Summer

Summer is in full swing and my building activities have slowed proportionally to the rising temperatures and horseflies population. However, I did manage build a decent garden and completed digging hole for the cellar. The pictures below illustrate my progress.

The garden


It took some determination to add 4 new gardening beds to the 2 I had last year as I had to remove the plants and their roots as well as rocks unearthed from below the surface (about 10 wheelbarrows).

The next step was to build a fence to protect the garden from deer as in the previous years the beasts figured out that my kohlrabis and brussels sprouts tasted better than meadow grass. The planks in the picked fence are struts that once held tiles of the old roof I had replaced last year.

I planted early kohlrabis, carrots, broccoli (they didn’t do that well for some reason), cauliflower (had so much of it I stuffed my freezer with a bunch), tomatoes, string beans, brussels sprouts and giant kohlrabis that I plan to store for the winter. After harvesting cauliflower and broccoli I sowed more carrots to – again – store for the winter. Outside the fenced garden next to the house I planted 7 bushes of tomatoes and 8 pumpkin plants.

End of August update – harvest time in full swing

These two pictures show some veggies from my garden. On the left picture I have string beans carrots and red beets in the basket and 3 pumpkins next to it. The second picture – taken a week or two later shows that tomato harvest has started. At the end of July I seeded some carrots and string beans to try a second harvest. I think I waited too long but maybe I will get lucky and get nice weather that will make the carrots and beans to ripen.

The tomato bushes – watered daily using rain water collected in the large plastic water tank – are over 6 feet tall and are producing very tasty tomatoes.

The cellar


This farm had no cellar when I bought it so I decided to build one in the sloping terrain behind the “upper” house. I started in March after the snow melted and completed the dig sometimes in early July. The picture on the right shows the completed hole covered with a tarp to allow me building the walls during the day when the sun is directly overhead or during the rainy days. I plan to build the walls from the rocks that were part of various old buildings surrounding my house.

The only – from the outside – visible wall will be built from worked stone I collected on another farm that its owner is rebuilding. It took me one day to extract, load and unload the stones from a flat trailer towed by my neighbors’ tractor.

End of August update – cellar


On days when not biking I continue building the cellar walls. Today I worked about 5 hours and build the left portion of the front wall (when looking from the outside). The most challenging part was to transport and place the large stone block but as archimedes said – give me a firm point and I will move the earth. It is amazing how much can a single man accomplish using his methods.

The yard


I used the dirt and smaller stones dug from the cellar site to fill-in the various holes in the yard around the water tanks and waste water treatment device. There was some 35 cubic meters of dirt I excavated and subsequently spread around the house. That translates to about 58 manually extracted and transported tons of material. The picture above shows the current state of the yard around the water tanks. Finally I will have enough space to turn my car around as well as parking spots for visitors.

End of August update – yard

To complete the yard landscaping (at least its larger part) I had to cover the large plastic water tank and the concrete concentrating tank. These 4 pictures show the work stages:

1. pour almost a cubic meter of perlite – a light natural insulating material made from a heat-expanded volcanic rock. This will both- termally insulate the water and be light enough to make sure the plastic tank’s top does not buckle under the weight of whatever might be placed on the surface above it.
2. cover the perlite layer with about 15-20 cm layer of sand to make the area level with the top of the iron struts. Place an iron mesh on top and lift it by placing stones below it to make sure the mesh will float above the ground
3. pour a concrete layer about 10 cm thick. The purpose of the iron-concrete layer is to make it possible to drive passenger car on top of the water tank.

In order to cover the small concrete water tank I had my friend weld together an iron construction to serve as a base for two half-circular iron-concrete removable pieces. The first image shows the two half-circle structures. The second shows the same placed in a mold I made from a segment of rolled iron strip that is used to secure roof construction against movement caused by strong winds. After done I poured concrete into the mold and let it solidify for couple of days. The resulting cover can be seen in the 2nd image shown in the section where I write about steps I took to cover the plastic water tank.