What would you do if you won the lottery?
Immediately start phase 2 of our build. Put in an insulated garage & workshop. Finish the south pavilion. Ensure our 10 Ha rock farm is the most resilient it can be for the future. Oh, and buy new socks & shirts from L.L. Bean.
Our home is a fantastic bit of engineering and uses equal parts freaky technology and ancient building materials. While the rest of the North Bruce Peninsula struggles with power outages and >1m drifting snow across highways, our home is warm and dry. Sure, I’m looking at some nearby trees that will have to be cut down in the early spring (I want to have a proper fire-break around our home). The wind storm right now could bring trees down in uncontrolled locations. TS and I have a daily WINTER routine: (a) dig out the walkways; (b) remove accumulation on the ground-mounted PV array and roof array; (c) inspect house cladding, roof, and drainage; (d) go into the e-shed and inspect the fuel-pellet hopper; (e) inspect the e-shed control panels obvious red-LED error indicators; (f) check propane fuel levels; (g) walk the driveway, looking for deadfalls that could block ingress/egress and judge road conditions-accumulation; and, (h) step into the mechanical room and scroll through the off-grid electrical system control panel. Phase 2 of our build will enclose our east-mudroom with an additional foyer, that leads to the guest annex. Yes, there will be a 2-room B&B service bolted onto our home. Our wastewater, electrical, and plumbing systems are roughed in for it! Give me the money to start this build RIGHT NOW!
News flash – ambient air temperatures in an uninsulated garage plays havoc with BIG MARTIN, our gucchi snowblower. When ice forms, despite my diligent cleaning in the auger assembly, it can rip apart internal drive belts in a jiffy.
I also want to screw around with wood lathes, drill presses, table saws, advanced cutlery, and small engine repairs-maintenance. I can’t do that in the comfort of our home… on the dining room table. I don’t want to use some oversized propane heater and warm up an uninsulated Shelterlogic tarp-garage. I want insulated walls… and heat more space with less fuel. BTW, I do have a Shelterlogic kit waiting to be assembled once the snow melts away. Our poor little Echo needs a place to sit during the cold season. Give me the money to buy a Timber-frame (locally-built) workshop!
There’s a Toyota hatchback hidden under the snowdrift.
My pavilion. Oh my free-standing, absolutely-not-attached-in-any-way-to-the-house porch on the south side of our home. This structure was crafted by one of the best framers I’ve ever met in the province. Give me MORE money to get this structure roofed with new metal and enclosed with plexiglass windows, a storm door and bug screens. It won’t be insulated and that’s just 100% a-okay with me.
My 10 Ha (25 acres) of rocks and trees. I have my eye on the adjacent property. Yep. 50 acres would be a nice number. What would I use it for: a lifetime of forestry, deadfall removal, habitat restoration-maintenance, and wildfire-control measures. Our property lines would have elevated tractor trails that allow humans to quickly get to its different zones in case of emergency. When I die, I don’t want this property subdivided up and turned into cottage-subdivisions. No thanks. Give me time and money so that I can get-it-done and do-something-awesome.
January 28 2025 rock ranch report
We’ll need some warranty work done on the house. First we give our builder a chance to deal with issues (they’ve shown us GOOD FAITH and RESPONSIVE since we moved into our forever home). There’s no need to escalate issues to our new-home-warranty program…
TS and I understood the (+/-) consequences of going with a natural-fibre building system. It takes more work to maintain. These walls do NOT have plastic vapour barrier plastic entombing the walls. The wall coatings themselves are a semi-proprietary blend of plaster, concrete, fibre strands, and (possibly) fibreglass. If we maintain the outside walls, do spot repairs, and ensure proper drainage, these walls are…
…fire-resistant, vermin-resistant,
…contain a metric fuckton of thermal mass,
…are selectively-permeable,
…and can passively maintain healthy interior air quality.
Regrettably, our bathroom should never have been connected with the outer strawbale wall. If I could rebuild the bathroom, I would have the rigid ceramic tiles connected to a freestanding frame. Let the strawbale wall flex and move as it’s prone to do. We’ll use flexible sealant to prevent water ingress. And it’ll be one more periodic maintenance task we will incorporate into our rock farm chores.
TS and PN finally cleared the roof-mounted PV array. Now, our rock farm has two PV sources. We want to conserve our propane supply, and limit it to 1-3%/day instead of the horrendous 5%/day we were dealing with (when we had ~0% solar power generation). If necessary, we can add 2 more 420-lb fuel tanks in series to our existing pair (each tank can hold ~96 US gallons [~363 litres] at 80% fill). We want to avoid downgrading-upgrading to a single or pair of 250 US gallon, torpedo-size propane tanks (such 7 foot long monsters [loaded with ~750 L/tank] have to be significantly farther away from the house, per fire code & OBC).
Our home is designed to NOT waste fossil fuel. It’s a passive house design. My family’s core values include reducing our impact on the environment and be self-sufficient.
Some reference links I used for today’s post:
- https://www.unitconverters.net/volume/gallons-to-liters.htm …quick-and-dirty unit conversions. I just don’t understand non-metric values.
- https://todayshomeowner.com/plumbing/guides/complete-guide-to-propane-tank-sizes/ …until I can power Genny-GENERAC with biogas (farts) or switch over to 100% biodiesel (and that would require a replacement generator costing 200-400% more than our current unit), I’m using propane to run generators.
BCB&B, neemtree, bdb, and blog 