Charge every drop.

Today was a truly epic day.  We accomplished something we first said we would never even attempt by ourselves, and we learned a ton in the process.

Our surfing friends recently enlightened us on a phrase thrown around in the surfing world; "charge every drop." While surfing, this means to paddle hard at great waves, no matter how big and intimidating they might be. Give it your all and drop into the wave and the ride of your life. Today we took that phrase to a different level and tackled a hung up tree that scared us. We decided to take on a challenge, learn from the process, and hope for the best. So, charge every drop!

On Thanksgiving, we had fairly high winds in our area.  We had been inside cooking all day, but when our guests arrived, everyone kept commenting on the big tree that was hung up at the top of our road.  A big maple had been uprooted by the wind, but it didn't fall all the way to the ground.  It was hung up on a bunch of smaller trees.  For foresters, they call trees like this 'widow makers' because they are pretty tough and dangerous to bring down.  The lean of the tree changes all the dynamics of how it will fall, and there is a lot of tension in the tree making it easy for the tree to go very quickly without any warning.  Today, we successfully tackled our first widow maker, and here's how it went:

We've been calling her mega maple.  It isn't as horizontal as many hung up trees, and the fact that it is uprooted as opposed to broken off makes it a challenge as well.  The root ball was fairly secure still, so that changed the dynamic as well.  We were anticipating the the root ball would fall back down, but that didn't end up being the case. Hindsight is 20/20, and we would have cut it differently had we known what was going to happen.

Dr. Trafton -- ready to tackle the tree.  Actually we were both pretty nervous.  Anna was going to take the first stab at it, but I wasn't going anywhere.  This is definitely a task requiring supervision (as are all chainsaw activities in our book).

First task -- clear the area.  You always want to make sure you have an escape route.  We cut and cleared all the small trees to Anna's right and a few on the other side of mega maple.  

The first cut -- the plan was to cut a wedge in the top, then cut up the bottom side to meet the wedge.  This creates a hinge in the tree, and the root ball falls back while the bottom of the tree falls down.  Again, things didn't go as planned.  The root didn't fall back into place, and so the tree just got stuck where it was.  There was nowhere for it to go.  More on that later.

More work on the wedge -- the final wedge was much larger than what it looks like here.

The final wedge.  It's not perfect, but our skills are getting better.    

The next move is to cut into the side of the tree opposite the wedge in a straight line to the point of the wedge.  I apparently was too nervous to take any pictures of this, but let's just say Anna did a great job. The problem was that the root ball didn't want to go anywhere, but the tree wanted to fall down.  So, the bottom edge of the tree was being stopped by the stump.  Ugh.  What are we going to do?  Naturally, we called upon the strongest member of our farm team…Charlotte. 

Sorry it's sideways!

Oh hell's yeah!  You can see the root ball in the background -- that thing didn't move!  We later cut it down to the stump as there's no reason to leave perfectly good firewood just sitting there.

After this, we limbed the tree and cut it into logs that we could drag down to our drying pile.  They'll stay there until we buck and split them in the warm spring sun.  Then, they'll sit there a long time longer drying so they're ready for burning 2 winters from now -- hopefully we can have enough wood to start actually being a year in advance.

And now, it's cocktail hour. :D

I built a toilet today.

***Warning*** -- this post is about poop.

One of the items on our winter projects list is to start using a composting toilet.  Today, I built that toilet. :) Why would we want a composting toilet when we have a perfectly good septic system? Good question.

First, flushing a conventional toilet is a total waste of potable water -- yes, the water that you flush in your toilet is drinkable (thank goodness for Fido's sake!).  You're also flushing away a perfectly good resource.

Second, what are the most common ingredients found in compost people put on their gardens?  Animal manure is a biggie!  Our plan isn't to use our humanure on our veggie garden (though you could, and it would be perfectly safe if you compost correctly).  Rather, we're planning to grow some food for our livestock (chickens, and eventually other things), feed them that food, then compost their manure for the veggie garden.  It's a way of expanding the loop so our humanure is still contributing to our veggie growth, indirectly.

Third, septic systems don't provide a good environment for 'waste' composting, and are, thus, inefficient at redirecting organic matter to the soil.

Fourth, why not?  It's a good conversation piece.

So, now for a quick rundown of how it all works.  Here's our super sweet toilet.

Yeah, I built it.  Yeah, it's just a box on legs.

So, basically, you treat it like a normal toilet, and you 'flush' with a handful (or two) or organic matter.  People use all different types of things for this -- sawdust, leaves, grass clippings, etc.  Our original plan was to use leaf litter from the forest -- it's a renewable resource, it's free, and it is already teeming with good organisms for composting.  While we still may do this, we're also going to use sawdust.  Lucky for us, our future brother-in-law owns a wood distribution company and also does carpentry.  In short, he produces bags and bags of sawdust.

For flushing -- much better than sending perfectly good water down the drain. :)

The immediate thing that people think when you talk about a composting toilet is that it is really stinky. Think: contemporary outhouses with water, chemicals, and nastiness. The same holds true for many commercially made composting toilets.  This is NOT what we're going to have.  I have visited many composting toilets that employ the system we're putting in place, and not a single one of them smells at all. The key to a not smelly toilet is the correct ratio of 'waste' to sawdust (or whatever dry, organic matter you're using).  The reason commercial outhouses and some composting toilets are smelly (and may require a lot of fans to keep it under control) is because they are decidedly lacking in the dry matter.  The whole system becomes anaerobic, and anaerobic = staaaaaaaaaaanky!  It's like a trash can with a lid vs. a trash can without a lid -- lidless cans aren't as stinky because air can get in there.

Anyway, I digress -- we're using a bucket system.  For a family of 4, having 4 buckets in rotation means emptying the buckets once a week.  This doesn't seem to bad, but we don't know what our system will be just yet, or how many buckets we'll go through.

The bucket system -- when it gets full-ish, then we swap it out for a new one.  Don't worry, that's just sawdust in there -- this is the newly installed bucket. 

Today is day 1 of the composting toilet system, we'll see how it goes.

End of poop discussion. :)

One last thing…

Yeah, we did.

Winter projects

Throughout the summer, there were many times when I said, "I am actually looking forward to winter when I can do all these things I want to do but can't because we're in the throws of the growing season."  Talk about not living in the now, but that's another topic…

So, I started writing down all the projects I hoped to get to during the winter (as well as all the books I wanted to read), and what has resulted from that is our giant winter projects list.  Some things are easy (make a wood box), some things are not so easy (business master plan), but I'm hoping we can make a significant dent in the list if not finish it. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing it is now January, so we better get cracking! Nothing like a massive to-do list to kick off your year, right? :)

Here is the list in it's entirety:

• Office organization -- we have a little room that doubles as our 'theater' and office (we are without a TV, so we watch movies on our computer), and it has been the catch-all for the 'I don't know what to do with this' stuff since we moved.  I'm going to organize those things and build some shelving to help organize the place a little more.
• Fire poker -- Anna's dad has this amazing fire poker, and I was going to try to make one.  Turns out, they're manufactured right in here in New England. Considering my metal-working skills are about nil, we're going with purchasing this one.
• Under-counter shelving/cabinet -- our kitchen has no cabinet uppers (I actually really like this about it), which means limited storage.  We have a breakfast bar that we don't intend to use as such, so I'm going to build some sort of cabinet to put under the bar that will serve as a liquor cabinet/glassware storage.
• Over stove shelving/plate rack -- again, limited storage in the kitchen.  We are going to install some shelving and a plate rack (think vertical plate storage) to free up some of our cabinet space.  This will be an 'upper' of sorts, but open shelving.  We're not building this one, but the plate rack does require us to finally make a decision on plates since they're size dependent.
• Wood cover -- we don't have a dedicated wood shed, so we want to make/get a cover for our wood that is stacked outside.  This can be as simple as leftover metal roofing that we put on top of the pile.
• Book shelf bonanza -- we have amassed a number of books over the years, but we don't have a lot of book shelves here.  I'm going to build a bunch.
• Sourdough perfection -- we have a sourdough started that is a few hundred years old.  We haven't quite mastered the art of gluten free sourdough, but we're working on it.
• Organize/clean 45s -- we were lucky to get my dad's turntable and record collection, which includes a fair number of 45s.  They aren't in any order (except for the ones in boxes -- and those have a card catalog -- glad my dad's so organized!), and they could use a cleaning.  I'm hoping to develop a system for them so we know what's where.
• Drying screens -- we need to be able to successfully dry some of our crops -- herbs, beans, etc.  Last year, we just sort of hung them around or laid them out on the deck.  They really need air from all sides, and we lost a number of beans because of this.  I'm going to make some framed screens and a shelving unit to hold them.
• Composting toilet -- we'd like to be able to start making humanure -- yep, humanure.  This involves composting our waste.  It is perfectly safe, we just need to get the system in place.
• Develop a master plan -- this is a biggie, and it will probably be ever evolving.  We need to put down in writing our plan for this farm.  To whom are we going to sell our products?  On what things do we want to put most of our energy?  Where are we going to sell -- farmers' markets, CSAs, wholesale, farm stand, all of the above? Like I said -- this is a biggie.
• Finish caulking -- we had an energy audit a while back, and I'm slowly making my way through sealing a lot of the cracks in our house.  It's a tedious, slow process, but it makes us warmer and more efficient. :)
• Smoking room woodbox -- now that the smoking room looks so beautiful, we need a place to store wood by the fireplace.  I made a super sweet woodbox for our tiny stove upstairs, and I'd like to make one for the smoking room fireplace.  
• Maple syrup plan -- we tapped about 8 trees last year, and we want to really expand our maple syrup production. We need to make a plan for sap collection, storage, and where the heck we're going to put our sugar shack!
• Black trumpet dogs -- this is more of a research project.  We have lots of black trumpets on our property, and we'd like to teach our dogs to find them for us.  I mean, they have truffle dogs, why not trumpet dogs?  I'm confident we can do this.
• Chicken tractor/bachelor pad -- our male ducks are beating the crap out of each other.  This is due to the fact that we have too many males and not enough females.  Since we're vegetarians, we're not too keen on killing our males.  So -- we're building a bachelor pad for them.  It is basically already completed, we just need to order the roofing and put it on.  It is mobile, and we'll be able to rotate the ducks/chickens around the garden when we want.
• Root cellar plan -- obviously, we can't put in a root cellar until the ground thaws, but we WILL have one next year. We must!  So, we need to figure out where it's going to go, and what it's going to look like.
• Yoga room -- we have a temporary yoga space right now, but I'd love to make our permanent yoga room plan a reality.  Some of this is out of our control, but once the opportunity presents itself, we're on it!
• Squash storage -- we're growing a TON of winter squash this year as it is something we're hoping to sell sooner than later.  Squash doesn't go well in the root cellar because it is too humid in there.  Right now, we have boxes of squash under our bed (actually a pretty common storage method), but we'd like a more organized setup.  I'm going to build some shelving specifically for storing winter squash on the other side of our bedroom -- it's a really long room, and it's cold, which is good for squash storage.
• Firewood -- we have an entirely separate list for places in the woods that we want to cut firewood, but I'll spare you the boring details.  Suffice to say, we want to put up enough wood for next year and the year after.  The winter part of this is just felling the trees, we can buck and split it in the spring/summer/fall sun. :)

Maybe we'll revisit this list in the spring -- I'm going to say that the winter projects list deadline is the day we plant seeds.  At that point, it is most definitely no longer winter….we hope!