Fall at the Dacha

It’s true, we know. We have been very, very bad at updating. So much has happened and us Dacha folks have been working very hard so accept our apologies and photographic evidence, please.

What’s new?

First, the Dacha finished putting up its roof. Finally, our house did not get rained in. A big step for construction. We chose a steel roof, and attached a gutter so we could catch water for gardening and whatever else. If filtered, this water can also be drinking water. We aren’t sure how far we will go with catchment, but at least it’s a possibility.

Next, we worked on walls, doors and windows. We knew the cold weather was coming – it actually snowed in October – and were rushing to enclose the space.

The bigger windows we purchased locally. We ordered the glass only (double paned, insulated and without low e coating to have the most solar gain) and made our own frames. The windows were really heavy but otherwise pretty easy to put in. We did manage to get a couple of big, operable windows for the front of the house from the Finger Lakes ReUse center in town – a non profit organization with lots of reclaimed goodies.

The view from the West side of the house is just amazing!

Our entrance is a 5 foot french door. We had to order this one, even though we searched for a while at the re-use places in town. Eventually, we settled on the simplest wood door from the store, stained and polyurethaned it ourselves and picked up a few handles from Significant Elements – a reuse non-profit program in town.

Then we had a snack.

Both of the windows on this side were reclaimed. The bigger one we accidentally put in on the wrong side. We’ve fixed it up since, but that’s the learning curve for ya. Sometimes, and often at the Dacha, you have to take everything out and do it over again. And again.

We put plywood on the exterior of the house, then covered it with rigid foam insulation. Our plan was to plaster the exterior walls with a lime plaster – just like the straw bale cottage. This would keep us from having to do vinyl siding, would be way cheaper and look more organic. We ran into a problem as we realized that the temperatures were getting too low for plastering. We were afraid the water in the plaster would freeze and crack. Luckily, the weather played along and gave us enough warm days to put on two good layers of plaster.

Also, another reclaimed cheap door -  with a window in it. It’s kinda ugly, but we’ll make it work.

Now we needed a heat source, and though we hope for a much bigger and better one in the future, we put in this small wood stove. She might be small, but it really warms up in there when we need it.

The next exciting news: our well! We weren’t sure that we’d have enough money saved up to actually get a well, but when we took a look at our finances and wrote down everything we might need to finish the shell up, it looked possible. Also, we discovered that we were eligible for a first time homeowners tax credit. In order to get the credit, we would need our occupancy permit. And in order to get that, we needed running water and a septic system. The deadline was nearing and we decided to at least give it a shot.

The most affordable and least time consuming way to get water was to drill a well. The wells in our area ranged from 40 to hundreds of feet deep and each foot cost quite a lot. We had to try to find the best spot to hit water. Our neighbors told us about water dowsing. Dowsing,  or water witching, involves a person using a forked stick or a rod to find water located underground. It’s kinda like magic. We discovered that we had a long-time dowser living on our block. His name is Peter, and he is 83 years old and dowsed for a long time. We visited him at his house and he agreed to come out and see what he could do. Although Peter wasn’t able to help us – it had been so long and he was on medication at his age that he said “took the electricity out” of him – he did tell us a lot of stories about dowsing that impressed us. We decided that we could do it ourselves.

I personally walked all around the land trying to feel some sort of movement in a stick, but got nothing. Then Lea gave it a try and found a spot that felt right. We then tried dowsing with a pair of thin metal rods. X marked the spot but we still weren’t sure of anything.

As our luck would have it, we found a really great well driller – Jim Utter of Utter Well Drilling – who came out. He immediately took out a forked stick and dowsed around. Our spot seemed to work for him as well, so we went for it.

Jim came out with his 1969 truck carrying his 1949 cable-drill rig. The newer drill rig needed to be fixed. After three days of pounding down through clay and gravel, we hit water! At about 62 feet! Celebration!

Quite a bit of work, but we had our well. And a lot of great clay from our soil, too.

And we didn’t stop there. How about some walls? And a ceiling? Here is the west side and a small bathroom.

We thought it would be best if we had two bathrooms. The future holds a very large tub. Here’s Lea coming out of the bigger bathroom. Next to her will be a laundry closet. Lea loves laundry…I think.

Since we now had water, we realized that we needed a place to store utilities. We will have a cistern to hold the well water, and a pump and possibly a pressure tank. We also received our first grant from Sustainable Tompkins for a Brumby pump – an Australian pump that uses air pressure to pump water long distances from the well. We focused our energies on a sun room where we could store these things. Also, the sun room will function as a mud room and greenhouse as well as blocking the East side from the elements – multi-use!

When we poured the footers, we had a little extra cement so we made a little rounded form for the entrance. Then we took the flatter of the many stones hanging around on the land and embedded them into it. It makes a really nice little porch.

The roof of the sun room is clear plastic that was really hard to find. But it is amazingly clear and will allow a lot of sunlight in. It’s also super heavy duty and hopefully will last us a long time.

So there you have it. My long post covering an even longer stretch of time. Even now, we’ve already found a sink and potential kitchen counter tops from reclaimed school chalkboards. But that will have to wait for next time. Thank you so much to everyone who helped us out this season and to those of you checking up on us. Come visit! We’ll soon have a toilet – I promise!

Lily of the Dacha crew

From Breaking Ground to Raising the Roof

Can you dig it?

 

It all started on a sunny day in Freeville, NY. We marked our territory and Lily used the shovel to break ground on our building project. After digging the footers, we built the forms for our foundation.

A very busy summer, indeed.

Slowly, but surely, the Dacha updates.

This summer has been a non-stop tornado of work and productivity. And what else might one expect while building a homestead? Here’s a little peek into our lives.

First, a short video that was made possible with some footage our friend Jon Karr managed to take with a tiny little camera.

As far as the plastering goes – we are almost done with what was a much more difficult and involved project than we initially expected. Plastering is hard work, despite the forgiving medium.

photo by shira golding

Each new layer was its own learning experience, as we experimented with plasters of lime, clay and a combo of both.

photo by shira golding

I personally still love plastering, and prefer it to the less comforting dry wall option. It’s cozy in the straw bale shed, and it better be for how much time we all spent massaging that wall.

photo by shira golding

For Ten Dollars, a Bag of Clay

Here is our video entry into the Pay It Forward Contest, held by our local Alternatives Federal Credit Union.

Alternatives gave out ten dollars to whoever wanted it, and those people were supposed to give it to someone else in the community, an organization or an individual.Then, the giver of the ten dollars is encouraged to make a video or write an essay about their recipient, and in it illustrate what they can do with it that would benefit the community. Afterwards! A committee at Alternatives picks ten or so videos they like the best, and set them loose into the public, where anyone can vote on which entry they think should get the grand prize-oh- $500.

Taking advantage of some beautiful footage our friend Shira took of us, plus friends, plastering the straw bale cottage, I put together this doo-hickey.

The Dacha Gets Plastered

Since our straw bale shed has been upgraded to the “Winter Palace,” it is time to plaster the structure and to fossilize our work for future archeological findings. We put on our clay covered uniforms and head out to work. Our main sources of power for mixing the sand, straw and clay are our hands and feet. And to prove that there really is straw under all those layers of plaster, we built a truth window.

The Truth Window

There’s a whole lot a diggin goin on

Yes! Everything has finally given in to green. Walking around on the land these last few weeks has been incredibly refreshing. Especially since our friends have been helping us identify the various trees and wild edibles already available to us. We are pleased to find several sugar maple trees big enough to tap next year for some syrupy goodness. Also, a new one for us all – ramps, native wild onions that have a garlic-like kick and make amazing pesto. We’ve been feasting on them for weeks!

We have also discovered some apple trees, black walnut trees and harvested a few cattail shoots (they smell like cucumber and go well in salad). But, of course, we’ve been doing more than just foraging for wild foods – say hello to the Dacha’s first Orchard and Garden.

Trees and bushes – Thank you!

Dear Everyone,

Here at the Dacha, we six are filled with fuzzy bunny feelings. Wow–we have raised enough funds for over 60 trees and bushes! This will be an orchard beyond our wildest dreams. We feel extremely lucky and grateful to all of you who were able to help out.

At this time, we have reached our limit for the fruit and nut trees, but if you still wanted to jump on this train there are a few things that could help us out.

In order to make our orchard a success we will need:

some tools (want a hoe or shovel named after you?)
tree shelters (to keep animals from chomping on the trees)
topsoil

mulch

Also, we would love to plant a few evergreens on the property to create more privacy (so, you know…if someone maybe wanted to run around naked, hypothetically, it wouldn’t disturb the neighbors).  Wanna sponsor potential nudity?

So, we’ll still be accepting donations but the orchard is secured thanks to everyone!

Overall, I think this experience is leaving us feeling truly encouraged by our friends and family and community and the freakin’ world at large.

It feels really good.

Thank you.

Sponsor a Fruit or Nut Tree and Reap the Harvest

Dear Friends, Family and Patrons of the The Dacha Project’s Blog,

It is hard to believe that spring is right around the corner, especially when it is five degrees outside as we’re writing this. Still, experience tells us that grasses will bloom and the birds will come home, and that not all is lost to the ruthless ravages of winter.

How about this one is it a fruit or nut tree? I'm afraid neither. Moving Photo by Liz K, 2008

Here, at the Dacha Project in downstate, NY there is nothing more we look forward to than the coming of the May sun. This spring, after the earth thaws, the Dacha Six will break ground on the building of a large common house. We know that we will be busy bees with the sustainable building and all, and that every last cent of our funds will go to buttoning up the building before winter comes again, but we hate to miss the earliest opportunity we have to plant an orchard of fruit and nut trees.

We’re writing you with a special request and offer: SPONSOR A FRUIT OR NUT TREE OF YOUR CHOICE FOR JUST $20 (or as much as you can contribute), AND REAP THE HARVEST….in only four to six years.

Winter Palace Pt 4- Frame by Frame

Filmed in September 2008, edited some time later by Lily G, and myself. Please enjoy, “Frame by Frame” the framing of our straw bale cottage. This short film is a moving after school special about some folk who engage on a journey of building a stick frame only to find themselves doing just that.

Next to come: Winter Palace Pt 5- Stacking Straw Bricks and Goofing Around, a thrilling drama showing the real life context around the building of straw bale walls.

Soil, soil, soil!

With temperatures in Ithaca rising into the 50s, spring feels like it’s right around the corner. In actual fact, we’re still deep in February, and it might well snow on Friday. But the heat still makes me imagine the coming warm months, when the ground will thaw and the become ready for planting.

With that in mind, I’ve started searching for information on our soil and the wonderful plants we can grow in it. Reading a great local blog, Living in Dryden, I found a handy map produced by the town of Dryden which roughly classifies soils and floodplains in the area. According to the map, we’ve got either Class I or II type soil, which they consider the best for agriculture. Excellent news!

I dug deeper and went to the Web Soil Survey from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. This is a really great resource which lets you look up soil information for just about anywhere in the United States. And most of the information is current, which may not be true about paper soil maps. In our region the map is from 2006.

After tinkering with the interface, I came up with a map like the one below. It shows roads and the boundaries of different soil types. It also has a nice legend which helps you figure out what you’re looking at, and lets you pick a point and grab information about it. In the small area I chose there were just 6000 acres with 35 different soil types!