Demolition

Posted on March 15, 2011 by

After the flu knocked me down around New Year’s, I spent a bit of time knocking around in the old bathroom of the house.  I took out the fixtures, the drywall, some of the other crap. Kristin joined in a bit later, hauling out the salvageable framing or making trips to the dump. It was slow going for the next few weeks.

A work party in late January helped us remove the roofing from the back addition, which included the old bathroom. After that it was primarily a Kristin and Trace demolition team. Two and half months in – with help from Julia, Kathryn, Joe, Matthew and Ben and Kathleen – we have almost finished with that demolition.

From here it is on to site work, engineering plans, strawbale selection, milling cypress, outlining workshops and lining up volunteers and apprentices all while figuring out how to pay for it all.

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Do your dirty work

Posted on March 1, 2011 by

Progress on the house continues to move in the deconstruction phase. The roof is off of the two story, stacks of de-nailed wood grow larger and there is a sense that the demolition will take just a few more weeks. As always, there is photographic evidence of progress -

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Posted in homework, house | 4 Comments

Homework

Posted on February 8, 2011 by

A bit more than two years after moving to the land, Kristin and I have finally started the work to build a permanent home.  What was once a plan for a totally new home in a different spot became a rehab of the existing home and then became a demolition.  The existing footers that support the house are nothing more than random stacks of dry stacked field stone. One failed pier of the foundation was a stack of firewood.

So as Danielle and Noel near the completion of their cob house, Kristin and I focus on bringing down the old house. The condition of the house and the relatively stable condition of our finances allow us to pursue some interesting routes.  We have decided to replace the house with straw bale construction, possibly in conjunction with timber framing.  Kristin is researching the timber option, sourcing some local sawmills and tobacco barn reclamation projects.

Our biggest funding obstacle is the financing above and beyond our current savings. Bank financing is NOT an option since we are building without central forced air (heating/cooling), and banks are ONLY concerned with re-sale values not the builder-owners’ values. We are currently reaching out to friends and family for micro-loans, so if you fall into that category please let us know if you are interested!

We had a work party a few weeks ago to begin the dismantling of the house. Our goal is to save as much as possible for reuse, but there is also a ton of crap – six layers of shingles, five layers of flooring, loose fill vermiculite insulation.

After the wrecking day we had our annual Capricorn versus Aquarius party. I’ll just leave this slide show here -




Also, check out Kristin’s blog to follow our progress.

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Favorite Photos of 2010 – Part Two

Posted on January 25, 2011 by

At dusk, Noel throws an atlatl while Kristin watches.

“Pepper King” John roasts peppers while kids get into trouble -

Katy washed the apple press before making cider -

A photo of a photo of a courthouse on fire -

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Posted in biographical, photo essays | 1 Comment

Favorite photos of 2010 – Part One

Posted on January 4, 2011 by

This last year was a big one for my life in photography.  From my first big show to being selected for a show in San Francisco to getting some gigs, things are changing a bit behind the lens.

This first shot (from early January) will be part of the “Sense of Place” exhibition at 18 Reasons in SF. If I had to describe why I chose to submit this one, I’m not sure that I could. There was a break in the construction of our scrap wood greenhouse, and it was starting to get late in the afternoon. Gray was taking a break.

Another one of Gray, this time using a skateboard deck for some fun time in the snow -

Warmer weather and a candid shot from Hannah and Link’s wedding -

Stevie processing a deer -

Slim pickings at the blueberry patch -

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Posted in biographical, photo essays | 1 Comment

Life in Reverse

Posted on December 11, 2010 by

We raised turkeys this year. What started in April ended a few weeks ago. We started with 26 birds and ended with 15, the biggest loss of animals we have experienced. The process was long, the costs were high and I made up my mind to not raise up turkeys for sale ever again.  I might like to raise up some free roaming meat chickens in the future, but meat is not something that we have trouble finding.

Kristin and I kept one turkey to eat for ourselves. It was a big one for the two of us, probably 16 pounds. It was the bird that Gray and I practiced the slaughtering process on, hoping that things would go smoothly when it was time to kill the rest of the birds.

There were a variety of sizes, anywhere from 5 pounds to 18 pounds. We had thought that the birds would be much bigger given how long we had them and how much food they ate, but it just didn’t work out that way.

We decided that we would ask that the people who bought the birds to come out and help with the processing. Pretty much everyone was willing, so we had plenty of people out to help and even a few folks who just wanted the experience.

There was a lot of teaching going on as well as a lot of specialization. Rob, Jennie and I did most of the gutting while Gray, Noel and Ben took care of the killing, scalding and de-feathering.

Amber, Chris and Will each processed their own birds.  Jeremy and Matt helped in the gutting even though they would not end up taking a bird home.

The whole process took about four hours, from start to clean up. The entrails went to the pigs to eat, the feathers went to the compost and the birds went home with their eaters.

By the end of the day, the turkey pen was disassembled, all the posts put up and the water and feed buckets emptied.

We raised Midget White and Burbon Red, both heritage breeds.

Hard to believe that we got the turkeys when they were just one day old. They lived in the brooder for six weeks before moving into their “training” pen which we moved every few days.

Usually folks would start with the poults and move to the finished meal, but I think the story does better in reverse. I welcome your thoughts on that…

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Posted in animalia, food sources, foodshed | 2 Comments

Villagize

Posted on November 19, 2010 by

I am not sure that “villagize” is an actual word, but I am going to use it anyway. I don’t know of another way to describe what has been happening out at Circle Acres over the last few months. New people are coming out with the intention of staying for awhile and establishing themselves.

This is all a bit of good and a bit of bad, with it mostly being pretty exciting.  The bad is that our infrastructure is lacking in some key areas, mainly water access and possibly heated living space. For the most part, the people coming out are pretty resilient and not too terribly bothered by much. Which is good, because an upcoming house project will need resilient folks…

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Posted in biographical, circle acres, house | Comments Off

The Edge of an Era

Posted on October 28, 2010 by

I am lucky in that I have had the opportunity to know what it means to work hard for something and get it.  Appreciating that “something” every day is another matter entirely.  I am not sure I understand how to do that yet, but there are no other options except to try it, try to figure out the problems holding back the appreciation, hopefully someday just be able to lay down in the grass and not have to DO anything.

Things change, ideas evolve out of or into one person’s control.  To stay static is to admit defeat in some ways, to admit that you or we are no longer capable of dealing with the dynamics of just about anything.

We live with the rules, consequences and laws of thermodynamics, of gravity, of genetic drift, of economic quality.  We come as prepared as we can, but it is often not enough.  Gravity is unbeatable but yeah, we adapt and upgrade and try to keep our faces from hitting the dirt with too much force.

Two years into my return to a rural lifestyle, and I feel that we are gaining some traction on some sort of identity. We are on the edge of an era in which we build the place that makes the most sense to us, to the people who live at Circle Acres full time, for the transients who might like to someday live there full time, for the folks just stopping by for a week or so.  What do we mean to each other? How can our differences be energizing instead of polarizing? What models of community labor make sense for sustainability? Someday we might figure it out. Until then we’ll keep polishing the edges and looking for a nice spot in the grass.

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46 hours

Posted on October 6, 2010 by

Less than two days to go before my Kickstarter project comes to an end.  The prints are ordered and ready for pickup this Friday. Tonight I start on the program…

Goals were set, reached, reset and reached again. The whole process has been inspiring other folks to go the route of Kickstarting their projects.

While you are out there backing my project (hopefully), please consider backing a few others -

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Posted in biographical, young farmers | Comments Off

Counting down

Posted on September 28, 2010 by

I am still moving through photographs for the show, trying to figure out sizing. It looks like there will be six at 24×30. I thought it might be eight, but finding two more has been a challenge. In the 16×24 and 16×20 sizes I feel that there are some strong themes developing. I’m just moving on from there.

On the food and drink fronts, on Friday night we harvested sassafras from our land for use in the root beer. On Saturday morning I helped out with a sorghum harvest just down the road at Okfuskee Farm. I am hoping that the sorghum molasses will be ready in time to add the sweetness to the root beer.

There are ten days to go with the Kickstarter page and then seven more days to the actual show. Please continue to spread the word and add your backing!

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