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.
Planning the forms.
Here we set up our construction site in our future common house. With a stretch of the imagination, you can picture a building in this space.
Fancy set up.
We attached PEX tubing to the rebar with twisty ties so that we could have hot water running through it in our future concrete slab floor.
Check out our PEX.
Our friends help out!
After installing plumbing, rebar, gravel, PEX tubing and insulation, we were finally ready for the concrete pour! Concrete day was one special day. We worked till dark by the headlight of the tractor and waited for the concrete to cure. And finally, we have our foundation.
Our floor is in!
We dance!
Next came the frame.
Check out our guns!
Our south facing frames that will soon hold our windows.
The wooden frame nearing completion.
Trusses
It take a village to raise a roof.
Our neighbor comes on stilts. Who needs a ladder?
With everyones help, the trusses make it onto the frame.
A view from the west side. It's coming along.
Next we build a yoga studio?
It's shaping up to look like a house.
Lily in the rafters.
Purlins on the trusses.
Roof ready.
The construction of our roof has begun. We have come far from where we started!
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.
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.
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.
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. Continue Reading »
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.
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.
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.
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!
This a flashback to one of thirty-one days in August. It would have been like any other day, except it wasn’t, because on that day the Concrete Man came to visit the dacha. Watch to learn what to expect from such a man, and see how our foundation was poured.
We present to you Concrete Day, a human interest story, about pouring a cement foundation.
-Lea LSF
Presently, the Winter Palace is buttoned up for the season. On occasion there are even people sleeping in it. There is a makeshift shower, Bernise-the wood stove, couches and shelves! To see it in its current state check out the post before this one. The building is almost done, though we decided to put off the plastering until next spring, on account of it being winter and all.
videos to come- cinder blocking, frame this fame, roof roof roof, and straw balin’ smooth sailin’
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!
