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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Got a plan?
  • Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 15:49:06 -0500


On Jul 9, 2008, at 8:52 AM, keith bellinger wrote:

Funny you should ask, Gene.

I drew our master plan at a picnic table in the front yard while living
in a tent. No, we hadn't been here a full year yet. In general the plan
hasn't changed much even with the added acre a few years ago. Maybe it's
time to revise though; the pasture hasn't been used in three years and
is returning slowly to the brushlot it was. I could take down the fences
and finally plant the orchard...

The orchard here has been a challenge. I can count three plantings. Only this year has the truth sunk in that I must do something about these very long black walnut roots that are killing my apple trees. It is such a serious problem that I am considering digging large planting holes and lining them with roof metal or something else that walnut roots cannot penetrate. Walnuts have a tap root but their feeder roots appear to be fairly shallow. I've not been able to find a definitive source; I may have to become the source by excavating and playing in the dirt.

Specifics have changed though; barn will become woodshop and the small
addition that was shop will turn into a pigpen perhaps...

Those are good building transitions. Unless you are saying that the pigs will be living in a room attached to your house. I've read of many who live in what was once a chicken house. Recycled buildings are a fine use of resources.

I just dug out our original house blueprints, drawn by a sixteen year

old aspiring architect cousin who indeed became one. That was in 1986,
years after we got the land. I wanted to see what kind of greenhouse we
dreamed of and am trying to redesign it to match the log walls which
were simply board and batten on paper. I am leaning toward a stone
(cultured stone probably) kneewall the height of our crawlspace--two
feet, recycled sliding glass doors as windows above--angled at a
fifty-degree or so pitch, and steel roofing to match the existing cabin
but with a couple skylights rather than dormers. Any non-glass wall area
will be sided with pine lap to match the gable ends and dormers of the
house.

Sounds very good. Research those upper windows and skylights and also the pitch of glass other than plumb. I can't give you a reference but I recall reading that high, angled glazing is neither efficient nor necessary. As I recall, you lose more heat than you gain and plants don't need light from directly above. In my little East Wing, which also uses patio door glass, I finished the back wall and the ceiling with what here is called milk barn paneling, white, dimpled four-by- eight plastic sheets that reflect light very well.

I desperately want a concrete slab at grade for the floor, eventually
tiled. You will step down into it from my office. The ceiling height
where it joins the house will be eleven feet.

If south-facing, such a design cannot be improved upon. With appropriate high vents to return air, it provides supplemental heat for the house when the sun is shining. Your masonry floor will provide valuable mass.

But I'm leaning toward a pole-type structure for now with gravel floor
only. The reason being the frost; about a foot and a half is as deep as
I can dig without a good backhoe and you live too far away. The septic
installer used a huge excavator to dig the hole for the tank through
solid rock. Here in Pennsylvania the frost line averages three and a
half feet. The holes for the posts will be a problem but I'll dig them
as deep as I can and call it good. Then maybe next year pour a floating
slab over the gravel, inside the posts. Any heaving shouldn't crack the
windows.

Even in deep frost areas I believe that a rubble foundation will do the job. If there is perfect drainage then there is no water to freeze and expand. Perhaps a curtain drain will allow you a more shallow foundation. It would remove water until the ground froze and except for the transition times of thawing and freezing, would keep it pretty dry. But that is a lot of trenching. Can you not barter for backhoe?

Then again, revision could be my middle name.

Revision is a good middle name. It implies flexibility and an inquisitive mind.

How about yourself, gene? Did you have a master plan?

My plan started as more of a fantasy of creating my ideal homestead. By making a drawing in Freehand I made the fantasy a dream. The dream has been changed a fair amount over the last couple decades but the layout--building locations, garden spots, traffic patterns--have stayed the same with minor modifications. Lots of the dream is still unfulfilled and it may still be that way when I retire to the porch.





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