I had been dreading the thought of painting the interior walls of the barn for months. The thought of cleaning it out masking windows and doors, and spraying some 3000 square feet of walls (walls that are 18 feet tall) overwhelmed me.  By myself I knew the job would take me several days and dozens of trips up and down tall extension ladders.  I wanted to do it, but thinking about the effort it would take kicked in that old enemy of progress, procrastination. 

Last Christmas our son Brook announced his engagement to a girl we all love, Andrea Dotters.  He proposed and gave her a ring on Christmas Eve and the excitement and preparation of a June wedding went into motion, especially at the Dotters house.  Other than having the privilege of facilitating the service as the marrying pastor, my only real job was to prepare the barn for a rehearsal dinner here at Timber Butte.  The thought of the party was exciting and motivating, especially considering the blessing of the occasion and so even though the size of the task was challenging, the vision of what it was for spurred me on. 

Several weeks before we had shoveled out a mountain of horse manure after a winter of accumulation (See entry #162) in preparation for the paint job we had scheduled for this past Saturday.  After a winter of thinking about it, the day had finally arrived.  I got together the paint and

Nathan & Nathan climbing ladders

supplies needed and headed for the barn early last Saturday morning where I started to clean the walls of hanging tack and the floor and loft of tools, bales of left over hay, welding equipment and miscellaneous paraphernalia which had accumulate in the many nooks and crannies. After a couple of hours of prep work I was ready to start masking and fire up the airless spray rig to start painting. That’s when I heard the welcome sound of Nathan’s diesel pickup coming up the road. 

As the pickup came to a stop two young guys jumped out eager to lend me a hand.   Not only did Nathan Harknes who had helped me do projects on two other occasions, but he brought Nathan Evans who had come over from an island in Hawaii to attend our VCOM school of Biblical Action.  They were a welcome sight and without delay we all got to work.  Later in the day Josh and Melissa Fishburne showed up after having run a thirteen mile half marathon that same morning and jumped in as well.  Nancy cooked a great meal for everyone keeping the moral high and by five o’clock that afternoon not only were the walls and stalls painted  but the spray rig was cleaned up and all the tack and other paraphernalia was hanging back on the walls again.   The barn looked more beautiful than I had expected and ready for the celebration we were all anticipating with excitement. It goes to show that the Amish people are right when they say, “Many hands make light work”.

Nancy had another idea. She thought it would be handy to have a sink in the garden to prewash vegetables before bringing them into her kitchen. She also thought an outside sink might provide a good place to prewash me before letting me come in the house – considering my reputation for getting filthy after a day of ranch work. (Have you ever seen the Peanuts cartoon character named Pigpen?)

Anyway, for whatever reason, we picked up a used cast iron sink complete with faucets and drains for only forty bucks at a second hand store in Boise.

Sink framework & concrete mesh

After loading it in the back of my pickup and nearly getting a hernia in the process I realized I would need to build a really stout stand to set it on. Stopping by Home Depot on the way home we purchased treated 4X4s and 2X4s needed to hold the weight and then proceeded to look around for materials to build a counter top able to withstand every type of weather possible.  We knew that the sink would be sitting year after year under deep snow and in freezing temperatures during winter months, in driving rain storms in the springtime, and under brutal hot sun in the summer.  I’ve built outside sinks before and my experience told me that if we wanted it to serve us for a long time and look half way decent in the process it would have to be durable.  We thought about using a sheet of galvanized steel for the counter, but knew how hot it would get in the summer heat. I also believed that tile would eventually get water under it and cause it to crack in the winter freeze. After consulting with a nice lady in the paint department we finally went home with a quart of epoxy all weather paint which we planned on applying over a 3X5 sheet of hardy concrete board, but I knew even as I decided to take her advice that it would be temporary at best.

Rand helps me set in the sink

On the way home I had an epiphany. (I do some of my best brainstorming while driving.) I remembered how years before I had used concrete to provide a water and fireproof roof system on a generator house I had built.  I recalled how it not only had lasted but looked great as well.

That evening I constructed the framework using the treated lumber we had bought, keeping in mind that it would have to support not only the heavy cast iron sink but an inch of concrete as well.  The next day, which happened to be my day off, Rand Thompson came by and helped me pour the counter top and set the sink in place.  As we mixed the

Troweling the finshed cement

cement (I mixed it 4 to 1) I remembered a small unlabeled bag of concrete die I had left over from some previous project. Not even knowing for sure what color it was, I added it to the mix. It turned out to be black which ended up looking really nice. Because it was windy and rainy we poured the cement top under cover in the barn.

After allowing it set up for several days I decided it was time to move it to the garden.  I can’t tell you for sure how heavy it was when all was said and done, but I couldn’t budge it more than an inch or so by myself so decided to fashion a sling out of nylon rope and moved it to the garden with the bucket of the tractor.   I’ll admit that I feared cracking it in the process, but everything went well. I ran the drain lines into a one inch PVC pipe that transported the reclaimed water into the garden. It is now permanently plumbed and ready for dirty vegetables or a dirty husband.

A while ago I visited the Shaker Plantation in Pleasant Hill, Kentucky.  I love not only studying the construction of early American structures, but also such things as handmade tools, furniture, fencing and gates.  I get great pleasure in reproducing things here at Timber Butte so that they are in keeping with and give the feel of homesteads from years past.  We try to use as much of the natural rock and logs as it is functionally possible for this reason.  Whenever we visit places like the Shaker village I look extra close at things and take pictures so that I might incorporate ideas here at home.  I guess it is more of a hobby than anything. Like many others, I get deep satisfaction using my hands in my free time.  Generally I have far more projects than I have time for, but the vision to do them keeps me going.   

Building gates is not only functional, but can save tons of money, also there is something about handmade stuff that makes things look quaint even if they are only subconsciously noticed.  Recently Nancy and I have planted a new

Cutting plug & hole

lawn around the house which when established will be susceptible to the abuse of loose horses or cows.  It’s amazing what a horses hoof can do to a fragile lawn, especially when they know they are being naughty and decide to spin around and flee when trying to be caught.  It can be a mess.  For that reason we decided to fence and gate it off.  Because it is in our front yard we wanted it to stay in keeping with our homestead vision.  Here’s what I did:

First I cut lodge poles to appropriate lengths drilling them in the same way I did when I construct the lodge pole gate for the corral and entrance (See Builidng Projects - entry #94.) In this way I made both holes and plugged pole ends. (See picture) I then

Assembling the frame

screwed together my main gate supports.  Second I cut short lengths of lodge poles down the middle with a table saw.  This takes a little practice to make even splits, but perfection isn’t all that important.  Remember the object is to make things to look homemade not like they have been stamped out in some factory.  I always refer to my mistakes as a means of providing unique and quaint touches.  Then I screw these half pieces onto  the frame making sure things are as square as possible.  Making gates square will make them hang even when they are hinged to the upright posts. 

I’ve made dozens of gates like this in my life and have discovered that if they are done with care they will serve

Attaching half cut logs

you well for years. In the past Nancy has planted climbing roses or vines that grow up and over them covering up all of my mistakes making them look all the better.

Recovering from near bronchial pneumonia takes a toll on the healthiest of people.  It zaps a person’s energy and drains motivation to do anything constructive.  After a week of sitting in my chair like a zombie I decided I had to force myself to do something constructive. Looking out the window at the winter landscape reminded me I needed to resist the urge to go out in the cold winter air where I would be sure to relapse.  I needed a mindless project that required little consideration yet occupy me enough to keep me inside by the fire.  That’s when I decided to construct a set of reproduction Plains Indian arrows.   Sounds crazy I know, but our home is decorated in a western motif and it needed a set of framed Indian arrows.   Besides, it was all I had the energy to do at the time.

Years ago I used to enjoy spending winter evenings sitting in front of our old open fireplace chipping obsidian into arrowheads.  It was a hobby I enjoyed to pass the time and after a while I became fairly proficient at it.   I had constructed a bow out of a branch of seasoned Mountain Mahogany and backed it with artificial sinew for both spring and strength. I back twisted hair from my horses tail into a very strong cord to be used as a bow string. It worked well enough and after some practice I became fairly proficient at constructing arrows accurate enough to shoot an occasional rabbits or other small game for the dinner table.  I wouldn’t have wanted to rely on my skills for survival, but I thought if the chips where down and all else failed I could use what I had learned to provide the basic needs for my family.  Learning survival skills such as identifying edible plants, constructing small animal snares and starting fires without modern convinces fascinated my innovative nature. 

Remembering these old skills that once brought me so much enjoyment I decided to see if I could remember how I   constructed arrows out of natural materials. In those days I collected such things as flint or obsidian, animal sinew, bird feathers (usually from road kills) and willow or Rosehip shoots for the shafts.  I even rendered down plants to produce die colors to stripe the shafts. Not having immediate access to most of those things I used what I could find around the place. I used a set of reproduction Flint points that I had bought a few years before. For sinew I resorted to frays of a nylon cord and when all was said and done I was satisfied with the authentic look of the final product.  Nancy wanted to put me in business selling my arrows on the internet of which I didn’t have the time, but after seeing the price of arrows in Indian craft stores in Scottsdale, Arizona a few weeks ago I thought it would in fact be a good way for someone living on the land to pick up a little extra money.

Building a butcher shop in the back room of our barn has taken most of my free time this winter and I still have quite a bit to do before its completion.  In a previous blog I mentioned a few unique things I incorporated into the plumbing system, but neglected to mention that I was working on a butcher-block counter top at the same time.  I finished the main counter a few days ago and was really satisfied with the way it came out.  I was especially happy with the fact that when it was all said and done it cost less than fifty dollars in materials to complete.

Cutting off the tong and grooved sides

For about eight years I have been packing around several bundles of used maple hardwood flooring that I had scrounged from an old high school gymnasium floor.  I originally procured this used flooring when we built our mountain cabin and had re-bundled and stored the leftover scraps thinking I might one day have use of them. It’s good stewardship to incorporate recycled, resold and reused building materials when you can, and it saves money besides.  I’ll admit that there has been a time or two I’ve been tempted to cut them up for fire wood just to get them out of my hair, but in the back of my mind I always felt they were too valuable for such a fate even though much of it was warped and unusable for their conventional

Coating both sides with Gorilla Glue

intent.  When I envisioned building our butchering room I knew I had finally found a home for them. Here is what I did:

First I estimated how much would be needed for the square footage of the countertops we would need.   Gathering up what I thought would satisfy the need I cut the tongs and grooves off of both sides of each individual piece.

Second, using Gorilla Glue I generously coated back and front of each length, setting them on side for lamination.  I did this until I had enough in place to make more than the two foot counter width I

Clamping the glued maple strips

desired.  I made them wider than they needed to be with the intent of trimming them to their needed dimension later. 

Sanding slabs level

Third, with the help of my granddaughter Hope, we squeezed them tightly together with furniture clamps leaving them to dry for several days.  You might notice in the picture how we clamped the two pieces that would eventually be fit together as forty-five degree corners.  After these were dry I cut them to fit.

Backing slabs with Liquid Nail

Using a belt sander with heavy grit paper I sanded the pieces, (first across the grain and then with the grain) until all the high ridges were taken down making the counter top pieces flat and even.  This took a little time and patience.  The final sanding would be done after the laminated pieces were set into their final place with fine grit paper.

Fitting corners into place

Next, using tubes of Liquid Nail I thickly coated the bottoms of each piece and fit them together on top of the reinforced cabinet I had prepared for them. It gave great satisfaction to see the corners slide together and fit.  (I think I’ve mentioned along the way that I’m not a perfectionist and when things actually work out the way I envision them it always surprises me a little.)  

Application of mineral oil

Finally, I did the finish sanding and calked the sink and backsplash board to avoid later leakage. I coated the maple wood top with mineral oil which sealed it and gave it a beautiful final appearance. (Using mineral oil on a food preparation surface was recommended to me by my friend Rand Thompson who does professional counter top work.)

House at Timber Butte

For the first twenty years of Nancy’s and my life together we raised our two children in a cabin on my family’s original old ranch.  The first fourteen of those years we lived without electricity and therefore without adequate lighting.  Because the cabin sat under huge Coulter Pines on the north slope of Liebre Mountain, we were blocked from the winter sun for at least three months of the year.  The winter snows that sometimes would dump up to three feet in one storm were reluctant to melt away even when the days started to grow longer.  The cabin’s only source of light was provided by permanently mounted propane lanterns fueled from a 500 gallon storage tank in the backyard. Although we could see the direct sunlight on distant hills we lived those winters in the mountain’s shadow.  In order to capture as much light as possible the original cabin had been built with many windows by my dad. Most of those windows had been salvaged from other structures before being incorporated into what later became our home. As the years progressed we continued to add on space and improve the cabin’s ability to

Our old cabin on Liebre Mountain

retain heat, but it was never what you would call efficient by today’s standards (or any for that matter).  The fires never went out day or night during the winter months which required Nancy’s constant attention while I was away during the day. We felt blessed having the opportunity to live the way we did, yet the winters were long and dreary, especially for Nancy who spent much of the daytime homeschooling the kids and keeping things warm.

When we decided to build our farmstead at Timber Butte many years later, we knew it too would have to endure long cold winters. Learning from our past experience we made two decisions right from the beginning. First we would build our home in a location with a sunny south exposure; and second, we would construct it for high energy efficiency. The house at Timber Butte would be a house for all seasons.

For years Nancy and I worked together remodeling and selling older homes until we could generate the resources needed to construct the house we hoped to one day build.  It would be our final home after having bought and sold properties seven different times. At first I thought I would build the house myself but realized I neither had the time or expertise needed for the quality of house we dreamed of having.  Knowing how much more time Nancy would be spending at our home, I wanted it to be designed for her. She searched the internet for several months looking at floor plan ideas until she came upon a design called “Grandma’s log home plan”.  It had just two bedrooms, but the dining room, kitchen and living room were all one large open room like our original cabin had been. This openness would make the plan much less conducive to cabin fever during times of winter confinement. . Our friend John Lane studied the concept and taking Nancy’s ideas, designed what was to become the first drawing of our future home. John also introduced us to Cliff Robbins, a builder who had extensive experience building energy effect homes in cold mountainous locations like Lake Tahoe.  Cliff not only built the house, but he and his young family became our good friends in the process.

I plan on writing more about the detail of the house at a later time, but I will say that it is the most energy efficient house we have ever lived in.  Even though it has a high efficient heating and cooling system, it is rarely needed.  Heat is almost totally provided by a soapstone stove that consumes a fraction of the firewood of other stoves we have previously owned.  One thing Nancy requested right from the beginning was high quality windows and enough of them to take advantage of the winter light because of our past experience.  We made sure that happened and the windows have already proven to be a huge blessing both for the purpose of letting in light in the winter and fresh air in the summer.  The ranchstyle overhanging porches shade the windows from the hot summer sun but receive passive heat from the lower southern arched winter sun.    In addition to this, Cliff framed the house with 2×6 studded walls, making sure to caulk every joint as well as also insolating the floor, walls and ceilings to the hilt using three different insulation products. One product that was new to us was closed cell foam, a sticky expanding Styrofoam-like substance that fills every crack.

Unless the Lord has other plans for us in the years ahead it is our prayer that Timber Butte will be our last and final place of rest.  It really is a home for all seasons.

Improvised trap drain valve

As I have previously mentioned I’ve lately been converting a storage room in the barn into a butchering shop which includes a hot and cold running water sink.  One of the challenges has been to install a plumbing system that could easily be shut off and winterized after each use during the cold winter months.  Freezing water lines is always a risk here from October through March and keeping the heat on simply to protect sporadically used vulnerable pipes for six months of the year is both costly and a poor act of stewardship when it comes to energy usage.  The only answer as I see it is to shut off and drain the entire system;  the hot water tank and all water lines and sewage traps, and be able to do it without undo hassle.   Here are two things I have incorporated in my butcher plumbing system to help me accomplish this.

The first thing I did was to incorporate a way to quickly empty the sink trap without having to pour antifreeze into it after every use. (Antifreeze is a toxic substance meant for the radiators of cars not to be consistently poured into the ground.)  I accomplished this by gluing a small plastic drip-line irrigation value on the bottom of the sink trap (see picture).   A sink trap serves two major purposes; one to “trap” or catch objects such as wedding rings from going into the septic system before being able to be retrieved and second, to block sewage smells from coming back up from the septic system.  Water caught in the “U” trap serves as a vapor barrier thus stopping odors from passing back by.   In our case, the sink drain empties into a non-sewage tank and thus odor isn’t an issue.  If it were an issue a rubber stopper could serve to accomplish the same thing.  By installing a valve in the trap the drain can easily be emptied when winterizing the system to alleviate an ice blockage and thus inhibit drainage at a later usage.

With these two simple additions I can shut off the main water source, open the drain valves and free the system of all potential freezing water in a matter of minutes after each winter use.

Elk herd crossing Timber Butte

I confess – plumbing isn’t my favorite past time.  I’ve found most plumbing jobs require climbing upside down into confined spaces where tools and hands struggle to function.  Working under a sink, for example, has a way of reducing my worldview to the confines of a two by three foot cramped space forcing all of my focus to concentrate on a stubborn leak.  Sometimes a simple small problem like a silly leak can stifle long range vision causing us to miss the greater blessings of life.  This week I was reminded of this simple truth.

Every winter I try to plan a project that I can work on out of the weather. This winter I’m converting an empty room in the barn into a butcher shop.  I’ll be saying more about this venture at a later date but my point for now is to say that in order to accomplish my objective it’s been necessary to install a hot water heater, a deep sink and a drain system that has required a grinder pump capable of pushing waste about 200 yards to the existing septic system.  For a novice plumber like me it was a bit challenging.  When I tested the system for the first time I discovered one small but persistent leak which I’ll admit really aggravated me. It wasn’t a big deal but in my momentary state of frustration I was reminded of how easy it is to lose the perspective of blessing.

Like many people I am a person of focus.  Even when I eat I have a tendency to eat my steak before I can focus on my potato; I guess it’s just how God made me. In the same way I move from one visionary project to the next and in the process have the tendency to put great energy on solving the crisis at hand.  This characteristic can make people like me become highly productive in life, but to our detriment can also cause us to neglect to stop and smell the flowers along the way.

I was concentrating on my leaky fitting when Nancy called from the house.  She needed help with some Christmas decorations and asked if I could take a minute to give her a hand.  Reluctantly I left my leaky dilemma dripping in a tin can under the sink and walked from the barn to the house to see how I could help.  I was a man on a mission, going to help my damsel in distress, yet all the time thinking of a solution to the leaky pipe crises in the butcher shop. I was looking down at the snowy frozen ground as I charged along. 

As I approached the house I became aware of the sound of a small plane flying over Timber Butte.  It caused me to look up just long enough to see a large herd of elk crossing the hillside above the barn.  There were nearly a hundred in the group spreading over a mile of the butte’s steep slope.  It was a magnificent sight that caused me to stop everything simply to look.  All at once, my dripping pipe problem seemed insignificant – literally a non-issue.  My perspective had moved from the cramped confines of a sink cabinet to the splendor of God’s great creation.

Nancy came out with the binoculars and together we leaned against the corral fence and watched them pass. We stood in silence as we listened to the cooing of cows and calves and the distant bugles of bulls grazing along the hillside.  The lesson became acutely clear – Never forget to look up from the momentary problems of life and take the time to see the blessings of God. 

Perhaps it is our human sinful nature that so often entices us to focus our energy on the momentary problems that tug at our lives. Unfortunately it often robs us of the many reasons to have hearts that celebrate with thankfulness. 

Ironically, when I later returned to my project in the barn the leak had stopped of its own accord.

Uncle Floyd's handmade plane

Folks who desire to pursue sustainable lifestyles quickly discover a need to become semi-competent on a vast variety of many basic skills. Sustainable lifestyles require the courage to dive in and try new things, the creativity to be innovative, and a desire to gain the satisfaction that can only be achieved by building and doing things with one’s own hands. Living sustainably requires sweat equity, physical productivity, a willingness to be intellectually stretched, and maybe most importantly, the acceptance of non-perfectionism. I for one am a Jack of all trades, but clearly not a master of any.  

Having lived the majority of our married life an hour from the city has forced me and Nancy to build and fix things without the luxury of hired expertise. Not only is it expensive to get professionals to drive this far every time something goes wrong, but it’s been our experience that most things of importance decide to break in the night, during holidays or heavy snow storms.  Our choice of lifestyle has motivated us to develop the basic skills of welding, household electrical, plumbing, carpentry, cabinetry, shade-tree mechanics, food preservation (like canning, freezing and drying) as well as a plethora of other things simply for survival sake. Along the way I’ve learned to work with leather using rivets and awls in order to repair broken harness and saddles, while Nancy learned to sew ( originally on a treadle machine). Together we’ve learned to do emergency veterinary work, agriculture projects of all kinds, install irrigation systems, build fence lines, perform masonry work and pour concrete. We do none of these things well enough to make a living at them, but find great pleasure accomplishing and creating things with our own hands. The money we have saved by doing things ourselves has provided thousands of dollars which has enabled us to invest in other new projects.

Dad still mixing cement at 91

Being a do-it-yourselfer requires two essentials: the attainment of some basic tools and capable people who can teach you how to use them. Now that I’m in my 60s I have an adequate work shop, but for years Nancy and I didn’t have the available resources to purchase decent tools. In the early days of our marriage when we lived off the grid, we learned to do most everything with what now might be considered archaic hand tools. Most of those tools were hand-me-downs from my father and Great Uncle Floyd, who not only gave me tools but also taught me how to use them. In retrospect, the apprenticeship I received from them was invaluable for our life today. I learned the basics of building construction while spending endless weekends working on our old family ranch together. I’ll never forget how Uncle Floyd, being too old to climb up tall ladders or straddle beams, would instruct my dad and I as we teetered on ceiling rafters above him. Every 2×4 had to be cut perfectly square with the hand saws that he had skillfully sharpened for us. Every board had to be accurately measured and hand nailed into its proper place. For Uncle Floyd, carpentry was an art form – a value he joyfully passed on.

I think teaching us somehow gave his life more value knowing that the skills he had attained were appreciated and wanted and wouldn’t end with him. I never owned a Skill saw or an electric drill motor until I was nearly thirty years old  and still cherish the handmade wood plane and other tools Uncle Floyd gave me before he died in the 70s. The work we accomplished over the course of a long hard day then could later be done in a matter of hours with the aid of modern tools, but the satisfaction of a job well done somehow was more rewarding because of the labor intensive work it required. There was something very special about being a young boy included in men’s work, something that is being tragically lost with the epidemic of broken families and absentee fatherhood. I took those special times for granted then, but now realize what an advantage they gave me later in life. Even some of the rock walls I’ve built here at Timber Butte have my dad’s fingerprints on them as he occasionally still drops by and lends a helping hand at age 91.    

I took the skills my dad and uncle gave me and later supplemented them by reading “how-to” books and inquired of people who knew things I was yet eager to learn. My long-time friend Paul Taylor spent many days teaching me how to weld as we constructed a steel flatbed trailer together. That was over 30 years ago and the old trailer is still functional, moving hay from our field to this day.

Our son & daughter Brook & Kate work on a foundation while our granddaughter Hope inspects

 I learned to electrically wire a house from another friend and basic plumbing again from my dad. In the early days we used all galvanized steel pipe, custom cutting and threading each piece with an old die set that I still occasionally resort to when not using newer plumbing products. Building materials are constantly changing and improving, which keeps all of us want-to-be handy men on our toes, forcing us to keep our apprentice hats on for life.     

Society has changed since I was a young man and in many ways, not for the better.  Because of these changes opportunities to grow in these basic skills are sadly being lost.  In my earlier days apprenticeship wasn’t thought of as a deliberate training process, but was rather naturally rooted out of necessity and sometimes even survival.

A few years ago, realizing the value of families working together Nancy and I decided to buy a small piece of wilderness land and invite our kids to join us in building a family cabin together. The project took us nearly five years and in fact still goes on to this day. (See entry 123 & 117) At one point we had four generations of the Robinson family working together as my dad built his famous rock walls and my granddaughter entertained her mother and uncle while they worked together.

Hope (the next generation) helps lay a hardwood floor

Apprenticeship was meant to be a generational matter in families, communities and churches. One of the greatest examples I know of is found in the Gospels as Joseph apprenticed his son Jesus in the skills he knew (he too was a carpenter) and how Jesus then took the value of apprenticeship and in turn made disciples of those that desired to carry on his teaching and legacy. Apprenticeship has always been God’s idea but is rapidly being lost in today’s godless culture. If we are to live more sustainable lives we must turn back to this basic biblical value once again so that our next generation may have something of value to gain and to pass on. It is a matter of survival.

In December of 2008 I wrote a series of blogs concerning our experience building a new root cellar here at Timber Butte.  (See Archives for December 08 – Entries 10-13)  I shared how I used old discarded car tires filled with compressed earth for the supporting structure.  I also told the story of building our first root cellar in 1972 on the old original ranch in Robinson Canyon out of granite rock. It is hard to believe that a year has gone by already since the completion of the new cellar but after experiencing its effectiveness through four seasons of use I thought it might be a good idea to give you all an update. 

Exterior & interior doors

For the most part we have been quite pleased with its operation, especially with its constant temperature but we did run into an unexpected problem with the humidity level.  

During the past year the inside temperatures fluctuated from just under forty degrees in the dead of winter (when outside temps were in the single digits) to about fifty degrees in the heat of summer (when the outside temperature was bumping a hundred).  We were fairly happy with this result but are hoping that by planting shrubs on the cellar roof this fall we may defray a little more of the penetrating summer heat next year.  Not only will the plants help insulate and deflect heat, but the water they require will keep the soil moist and thus cooler as well.  The inside humidity was a different matter. 

Last spring we experienced several huge downpours of driving rain.  I hadn’t anticipated the amount of water that built up on the already saturated ground after some of these cloud bursts.  It was amazing and it enabled some excess water to run down the cellars steps and under the exterior door.  I had constructed a drain between the outside and inside door which ended up clogging with debris thus

Mold formed on canning jar caps

causing the excess water to overflow the threshold and soak the inner adobe clay floor.  As you might guess this caused the humidity level to rise to 100% which lasted for the better part of the summer; this was even after leaving both doors open in hopes of airing things out for a month.  Mold started to grow on the outside of Nancy’s metal canning lids and the things that were packaged in cardboard were ruined.  It was a discouraging problem that we had to rectify.

In an effort to bring down the humidity and keep the problem from reoccurring again the following spring we made four improvements.  First, I poured a higher concrete curb around the outside stairs to re-channel future runoffs.  I also installed several new outside drains in the yard to trap and carry flood water away from the areas around the cellar door as well as enlarging the existing inside drain.

The six inch vent pipe

Secondly, we installed a six inch vent pipe through the ceiling to increase air circulation which worked very well.  After doing some reading I realized this should have been done in the beginning.   And lastly, we poured loose pea gravel on the floor about four inches deep.  Gravel enabled moisture to wick off of the clay floor and accelerate the evaporation process. 

Most root crops do best in cellars that maintain about a 60% to 80% humidity level which we have now managed to achieve.  The problem has been resolved and Nancy cleaned the mold off the lids with vinegar and is again canning all kinds of wonderful new things for another winter of storage and eating.

For the last two years Nancy and I have been blessed by an annual visit from the Romeos. The Romeos (an acronym for Retired Old Men Eating Out) are a group of guys from the church who started to meet for breakfast once a week. All of them shared the common denominators of not only being retired, but also a passion to use their free time and skills to serve the Lord.  Because of their like hearts they developed a fellowship that both grew in meaningful

Reggie, John, Peter & Steve stack firewood

relationship and served a wonderful purpose.  They realized that within their group there was a vast diversity of skill sets learned from years of past life experience.  None of them were ready to sit in a rocking chair (at least not every day of the week) but found that with a little organization they could band together and do a lot of good.  That organization came through the original promoter of their group, Peter Grier.

The Romeo’s meet once a week for breakfast both for the joy of being together and to discuss various projects they might be able to do.  Often they are found helping single moms or widows who are in desperate need of a handy

Ken doing electrical wiring

man.  Other times they serve around the church.  I’ve recently learned that they will be serving tables at our woman’s Christmas Tea, a large event that blesses up to 300 women each year.

I don’t know why they volunteer to help me get ready for winter every fall, but I don’t ask any questions.  I only know I love to see them show up.  Every fall it seems like there are a dozen jobs Nancy and I are urgent to finish before the first snow falls at Timber Butte.  The last two years they have stacked our firewood, fixed fencing, prepared the barn for the

Morris runs the trencher

animals to take winter shelter and have even done some specialty jobs like doing electrical wiring.  This year they helped me get a sprinkler system in the ground and set it up on timers so that I’ll be able to plant grass in the early spring.

Erv prepares for pipe

I know they like to bless me because I’m their pastor, but mostly I think they come for the big pot of chili Nancy prepares for them.   After all they are the Romeo’s – (Retired – Old – Men - Eating - Out)

A couple of weeks ago my son Brook and I were pondering the front entrance of our family cabin.  Brook was saying that it looked somehow incomplete and that a porch would make it look a whole lot better.  I agreed – and so we decided to construct one before the first October snows hit the Idaho mountains.  The local weather forecast predicted a first severe winter storm to arrive October third and so we gathered our materials, took a day off in an attempt to beat it. Luckily we had poured cement footings for the upright posts two weeks before and so met at the cabin on a Friday evening with the expectation of completing the main structure on Saturday.  (The weather was predicated to come in by Saturday evening.)

Peeling off the bark

Saturday morning we located two tall straight furs in a dense stand of trees about 100 feet above the cabin.  Being that they were green and heavy we wanted to fall them in a place that they could be drug downhill. One tree would serve as a 8 inch – 26 foot main beam and the other would be cut into four seven inch – seven foot posts.  Once they were felled and limbed we cut them to their desired lengths and attempted to drag them home.  They were a lot heavier than they looked, but only as the Lord could provide our good friends Elliot and Marilyn happened to walked up our lane just in time to lend a hand.  

Notching the main beam

We laid the posts horizontally on saw horses and while I cut the ends of the posts off square and drilled them to sit on 5/8^th inch rebar pins that stuck out of the concrete peers Brook and Elliot peeled off the bark with a draw knife.  We set the posts and proceeded to notch the main beam so that it would sit flat on the tops of the posts.  This is a little tricky because each notch is set at a different depth depending on the tapper of the log and any unwanted bow that it may have.  We determined their depths by tightly stretching a string from one end of the beam to the other and marking it accordingly. This done we muscled up the beam and set it in place. 

Brook pounded 12 inch spikes through the main beam into the posts after predrilling some guide holes.  Then after getting everything set into plumb and level we set the rafters and nailed 1X12 sheeting across them.  We used true one inch by twelve inch ruff cut planks that we purchased from a locally owned saw mill.

Setting the rafters

Our goal had been to frame in and cover the project with roofing paper before the weather turned so that the finish work could be completed even if it decided to rain or snow, but just as Brook climbed up the ladder with a role of tarpaper it started to rain.  The last hour of work was a bit miserable but Nancy had hot coffee and a great dinner ready for us as we finished.  It was a great day; the kind of a day you always remember.

The next morning we woke up to sleet and snow which didn’t let up for the entire day. Not letting it deter us we managed to stay under cover and relatively dry as we set the 45 degree post bracing and finished anchoring the rafters to the house in a more substantial way.  We hope to install the metal roofing and finish the decking before real winter arrives.

I’ve resisted writing about our latest projects here at Timber  Butte because up until now most everything we’ve done has had some sustainable purpose.  The agriculture projects, building the barn and other outbuildings, the animal projects, the energy and conservation projects have all had sustainable merit but lately we have invested a lot of energy doing things simply for the joy of satisfying the creative longings of the hearts.   

If you’ve been following our blog you may recall that we chose the sight for our home on a granite knob for primarily three reasons; one because it was central on the property and has a vantage point where we can keep our eyes on the livestock; second, because we wanted to situate the house and yard on solid ground where there was good drainage and thus no danger for flooding, and finally because it was the least fertile ground on the eighty acres allowing us to use the better ground for grazing and hay production. This was all great until it came time to do a little landscaping which we have dedicated much of this past summer to.   

Nancy loves flowers around her home and we both really like grass. Grass not only provides a wonderful fire barrier, but it keeps things cooler in the summer and cleaner in the winter.  Up until now we have been surrounded by a yard of decomposed granite which is constantly being tracked into the house.   A good deal of the summer has been given to putting in watering systems, pouring hundreds of feet of concrete curbing  to hold top soil in and building flower beds.  Our good neighbors Craig and Joan again came to the rescue by  giving us three dump truck loads of decomposed cow manure to enrich our granite soil.

Although these projects have taken up the better part of our summer vacation time it hasn’t seemed worthy enough to journal about when the point of my journaling has been primarily focused on sustainable living.  That is of course unless you consider that art projects are an essential part of sustaining the creativity that God has implanted into every human spirit.

Nancy loves the sound of running water.  She has always wanted to live near the sound of a creek or stream, something that living on top of a dry granite knob hasn’t accommodated.  There are two small seasonal creeks on the Timber Butte property but both of them babble far out of earshot from her kitchen window.  For this reason I decided to construct a small cascading waterfall that would run down the side of the root cellar into a catch pond hidden in a flowerbed below.  We gathered large flat thin slabs of lichen covered granite which I arranged in such a way that the water could fall from one to the next.  This not only looked natural, but created the soothing sound of a cascading stream that could be heard from the kitchen window. It was more of an art project than something built for utility value, but sometimes you just have to do things simply to satisfy the creative longings of the heart.

Our insurance agent of twenty years sat at our kitchen table helping us formulate a defensive plan against the threat of losing our homeowners insurance due to the remoteness of our Timber Butte Homestead and the looming danger of fire in a place where there is no fire department. We always knew that it would be up to us to defend our place against brush and grass fires at least until the Burial of Land Management (BLM) or the National Forest Service fire fighting crews managed to get here. Living in the country as we have for so many years has always provided this stress and responsibility, but this was the first time our homeowners insurance had been in jeopardy. Our agent, who has become a friend through the years, told us that after the horrendous fires in California the year before the rules for brush clearance and the costs of premiums had radically been increased in outlying regions. The thought of losing our coverage altogether was a scary proposition. For this reason we have tried to go the extra mile taking preventative measures.

One of our greatest threats is dry lightening which commonly  plagues southern Idaho at the end of every summer.  Over the past six years of living in this area we have experienced three or four narrow escapes with dangerously close summer fires. Some years the landscape gets so dry that any spark could set it ablaze. When conditions are right, especially when hot high winds are blowing through with dry lightning storms it stimulates a certain kind of tension on the residence here that many folks couldn’t fathom. This past week these dangerous storm conditions have passed to the north of us every evening. Nancy and I have sat up late watching the lightning strike the dry hills in the distance over and over again, wondering when the horizon might begin to glow with hot uncontrollable flames. So far no great damage has happened, but it is a constant reminder to do our diligence mowing grass, disking weeds and developing an emergency water delivery systems.

This year we planted a green belt of pasture on the west side of our home due to the fact that most storms move from west to east. We purchased a “brush hog” mower that runs off the power takeoff of our tractor, which has been an excellent tool for cutting weeds and brush back 200 feet from our living area. I have run our weed eater up and down our lanes and in places that can’t be reached with the tractor, and we have been developing a fire hydrant system that pumps a 2-inch head of water from our pond to the yard. In addition to that we installed a backup electrical power source for our house that is capable of running our well in the event that the power goes out during times of severe weather or fire. We still have more to do, but we have really been trying to do our diligence knowing just how devastating fire can be.

This morning we woke up to a wonderful down pour of rain which is not only refreshing, but has relieved the stress of the dangerous past  weeks of prime fire conditions.