Kitchen!

Here's a pic of the new kitchen. It's so much bigger than our galley kitchen we have now, and it'll be a great central room for our family to cook and eat together!

New House!

After some searching, we are closing on a new house June 30th! Jen and I couldn't decide whether we wanted to be town or country mice, so we decided on a compromise. Our new house is located on 1 acre (with no restrictions) just 3 miles (about 8 minutes) from downtown Greenville, SC. Jen searched every night on the web for the right place, and we lucked into this. The first buyers financing fell through, and we were next in line of 17 other interested parties! The sellers priced the house at 152, 500, and it's got about 3,000 square feet (if you count the separate office with full bath and kitchenette). If Jen hadn't kept plugging away at this, we would never have found the house.

What's more important is that we can get down to the business of degriding. We have lots of plans for this 1 acre plot, but it's incredibly exciting! It even has a little underground pool (this was a happy happenstance as a pool was not part of our criteria).

Featured above is the front yard and house!

Casa Ti is a Casa for Me!

Okay after looking for what seems like forever, I think I have found a house plan compatible with our needs to start out with. I say start out with, because we have several outbuilding we will need, like an office for John and a Brewhaus/kitchen (more on this one later:). Since we want a smaller house and one built as "green" as possible, yet able to act as a homestead, I've had trouble finding a design that met our budget. I couldn't see hiring an arcitect to draw up a "formal" copy of my plans for a hefty price tag. So I was thrilled to run across Green Modern Kits last week. With a few modifications to the Casa Ti, we need to have the bathroom moved I think, and the addition of a pantry/laundry/mudroom, we will be in business. Um...now we just need to find the perfect piece of land to put it on. Better get back to "Homestead Shopping."

Seed FEST

Okay I'm SUPER excited about all of the amazing seeds that just came in the mail from Baker's Creek. 

We had several raised beds constructed this fall and are turning our current property into an urban homestead. Our oldest daughter will be doing a lot of work with me this spring. The garden will be a main component of our homeschooling. We've spent the fall learning to read and of course will continue this, but turn our focus over to math and science in the new year. I went a bit crazy buying, but hope to grow extra starts for friends and family. We will also likely have some for next year.

Flat Shoals Road Property

The asking price for this 7.34 acre plot was 107,000. It is very close to my parents (under 30 minutes) and we liked certain aspects of the property see below:

Pros:
--Good size plot which was layed out well with a cleared area that led down to a wooded ravine (which was supposed to have a creek at the bottom).
--A small one bedroom cabin already exists on the plot (the old residence of a single man who had lived there for 30 years, considered a "mad scientist" by his neighbors).
--There is also a smallish garage/storage shed also very solid and well built.
--The previous owner had built an underground "bomb shelter" which was really more of a potential root cellar. Also very solid and well built.

Cons:
--The deal breaker here is that the "creek" which is situated at the bottom of the ravine is actually a barely discernible trickle if not completely dry. The agent said it was a full blown creek last time he showed the property. Right.
--I felt a bit too close to neighbors since the property was on corner lot and easily viewed by folks across the street in the winter.
--Some of the land immediately adjacent had already been parceled out and would require a separate purchase.
--The agent made it sound like there was another offer pending and was indirectly trying to get us to make a decision within 72 hours. No thanks!

Preps

Funny how my first post is a to-do/buy list. John will laugh at that for sure, since I'm a HUGE list maker. Over the past few months we have begun to get serious about preparing for the future. I will follow up with more posts about the economy, peak oil, and the enviroment, but for now this is a quick list to keep track of what I'm still working on accquiring before the year is out.

*More canning supplies. I have a pressure cooker, but it is missing some parts so I need to get more and increase my mason jar stash.

* seeds. The seed site I want to order from just opened back up so I will likely pick those up this week.

*kill-o-watt meter
* solar battery charger
*more wool stuffing
*start purchasing yarn, my fabric stash is healthy:)
*gravity water filter
* water proof matches
*good sleeping bags
*a tent

A few of my favorite bloggers:)
www.chrismartenson.com
www.sharonastyk.com

Chestnutt Ridge Road in Marietta, SC

Yesterday we all drove about 45 minutes northwest of Greer and met my parents to take a look at this 12 acres out in Marietta. The view (if you cleared the trees) is excellent. You are really close to the mountains in this area.

The pros:
1) There's alot of land for a decent price (around $60,000).
2) The land is heavily wooded and beautiful. It is rolling and there is a bluff at the end of the property from which you can hear a babbling brook.

The cons:
1) My Dad and I wandered the property for about 20 minutes in heavy brush and trees. We weren't sure whether there were clearings for building or not (the owner said there was).
2) There's very little pasture. There's some open area at the bottleneck of this property.
3) You can't access the land except through that bottleneck. On either side of that narrow pass the neighbors are pretty close. What's the use of moving to the country when your neighbors know exactly when you are leaving and coming?

So--this property will be taken off the list.

Feeble Update

Since last time I have written an entry I have built a small "compost patio" and have setup some worm composters (made out of plastic bins). We have added a small deck and added that to our new deck. We have also built three 4' x 8' raised garden beds for gardening this spring.

We are out of credit card debt and we have also bought 3 months of food stores.

I have also purchased a revolver (yeehaw)!

We are also going through the process of looking for land. See next entry.

Worm Composting Guide

This site is a great site which discusses vermiculture, or worm composting. Yummy!

Compost Guide

This is a good little informative article about composting. We will start the composting process soon in order to begin our garden proper Spring 09. That gives us a good six months to get a good pile of compost ready.

I Tell My Past Self I'm Building a Garden

My how things change.

If I could go back in time to tell my 20's-self that I was in the process of building a garden--and that I was ENJOYING it, my past self would think one of three things:

1) I had become a victim of indentured servitude.

2) I had become a farmer.

3) I had become possessed.

It might be a function of working at home, but lately it has been very nice to get outside. Perhaps this is what Morris meant by engaging in productive work. I'm not as exhausted from "the office" so I have more energy to engage in physical activity. Working out of the home seems to encourage a lifestyle centered around home-productivity. I sit at my computer; I teach Olivia a reading lesson; I grade some papers; I go and garden. My past self snickers!

Even so--there is indeed something rewarding about it all, especially since Olivia really loves to help.

Harvesting Rainwater

This article, "A Better Way to Harvest Rainwater" by Cheryl Long in the May 20, 2008 edition of Mother Earth News discusses water catchment systems. In short, you use your house to collect water, and there is quite a bit to collect: "During an inch of rainfall, more than 900 gallons flows off of a house with a 30-by-50 foot roof. Why not make use of all 900 gallons?"

The article ends with some good beginning books as resources. I've paraphrased below:

Water Storage by Art Ludwig focuses on tank storage design.

Create An Oasis with Greywater by Art Ludwig discusses how to recycle greywater (water that has drained from house appliances and showers).

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands by Brad Lancaster comprises Vol I (basics of rainwater harvesting) Vol II (collection of water in earthworks, swales, ponds, and terraces) and Vol III (roof catchment and cisterns).

Rainwater Catchment Systems for Domestic Supply by John Gould and Erik Nissen-Petersen discusses the technical, social and economic factors in water catchment for your home. It discusses roof and ground systems with a variety of photos, illustrations and case studies. Very detailed and thorough.

Orwell Rolls In His Grave

The documentary Orwell Rolls in His Grave features interviews with a variety of experts, journalists, and politicians who comment on the flagging state of affairs in the media news industry. The main thrust to this documentary is simply that the major news outlets, because of their deeply interdependent relationships with both big business and government, are failing in their prime responsibility as public watch dog. As more and more radio, television, and news paper outlets are bought up by fewer and fewer companies, journalism becomes an exercise in political spin and big business cheer leader.

The documentary is done very well, features a bevy of articulate, interesting interviews, and is definitely worth a watch.

Electric Cars on Earth Day

The Energy Blog features this, an article about two electric cars, the Tesla, and the Th!nk Car. The Tesla is available right now, and you only have to shell out $100,000 for it!

If that's a bit too pricey, the Th!nk Car is much more reasonable, coming to North America in 2009 and only putting you out 20,000 Euros. Featured above is a yellow Th!nk Car.

Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash

Whether you are a conspiracy theorist, a post-apocalyptic guru, or obsessed with peak oil, this is a great site that Jen found which I'm adding to the Resources and Links sidebar. It is a link to books, to survival gear, as well as to breaking news associated with the demise of the middle class. Fun, fun, fun!

Mrs. Survival

Jen found Mrs. Survival, a link that I have added to our Resources and Links sidebar. It is an incredibly useful resource with a nice set of survival-type links as well as a very informative group of discussion threads.

Prefab Workspace

To enhance my productivity Jen came up with the idea of building a small, one-room, prefab study where I could set up wall to wall bookshelves, a desk, and a daybed (for naps!) With a wireless network and electrical hookups, it would make for a nice, quiet getaway considering I do all my work from home now. These can be fairly cheap to build, anywhere between $5,000-$10,000. The April/May 2008 issue of Readymade has a great article. Below are some of the websites of companies that sell prefab work spaces.

Modern-Shed

Modern Cabana

M Finity

Firstdaycottage.com

Go to www.firstdaycottage.com to find a selection of do it yourself houses which are modular and affordable! I don't know if we'll go this path, but the houses look cute and there is something rewarding about erecting the frame of your home yourself (at least the idea of it). Realistically, it might even be possible to hire an expert who could guide and help an amateur through the process. It might still be cheaper than buying your own home.

Credit Cards PAID

We have finally eliminated debt on both of our credit cards. The Master Card "Apple Loan" credit card had raised their APR to about 30%. This was after we had made a late payment of 1 day because they had changed the pay period (unannounced of course).

We are thrilled to be out of debt with these loan sharks!

Additionally, I have been working for about six weeks from the home teaching English for The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I guess I'm somewhat of an online artisan, working and living in the same building!

"Useful Work Versus Useless Toil" by William Morris

I’ve been reading through a collection of essays about the nature of work in a book called Why Work? In this post I’ll summarize a very interesting piece called “Useful Work Versus Useless Toil” by William Morris. It says some really interesting things.

This essay, like so many in this collection, assumes that work in its unexploitive state is pleasurable. The kind of work which is pleasurable offers three kinds of hope: “hope of rest, hope of product, and hope of pleasure in the work itself” (36). The good kind of work offers the promise of a break; even the good kind of work can be painful at times! It also offers a product which the worker has the satisfaction and fulfillment of completing; that is, the worker is not one tiny cog in a vast process of which he or she is not aware and of which he or she never sees the final product. Lastly, the good kind of work is good because it exercises our faculties and complete selves as humans. We are not reduced to machines.

As Morris so succinctly states, “All other work but this is worthless; it is slaves’ work—mere toiling to live, that we may live to toil” (37).

Using these two kinds of work as a value system, Morris levels a critique on our economic system. First of all, it is no surprise that work is unevenly distributed among the classes. The rich (even though they may work hard) produce very little, but they consume very much and are dependent upon the work of those below them. The middle class also produces more than they consume and are comprised of whole sectors of purportedly useful professions which serve “the system of folly, fraud, and tyranny of which they form a part” (38). The middle class, much like the rich, are also invested in acquiring wealth and assets to the effect of not having to work anymore in the future. Work is something for the lower classes. Both the rich and the middle class are supported by the production of the poor who are in an inferior position. The poor produce real wealth but they also produce waste.

As Morris says, “Wealth is what Nature gives us and what a reasonable man can make out of the gifts of Nature for his reasonable use. The sunlight, the fresh air, the unspoiled face of the earth, food, raiment, and housing necessary and decent; the storing up of knowledge of all kinds, and the power of disseminating it; means of free communication between man and man; works of art, the beauty which man creates when he is most a man, most aspiring and thoughtful—all things which serve the pleasure of people, free, manly, and uncorrupted” (39).

All the rest is waste and is part of a system committed to producing only waste in a circular process which perpetuates the inferiority of those who produce. The poor, in addition to supporting the needs and wants of the upper classes, also produces cheap wares and goods of which the poor itself consumes, but these goods are only “miserable makeshifts” of what the rich and middle classes can afford, “with coarse food that does not nourish, with rotten raiment which does not shelter, with wretched houses which may well make a town-dweller in civilization look back with regret to the tent of the nomad tribe, or the cave of the pre-historic savage” (40). Because of this massive waste of human potential and work, Morris argues that our civilization wastes its own resources.

With the advent of machinery and technology which significantly decreases the amount of labor needed to complete a task, as well as all manner of conveniences, we should all living a lifestyle which is significantly better than all those before us. But it’s obviously not this way. What to do?

Morris’ answer is no less than abolishing the class system which allows for a higher class that doesn’t produce wealth as Morris has defined it. This unleashes a vast potential of human resources to produce REAL wealth. This would result in the creation of more wealth of which more could have a part. Effort could even be made to ensure that the work which is necessary is made to be pleasant.

But here’s the rub: those in power don’t want this to happen and this speaks more directly to the nature of capitalism. What follows is a fairly standard Marxist critique of capitalism. Essentially, the capitalist is not interested in allowing for a “good” kind of work; he wants a profit. Since he is a monopolist and owns the means of production, he can more or less dictate the terms under which he hires labor. He can compel cheap labor out of the working classes because they have no where else to go. All markets have been monopolized. The means of production must be distributed evenly among every man and woman, not to a select few.

The rest of the essay is a very interesting piece of speculation about what a society without class, capitalist monopoly, and exploitation might look like. First of all, the work day would be short. Given the fact that more people would be working, and given the fact that the goal of work would be only to produce wealth, not waste, there wouldn’t be a need for as much work as is demanded by the system now. Second of all, there would be variety of work. Since a man or woman wouldn’t have to devote all of their time to one job, a person could devote a smaller amount of time to a variety of different kinds of work, with the emphasis on developing the WHOLE person. You might vary more sedentary work with more physically active, for example.

Education could be more concerned with drawing out the talents and skills of a person instead of stamping onto a person what the market needs. Doing this would unleash untold creative potential. All men would have time to create and engage intellectually and artistically with the world around them.

Morris believes that we should live and work in surroundings which are pleasant, and in this way he begins to sound like Chesterton, emphasizing the value in beautiful surroundings. The chaos and ugliness of our modern living and work conditions are simply a result of an economic system which values profit: “For all our crowded town and bewildering factories are simply the outcome of the profit system. Capitalistic manufacture, capitalistic land-owning, and capitalistic exchange force men into big cities in order to manipulate them in the interests of capital; the same tyranny contracts the due space of the factory so much that (for instance) the interior of a great weaving-shed is almost as ridiculous a spectacle as it is a horrible one” (48). In many ways the labyrinthine structure to our society and the spaces in which we live are a result and product of an economic system driven by profit. The modern labyrinth is a function and product of capitalism!

Morris’ speculation turns the prison-like factory, devoid of inspiration and creativity, to a center of intellectual and social work where products are created but where also the factory worker would engage in other activities as well such as gardening, or the study of art and science. Workers in this kind of factory are masters of their own time and energies, serving only themselves and their community.

As Morris concludes, “So you see, I claim that work in a duly ordered community should be made attractive by the consciousness of usefulness, by its being carried on with intelligent interest, by variety, and by its being exercised amidst pleasurable surroundings” (49).