March(ing) Towards Spring. Yeah, right.

2/27 - 3/5

For some time Connor and I have been on the search for inexpensive, salvaged, or reclaimed windows for our tiny home.  Connor and his sister Maggie found us our first window back in February, salvaged from a lumberyard in Minneapolis. Despite some slight tearing in the screen and chipping in the flashing (our fault) the 6 foot by 3 foot window is perfect for our little home. One window down, at least 3 more to go.

Determined to inquire around Clark for affordable windows, we talked to the owner of the local hardware store, Pam. “No, I don’t know anyone with windows,” she said. Suddenly, a man who was standing nearby stepped up behind her. “You’re looking for windows? I’m the one you want to talk to, I’ve got windows.”

The man’s name is Brian, and a few hours later we’re in his garage, gaping in awe at the brand new windows he’d offered us. Windows with colored trim, wooden frames, and screens so we could open them… long, narrow sash windows for our taller walls… we could scarcely believe it. He’d acquired them from a closed down lumberyard and offered us a trade: as many windows as we wanted in exchange for a day of hunting pheasants on the Fischer land. Done.

The three of us loaded the truck with 2 opening windows and 6 sash windows. We thank you, Brian, for your kindness and generosity, and for being in the right place at the right time to help us out.

On Friday evening, my Aunt Sara and her two children, Izzy and Robby, arrived at the cabin, greeted by a recent dusting of snow.  They were prepared.  Games, toys, musical instruments, FOOD, and of course their excited yellow lab, Layla.  This young pup bolted out of the truck as fast as she could, embraced the cool, prairie wind with her nose, and immediately confronted Misty.  It’s always good to have another dog here for Misty to play with.  However, Layla truly surprised us.  She out ran, out jumped, and out barked Misty the entire weekend.  The result was an exhausted Misty.  For this, we thank you Layla.

Soon after Layla jumped out of the truck, Robby and Izzy wildly followed.  They were so excited to be at the cabin and because of this, Claire and I were reborn.  The bunk beds were no longer bunk beds.  They were pirate ships.  And the sofa was now a jungle gym. Our energetic walks through the prairie turned into long train (sled) rides across vast, open country, with rest stops at famous attractions (iced over ponds, rock piles, and good climbing trees).  Hanging out with my awesome cousins was not only fun but also inspiring.  It reminded Claire and me not to be afraid to sometimes see the world as a child does.

As usual, my Aunt Sara greeted us with hugs and smiles.  It was clear she was happy to finally be back in South Dakota, back on the prairie, back home.  This makes us happy.  From the moment she arrived, the three of us never really stopped talking.  The conversations were about family, life, and love – exhilarating yet relaxing.  My Aunt Sara is the best person to stay up late with, swapping stories and singing songs accompanied by the baritone ukulele.  While visiting, Sara drove us into town to go sledding.  Yes, sledding.  As a homegrown Minnesotan, I had gone sledding every winter for my entire life, until this one.  It seemed whenever I ventured to a new place this year there was no snow.  But that weekend, my Aunt was ready.  There was a fresh layer of snow, three sleds in the back of her truck, and two kids who where equally as excited to go sledding as me (if not more).  For a good 45 minutes, Claire, Robby, Izzy, and I hurled down a hill in Clark, smashing into snow banks, making sled trains, and racing each other down icy sections of the hill.  From there we had hot cocoa and lunch at Heather’s Bistro and visited our old family friends, Bob and Barb, in town.  Sitting in their sunny living room, we were treated to delicious cookies, good conversation, and even a musical performance from the kids.  To finish our day we baked an apple pie from the candied apples I had canned earlier this winter.  It was simply wonderful.  The next morning Sara backed her truck into the pole shed and unloaded a table saw, squares, right angle triangles, handsaws, and more, that my Uncle Josh had packed for us.  On top of this, Sara left a vast amount of food for Claire and I to finish.  We are forever grateful for the extreme generosity my Aunt and Uncle have bestowed upon us.  They are helping us reach our dreams by supplying us with important tools and by filling our bellies and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts.  We hope to see them again soon!

Tiny Home Challenge (of the week):

The arrival of our dimensional lumber gave us new excitement and energy – we could finally, actually, start building our home! We’d anticipated and studied construction for so long, and now with the Shorter’s loaned table saw, we also had all of the tools we needed to be confident, skilled builders.

Yeah, right.

Our floor is 8x16, but we decided to build two 8x8 sections. We started by marking a single 2x8 with 16 on centers, where the joists would be nailed. It wasn’t until we began on the second 2x8 that we realized we’d somehow messed up the first one because the 16 o.c’s didn’t match up!

Flip over the lumber, start over. This time we laid the two pieces next to each other, marking them both at once.

Cutting with a table saw actually did make a huge difference in the accuracy and precision of our cuts – every joist we cut down by 3 inches so that the total width of the home would be 8 feet. Then we realized: lumber isn’t delivered exact. When we nailed the first joist to the perimeters and measured, it was 8 feet and ^1/8th inches. We looked at each other. Is that okay? Can we even saw off an eighth of an inch of wood? With this realization, we measured the entire length of our uncut perimeter piece. 8 feet ¼ inch. Will that matter?

We decided to keep going. We’d both read that the floor frame needs to be a perfect square/rectangle for everything else to line up correctly. Okay, Pythagorean theorem, here we go, A²⁺B²⁼C^2. We calculated for 8 feet. Then we calculated for 8 feet and ^1/8th inch. We looked at both numbers – how could 1/8^th of an inch make 3 inches of difference? Using the two numbers as guidelines, we measured both diagonals and adjusted the 3-sided frame until they equaled each other.

We quickly realized that in addition to the entire frame, the individual joists also needed to be squared (at 90-degree angles) with everything else. We had two right-angle triangles, and every time a joist was nailed, we’d run around the structure checking that everything had stayed square. Nothing ever stayed square. The fact that we were building on 4 cinderblocks on sand and rock made adjusting the beams infinitely more difficult. Okay, plan B.

Together we carried our barely begun floor to the cement garage. It just fit. We nailed in another joist, checked for “squareness”, found the whole structure had shifted during the pounding, re-measured the diagonals, and adjusted the beams so that everything was, once again, square. This was getting ridiculous.

Finding a roll of duct tape on the wall, we marked where the corners of the structure should be as a perfect square on the garage floor.

When we finished, all but one of the joists was at a 90-degree angle to its perpendicular.  With our heads pressed sideways against the cement floor, it became clear that the offending joist was slightly warped. Looking back we both wish we would not have used that piece of lumber, but all we can do is watch out for warped wood as we continue building and hope it will not affect the overall construction of our home. 

Half of the floor finished. Misty is terrified of it.

Connor Becomes Ill

For the first time this winter I became ill with a cold – sore throat, stuffed nose, headache, the whole shebang. Claire woke up early, stoked the fire, brewed tea, and checked on me every so often to make sure I was still alive.  She takes such wonderful care of me.  After sleeping away half the day, I walked into the main room and found Claire flying through a book in front of a warm fire.  She’s got the right idea.  I plopped down next to her and began a new book.  The remainder of the day was spent reading, slurping down a homemade soup, and hoping the following day would be more eventful.  It was not.  The temperature was a bombing 1-degree and we had to fire the stove nine times to keep the cabin above sixty degrees.  Today was not the day to continue building.  So once again we read.  In 24 hours, Claire read through two books and I read through one. Sometimes we gawked at our up and coming plants.  Cilantro and peppers showing their true leaves, tomato plants with purple stems, rows of spinach and lettuce reaching towards the window, and new shoots from a potato I had been saving since the first of November. Even the onions can be seen, albeit through a microscope. In many ways these plants keep us sane during these long winter days.  They give us something to tend to daily (like children, Claire might say), they allow for us to dream vividly of our garden to come, and they supply us with seemingly endless entertainment.  Tomorrow, our town day, is supposed to be in the high twenties, the following day in the high thirties, and the weekend in the high forties.  We can hardly contain ourselves.

 

Potato sprouts!

We’d like to thank Maggie and Dawid for sending us the most dank cookies we’ve ever eaten – they were gone within a few hours. We’d also like to thank Ann and Bill for the much craved for and blissful hot cocoa!

Sidenote: Sometimes we spend more time trying to come up with a post title than writing the post. Some of this week’s losers were: Connor becomes deathly ill; Playing with Pythagorean; Shamrock shakes are now available at Micky D’s. 

Peace and love