1992 Barn-Raising

We needed a barn before the first winter set in.  We'd got as far as putting in our foundation posts and framing the walls, when I got a phone call one morning.  At that time, Charles was attending the local church.  The pastor of the church was calling to tell me to expect a crew the next morning to put up our barn.

It turned out to be a good old-fashioned barn-raising, and it was something I'll never forget.  Twelve men showed up with their tools.  Their wives came with food at noon, and by the end of the day, the barn was complete up to the rafters.  The only things left for Charles and me to do were to put the tin on the roof, nail the siding on the walls, and hang doors.

Since that time, I've been involved in a couple of community building projects, but not nearly as many as I'd like.  It's a wonderful way to do things.  Most people are either too independent to want the help, or too dependent (so that no-one wants to help them again).  For a co-operative system to work, everyone has to do both giving and taking.  It sure makes for a strong community.

Building a Small House - Part II

Our house-building began in early July when we poured the foundation walls and was complete in early October when we actually moved in.  We built the house totally by ourselves, other than the actual pouring of concrete.  We both learned a lot.  Charles had built log houses before, but not a frame house.  I had never built anything at all. 

We kept it very simple.  The dimensions of the house are in multiples of the dimensions of a sheet of plywood and the rooms are square.  We made sure it exceeded the building code requirements.  The pitch of the roof is very steep to shed snow.  We didn't skimp on safety items like insulated stovepipe.

For all you women out there who are like me and have never built anything, I would like to say:  This is a liberating and empowering experience.

• I ceased being afraid of pain.  That summer, I dropped boards on my toes, hammered my thumb, overworked my muscles, etc., and I learned that a bit of pain is not the end of the world.
• I learned that I'm capable of a lot more than I thought I was.
• I discovered how helpful my own, intelligent, feminine way of seeing things can be when the man in charge is pushed to listen.
• I also gained a more enthusiastic appreciation of the special, masculine skills possessed by my husband.
• I feel a beautiful comfort and confidence that comes from knowing exactly what lies beneath my feet when I walk across my floor.

I highly recommend it.

Moving - Part II

At the beginning of June, 1991, we packed all our belongings and our two cats, Rufous and Teline, into a UHaul truck and headed north.  I was a bit worried about the two city cats, but they settled in right away, started hunting, and never seemed to miss their city life at all.  They learned to watch out for the foxes, owls, coyotes, cougars, and whatever other predators might threaten a cat, and both lived to a ripe old age.  At the time we arrived here, they were the only non-human animals living with us.

The insect life of the Cariboo back-country was waking up by the time we started building.  I had never experienced mosquitoes like this before.  It was almost impossible for me to stay still outside; I was continuously waving my arms around, swatting mosquitoes and brushing them off my hair and face.  I was clothed head-to-foot despite the warm weather.  We started getting up at about 4:30 a.m. so we could pick berries until the bugs came out.  Then we'd come home and start our working day.  I finally borrowed a mosquito net to wear over my head for days when I had to hold one end of a level for Charles, but the net was stiflingly hot.

Then, at the beginning of July, the blackflies came out.  The best thing that can be said about them is that they make mosquitoes seem insignificant.  However, I made it through tht month, and in August, the bug situation improved a lot.  These days, either the insect population is much reduced or my tolerance is much increased, because they aren't nearly as bothersome.  I use an insect repellent with DEET when I really need to, but that isn't often.  It's winter now, but when spring comes, I'll describe some of the other, more natural, ways we deal with biting insects.

Moving - Part I

I was a city girl.  I'd always wanted to live in the country, but never done anything about it.  I chose a good partner, though.  Charles could use a chainsaw and axe, he'd hunted and butchered, he could keep a vehicle running during cold winter weather.  He had a pretty good idea of what we'd need to take with us.  Before we left the city, we bought as many things as we could to get started in our new life:

• a generator for running power tools.  We bought a Honda
• a gas-powered water pump, also a Honda
• power tools for building the house
• a good wheelbarrow
• a washtub
• a good pressure canner
• a wood cookstove ( we found an old one for $75!)

We already had lots of the things we'd need.  After all, we'd been living frugally and practising our new lifestyle for a year, and we'd been haunting second-hand stores collecting stuff like kerosene lamps, crocks, and hand-operated mills and grinders.

At the end of May, 1991, we loaded the pickup truck with our tent and camping gear and our new generator and power tools.  We had quit our jobs and were heading north to build a small cabin to live in while we built our house.

A week later, the job was done.  Our little skid-shack was ready.  We painted it green and it's been called ever since "the little green house".  My mother painted a picture on the side of it.  Believe it or not, at 8'x16' it was big enough to hold all our furniture except the cookstove.  We put up a shelter outside to use as a kitchen.  We were ready to move.

Building a Small House - Part I

The plan had been for us to work and save money for another year before moving to our new home.,  We were very excited and started planning.  Since we always intended to live off-grid, we started researching solar energy and passive solar building.  Our house designs changed almost daily, with all our new ideas being incorporated.

By spring, we'd reached a decision.  We just couldn't stand to wait another year; we were making our move now.  Suddenly, our house designs changed again.  They became more and more simple as the reality of building and of cost started to sink in.  Finally, we had worked out the plan that we actually used to build our house, one that excluded all the skylights, sloped walls, and other fancy ideas we'd comje up with.

Our house is a cube, 20'x20' and 2 stories tall.  It has a full basement (dirt-floored), a one-room main floor, and a half-story with two tiny bedrooms above.  We made double 2"x4" walls, 10" thick, to allow the R40 insulation.  The south wall has five full-length double-paned windows (made using patio-dorr glass), so it's basically a wall of glass, and there is one small window in each of the other walls.  It's intended to be easy to heat, since the floor area is small and the heat can rise.

If we had a chance to do it over again, I would only change a few things.  It's just a bit too small, and we should have a separate, private washing area inside.  Given the amount of money we had available, we couldn't have done a lot more than we did, but it probably would have been possible for us to increase the square footage on the main floor just slightly, say, to 20'x24'.

However, we are living proof that a couple can live comfortably and happily in a really small space.  Over the years, we've filled that house with the paraphenalia of all sorts of crafts, hobbies, and activities.  We've hosted dinner parties and wine-tastings, had overnight guests, danced, raised orphan animals--an amazing number of things have gone on in this little house.

Buying Land - Part II

 

The smart thing to do is to rent a place in the area where you plan to buy land, and live there while you look.  We were 'way too impatient for that. In October, 1990, we drove up to the Cariboo and started looking for our future home.  A fairly helpful real estate agent steered us away from the worst gardening areas--the high, cold spots--and sent us out with directions to several places.  One was on a north slope.  One was near a noisy top-soil business.  Another was a 45-minute drive from the nearest settlement, but we could still hear traffic.

On our third day looking, we drove out a logging road to see a few properties.  There were no houses along most of it and it seemed cold and desolate.  Then we turned onto a smaller road and the whole atmosphere changed to warm and friendly.  There were small ranches with horses and cattle grazing, a little creek running through the valley, and old log barns beside the road.  When we stopped to look at a lot, a man came out to talk to us from a nearby house.  He invited us in, gave us coffee, and told us about the neighbourhood.  We didn't like that property, but the next one on our list was in the same subdivision.

We nearly drove right by our future home.  It was a mess.  The current owner had done a "log-and-flog", where you buy a property, take all the timber off it, and put it back on the market.  This guy had done a particularly poor job of the logging and left it looking terrible.  However, I decided that it was worth a closer look.  It was flat, with good exposure and lush grrowth.

The neighbours were obviously friendly.  We ended up having dinner with the couple owning the lot next to "ours", then camping on their land for the night.  From them, we found out about the water wells on nearby lots, and took a sample from theirs.  We also took soil samples from "our" property,  In the morning, we drove into town and put in an offer.  We bargained hard, using as bargaining chips the state of the place and the fact that the owner had already made his money back from the timber he'd taken off it.  (Public records at the Forestry office)  We were lucky: the real estate market was at its lowest point in a long time.  We paid $9,000 for 10 acres.

Marion's Rules for Buying Land

1. Make sure it has good water.
2. Know how to read a survey plan and do so.
3. Talk to the neighbours.
4. Check the exposure; will it get enough sun?
5. Make sure it has good water.
6. Don't let trivialities distract you from a proper evaluation.
7. Don't buy if you have to go across someone else's land to get to yours.
8. Make sure it has good water.