Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] "The King Of Scrounge" - simpler living

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] "The King Of Scrounge" - simpler living
  • Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:49:41 -0800 (PST)

Maybe when your boy is old enough, he can help you with those type projects.
I'm good about picking up unusual 'stuff', but not personally creative enough
to get the best use of material. I have given stuff to friends that they
have made into really neat things. Occasionally, I have made smaller
projects from 'found'things. I like old (or new, if unusal) 'outsider art'
too. ........bobford

p.s. That magazine mentioned in the article "Backhome". They don't post
thweir mag to their website. Those are a group of people who worked with
whatisname at the original Mother Earth News in NC, and left with the first
corporate split. I used to subscribe. It seem s that Gene or someone else
associated with this list had an article published there, before.


-----------------------------------------------------------------

--- On Thu, 11/20/08, Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Homestead] "The King Of Scrounge" - simpler living
> To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Thursday, November 20, 2008, 12:37 PM
> Thanks, Bob, for posting this. The article has
> pictures...what a cool house.
> I save all kinds of junk, but don't often find such a
> good use for it. I
> have dozens of sashes I found in the trash that I intend to
> use for a
> movable greenhouse (a la Coleman)...one of hundreds of
> projects I may never
> get to.
>
> Lynn Wigglesworth
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "bob ford" <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
> To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 2:17 PM
> Subject: [Homestead] "The King Of Scrounge" -
> simpler living
>
>
> >I picked this article up on survival blog. The man is
> in rural new york
> >doing some of the type of things discussed on the list
> >
> >
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > King of Scrounge: North Country man finds simple
> living is easy
> >
> > by Tim Knauss, Staff writer
> >
> > Sunday October 19, 2008, 3:06 PM
> >
> > Dick Blume / The Post-Standard
> >
> > Jim Juczak stands in front of the home he built in the
> North Country from
> > salvaged materials. The walls of the 18-sided home are
> made of paper
> > sludge from a nearby mill.
> >
> > Jim Juczak hates mortgages. When he started building
> his home in rural
> > Jefferson County, he resolved to stay out of debt.
> >
> > The house he finished five years later is an 18-sided
> structure with 3,000
> > square feet of space. It is mortgage-free.
> >
> > And much of it is made from junk.
> >
> > The support beams are salvaged from a bowling alley
> that was being
> > demolished.
> >
> > A two-story concrete column that supports the center
> of the house is made
> > from scrapped manholes.
> >
> > Windows, interior doors, sinks, tubs and other
> materials were bought cheap
> > or salvaged for free after being removed from
> renovated buildings.
> >
> > And the mortar for the outer wall was made from paper
> sludge, a waste
> > material from a nearby mill. Juczak had to get a
> special permit from the
> > state Department of Environmental Conservation to
> divert the sludge from a
> > landfill.
> >
> > "Everyone gave it (the permit) with much humor,
> because this is basically
> > garbage," Juczak said. "You know -- 'Oh,
> my gosh! He's living in a house
> > made of trash!'"
> >
> > Among homesteading enthusiasts in the North Country,
> Juczak, 50, has a
> > reputation as the sultan of scrounge. His 50-acre
> property even contains a
> > submarine-like guest house made from an old
> 10,000-gallon fuel tank buried
> > into a hillside. (The windowless bedroom is, as the
> Realtors say, cozy.)
> >
> > "He's the king of scrounging
> everything," said Patricia Greene, of Canton,
> > a member of the Ark Community, a group that shares
> information about
> > sustainable living.
> >
> >
> >
> > Dick Blume / The Post-Standard
> > The walls of Jim Juczak's home are lined with
> canned food. The family
> > grows about 40 percent of all their food as they work
> to live modestly and
> > frugally.
> > Now Juczak is reaching out to a wider audience.
> >
> > He has taken a year-long leave from his job as a
> middle-school shop
> > teacher to spend more time spreading a message of
> simple living and
> > self-reliance. Among the first items on his agenda is
> to finish the book
> > he's writing, "The High Art and Subtle
> Science of Scrounging."
> >
> > He's also taking on speaking engagements at energy
> fairs and conferences
> > around the country.
> >
> > And he's planning to expand the number of
> workshops he hosts at his
> > property in Adams to a dozen a year. Topics include
> how to make a wind
> > turbine, how to grow and preserve your own food, and
> how to build a home
> > for $20,000 or less, among others.
> >
> > Juczak typically charges $100 a day for his workshops,
> which can run one
> > to four days.
> >
> > At the end of the year, Juczak will decide whether to
> return to school
> > teaching or to pursue his new calling full-time.
> >
> > "I like to do stuff like this," Juczak said.
> "I like to pass on the
> > message that you can live a bit simpler."
> >
> > It's a message people need to hear, Greene said.
> >
> > The debt-driven, energy-intensive American lifestyle
> is not only harmful
> > to the environment; it's also getting more
> difficult to achieve as oil and
> > other fossil fuels become more expensive, she said. A
> more self-sufficient
> > and less acquisitive lifestyle can be a rewarding
> alternative.
> >
> > "It requires a kind of mentality that looks at
> being poor as being rich,"
> > Greene said.
> >
> > Richard Freudenberger, the publisher of North
> Carolina-based BackHome
> > magazine, has advised Juczak on sections of his book.
> The worse the
> > economy gets, the more books like that attract
> interest, he said.
> >
> > "When things get tough, you would be amazed at
> how people shift their
> > thinking," Freudenberger said.
> >
> > 'Less is more'
> > On a recent morning, Juczak (pronounced JU-zack)
> chatted about
> > home-building while cutting up apples and tossing them
> into a big pot on
> > the stove to make applesauce. (It's a
> commercial-sized cast iron stove he
> > picked up for $300 when the restaurant upgraded to
> stainless steel.)
> >
> > The apples -- 12 buckets and pails worth -- were free,
> picked from the
> > tree of a neighbor who prefers store-bought apples.
> >
> > "She's very happy not to have to rake rotten
> apples off her lawn," Juczak
> > said.
> >
> > In 1996, Juczak and his wife, Krista, bought 50 acres
> outside of Adams
> > Center. The Juczaks grow about 40 percent of their own
> food. Canning jars
> > full of applesauce, string beans, jam, sauerkraut and
> other foods line the
> > walls.
> >
> > The Juczaks have opened their property to other
> residents who want to
> > adopt the self-reliant lifestyle. Five new households,
> including a family
> > of four, are planning or building homes there.
> >
> > The Juczaks call their place Woodhenge, "a
> sustainable community and
> > self-reliance educational center."
> >
> > Among the soon-to-be residents is Elizabeth
> "Lee" Brown, an Oswego County
> > native. She, her husband and two children fled their
> fast-paced urban life
> > in Virginia, where she had a high-paying job with a
> military contractor.
> > They plan to build a house constructed of straw bales
> at Woodhenge.
> >
> > "Less is more," Brown said of their
> decision. "Less is peaceful. Less
> > gives you space in your head to figure out what you
> want to do."
> >
> > Like the Juczak's home, two guest houses at
> Woodhenge represent outsized
> > feats of recycling.
> >
> > One of them is made from a 10,000-gallon kerosene tank
> recovered from a
> > factory that closed. After the tank was steam-cleaned,
> Juczak and friends
> > cut entry holes on either side of the 10-foot by
> 27-foot tank. Then they
> > buried it on one side with an earthen berm.
> >
> > The second is a recycled motel. When a bank in Adams
> planned to raze a
> > motel and build a branch, Juczak scrambled to buy the
> motel for $2,500. He
> > spent another $2,500 moving it.
> >
> > Following an interior renovation and the addition of a
> new roof and porch,
> > the former motel is a guest cottage with two bedrooms,
> a large community
> > room and a kitchen.
> >
> >
> > Dick Blume / The Post-Standard
> > Jim Juczak sits at the table of his 3,000-square-foot,
> mortgage-free home
> > he built using salvaged materials that otherwise would
> have gone straight
> > to a landfill.
> > Together on the Ark
> > Rich Douglass, a carpenter from St. Lawrence County
> who helped work on
> > Juczak's house, said finding used materials is
> critical for self-reliant
> > homesteads.
> >
> > Douglass, his wife and three young children live with
> no electricity, no
> > car and no running water on a 160-acre farm in Hermon.
> They can get by on
> > $6,000 a year, he said.
> >
> > "Most of our stuff is used," Douglass said.
> "I've never bought any
> > furniture. The only things we've ever bought for
> our children are socks
> > and underwear -- everything else we've gotten
> used."
> >
> > Two years ago, Douglass started the Ark Community. The
> group, which
> > includes Juczak, typically attracts about 40 people to
> its monthly
> > pot-luck dinners, mostly from the Potsdam area.
> Members demonstrate
> > homesteading skills or share work such as
> barn-raising.
> >
> > In rural Northern New York, Juczak is a long way from
> his roots. He was
> > born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island. But Juczak
> said he always
> > found city life too busy and wasteful.
> >
> > He leans toward Spartan living. During graduate
> school, he lived in a
> > converted school bus. If he didn't have family, he
> said, he would have
> > built himself a tiny house.
> >
> > "I would have put up a cave," he said,
> "One window, and bury the thing.
> > Six-foot six-inch ceilings."
> >
> > Juczak said his first inclination, after building the
> house at Woodhenge,
> > was to ring the property with barbed wire and get a
> pack of Rottweilers
> > "to protect myself." In his more paranoid
> moments, he fears there could be
> > a breakdown in society as energy grows ever more
> expensive, leave many
> > people unprepared and panicked.
> >
> > A political libertarian, Juczak has little faith in
> government to address
> > such a crisis.
> >
> > But the more he thought about it, he does have faith
> in community. Far
> > from putting up a fence, Juczak makes every effort to
> be neighborly.
> >
> > "Independence is good, but nobody can be
> completely independent," he said.
> > "The best way for me to look out for myself is to
> make sure others are
> > looking out for me because they know I'll help
> them out. ... I'd rather
> > depend upon a neighbor than a municipality or a
> government."
> >
> > Building with sludge
> > Juczak started building his house in 1997 in his spare
> time, with help
> > from friends, relatives and hired teen-aged students
> from his shop
> > classes. It took five years to finish, during which he
> trolled the county
> > for materials.
> >
> > At a local concrete company, he found the discarded
> manholes that would
> > make the central "tower" of his house -- a
> massive cylindrical column made
> > of steel-reinforced concrete. Seven feet wide and 23
> feet tall, the tower
> > rises through the center of the house, supporting the
> roof rafters and
> > second-story floor joists.
> >
> > It's made from sections of manholes that were
> rejected for minor
> > imperfections. Juczak's cost to buy and stack the
> manholes: $550.
> >
> > The tower also provides central heating. Juczak worked
> with a friend to
> > make a two-ton, wood-burning stove in the tower's
> hollow interior. He then
> > filled the column's interior 16 feet high with
> sand, creating a 35-ton
> > radiator that provides steady heat throughout the
> house.
> >
> > The huge roof rafters and perimeter support posts for
> his house were
> > salvaged, along with other lumber, from a Watertown
> bowling alley as it
> > was being demolished. Juczak and a part-time crew of
> high school kids
> > spent the better part of a summer disassembling the
> bowling alley's
> > 100-foot-long trusses and taking nails out of the
> recycled framing lumber.
> >
> > He paid $10,000 for the materials, but figures they
> were worth five times
> > that.
> >
> > The 16-inch log ends used in the cordwood masonry
> walls were cut from a
> > forest of red pine decimated by North Country ice
> storms. Since the dead
> > trees were too small for lumber, they were his for the
> taking.
> >
> > So was the mortar for the masonry outer wall. It was
> made from paper
> > sludge, the waste material that didn't make it
> through the filter screens
> > at a nearby paper mill. The mortar was 80 percent
> sludge, 20 percent
> > masonry cement.
> >
> > To get electricity from National Grid, Juczak would
> have had to pay $6,800
> > for the utility company to bring in an electric line,
> pole and transformer
> > to serve them, Juczak said.
> >
> > Instead, he built a household electric system that
> runs on 1-kilowatt
> > worth of solar panels and a 1-kilowatt wind turbine,
> with an occasional
> > boost from a gas-powered generator. And the family
> learned to conserve.
> >
> > The Juczaks and their 11-year-old daughter use just
> 120 kilowatt-hours a
> > month, about one-sixth what a typical household uses.
> >
> > "You can view me as a tree hugger or as a
> cheapskate," Juczak said. "The
> > end result is the same."
> >
> > And which is he, at heart?
> >
> > "A cheapskate."
> >
> >
> >
> http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/king_of_scrounge_north_country.html%20
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Homestead list and subscription:
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
> > Change your homestead list member options:
> >
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/lynnw1366%40hotmail.com
> > View the archives at:
> > https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead
> >
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Homestead list and subscription:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
> Change your homestead list member options:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/bobford79%40yahoo.com
> View the archives at:
> https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page