Tag: Evolve_Builders

Another year of stand-up philosophy!

by tobeyandpaul, posted in Current (?!) Events

I’m looking forward to this contract year (as a high school science teacher). Would I rather be on the property clearing the build site? Would I rather be pulling out deadfall and Widowmakers on our 10Ha woodlot? Would I rather be maintaining the tractor/ATV trails with my Sthil saws & cutters? Would I rather be chipping branches for our soil operation? Would I rather be bucking & splitting logs for storage (for eventual sale or for fueling an outdoor oven or soaker tub)?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And, yes.

…I’m still learning how to embed RSS feeds onto our site. I visit HOW TO GEEK and its daughter sites (essentially) daily. This week, there was an opinion article about how unpleasant it is to watch movies at stand-alone theatres (link). TS also enjoyed the article.

Image of future BCB&B site.

4 weeks of harvesting, logging, and chippingā€¦

Featured by tobeyandpaul, posted in Site Preparation

ā€¦leads to a roughed-in build site! See the attached images, eh.

Revision: Ah. So THATā€™S how one inserts images. Oy.

Image of future BCB&B site.
After 4 weeks of forestry, TS & PN roughed out the future build-site.
An image of the future back yard.
PN & TSā€™s build-site is on the other side of the rock outcrop (that is on the left side of the image).
This image is from the gravel roadā€™s terminus, looking South (forest garden on other side of the ridge [to the right]).

Tomorrowā€¦ we chip!

by tobeyandpaul, posted in Site Preparation

TS & I were able to get back into the zone while clearing the build-site. Yesterday, TS was able to rough-out the new ATV trail from the build-site to her soil-operation. Me? I just smashed and crashed my way hither-and-dither using our Polaris! I strung a trail-line from our starting point to the soil-operation.

This morning, I was far more confident with my chainsaw and was able to safely bring down more trees (without huffing & puffing & tripping-stumbling). My Stihlā€™s MS261ā€™s chain didnā€™t skip off the bar (as Iā€™m properly tensioning it). Safe, sane, and productive work with a high-performance saw? Nailed it.

TS, the super-ant (AKA ā€˜The Mad Lopperā€™), has piled up a stack of branches that will be processed tomorrow. Sheā€™s also filling in the rock fissures (exposed after removing the juniper) with punky logs. Now that we are spending more time in the future back yard/garden, we can chip and shred deadfall and material in situ. Iā€™m just not butch enough to haul the bush buggy over rocks & crevices to the soil-operation (despite using an ATV to haul it).

Lush, heavy rain, and cooler than our last woodlot work-session.

Featured by tobeyandpaul, posted in Current (?!) Events

Today will be an indoor session at Mountain Trout Camp (MTC). Iā€™m looking forward to finding out how MSā€™s wolf-pack enjoy the canine treats (test version 1 and 2). TS wanted to ensure MS received the perishable chocolate-peanut-butter-banana-upside-down cake (as itā€™s still in its pan). Our recently-purchased deep-cycle battery has been trickle-charging since yesterday evening (weā€™ll try installing the cellular booster kit tomorrow at the BCB&B build-site). With all this torrential rainfall, TS researched precipitation capture systems. Apparently, Evolve Builders has published some 2010 case-studies of their efforts (link)! One might wonder why we are concerned about water conservation here on the North Bruce Peninsula (as we are surrounded by Lake Huron & Southern Georgian Bay). We are witnessing extreme weather events here on the Bruce (due to climate change) and I want to mitigate its effects on our household. I want to change my consumption habits (and reduce my impact on our local water cycles). Based on my research of the region (here [link], here [link], and here [link]), the areaā€™s also overdue for a major forest fire (and we need to prepare for that with wildfire-control [not avoidance] systems).

This will be our first (modest) attempt at off-grid electrical power generation at 368 Lindsay Road 40.
Hereā€™s an image of our very first inverter for the woodlot (being tested out at the VPCI school garden).
The Fluke DMMā€™s measuring the V at the battery terminals (while the kitā€™s being tested at VPCI).

Weā€™re finishing up our 1st work-sessionā€¦

by tobeyandpaul, posted in Current (?!) Events, Site Preparation

ā€¦on the future build site, septic field, and (hopefully before the new year), a well. Letā€™s harvest the biomass before the bulldozers clear this area. Evolve Builders is our contractor, so we are able to reduce our overall woodlot impact.

Our foundations will be going in where the clearing is – about 15-20 paces from the wood chip pile.
TS has become very adept at preparing green & brown matter for chipping/shredding. When added to our soil operation, and using other permaculture techniques, we will have soil by the time YOU arrive!