Green Workshop - Natural Living. (pix galore)

I haven't had much time for the web since moving. First there was the move and the resulting chaos to deal with. Then came getting the garden worked and the orchard in shape. Then it was emmediately followed by whipping the shop in shape (work-in-progress).

At least you can actually see the shop floor now:







recycled the old windows, 2 installed, three to go. Natuaral light is something the shop was missing:



veggies this summer (20 varieties):





The orchard and vineyard:

Artichokes!!!



boysenberries:



4 kinds of apples, four kinds of grapes and two kinds of plumbs:







Poke sallat!!! (the stuff was transplanted from the deep south and is now growing wild)



Then I indulged in some misc tasks:

Cleared and huge assed oregon Grape that was blocking the view to the creek. I'm going to construct a deck here:



got the compost heap situated:



got the irrigation ran:



the posts I set for a sat dish was in the perfect spot for my HD channels, but some cottonwoods were in the way of my local channels. I'm going to use the post set to install a pivoting windmill mast:





then by late fall, it's going to be all about hydro power as well as wind. in the summer, the afternoon breeze runs 7 mph and the solar is 6am-8pm.



This move to the stix has been a bit of a shock for the wife, but I'ma luvin' it!
It is so quiet, 'cept for the sound of the running, cascading water in the creek. At night, there are litterally 1000 (or more) times the number of stars to see............it is even hard to pick out the big dipper amungst all those stars! for an unemployed person, I sure am working hard :unibrow:........
.......only this work isn't making some one besides myself rich.

I love what you are doing wiskas...keep up the awesome work and keep the pics coming!

Anyone know of a good price on 15 batteries? i may start with a bank of five and build from there. I've found that Interstate has better deep cycle capabilities than exide so that's probably where I will purchase that component of my off-grid endeavors. I still plan on building a green steam engine and coupling it up with a fresnell lense boiler to to run an automotive alternator to charge a bank and perhaps bake breads:unibrow:.

I'm not really up to date with some of the things that you've done / have had happen to you. I know you had major financial issues and what not, but now that you've moved out to the wilderness you seem to be doing quite well off. I think overall it proves you don't have to be rich to go green, and that you can save quite a bit of money with DIY and off grid techniques.

Congrats on a beautiful place, and keep up the pics, let us in on any new cash saving inventions you scheme up!

Great work. You sure have a lot of tools in that shop too.

Do you have a goal for food production? Just trying to grow as much as possible, or are you trying to say, grow 30% of everything you eat? My understanding of food production is that it is quite hard, if not impossible to produce everything you need to eat.

Next time you murder someone and throw their body behind your house, hide it better. Or your yard is haunted.

Dead stump. My goal is to raise as much and put away as much as possible. The field will sustain a wheat harvest and I'm experimenting with sunflowers. We'll dry the apples grapes and plumbs, can green beans, corn, squash, tomatoes and peppers, then clamp up the root crops like beets and carrots. This won't be everyhing we eat, but it should supply 80% of our veggies for the fall and winter months. A big food dehydrator is something I'm ready to make. If the chips are really down, there are all kinds of deer and wild turkeys and ocasionally an elk or two or three or six:unibrow:.
I also plan a chicken coup for eggs and fryers.....I love fried chicken.

I cannot wait to get the remaining 50% of the work done in the barn. I miss the making of generators and hydrogen.

Hahaha.... that's creepy.

Kudos to you wiskas.

Personally, I could NEVER live like that. I would go mental.

I like my city noise (most of the time).

You should really make a website and document this Wiskas!

I dunno.....imagine this scene, at 8PM, totally quiet except for the sound of a running creek and all will seem well with the world .



and............it's a kitty-cat heaven too!
max, in search of the whiley vole and mouse. Or, whatever moves. he has a pile of dead stuff waiting for me outside the back door every morning:

LLMMAAOO!! that stump actually looks like whiskas.

dude, i got nothing but respect for you going at the wildlife outdoors like this.
i dont see how youre managing to buy stuff without an income, but i guess its possible.

think of the possibilities of using that running water back there for some extra power!!!
that garden and orchard are something serious, you must be extremely busy.
you make my "wake up-goto work-goto sleep" routine look like a real waste of life.

After reading your post in the weather thread, I just thought of something. Did you install a whole house fan in your cottage?

No need for a WHF, the breeze is so, that the venting is automatic. It's all in the design and vents really well. If I do end up needing one, I'll whip together a 45 watt solar panel and let the sun power it and time it. I get enough small jobs to get them vittles coming in and the wife works 20 hours a week. As stated in threads last year, we got our grocery bill down to 200-250 a month for both of us. No frills, but we eat. Haven't had to suck the government tit yet either. Gotta go sit on the patio, the birds are chirping and this cup of coffee tastes better out there .

Glade everything going well, I'm still in utter shock at how quickly it all came together. its a constant reminder of how slow and pathetic my renovations have been comparatively

Can't wait to see whats next. Secretly I want you to buy a old Diesel worktruck and concert it to run on veggie oil so that I can live vicariously threw you. My truck is written off and I won't be able to do it myself anymore atleast not for a couple years until I get a new one.

OT, but MW I have an older aluminum patio door that leads into my back yard, it leaks heat like crazy and it makes the house increasingly easy to break into(a 2x4 that stops it from sliding and a crappy latch lock is my current home security system. I'm going to replace it with a proper door.

something like this
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_NTjlyrQrB.../nky6H2lnGOo/s400/New+French+door+outside.JPG

I imagine thats a pretty strait forward job I can tackle myself with the help of a couple friends?

I install those in about an hour minus any time it takes to re-frame. A patio slider like you mentioned is l;ike a heatsink on a CPU. they radiate heat out to the outside and in the summer, radiate heat to the inside. Wise choice to replace that thing.

I believe I'll take the day away from chores and fix-its to sit in the creek and pan for gold :unibrow:. I made a sniping tube and cleared the rocks/gravel out of a big cleft in the bedrock and saw a shit ton of flakes in the bottom of the black sandbed. curious as a cat as to what's under that gold bearing sand. Nuggets have been found on this creek and storms of the last 5 years have cut new channels and moved alot of banks.

I just got in from irrigating the garden, lawn and orchard/vineyard and snapped a few pix of the awesome-as-all-getout sunrise. it's rather euphoric for this old man....I'll tell you.











(just my way of counteracting Torx's "depressing sunday" thread )

One of two bucks hanging out behind the barn. Just starting to grow back thier antlers:

Today's project: make a home made sluicebox!





Tomarrow i'll gellcoat it and be ready to separate some gold dust on wednesday :unibrow:. I found a deposite that's looking pretty good. Live Market Quotes...............double :unibrow:!!!

Good for you wiskas! Where your at is my idea of retirement. 6 months ago you were bitching about the work situation , and now your livin in high style.

Wow, good work Whiskas. All the years of tinkering a building seem to definitely be paying off, and in quite an amazing way.

I don't know about high style, but it's pretty cool......back to basics in every way. I got a dirty look from misuzwiskas when I was making the box yesterday. I kept telling her I'd simply have to grow the beard again now that I'm prospecting.

today's project:
found an old pump (really old pump) in the barn and decided to see if it could be rebuilt.
It cleaned up fine and is now a rebuilt 1960's era montgomery ward self priming pump.
I coupled it with a salvaged 2 cycle motor and now have a pump that'll suck sand out of crevasses in the bedrock and act as a dredge (mini dredge) in conjunction with the sluicebox I built yesterday.







I had time to put a gellcoat on the sluicebox:



The garden is coming on strong.....

letuce, swiss chard and radishes:



corn:



giant sunflowers:



I can see where the cantalopes and watermelons are just about busting through the surface. The plums, pears and apples are loaded to the hilt....there'll be alot of dehydrating and canning going on this year.

Jesus christ, you just don't stop!

Better'n politics.
I could stop, if everyone wants. I've got other things to do.