Lollyland

[pa_friendly_guy]

Septic can be a problem every where. I had trouble 30 years ago, my place is all sand and rocks and it drains great. The sewage officer for the Twp at the time felt it drained TOO well, so he wanted me to put in a sand mound for $12,000 back 30 years ago. I ended up talking him into am ariated tank for $800 more than a standard system at the time. Saved me about $11,000. It pumps air down into the tank to allow the bacteria to work better. Actually it makes a different kind of bacteria work to eat up the poop. Then the water goes into a standered drainage field. Works great. The Twp didn't like the idea because they can not come onto my property and check how the system is working, Oh Well, no one has complained so it must be OK.


PS. It does take electric to run the pump, so if you want off grid that maybe a problem. Not alot of electric, but some.

[Lollykoko]

I will be getting something done about a septic system permit, but not till after Easter. Photo is a 2 ft. interval contour map, north at the top. The house site will be near the loop of the yellow line that encircles the top of the hill. Where to situate a drain field from that point will be the fun part of the exercise.

The lowest level of the house will be about level with the plateau at the 798 level and the ground is pretty steep beyond that point. Of course, that face is the "front" and therefore might be unusable for that reason.

The hugelbeds along the ditch will be planted with a lot of garden annuals this year since they are available, quick and easy. The plan is to make each bed between 20 and 50 feet long, leaving plenty of room to get through with the tractor and mower at the end of the season to mow the bank of the ditch. If I can plant a bed a week from early April till the end of May there should be plenty for me, five other people, and some stray deer, turkey, rabbit, etc. Perennials will be added to each bed as I can, and I plan to plant fruit trees on the inside of the mounds. Later we can work on forest gardens.

Matt, I haven't seen that book you mentioned, yet. I might get to the library tomorrow to see if it's on the shelf.

[lonv166]

Lolly, I love the Hobbit House. Go for it!
I also have a small stream at the bottom of our property, but for much of the year it is dry. Seems someone above me has filtered the water off for their rice fields. I have a contact in the DNR, but, I have to do the legwork to find out where the blockage is. One day (see my note about procrastination) I will do just that. In the meantime, I built a well not far from the dry river bed, and 5 feet down I hit water. Once I get electric (or a generator) I will drain it, dig further and build a proper shallow well. It may be that I found by chance a spring that was covered over some 25 years ago in the last big earthquake here. I hope so. I also hope earthquakes do not repeat themselves in the same location.
In your situation, I would have moved towards earthbags as well. Here, given the quality of the dirt, I want to save every teaspoon!

[Lollykoko]

Kathy and Terry were down to visit over the weekend and we stuck our noses into every nook and cranny of the place. As we took the drive around the firelane (going east, just below the north line to the yellow line at about the "7", follow yellow line to get to campsite), all you noticed was the white pines, filling up the volume of the woods.

Anyway, my brother in law decided we really should build a log home, no matter what the USDA guy said about the suitability of white pine for long term structures (over 20 ~ 30 years). If we do, this area can be opened up considerably for forest gardening. (at the very top of the hill where the turn is made)

Here's the same stand of trees, looking from the south loop (about 140 yards across from the first photo, maybe 200 yards from the second).

But first, we have to get some practice in log building, where mistakes won't be quite as costly as in the house itself. The equipment really needs a lean to. The county gave me building material. Here's Kathy and Terry checking out the future lean-to. Pay attention to the big forked limb that shows up on his left.

Here is that limb again, showing part of the monster it is attached to. There should be two back wall logs and two sidewall logs (at least) in the one tree.

The summer looks to be plenty of fun and a learning experience at least!

[Lollykoko]

It doesn't seem like nearly two months since I posted in this thread! I've stayed busy, even if it isn't all productive.

A couple of weeks ago we planted 27 trees of various types. Kathy and I had both received our shipments from the Arbor Day Foundation, so those tiny shoots went into a bed between the camp and the drive, surrounded by fence posts, strung with twine and dangling CDs. It might not keep the deer out, but we will remember where they are when it's time to mow. We did have trouble with the dogs wanting to lie in the fresh dirt (and roll on top of the trees) as well as a few of the Blue Spruce being nibbled. Last weekend my grandson camped with us; he and I mulched the trees with shredded paper. Some of the pines don't look like they are going to make it. The flowering trees ... Perhaps this weekend will give a better idea. Two larger (30 footers) trees were transplanted from the edge of the woods (near the future lean-to) to spots near the ditch. They have been severely shocked and were moved to full sun, so they might not pull through. It just seemed a shame to throw the wild cherry and oak on a hugel bed without first checking to see if they would root in a new location. The Black lace Elderberry I bought last year did survive the winter in town and looks to be doing well in the new location.

More work has been done on clearing out the space for an equipment lean-to and the lawn mower was running for a while. The chain saws haven't been tuned up for the season yet, so we didn't get around to cutting logs last weekend. Instead, there was some serious clean-up done in the campsite, including taking out a multi-trunked, dead in the middle and putting out new shoots at the base (can you tell I don't know what the name is) tree near the stationary camper. Only one trunk went the wrong direction and smashed the soap bottle near my makeshift sink. It could have been much worse!

While I went to town looking for a belt to fit my 20+ year old mower, Terry dug out the roots of the tree. We have talked about needing a well (for too long now) and the location is near about a dozen cottonwoods, so he went for depth and hit water at 8 feet. The hole was filled back in (kids and dogs, not to mention wild critters) for safety's sake. Tomorrow I hope to have time to visit some local businesses to pick up items needed for digging / drilling a shallow well in that spot this weekend. I've been immersing myself in videos so I have an idea of what will be needed. We bought the sand point several years ago but hadn't worried about additional pipe for length, or casing of any sort. Hopefully the camera will have a full charge so I can get photos of the process.

Did I mention that I've been offered a job? It's part time and I get to set my own hours, within the requirements of project dates and such. I'm hopeful that it will work well, since the interview process went on for a year and I'd hate to hate it after spending so much time trying to get it in the first place! Training should be early June (I think), with the case load starting in July. A paycheck would come in handy for things like solar panels and deep cycle batteries to get started on setting up my own power grid.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Good luck with the new job Lolly. I am sure that you will not hate it. How did you find the water? Is the water table just that high on the land, or did you use a stick to locate an underground spring? Having a hand dug well will be nice. Did you get to taste the water he got in the well< or take a sample to have it tested? It would be nice to know if the water that close to the surface it potable and not contaminated with bacteria.

[Lollykoko]

Guy, we did some dowsing a few years ago with copper rods and got many hits in the area around the campsite. My reading had said to look for water within the drip line of several different kinds of trees, including cottonwood and walnut. Since there is a line of cottonwoods that stretch from east to west across the property and this spot is within 75 feet of two of them (about 80 footers) it seemed like a good gamble. We know that there are several springs on the property (according to former owners) and have had trouble in the past with soggy ground in some places.

No, I didn't get a sample for testing, since the hole was filled in by the time I got back from the trip to town. The neighbor at the top of the hill has good tasting water, so my fingers are crossed that we will be as lucky. No matter how the water tastes, it will come in handy to deal with things like this ...

Grandson said he "fell down" and got his face dirty. Ha! I was a kid once and know better. The bad part about the dirty face (and hands and feet) was that there were two little boys there over the weekend and I was down to my last five gallons of water hauled in from the spring two miles away. We even used plastic cutlery and threw them away to keep from having to do dishes!

[matt walker]

Wow Lolly, sounds like you have been really busy. Congrats on the job, and finding water so easily. That's great news. I'll be curious to follow your DIY well project. That's one that usually amounts to one of the major upfront costs on any land. Charge up those batteries, I wanna see!

Sorry to hear about the soap bottle.

[Lollykoko]

It's been a busy couple of weeks!

Two weeks ago I had plans to put in a well. My sister and brother in law wanted to cut wood. Well, it was 90 degrees in the shade, but that wasn't where the wood was located! They were cutting on the pile of logs in the far background, to be used for an equipment lean-to. Fortunately, I had to call for the backhoe to put in some post holes for my outdoor kitchen, getting them out of the sunny pasture and into the shadier camp area. The well was started and three posts were located in a quasi line to start a wall when we called it a day.

Last weekend was supposed to be cooler (mid 70's) with a 20% chance of rain. A great day for cutting wood, wouldn't you imagine? Of course the weatherman was off just a little. However, before the rain came sweeping in and drenched everyone despite the canopies and tarp, the size of that log pile in my bottom ground was reduced by a bit.

The guys pulled out 17 trees to use for the future lean-to. Most of them are very straight trunks and they range from about 30 to 60 feet or more in length. Even the curved trunk in this photo will be good for two 15 foot sections.


More to do, of course. The well pipe is down about 11 feet and stopped. I had a friend weld an eyebolt to fit the pipe so I can pull it out of the casing and start over. I'm not having much luck on finding commercially available tools to work with, either for sale or rent. It's about time to look for an extension post hole digger on line, since no one in town has heard of such a thing. Too bad that we don't have running water, since you can use that to drill with!

[matt walker]

Wow Lolly, you've been busy! Those logs are HUGE. It's so cool to see progress happening, I love reading the updates. I do wish I were closer so I could come help, but you'll have to settle for cheering from a distance from me. Keep it up!