Black River.  We launched from my crick, and headed south for 22 miles.  The temperature was 89 degrees at 7:30 at night when we headed back, so I imagine it was well into the 90's while we were paddling.  Despite multiple re-applications of sunscreen we got a bit of sunburn which I still feel when I turn on my side to sleep.  It was a beautiful trip though, and I enjoyed seeing more of "my" river =) Today is another rainy day, so I am heading to the cabin to celebrate the 4th with family and eat a ton of food at dad's cabin.  I wish Katie a very happy birthday!!