Tabla Rasa! (a new home)

Okee Dokey everybody,
     this is the BIG update where i break the news to you all - even though all of you know THIS ALL already: the homestead has moved!
     Yes, a far flung 2 hours from this original post's "steady" location now lands the new Blank Slate (tabla rasa) homestead in "Green Country" aka Lake County. So welcome welcome welcome to . . . .

KAMURA (the land of sweet potatoes . . . and lost Egyptian souls of the Pacific sun?!?!)

(((for a quick intro watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BXYAq3emFs )))

The path of seeking self sufficiency and the realm of independent living blazes a new trail into the wild west. Its hot, dry, and brushy up here (and not in a Flouride-full Scrub-a-dub-dub way). So the first step was to clear the bush and extra growth, lots of which was compiled during the process of ripping a road into the hillside to make that nice flat landing you see above -

(*thank you to my Step-Dad and brother Zak-Attack)

So for starters here is an overview of the 5 acres that have been reconnoitered three months ago and have been well inhabited by myself and PoPo the brave cat -

(*shown here lounging above the seasonal outdoor Hottub/Cold Bath)

  . . . and sadly the recently deceased chickens Ren, Wendy, McDonald, Pullet, Carls, and Junior. . . . even Rambo has passed on to the hands of the Great Pecker above where the golden fields are endless with worms and grubs.
     As the circle goes, they were a meal for some other creature of these lands. May they cluck in peace.

     After the road was blazed, the gravel was delivered and spread to the top -

And I got a sweet ass old'n'rusty agriculture water tank free but the trailer hit ground hard while entering my obtusely angular driveway and the truck started spitting gravel, so I had to help drag them out -

Then i drove up a water tank from Wonka Woods but also got stuck at the same spot and almost tipped it all over. So I waited till the next day before my neighbor helped get me out -

(Ha! Did i mention "Disaster" is my middle name? No? Well it is and it used to be "Reckless" but then i changed it to Disaster because Reckless sounded too careless. Now i can be just as thoughtless but with a more daring connotation to it all and go about the day heedless to caution. . .)

   Anywho, there is much constructive happenings otherwise. like the Solar powered Off-the-grid RV living style -

      The Solar powered well, and the Outdoor Shower -

    The semi-subterrenian dry storage shelter just finished today -

 (*before*)

 (*after*)


. . . . the composting toilet (King Tut's Tooter)

. . . .  also: Big Bohica the storage shed, an orchard with ONE tree, and an outdoor sink.

  Well, enjoy these last photos, and more to come as the Fall time preperation approach.

 (a rock path with a manzanitta in the background with a tribute of Wonka Woods)

 (Po Po wandering and hunting at night)

 (treeeeeees!)




P.S.

Here are some fun Fungi my brother and i found around Kamura's mountains. . . (all are edible and all WERE delicious!)

 (lion's main way above, and these two are something other. . . and exceptionally kick-ass)

(*the Reishi shelf mushroom was more an herbal drink more than edible)

just Ren

Ren:


And a skunk who wants more species-diversity amongst its friends so it wont leave the CHicken Coop.

Time to Fall

Alright, here is a highly photographic update. I don't feel like typing many thousands of words so instead you are getting the pictures which are worth the same....right


So Tom, the big boy turkey was gracefully butchered and feathered. Then we saved the organs and secondary meats for a stew, and stuffed the turkey for a feast with the roomates and neighbors. We weighed the turkey before stuffing and he was a whopping 41 lbs.


THe female turkey is now mingling with the hens.

THe rabbits are healthy and happy. Growing bigger by the day.

THe outdoor Cob Oven foundation was begun:
It is an easy process of making a ring of bricks, filling it with mud (with sawdust) and old bottles saved from the summer camping trip. Up up up!

Keep going until you reach about waist height.

This is when you make a frame for the hearth and fill it with fine mud and sand then lay the hearth bricks (white ones) on top. Cool! That is where the pizza will sit and bake. Let it dry now.

Meanwhile, check out the final layer on the EarthBag Cob bench -


Pretty pretty, huh. And the cats are at home wherever they are...and wherever they go they sleep or play.


OK, now back to the Oven. I added an arch to support the tunnel and door entrance.

And to make sure we knew how to proceed from here there were 3 test ovens. One was a Half-loaf oven, two were Mini Muffin Ovens.

After some faults and failures a cooperative understanding was reached between humans and mud. So the sand form was packed up for the Big Mamma Cob oven and the first layer of thermal mass mud was layered on.


Chimney included! What a day of stomping mud to 80's music and packing it on, thanks friends!
Redeem your lost calories for a personal sized pizza at any of the following locations -

Cobtimous Prime Steak House and Pizzaria






...that's the only one. Sorry.


This oven is spectacular at night!

And since its inaugural burn ceremony, there have been many delicious pizza and pie events that followed -

Here it is with a final mortar layer for protection -
A homemade wholewheat crust with turkey egg, feta, jack cheese, with tomato and eggplant sauce.....makes my tummy say yummy -

And that wraps up this end of Summer update like a Chinese-Canadian wraps up their Calzone (i dare you to research that).

And on goes the mass of spinning earth as it falls into the colder and wetter season.

But some plants will never stop producing.

cheerio Chaps and Chicas,
Mr. Gaurdiner