From Breaking Ground to Raising the Roof
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.
Here we set up our construction site in our future common house. With [...]
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Posted in Uncategorized on October 4, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A very busy summer, indeed.
Posted in Uncategorized on July 29, 2009 | 5 Comments »
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 [...]
The Dacha Gets Plastered
Posted in buildings, tagged alternative, alternatives to vinyl siding, building, cottage, dacha project, earthen plaster, finger lakes, group, homestead, lime, photos, shed, straw bale, strawbale, stucco, sustainable, tompkins county on June 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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 [...]
There’s a whole lot a diggin goin on
Posted in Uncategorized on May 12, 2009 | 7 Comments »
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 [...]
Trees and bushes – Thank you!
Posted in Uncategorized on April 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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 [...]
Winter Palace Pt 4- Frame by Frame
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged building, dacha project, DIY, finger lakes, framing, green nettle dacha, intentional community, region, stick frame, straw bale, strawbale, sustainable living, tompkins county, video on March 12, 2009 | 1 Comment »
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 [...]
Winter Palace Pt 3- Concrete Day
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged building, cement, concrete, dacha, DIY, foundation, how-to, pour, truck, video on December 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
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 [...]
Raise the Roof – Palace goings on
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged recycle, sustainable on October 16, 2008 | 3 Comments »
So much going on so little time to blog. Even though I have officially retired to California for the winter, others are dutifully working the land and completing our humble Winter Palace. Here is some of what has happened since our last work party.
By thoroughly monitoring Freecycle and Craigslist we managed to score loads of [...]
Birds Flock to Roost
Posted in Uncategorized on October 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Every evening for the past while, a sea of birds (black birds?) fly over the land at dusk. We see them as we finish building for the evening, or as we prepare to build into the dark. They don’t go far once they’ve vanished from our view, I know because their immense dialog [...]
Winter Palace Pt 2- The Work Party
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged building, DIY, foundation, friends, rubble trench, straw bale, strawbale, sustainable on October 8, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Here is pt 2, just like I promised. Please enjoy, it took a second to edit. More on the way in future. Perhaps as it gets so cold in Ithaca that I can’t go outside, I will pump these out faster. For now we are still building, taking classes, making friends and being mad busy. [...]
