Wise Words

The older gentleman that built the cordwood house said that when he finished it his son-in-law (the same one that had scoffed at the idea of him building it himself) asked him what he wanted for it. The man said, "It's not for sale." The son-in-law, "Oh, come on. Everything has a price." He said, "Not in this case." The son-in-law asked, "How about a million dollars?" The man replied, "What would I do with a million dollars? This is what I wanted and I have it." Hmmmm....there's wisdom here. The thing that stood out the most about all of these people that had built their own homes was the joy, satisfaction, and freedom that you could hear in their voices and see in their faces. They had done it. (Interesting that it was a relative that tried to discourage this man from even starting. That can be even harder to overcome than an unrelated person.)
He also told us that his grandmother used to say to him in German: "Waste nothing-want for nothing." He spoke it in German; I wish I could do that for you.
Nancy

Alternative Energy and Building Class

We attended an all-day alternative building and energy class yesterday. They covered solar energy using the standard collectors on the roof, photovoltaic collectors, and house design, such as, positioning of the house and windows and eaves to let sunshine in during the winter but not in the summer. They had energy-saving appliances and incorporated many things when building their house to insulate and shield. The second house we visited was built using the cordwood method. The man who built it was 70 years old at the time and did the work himself. Wow. He had a sod roof and had built the house around a stone pillar in the middle that ran up from the wood furnace (that he also built himself) in the basement. He had recessed his shower into the pillar so it would be very warm and in the kitchen he had recessed a place for his beautiful Stanley wood cook stove. Awesome! At the third house they had used straw-bale building for their home and were working on an outside storage building using the same method. They also were working on an outside clay oven! One of the families attending had built one, too, so we were able to talk to them about it. That is another long-time dream of mine: to have a clay oven. The family said that they mainly use it for cooking pizzas. Yum!
It was a very full day and we have lots to think about, as far as, using what we learned.
Hope your days are going well!

Journey To Simplify-Part Nine

The house wasn't in nearly as bad a shape as the previous one, but it did need a new roof, septic system, lots of cleaning, and new paint. We had many many wonderful times there, also. We had laying hens, meat chickens, steers for beef, turkeys, goats, and a large garden. Our lives were full of joy and, because the plant had closed, Jack was home all day and we felt like we were finally getting to where we wanted to be. We started raising quail for falconers, as falconry was very big in the area. We all came to love doing this and planned to keep on with it. We were able to spend much time with Jack's dad which became even more important when he passed away two-and-a-half years later. Not knowing what the future held we planned to continue on with what we had been doing. We had no way of knowing that we were about to enter a time of very deep trouble.
To be continued.....