This weekend we got ourselves an upgrade from our little Toyota motorhome!
We decided to go with something big enough to be able to instal a wood-burning stove for winter. This thing is 38 ft long and has three pull outs so our child can really run around if you wants to, and we'll have room to breath during rainy days and the cold winter days.
This will be our home until we build something Natural, like a strawbale house.
We spent a little bit more than we wanted to, but we got it financed, which means that we are left with more liquid capital for other things we need on the homestead, like water!
A couple weekends ago we made a small driveway by hand, that something we didn't touch at all this past weekend, it's usable as is, and we really needed to clear an area for the new motorhome.
We worked entirely by hand, without power toolls or machines!
The first problem we encountered was finding the right placement for it. There is a lot of areas we want to clear (full of brush, vines, small trees and big rocks) but we wanted this to be in a perfect place. We ave a view of the blue Catskills mountains, and a view on The Launch Pad (the play area for little people and big people!).
I know you've seen this photo before, but here's the blue mountains in the distance
Can you see it there? Almost 40 feet of camper will be tucked in, partially under the pines. It's all cleared, stumps and all... I wish I had a before picture.
See all that brush and smaller trees behind JK (with her handy saw), that's basically what it looked like. Not too crazy...
Just a few little saplings.
The hardest part of clearing the area was removing the stumps. These (yellow birch?) trees were small, the bigest one only 6 inches at the most but those roots were well established.
Theses little guys really stand their ground, even in front of a pick axe!
Eureka! We found clay, lots of it and it's really good too!!!
Look how pretty this stuff is...
...and very malleable! We also collected a bunch of straw material that was laying around everywhere.
Our little clay cube drying in the sun
There's all that straw material we gathered and our compost pile, ready to roll again!
The tool-shed turned stool-shed temporarily. (guess what fills the compost pile!)
As you can see we were pretty busy this past weekend... I hardly got on steemit or even touched my phone, it explains the lack of pictures (sorry). We finished one project, clearing a spot for the RV. All the branches and vines and so forth will be re-used to form a hugelkultur mound not too far from our front door... We also gathered quite a bit of straw material, cleaned and set up our toyota to live in until the big dog gets here, and I started something I've wanted to do; there is a big patch of black raspberries that runs alongside where the natural swimming pool wants to be, and I started cutting a wandering path through the whole thing to be able to reach more berries and as a fun path to walk through, perhaps on the way back from the chicken coop, or grazing a another zone!
It looks like we're starting to see a bit of a permaculture design taking shape here...
Our messy looking rasberry patch, You can hardly tell in the photo, but the patch goes all the way to the pines you see in the background, about 150 or so... mmmh, they are so delicious, I really can't wait to be there full time!
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congratulations. I am very envious of others who have such a view. I live in Austin and the highest mountain near me is 9 hours away. The biggest hill in my area is only 700ft. I love that you are able to pull back a little and get away.
Thank you so much for your comment. We have been dreaming ofbthis for a long time and now here it is! Scary but very exciting, we're making our dreams come true!!! Therebwill be more posts to come on the evolution of this thing!
We will be in Austin one day we have friends, from therefrom the Burning Man scene!
I bet it is scary. The main reason so many don't do the same. I wish you well and will be following to see how it goes.
Thank you very much. I've traveled the world so I am used to change and adaptation, so it is scary but much more exciting!
I see a lot of goodies in your shed. That block of clay looks like hash after it dried out. Wouldn't someone be surprised when they tried to smoke it.
Lol, that's funny. It does look like that!
congrats on the upgrade and enjoyed the pictures... glad to nominate this for ocd-resteem :)
Thank you so much, we are so happy.... I mean the toyota is awesome, but to live in full time with a kid, is a little tight! I know we have 19 acres of land to play around on but sometimes we like to chill indoors.
Thank you for the nomination. 😊
Oh my goodness, I could not imagine leveling ground or a driveway by hand. You guys are amazing. The trailer sounds wonderful and like lots of leg room for the kiddo to burn energy. Looking forward to following your progress. -Aimee
Thanks Aimee,
When I get impatient, I work on things I know we need done... but we will have machines once we have planned enough work to not waste precious rented time.
The spot we chose was mostly kind of level, we just had that bunch of small trees and the de-rooting was the hardest job.
That makes sense, you definitely don't want to rent equipment or hire help without a plan. We have been busy trying to get everything lined up and some days refining the plan details feels mentally draining
Hey, if nothing else, I bet you got some amazing exercise. Ha ha ha! -Aimee
LOL, yes lots of exercise!! We are being careful too, being in oir early 40's and all!!!!
The plan is coming little by little!
Oh gosh! We completely understand. We were in such great shape before the kids arrived and now we both feel like a bag of creaky old bones. We are slowly trying to get back in shape without pulling anything major. Ha ha ha!
I know I cannot understand what it's like with twins, but the energy some how comes back after a little while and you will start feeling young again when it catches up!
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