Finally a house update

I have wanted to do a "real" update on the house for a while, with information to help anyone thinking of using the dry stack building method.  But with the actual work of building, getting gardens in, a booth at the Farmer's Market and trying to run a small business, there hasn't been anytime.  There is already a lot of written information on this subject though and I'll share that, along with our personal experience with you. 

Link to USDA bulletin Surface Bonding

The link to the "Construction with Surface Bonding" link is broken on the USDA page. I contacted them and they said they would fix. Meanwhile, they provided a link that works:

http://naldr.nal.usda.gov/exe/zynet.exe/document.txt?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=National%20Agricultural%20Library%20Digital%20Repository&Index=AH|AH2|AIB|BIC|Books|Circ|ERS|FB|FVMNR|HGB|JAR|LFLT|MP|NFC|ROS|Rural|TB|TB1|TB2|USDA_Div_Bulletin|WPC|YOA1|YOA2&Query=&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=1&TocRestrict=&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=Accession^CAT87210094&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&UseQField=Accession&IntQFieldOp=1&ExtQFieldOp=1&File=&User=anonymous&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h|-&MaximumDocuments=15&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r85g16/r85g16/x150y150g16/i500&Display=hpfrw&DefSeekPage=f&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=1&SeekPage=f&Rank=1

With dial up I had trouble downloading this document, so she also emailed it to me as a PDF. If anyone else has this problem, email me and I will forward the PDF to you.

Eat your carrots

It's hard to make out in the photo, but this is the old logging road.

These last few days have been the first time we've been to Falcon since it's warmed up. I was glad to get down there, to be in the country air and think about my grandparents when they would go to their land every summer and we'd go to play. After working most of the day, I'd stand looking up at the trees and try to figure out the best place to put everything. I've been staring at the house drawings for so long now I can really see it in my head. This was the first time I've been able to see where everything can fit without taking out trees of size in most cases. The house site itself will loose just a few trees, but it's the spot with the least amount of trees, the medium sized ones are good and straight and can be used in building, and most of the growth is new. The land was logged some years ago and we're trying to use the spots that they hit the most. The places for the RV's, shed, herb garden, and main garden will loose no trees other than saplings. The driveway is an old logging road and as it continues past where we'll build the house, that will be the little yard for Rufus the pig. From Judy's bedroom window there will be a huge Sycamore and Juniper tree.