Restoration work

Above and below: you'd have to click on these pix to blow them up and see properly, but this is the area below our barn, with a small pond and lots of blackberry growth. Blackberries are an invasive exotic that we are attempting to remove by cutting back repeatedly and burning the canes; with repeated cutting, the roots eventually wither and can be pulled up easily. This area has been cut back/burned, and replanted with native trees and shrubs, each plant being mulched heavily with a circle of straw.

Last three pix: the "landfill" area below our barn, an area prone to landslides that we filled in with junk (wood, metal, etc.), covered with soil, mulched with straw and then planted with native pines, cedars, and shrubs. Below, a young cedar I planted; below that, a young ponderosa pine tree.

More deck shots

The deck's just about done at this point. It needs to be stained (probably by me), and there's a little more carpentry, as well as some stone steps leading from the deck up the slope, and then it's done!

Decking the deck

John Mehta putting the redwood planks and posts onto the deck frame....

The redwood deck frame

Prepping for a Hedgerow

See the bottom for a description....

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A hedgerow is a strip of trees and shrubs designed to protect areas from wind damage, as well as provide an insectary for birds and nectary for insects. Some of the plants we put in will also be edible for humans. A big part of this particular hedgerow is a "fedge", which is a zigzagging fenceline, along which there will be many edible plants that goats can nibble on. We're planning on getting goats in the future.

This hedgerow is on one side of the Common Building. The first step involved laying out flags marking the fedge, as well as poles marking fruit/nut trees we're planting. Then Matt came in with a tractor and added piles of compost, which I spread out roughly evenly over the whole strip. Then I added rock dust, another fertilizer.

Putting in the Strawbale Cottage Patio

Ryan and Matt have been working on this for awhile, and have had to get several thousand pounds of this slate to lay down for the patio of Ryan and Eden's cottage.

Painting the tongue-and-groove, Framing the upstairs office

Above and below: Jo painting the tongue-and-groove under the mill room/oven area with Timberpro, a wood finish.

Last three shots: Autumn did the framing for the office, which is on the second floor, right past the kids' space. The electricians then came in and wired it, and soon the drywall crew will come in and wall it in.

Cubbies for the kids' space

The kids' space is the landing at the top of the stairs. It won't be enclosed by walls. Rosie was in one day installing the cubbies she'd built for the kids to store their toys...

Tongue-and-Groove under the roofs, fascia on the solarium

Above: Matt Champol, our newest carpenter, a cool guy from Alaska, putting tongue-and-groove underneath the roof of the mill room. Below: a closer look at the tongue-and-groove; The boards with the holes are allowing air to come thru, so that the insulation inside gets oxygen and doesn't mold. The holes have screening on them to prevent critters from getting in.

Above: Silas (L) and Autumn (R) putting the fascia onto the solarium. I then went ahead and stained it with a wood finish called Timberpro.

The Circular Window, plus some shots of the snow-clad scenery

...I wish I had gotten pix of the actual installation, but my camera battery was dead. Anyway, I managed to get up onto the scaffolding inside and take some shots of the window close up. It's a shame because you can't really see how beautiful the actual window is, as it's so high up in the building. The below shot is pretty cool if you blow it up; a nice view of the weather outside.


Above: Dutchman's Peak (to the right); Above and below, both looking from the Common building towards the mountains....

Roofing the Mill Room/Oven area

I didn't actually capture the roofers puttin' on the roof, but this is what it looks like; a separate company came and installed the smokestacks for the bread oven. I like this above picture because you can see, in the reflection of the chimney, one of the carpenters walking on the redwood deck he's building.
The shorter chimney is actually a fan for blowing steam out of the bread oven. The taller one is for the smoke. On the ground floor, on the concrete on left, you can see silvery back of the walk-in refrigerator, which was soon after closed in by a wall.
Workin' on the chimney....
Above and below: tarpaper on the roofs of the solarium (above) and mill room/bread oven area. The solarium still hasn't been roofed.