Cast Iron

Our new earthbag home will be heated with wood in a rocket stove mass heater. We will be using a wood cook stove for cooking. We managed to pick up a used stove in really good shape for $75. It came from a lady that had been using it since the forties. It's sure hard to find anything that is made with such enduring quality anymore. Pretty much the whole thing is made of cast iron, so it is pretty heavy. The picture shows the dome that will be our kitchen. It's one of five domes that will make up the total structure.

Even though we won't be in the new house till next year, we've started dramatically changing our lifestyles already. Preparing to live off grid. We've started purchasing and using some cast iron cookware. The first pan we bought was a complete dud. Cooked with it once and a big crack appeared. The next one we bought was obviously better quality. Cooked with it a few times so far and no problems. It is a Lodge Logic and we are quite happy with it.

Now it';s kind of crunch time though. Winter is here and there is still much left to do. The weather may still be mild enough for the next few days to get some work done. We have to finish plastering the bags that are in place (first coat), place a few more bags on the entrance walls and place a temporary roof on the two larger domes. In the end there will be no roof as such, since the structures are domes. The temporary roof will allow us to do some work inside the domes over the winter and keep them from filling up with snow.

uh oh...

I don't know the whole story, probably never will. But I've heard enough to make me think Orwell would probably have wished he would have thought of it first. See, there's this guy being charged with murder. He was a kid at the time. He appears to have been protecting his homeland from an invading army. The kid ended up killing one of the invaders. Now the invaders are trying him for murder. Is there a moral to this story? I think so. Do not let the invaders get the upper hand or you are screwed.

Invade my land, threaten and kill my family and friends and you can be assured I will 'insurge' all over your ass.

The agressor went to that place to bring 'freedom' to people who never asked for it and who have a completly different idea of what it means anyway. What a neat coincidence that that place has a trillion dollars worth of minerals and is stategically located for pipelines. Sometimes you just get lucky I suppose.

Talk about luck. The region around here has plenty of oil, wood, water, minerals....

...OH SHIT.

warm ears

We all want freedom, right? I'm not so sure. So many of the sheeple don't even want to think about the fact that they are slaves, let alone do anything about it. It pisses me off. But whatever, keep shopping, watching sports, sucking the government tit. What these sleep walking bots do will not keep me from thriving and surviving. It would be wonderful if more people could wake from the trance that gov-corp has lulled our society into. Maybe it will happen, maybe not. The deception has been in play for generations now.

Central banks including the Federal Reserve are privately owned companies. Mainstream media is owned by the same elite that own the banks. Countries are forced to lick the boots of the International Monetary Fund. The education system teaches lies to our children. Corporations are bigger and more powerful than governments. Profits are more important than people. And all this buggery is controlled by a very small group of very powerful puppet masters. If you don't think so then your some kind of retard. Or in such denial you've convinced yourself that sphincter around your neck is a comfort you could not live without.

At least you're keeping your ears warm.

Lately a lot of American politicians have been coming to Canada to talk about our tar sands. There have been campaigns for and against oil from this source. Sometimes I find it to be comical, sometimes it makes my blood boil.

An example of humour in this is companies that will not use 'the dirty oil' from the Canadian tar sands. Yeah, good luck with that. Americans are willing to send their kids half way around the world to die for oil. ( Oil, freedom, freedom, oil, it's all the same right?) And just how do these dipshits plan on determining where the oil they use comes from anyway, let alone separate it from the supply stream that feeds almost every product in the market today? It's just another example of blow-hards getting on the media to play the masses who refuse to think for themselves. Oooh, Greedcorp says they won't use that filthy Canadian oil, they must really care about the environment and me. What a warm load of exit stuff.

But here's the part that gets my dander up. Pelosi is having supper with the Premier of Alberta and they are talking about America's dependence on foreign oil. She actually says to him, 'Don't worry, we don't consider Canadian oil foreign.' Premier Ed Stelmach responds with such childlike glee, he almost wets his knickers. Excuse me? WTF? Do I need to send both these retards a map?

First of all, if the US doesn't want to buy our oil, then so be it. We'll keep it for later. But no, we're so anxious to sell it at any price they see fit and comply with whatever terms they wish.  The US, China, whoever. It doesn't matter. We will sell anyone all our raw materials, then try to scrape together a few bucks to buy back some finished products. We can't make anything here anymore. We've been de-industrialized.
I used to think I lived in the greatest country in the world. The more I look around though, I realize this country is just a resource whore for the world's johns.

A Year of Composting

We had to leave the acreage yesterday for a trip to the city. I really hate going there anymore. Everyone seems to be on edge, not even realizing it. I don't blame them though. The traffic, noise, pollution, crowds, advertisements, and many other things just getting in your face non stop can really strip you of your serenity.

We went to a little restaurant for lunch before heading home. I went to the washroom and was struck by the thought : "Here I am pissing in one days worth of treated drinking water for a person, and I'll use two more days worth to make it magically disappear!"  Talk about crazy.

About a year ago, my wife and I started looking into alternative ways to deal with our septic tank/field concerns. Building a new home, we were faced with many thousands of dollars to deal with toilet waste. What we discovered was a system that is incredibly cheap, easy to operate and will actually add value to our property. Maybe not dollar value as some suit-wad from the real estate company might calculate, but REAL value. Value as in we are able to improve the quality of our own soil. Value as in we don't have to produce potable water just so we can shit in it. And the whole system was super cheap to put together and operate.

Plywood box, 5 gal pail, standard toilet seat

Bin system from free pallets

If you haven't read Joseph Jenkins' Humanure handbook, then you should. It gives plenty of details on setting up, operating, and most importantly, the science and data behind showing the safety of such a system. At first I was mighty skeptical, so was my wife. So we tried it on a week long trial. It's been a year and now I hate having to use anything else. The book recommends using sawdust for cover in the pail. Well that isn't so easy to get around here, but wood shavings in bale size bags are, so we use that.

The book can be purchased through Amazon or viewed for free (some versions downloadable) at the authors website : http://www.josephjenkins.com/books_humanure.html

People may think I am crazy for using this system (mostly city folk, not rural or old timers) but I'm not, and I don't care what anybody thinks (except for the wife). When you turn on the tap and nothing comes out, will you be sorry you took a dump in the last gallon?

Domestead Pictures

Some photos showing the recent progress on our little domestead....

We still have a long way to go but I'm pleased with what we have been able to do so far. After all, there is only my wife and I working on this with out the aid of machinery. Well not entirely true. My old lady is a machine. Since I scurry off to my wage slave thing every day, humping a desk for the man, she has built more than half of this place by her incredible little ol' self.

Rural vs Urban Living

We left the city 2-1/2 years ago. Best decision ever. During our last couple years living in the city, we were located in the city centre. What a horrible existence that was. Noise, crowds, pollution, crackheads.

Traffic noise started about 6:30 am. This would go on until all the wage slaves had scurried out of downtown by about 6:00 pm. Just when things seem about to get quit, the bar crowds start staggering around yelling and vomiting. Meanwhile the crackheads are twitching about screaming at each other or someone only they see. This goes on until about 4:30 or 5 am. Finally a little peace until 6:30 when it all starts again. The homeless are always wandering around but they don't make very much noise usually. But watch where you step, they do all kind of nasty things in the most unusual places.

So now we live in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but distance. Being on the prairie, even the horizon is many miles away. Our closest neighbor, a friendly farmer, is a couple miles away. People think there is nothing out on the prairie, that it is just a vast wasteland between things that are interesting or useful.
Quite the opposite actually. There are many species of plants that are useful, even edible. There is a wide range of wildlife; deer, coyotes, fox, owls, eagles, porcupine, even moose. And many more. Certainly no shortage of things that like cats. We've lost about a dozen so far. Gotta have them though for mouse control. Got those in the country too.

By far the most interesting and important critters out here though, are the people. There are only five thousand of us spread out over an area of five million acres. Sparse. I ran into the friendly farmer at the country store one day and asked him if I could buy a bit of straw. A couple days layer there were some bales in front of my house. I phoned him and asked how much I owed him. He refused to accept payment.

The small country store itself is such a refreshing change from the city. It's only a tiny place, but they sell everything from gravy mix to welding equipment. And if they don't have it, let them know and they will get it for you. More than once they didn't even charge me for a small item because they 'just had it sitting around anyway'. Shortly after arriving in the area I called to find out the store hours on a Saturday because I was running low on cigarettes. The manager told me 5:00 pm. So about 4:30 I head off to the store and get a couple packs. I didn't see the manager, but paid the lady at the till and went home. About 5:30, I get a call from the manager. He says that he didn't see me and that they are closed now but not to worry, he knows my brand and will swing by my place on his way home with a few packs. I live about 12 miles from the store and he lives in the other direction. Wow.

It reminded me of  going to get some smokes once near the end of my city living. I show up at the store 10 minutes before closing and the door is locked. I see the store clerk standing by the till. He shrugs. I look at him and point at my watch with my index finger. He looks at me and points at the ceiling with his middle finger.

I find it interesting that the smaller the population base, the stronger the sense of community. When living in the city, I hardly even knew any of my neighbors at all, not even their names. City folk (I'm getting all farmy now) don't look each other in the eyes when passing by, let alone say hello to a stranger.  They may call a cop or scream for help. At the very least look at you kind of oddly. Out in the rural areas people wave, say hello, strike up conversation with everybody. Even those they don't know.

It doesn't take very long to adjust to that kind of courtesy and friendliness.