Wood and Seeds

Week 4: 2/22 - 2/29

On one of our rare warm and windless days, Connor taught me the therapeutics of splitting wood. Even though that satisfying crack of wood splitting down the center occurred about once every five swings, that one successful swing was always pleasing enough to overlook about the ones that dug into the ground or bounced off the log, and keep going. Together we split and piled enough wood in the woodshed for about a month. Not wanting to waste a beautiful day, we happily opened both giant, sliding doors to the pull shed and cleaned and organized the whole thing, clearing the worktable and enough space to build our floor and wall frames for the tiny home.

Watch out for flying logs

Proud to say that I split all that wood in the background there

As Claire and I stand over our workbench screening the simple sawhorse plans, we ponder how we can improve the second sawhorse.  First and for most, we need to make more accurate cuts.  This means slowing down, taking a deep breath, and not getting frustrated when our saw somehow goes astray.  Second, we need to strive for perfection in our carpentry work.  This means taking the time to make sure everything is level, flush, and measured out properly.  We need to make signs that say “Measure Twice, Cut Once” and “Measure Twice, Hammer Once” and hang them all over the garage.  This takes more time and focus but we need to get in the habit of being as precise as possible.  We also learned a valuable lesson while constructing this sawhorse.  Sometimes nails are stubborn.  We bent six nails trying to connect one of the leg supports.  This is a great way to get angry fast and we (myself in particular) need to practice stepping away from the bent nail, taking a deep breath, and then giving it another go.  In the end, we finished the sawhorse in roughly four hours and it is considerably more level than the previous one.    

Like anxious parents, each morning our faces could be found 4 inches from the soil, methodically searching for the tiny green heads of the Amish deer tongue seeds we’d planted, not caring that it takes more than one night for most everything to germinate. One night on a whim we played a pan flute and rain stick melody to them, and low and behold, the next morning tiny green stems could be found scattered around the bed! Three healthy rows of deer tongue now grow under our watchful eyes. Having spent only a limited time raising plants from seed, each sprout is its own miracle.

Our confidence drooped the day our newly transplanted tomato and pepper seedlings drooped in their larger pots. We searched frantically through plant books, trying to puzzle it out, but our worries were premature. Most transplants have recovered, and I’m yet again reminded of new parents, doubting their actions and terrified of harming their fragile baby.

Wanting to get a head start on transplants into our early spring garden, we’ve filled egg cartons with spinach, pepper, basil, parsley, onion, and chamomile seeds. The waiting begins again for small green heads to cheerily greet us one morning.

Little Amish Deer Tongue seedlings!

Caring for our small plant children and sawhorse construction can only occupy so many hours of our days (there are only two sawhorses, after all) and thus we are often faced with a couple hours of leisure. Our goal of avoiding certain technologies fails us some days – we’ve cracked and watched a movie or two, but hey we’re only human – but mostly we walk through the prairie grasses and old cottonwood trees of the shelterbelts, play card games like speed and cribbage, and strum our instruments. Connor has picked up classical guitar and I’ve adopted his baritone ukulele, and together we make such a racket it’s surprising there’s any wildlife left near the property.

Packing on the layers for a particularly chilly evening stroll 

Tiny Home Challenge: a realization hit us that 20 feet of trailer and home would be extremely weighty to pull behind any vehicle, should it one day be moved. Wanting more of a room instead of a hallway, we’ve shortened the whole thing to 16 feet. The new 8’x16’ design will be more compact and hopefully easier to put and pull on a (less expensive) trailer. 128 total sq. ft. of kitchen, bathroom, eating area, combined living and bedroom, and storage? Challenge accepted.

 

Laid out 8x16 feet of plywood to better "visualize" our living space

Side elevation and porch (minus windows)

Rough sketch of living space after shortening to 16 feet

Our first building project drawn to scale: laying the floor joists

Thank you to those who have written and mailed us letters!! We love reading them and enjoyed writing you back! Again, if you’d like our address we’d be happy to give it to you!

 

Sunset view from the south end of cabin property

Projects Abound with Two Around

South Dakota greeted me with an icy blast to the face. As fast as we could, Connor and I unloaded what I’d brought to live on for 8 months, built up a fire in the stove, pulled the couch close, and thawed.

The morning of the 16^th, Connor and I moved the raised bed he’d built in the garage to inside the cabin, placing it underneath a wide, south-facing window. After filling about ¾ of the bed with potting soil, we transplanted spinach, endive, red salad bowl lettuce, Amish deer tongue, and lemon balm seedlings into the fresh soil. A large pot with a foot tall pea seedling sits in the windowsill, as well as a lone survivor tomato seedling and a humidity tray of more tomato and pepper seedlings.

* As of today (the 19^th) the spinach has adapted extremely well to the up rooting, as well as most of the endive. Most of the red salad bowl lettuce and deer tongue drooped and withered, so we’ve re-planted the empty rows with more lemon balm and lettuce seeds.

We had decided that we could save energy and funds by turning off the heat in the garage, which prompted a full-fledged empty-and-clean-the-entire-aquaponics-system project. I took up the net of honor and went goldfish fishing. We scrubbed the aquarium’s glass walls clean of grime stains and fish poo and vacuumed loose grit and poo from the rocks. The worst of this murky water (with the best nutrients) we saved for watering the plants, and the rest we reused. washed all the aquaponics gadgets. The stand and tank we carried into the cabin and placed in a corner with south and east facing windows. All aquaponics essentials were replaced and we stepped back to allow the plants to enjoy their new view.

Introducing Tiny Home Challenges:

            Not on purpose did we find ourselves deep into our first “Tiny Home Challenge.” This one stemmed from a serious talk about managing our finances and our current financial position. Neither of us owns much and we tried our best to save during college (not the easiest task, as many know) so that when “now” came, we’d have enough to fund all of our desired projects. We wrote out a new budget based on recent realizations of unexpected costs and came dangerously close to depleting our entire bank accounts. What to do? Do we ditch a project? No chickens? No tiny home?

            Connor and I stared at the paper on the table between us with the scary number scratched and circled on it. We looked at each other, not wanting to say what the other might be fearing.

            We haven’t pulled the plug on anything yet, but we decided that night that our tiny home and garden are two projects we just won’t give up on. We are equally determined to make that tiny home structurally sound and appealing to live in. We’ll look for part-time positions in Clark. We’ll do jobs around the cabin. Maybe chickens will have to wait, but we’ve chosen to be optimistic. These next couple of months is when we’ll be dropping the most money on supplies, food, and gas, but after the weather warms enough for biking, our garden starts producing, and all of our supplies are bought, we’re betting that our wallets will stabilize too. We’ll make this work.

Most days are sunny and deceptively beautiful, but a quick jog to the outhouse proves another day of negative degrees and gusty. We’re nearly out of wood for heating the cabin, but we both agree that a couple hours of chopping wood in this chill, even within the pole shed, would be an option only in life-or-death circumstances (so… two days from now). But, we optimistically believe that it’ll warm up soon (the weather app on my phone believes this too). 

Our weekly town stop led us to buy our first large purchase!! 31 sheets of plywood for the entire tiny home, and a couple 2 x 4's for another sawhorse. The kind man in the lumberyard talked us through exactly what kind of plywood we needed for our purposes, and we ended up with a bill less than half as much as we'd predicted. The sun is shining extra bright for us today. 

Claire Arrives in South Dakota!

2/19/15

Food

It is the middle of February and for the first time this winter, it is consistently cold.  Claire has finally joined me at the cabin.  These first several days have been spent unpacking and adjusting to cabin life.  This includes preparing dishes with no running water and being creative with the limited food we have.  Claire brought an entire box filled with different kinds of spices and seasonings.  These tasty additions make even the blandest dish (rice, for example) taste absolutely wonderful! 

Bread

It is nice to have bread on hand, so instead of buying loaves from the store we bake our own.   Currently, we have four loaves of white bread in the freezer and take them out when needed.  We intend to restock the freezer with wheat and rye bread when the white runs out.  Obviously, this summer we will not have electricity to store mass amounts of bread.  Instead, baking will have to happen more frequently and in a Dutch oven.  Until then, we will use the luxury of an electric stove and a freezer to bake a variety of goods.  Within the three days Claire has been here, we have baked our own pizza crust, whole wheat bread bowls, rye and apple muffins, and cinnamon rolls.  The muffins and rolls were added to our freezer collection and will be of used for desserts and breakfasts down the road.     

  

Whole Wheat Bread Bowls

Veggie Pan Pizza

Sawhorse Construction

As Claire and I sit in front of our wood burning stove, we page through books about carpentry, construction, and tiny homes.  As we read and understand more, we begin to get a better understanding of what these next several months will be like and this makes us excited.  So excited that out of nowhere, we decide to begin our first building project together.  Currently, we make all of our cuts on the tailgate of the truck and we know if we are going to build a tiny home we need something more reliable.  Thus, with plans my Dad sent us in the mail, we begin to construct a sawhorse.  The plan called for two 2” by 4” by 12’s and one 2” by 4” by 10’.  We are running out of scrap lumber, however, the leftover wood from a loft my Dad build for me as a child will do just fine.  After a five minute lesson on how to use a circular saw, Claire is already making perfect cuts.  She’s a natural.  We make 11 cuts in the pole shed and then move to the garage to put all the pieces together.  After three and a half hours of cutting, hammering, and double checking, we have one sturdy, blue sawhorse.  We hope to build the other sawhorse during the weekend to come.  Ideally, the weather will warm up because as we found out, building anything in subzero temperatures is not fun.    

Fun on the Farm

Although most days are below zero with a nasty wind, Claire and I try to take a walk every day.  Misty loves this of course but I would argue that Claire and I love it more.  It is a time for us to get away from the cabin, to enjoy nature, and to be at peace.  Yesterday, we drove 10 miles to Fordam dam, a public hunting and fishing area with vast grasslands, large eastern red cedars, and a lake.  It was negative two degrees outside with a much colder wind chill but it didn’t matter.  The beauty of the orange, setting sun, the wisdom of the old prairie trees, and the expanding sea of grasses was enough to keep our minds occupied.  At least until we couldn’t feel our fingers.  

           

Work and Play

Week 2: 2/2 – 2/9

After I published the first blog post last Monday, I made several more errands in Clark.  First, I went to town hall and got the paper work required to become a resident of South Dakota.  Once Claire and I become residents we can purchase hunting and fishing licenses.  I also picked up a water testing kit to ensure that the well water at the cabin is safe to drink.  I will mail the water sample to Pierre, South Dakota next Monday.  From town hall I walked to the hardware store where I dropped off a list of materials (mostly lumber) in hope of a quote.  I am eager to return to town and find out how much our tiny home will cost to build.  To finish my visit, I stopped at the post office and registered our address with the United States Postal Service.  Now all I have to do is build a mailbox and we should be able to receive and send mail!

When I returned home that evening, I received a phone call from one of my brothers, Mateusz, telling me that he had suddenly gotten work off and was heading my way as we spoke.  Yes!  Company!  I know I’ve only spent five days alone but it’s nice to have a friend to talk too.  The moon was almost full that night and it lit up the fields like it was daytime.  I couldn't resist.  Misty and I walked through the grasses for two hours while awaiting Mateusz.  We have several owls that live on property.  One of them is a barred owl and as I stood still in a moonlight drenched field, I heard it.  “Wo-wo-wo-woooooo”.  I called back to the best of my ability.  To my surprise, it responded!  For the next five minutes, I had an incredible conversation with an owl.  However, this conversation was cut short by the sound of the rumbling engine of my brother’s car.

Mailbox Memories

My brother is finally here and he comes prepared with a Native American flute, Frisbees, and a couple of items I forgot to bring.  However, despite his company, I still need to build my mailbox.  Mateusz is good with his hands and has some experience with carpentry so he happily offered to help.  This was my first time building something from scratch and I was a little nervous.  

The main post is simply two, two by fours screwed together.  The arm that extends from this post (also two, two by fours screwed together) will hold the mailbox 42 inches above the ground (required height).  There is a two by four in between the arm and the post that ensures support.  I made two 45 degree cuts in this small piece of lumber and it turned out okay.  I’m still new to working with power saws and sometimes it can be difficult to make a straight cut with my Dad’s old circular saw.

After all the pieces were assembles, it was time to apply a coat of varnish and stain to protect it from rain and snow and to make it aesthetically pleasing.  Once the stain had dried, we attached the mailbox to the post with fasteners.  After churning our own cement from a concrete mix, we placed the completed mailbox in a five gallon bucket, made sure it was level, and poured the cement in.  Just like that, Claire and I can now receive and send mail.  The mailbox is not perfect by any means but it was a good starter project.  Two days later I received my first letter from my Dad.  Thank you Mati for all of your help and advice! 

Applying a coat of stain and varnish

Mati and me standing next to the new mailbox

The Old Barn

There is a parcel of land 30 miles from the cabin that is home to an old horse barn.  It is falling apart but there is a fair amount of good lumber left inside and it is my intention to salvage some of it.  When Mati and I arrived, the first thing that caught my eye were four large support beams that were dangling from the ceiling in an old room.  These beams were doing nothing in terms of supporting the barn so we knocked them down, I pulled the nails out, and we loaded three of them into the bed of the truck.  I hope to return for the fourth soon.  I’m not certain what Claire and I will use these for but I have a feeling they will be useful at some point.  I also tried to use a nail puller to pry free some of the lumber from one of the horse stalls.  After pulling out four nails, everything seemed to be going smoothly.  On my fifth nail, the teeth of the cast iron nail puller snapped off!  I guess it’s too cold outside to be using these old tools.   

     

Two years ago in the spring, my cousin Michael, my friend Phil, and I spent several days clearing the green ash that had grown up the side of the barn.  We took the logs back to the cabin and left the branches to dry inside the barn.  It just so happens that I am currently running low on kindling and the dry ash branches that reside in the barn are just what I need.  While I stood in the barn breaking branches and making piles of kindling, Mati found his way up an old windmill.  This flimsy, metal structure stands 30 feet above the ground and of course, my brother is on top of it!  To finish an awesome day at the barn, Mati, Misty, and I went for a long walk through the cattails that surround the property.  When we returned, I cleaned out the wood shed and stocked it full of dry kindling!

Mati climbing an old windmill

                       Walking through the cattails after working it the barn            
 Photo Credit: Mateusz Fischer

     Cleaning out the wood shed      Photo Credit: Mateusz Fischer

Frisbee and Fun

Both of my brothers and I have always been fascinated with Frisbees and whenever we see each other, throwing a disc is usually the first thing we do.  The wind on the prairie is constant and this allows me to throw to myself for hours on end.  However, nothing compares to tossing with another human.  On Mati’s last day of his visit, it was 45 degrees in the shade with little wind.  In other words, we tossed a Frisbee the entire day.  To end this beautiful day, we traveled to a nearby parcel of land that sits on a lake.  As the sun set, we played flute in the grasses, launched long throws across the icy lake, and tried to keep Misty from visiting the fishermen.  It was the perfect end to a wonderful visit.

                      Sunset over the lake with Native American flute in the background    
 Photo Credit: Mateusz Fischer

Photo Credit: Mateusz Fischer

Aquaponics  

It is now time to start making adjustments to the plants growing in my system.  My brother mentioned cutting back the oregano so it can branch out.  Two days after I cut the main stem, the plant already sent up three new shoots.  I tried cutting back the mint and all of the chives and I got the same result.  It amazes me how fast these plants are growing.  I guess that’s the fish poop at work!  Now I have fresh chives and oregano to add to my dinner and fresh mint to add to my eggs and tea in the morning.  I also added a sugar snap pea seedling to the tank.  Hopefully, this plant will one day produce delicious peas for Claire and me to munch on.  

Breakfast: 2 eggs and mint tea

Dinner: chives, oregano, onion, carrots, quinoa, and peanut butter

  

 Planting Our Future

When I was child, one of my most vivid memories was exploring my parent’s vegetable garden, searching for peas, beans, tomatoes, and whatever else I could eat.  I will never forget the first time I tried a freshly picked bean from a plant that my parents grew.  It was so satisfying for me as a kid, I can only imagine how rewarding it was for my parents who put in the hard work.  I want to eat locally and organic for the rest of my life but I found this almost impossible living as a student.  With no money and no time, I was only able to grow my own lettuce.  Now I have an opportunity to teach myself, work with the soil, and respect the land that has fed me my entire life.  Only this time, I have the chance to grow the food my own way. 

This summer, Claire and I intend to keep a garden in order to supply ourselves with fresh produce.  The garden will not be planted until May and we will have to wait even longer before we can harvest fruits and vegetables.  We didn’t want to wait that long for fresh greens, so Claire and I invested in 19 different types of organic seed, 20 pots, two bags of potting soil, one bag of vermiculite, one bag of peat moss, and individual planting cells.  After two week of living here, I now have seedlings of the following:  Yellow pear tomatoes, Martino’s roma, red salad bowl lettuce, tre’s fine maraichere, spinach, Amish deer tongue lettuce, jalapeno peppers, bull nose bell peppers, lemon balm, Swiss chard, and sugar snap peas.  I planted three seeds per cell and as the seedlings poke through the soil, I am able to thin out all but the best.  The thinned lettuce seedlings are a great addition to any meal.  The sugar snap peas are the only seedlings big enough to be moved into individual pots or into the fish tank.  

During college I purchased a pressure sprayer for $10.  It was the best $10 I have ever spent.  If you want to get into growing your own food indoors, I would highly recommend one of these.  You can adjust the nozzle to several spray settings and the locking trigger allows you to spray with ease.  It’s great for starting plants from seed and for spraying existing foliage.

Pressure sprayer

Watering a newly planted sugar snap pea

I am also experimenting with micro-greens.  These are small sprout like plants that only grow to be several inches tall.  I have sunflower and pea micro-greens.  I have tried both types before and one little sprout tastes exactly like the fruit of the plant.  For example, a sunflower micro-green tastes exactly like a sunflower seed!  The seeds are planted on top of an inch of soil and are supposed to be ready for harvest after 7-10 days.  I’m personally having trouble getting them to grow.  Many of the seeds I planted sprouted and died soon after or didn’t sprout at all.  The ones that survived look good but it has been 15 days since I planted them and they are still not ready to pick.  I planted several trays and am eager to see what becomes of them.

My cousin Michael helping me plant sunflower micro-greens

Sunflower micro-greens after 15 days

In all honesty, I planted way too many seeds.   I wanted to compare the affects of temperature, lighting, water, and environment (yes I sing to my plants) amongst different plants.  Thus, every window in the cabin and the garage has some sort of plant growing in it.  In the end, my goal is to have 20 plus pots full of edible plants.  If things continue as they have been, Claire and I should have multiple raised beds of lettuce by the end of March and tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and peas by the end of April.  All inside the comfort of our home!   For now, we are relying on the micro-greens for fresh produce. 

This week has been absolutely wonderful.  The visit from my brother reminds me of my family and like always we had many adventures under the sun (and the moon for that matter).  My plants are growing, my stomach is full of soup, bread, and rice, and the weather is phenomenal.  The only thing missing is Claire.  However, only six more days until we are reunited!  I’m in the midst of constructing sawhorses and raised beds out of old two by fours and I hope to complete them before I see my wonderful lady.  Until next time, peace and love.     

                                          The moon setting                                    
Photo Credit: Mateusz Fischer

                       Misty picture of the week                    
Photo Credit: Mateusz Fischer

                      Sunrise                    
 Photo Credit: Mateusz Fischer

   

Witnessing Spirit: Connor Fischer

Our friend Rivka visited us at Stevens Point this fall and talked to Connor about our plans, hopes, and fears for our projects this spring and summer in South Dakota. Rivka (Reb Ayeka) is a wonderful artist and Hebrew Priestess-in-training, having just moved from Minnesota to Berkeley CA to develop her ritual and healing arts practices. She is working at the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkely and co-creating a CA chapter of the MN-based art-for-social-change nonprofit Face Forward.
Here is a link to her blog: https://witnessingspirit.wordpress.com/

Adjusting to Cabin Life

Week 1: 1/23-2/2 

The first two days of being alone were spent cleaning, organizing, and getting use to the daily routine.  On the third day, my cousin Michael, who is in med school at the University of South Dakota, drove up for a visit!  In the three days he spent with me we climbed trees, watched sunsets, hiked through the prairie grass under a blanket of stars, and had great conversations about life.  He was extremely generous and drove me to Watertown, SD where we had a hot meal and saw a movie.  He is now gone but should be back within the next several months.

Watching the sunset from a cottonwood with my cousin Michael

Aquaponics

In high school I bought a 20 gallon aquarium starter kits and kept fish in it for about three years.  When I moved away for college it was packed away in a box and left in my parent’s basement.  During my last semester at school, I toured Growing Power in Milwaukee for one of my classes.  Their simple, yet productive aquaponic system was outstanding.  The idea of using fish poop to feed plants and using plants to clean the water amazed me.  And then it dawned on me.  I have a fish tank, I like growing plants, and I need a way to feed Claire and myself next summer.  Why not try to make my own aquaponic system?  So I tried (I am still trying I might add). 

My tank has a Top Fin 20 pump (nothing special) that uses carbon filters to clean the water.  Because I want the fish poop and nutrients, I decided to replace the filter with crushed porous rock from a fish store.  I’m not even sure if this does anything but the idea is that there is still some filtration happening.  I also have a small air pump that puts oxygen into the water.  I used a water conditioner to make tap water safe for fish and then I let the system run for a month without anything in it.  After that month was up, I added one goldfish ($0.30).  I only added one to make sure it would survive.  After a couple days, it looked happy so I added six more.  I also added a snail to keep the glass clean. 

On that same day I added my plants!  I had previously taken cuttings from Claire’s oregano and mint plants and let them sit in water.  I had also taken several chives from our friends Logan and Leiloni and placed them in water as well.  I filled small pots with rocks and planted one cutting per pot.  As seen in the picture below, my Dad and I made a pot holder out of ½ inch plywood that rests on the edges of my tank.  I put a coat of varnish on to protect the wood from the constant moisture.  This pot holder keeps the bottom inch of each pot submerged in water.  There are four extra holes that are meant for tomatoes and peppers.

The pot holder we made for my tank

It’s now been one month since I added the seven fish and I am now down to six.  All four plants (oregano, mint, and two chives) have rooted and started growing.  The mint seemed to explode with life as soon as I put it in the water.  It now has a foot of white roots growing down into the tank.  The oregano was slow at first but is now sending up new stems and leaves.  The chives have been steady the entire time.  I keep a grow light (really just a 32 watt compact fluorescent bulb in a bed side lamp) on at night which seems to help.  The tank sits on my workbench in the cabins garage which I keep heated to 65 degrees.  I am eager to see if the plants continue to grow and if my new seedling will work the same.

My 20 gallon aquaponic system

This project cost me $40 (the startup kit was $100) and my only future costs will be fish food and a couple more dollars tacked on to the utility bill.  

I spent my weekend reading and walking.  Friday was sunny and there was no wind so Misty and I drove to a parcel of land close to town and went for a two hour walk.  We scared up two hens and Misty found a deer shed!  I was able to talk to Claire for a whole hour and it was simply wonderful.  I am reading the book “Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking” and this weekend I am taking his advice and acting like a child.  Instead of walking on two legs during my walks, I crawl through the grasses and the cattails on all fours.  This changes my perspective of things and allows me to see like Misty does.  The grasses seem like trees and there are pheasant, deer, and rabbit tracks hidden beneath.

This week I am expecting a visit from my brother Mateusz and our other family dog, Mocha.  Now that I have settled into the cabin lifestyle, my goal this week is to start building things from scrap lumber and salvaged barn lumber (I have to go salvage it first).  Tune in next week to see my progress!