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