Tiny House - One Year Anniversary.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the solar powered Tiny House. That is all. :)

Amazing how many sono tubes fit in a kia sol

Drilling the holes for concrete piers.

Bare Bones

A year later. Coming along.

Still enjoying the good life!

Video #45 - Project Tiny House 2 - Flipped Trailer.

The Simple-Peaceful Existence.

Greetings and Salutations.

I'm back with a vengeance. Recently I met some of my neighbors. Great people. They are just like me with the simple life. I was mentioning to them about wanting to find a camper for winter while I finish my build due to hassle from the County.

Instead I ended up purchasing a flat bed utility trailer from them. They gave me some 2x10 engineered floor I beams. Now I am in the process of building a lovely Tiny house on wheels. It will be 12 feet wide. 14 feet long. 15ft Cathedral ceilings. Loft. Nice kitchen, bath, powder room etc.

Im feeling invigorated again. Things are turning out well. I'll have this dried in within the week or so.

The previous build with the concrete pillars is now going to be turned into a lovely deck. I Plan on putting up some lattice on the East and Western sides to block out the harsh sun. Deck the 8x12 section. For tables and chairs. Tea time/ Margherita/ etc. The 4x6 space in the back of it is going to be turned into a storage shed to house my power tools.

The solar panels will be moved to the south section of its roof and the northern part will be tinned roofing.

Hope all is well with you!

Oh, the last few days there has been a bear about. Several days ago I heard a growling between my tent and the Deck. I decided to pay no mind. Fell asleep. Met the neighbors and they told me they saw the ass end of the bear in their trash. Over the next few days I've smelled it.

It's a lovely time to live in a tent on the mountain side.

PS. I have the cable company set to arrive on the 11th to install internet for my Off-Grid Tent. Hopefully they arrive. Then I will be posting much more regularly. ALSO keep up with all the rest of you!

The 6x13ft trailer with 12x14ft floor I-beams

The 6x13ft trailer with 12x14ft floor I-beams

The look of the Homestead. Solar, First Build, REI Tent, Tiny House Trailer Build

Needed some visual perspective.

Who wants to help me move the couch in now?

Inspiration

I've done a lot of walking around the airport over the last two weeks here. Not a lot of flying. Not much else to do other than explore. This area is amazing for houses with interesting architecture. The flora is absolutely incredible. So many flowering trees. The lawns are not mono-cultured. They all are speckled with clover and various other interesting plants. Violet and yellow flowers interwoven within thick, hearty grasses. Ideas flood my brain.

This is the time of season when we begin to notice the world around us. It is that point when I've spent 178 days on the road and look for the budding of trees to tell me its time to return home. :) The buds are there. The trees are opening their leaves. I suspect over the next month I will be left to my own devices. While I no longer have a set home, per say... Michigan no longer has my cat and simply holds a storage of items for our future.

I've been looking at land in Colorado. Up in the mountains. Seen a few acre plots for roughly 5-7 grand. Well within my budget. The areas are 'Off-grid' and yet within 40-60 minutes from major cities. (400,000 people). It is just what I was seeking. You all know that my intent is not to become a minimalist, nor a recluse. I still have every intention of remaining sociable. Matter of fact, the entire premise behind lowering over head is to allow a shift from working for basic human needs to devoting ones life to building relationships and connections with the people around you. In my view... the true intent of life. Well, besides reproduction if you wished to be technical about it. ;)

Maybe along the way I will figure out how to create a manageable sentence. Not the run-on ones that flow freely from me. Ha. This is how my mind runs. One flowing thought to another.

Back to Louisville. This area is awesome. I can walk across the street for Japanese. Ethiopian. A mile up the way is Mediterranean. The other day I found that if I walk an additional mile there is Indian. A precious find that was! Over the last ten plus years, Indian cuisine has become a comfort food. A home food. Not always able to find it in my travels throughout the US. When I do, it is nice to 'reset'.

So much Inspiration - Roof

Awe

Blossom

Blossom

 

Wind - Whirly Bird

Chole Bhatura

Still Alive and Kicking

Life at the end of the Runway.

All fun and Games....Until....

January 12th, 2013 - 83 days on the road ; 48 camping

Woke up this morning to acceptable flying weather. Crawled out of the tent. Slipped on the shoes. Unzipped the tent flap to air it out a bit. Proceeded to walk to the terminal to guilt my coworker in going up to work today....

The cloud layer was high enough to image. Just a few clouds at 2600 feet. Should have been just high enough over the plane to not bother the photos any. Once again my coworker had an issue with his tachometer, so he aborts his take-off. (He didn't attempt taking off, just noted a discrepancy and taxiied back to the hangar.)

The scattered layer turned out to grow confused. You see, as the day progresses and warms up... things are supposed to move higher up, not further down. Go Figure.

Second aircraft (Thats me) lands.

Flash forward. Hours spent on the computer using Google-SketchUp to render the Tiny House Dream that has been in haunting detail in my brain for months. I'm hungry. I have fancy oats. The terminal has a microwave.

Walk. Walk. Rain. Thoughts. Walk. Rain. Oh. Stop. Oh 'F'.  Run.

It's all fun and games until someone gets flood damage. :/

The rain pushed through the no-see-um mesh and made a puddle in the wool blanket/wall-to-wall carpeting. Managed to soak a bit of the head of the sleeping bag as well. :/

I zip it up and seal the flap back up.

Rains.

I own a towel. I'll deal with it later.

So, yes. I am firmly a person whom shuts the barn door after the cows have already gone.

Happy New Years everybody!

P.s. Remember to shut the barn door!

Mental Progression - Straw Bale- Post and Beam - Passiv Haus - Loft

Highly Focused.

Greetings everyone.

I've been busy with Flying all over the US this past month. I've been aerial mapping in upstate NY, central Ohio, and now just south of Pittsburg, PA. This season is wild. I have been doing this for going on five seasons now. Taking last year off. In the previous years we did not fly all that much in this fall section of the season. It would always be something. Low clouds. Fog. Rain. Snow. Snow-maggedon. Not this year. Its been full flying day after day. It is soo warm still! Is it the same for all of you?? I just don't know. We humans tend to look at short windows of time. A few years here and there. Perhaps some of you with multi decades at it would know more, but these last few have baffled me. Working (aerial mapping) based off of no snow on the ground and leaves on the trees has made me notice all these little differences.

I used to stare out the window and look down to just enjoy the scenery. Now I find myself looking at possible places to put a Tiny house and a large food garden.

Actually, with this obsessed goal of mine for the upcoming year, I even look at various small structures such as sheds and Tool buildings with the idea of Scale and Utility.

Funny how your mind switches to what you want. When you want a certain car for example, you see it everywhere. When you wish to build a tiny house with Post and Beam Construction and straw bale walls (less than 500SF) you begin to observe architectural design in the old style buildings around you. How they are laid out. The designs of the windows. The roof-line. Even the mouldings around the frames.

Like I said. Obsessions.

Best wishes to you all on the upcoming holidays! I hope to have plenty more 'road' videos to come. Perhaps a nice series of aerial footage of possible acre purchase areas. Im really enjoying this southern PA area with its rolling hills and towns carved into the valleys between two mountains. Looking down to see people having built their happy homes on the tops with clearings in the trees.

One thing that makes me wonder though as I fly all over the US is this... why is city planning so horrible? I mean. Most homes are not orientated to use the southern sun exposure. C'mon people! Its darn near free energy. Heck, a huge portion of homes are even set up east-west. *Shakes head*

Anyhoot. Below is a great video recently updated from a youtube author I follow : concerning bio-intensive gardening.

Autumn Crossings

I've been away for quite some time now. My apologies for that. It occasionally happens to even the best of bloggers, to which I am not one. ;)

My life has been in preparations for the upcoming fall and winter seasons. It would be nice if it had a direct link to gardening, however, not this year. After such an eventful near-year of garden preparations and harvesting life is carrying on an indirect path for a while.

If you are not already aware of, I fly airplanes. It was how I made my living for the last number of years of my life. I've been happy with it. Last year I took it off in order to spend time at home, enjoy relationships with the GF, and the Cat. (I had previously seen my GF of 6 years say... 3?) Turned out to be a very interesting year. Now it has come to go back on the road. Returning to aviation. Returning to spending another 7-8 months living in a hotel without the possibility of coming home. Where really is home these days anyhow. *shrugs*

This is why I find myself taking another journey. This indirect path will take me from this position to having an acre and building a tiny house within a year from now. Woot! Now one certainly could continue to work at a basic job stocking produce at a high end 'natural foods' type store. No, not Whole Foods. Good guess though. Clever readers. Problem is that I wish to purchase an acre of land somewhere. Build a modest eco home onto it and garden (4000SF) 'til my butt falls off. So, a lot of gardening indeed. If I stay back and work produce it will take ages to fruition with saving a few hundred a month. If I go back on the road I can gather around $20k. Back we go! Ho, Ho!

Over the next few months I will be doodling in my spare time jotting out layouts for tiny houses, figuring out how many studs are needed, straw bales, square feet of metal roofing etc. Parting it all out, searching the catalogs and concreting the costs of things. Hopefully I will also figure out where I actually want to buy this dreamy acre. Southwest US with its awesome topography and sunshine? Hmm, no water... Midwest with forests and heaps of water but lack of nay a hill? *shrugs.

Well, what have I actually been doing over the last month or two besides day dreaming and working produce? I've been flying to bring back my currency in airplanes. Along the way taking up several of my work mates.

What a splendid way to end this post, with a new video! #30 - The Flying Episode. Enjoy!

New Tides

Hello everyone! Or is that, Howdy Doodie! (Insert wooden marionette)

New directions are happening over here. I won't have access to a garden anytime in the near future, however, plenty of ideas are brewing over. The upcoming posts will probably concentrate more on theoretical aspects in my life. The upcoming purchase of an acre of land (Within the Year) and the eventual building of a tiny house. Over the last half year my mind has been preoccupied with the notion of living without much overhead. Using only what you need. A luxury minimalism if you will.

Today while bored on one of my days off I spent a considerable amount of time in the box stores. After reading online about various LED lights my curiosity led me to find something tangeable.

The keeper? Philips L-prize winning 60watt equivalent. Producing 940 lumens (60w=800) at 10 watts usage. The L prize is the US' new program to entice manufacturers to make higher efficiency consumer products. This bulb is the first to receive that recognition. Also, thanks to Detroit Edison subsidizing a portion of it, it can be had for 40 bucks instead of 50. Yes. WOW. Heaps of money. Thing is though if you use it 6 hours a day it supposedly lasts 11 years. Yeah yeah. They never do. At least with CFL bulbs. However with CFLs we all buy the cheapest ones available which happen to be horrible chinese goods. I'm near certain the supposed lifespan of them is really based on the quality product which is missing at the base cost units.

So do I honestly believe this LED bulb is going to last? Actually yes. Part of the L-prize is quality testing.

Why the fascination with LED and alternative lighting? If the eventual idea is to use solar panels to produce what I need for a tiny house. Lighting is going to be a large proportion of its usage. If I can design a space with a minimal amount of recessed lighting throughout the spaces then an affordable PV system is attainable. I still wish to live in lavish luxury, however, I want to be efficient at doing so. ;)

LED Magazine - L-prize Winner

Ain't she gorgeous!

Enjoyed Viewings - Inspiration

A while ago there was a posting about how people have happily over leveraged themselves. We of course are quite comfortable with this in most societies. It even has a perfectly acceptable term. Mortgages. It is a way that everyone can have instant gratification. Instead of saving up to purchase land or a home etc we take out massive loans and leverage our future time against it to pay them off.

These last few years owning our home (My first, V's Second) has allowed me to develop my understanding on the whole concept of what is a home. What defines it. What do we personally need as individuals, as a couple, and even an eventual family (I would say the cat and Us comprises a family already. ;) ) in order to be happy. Secure.

I've spent plenty of time scouring the internet and youtube on the subject. One of my favorites, although I enjoy each one we are subscribed to, is Jane's "Hardwork Homestead" blog. It is because of the spirit behind it. Working towards self sufficiency. Although I would boil it down to simply security. A feeling or intuition that makes a dwelling a home.

While we have not 'over' leveraged ourselves with a massive mortgage payment over the next year or so I would like to move towards that goal. Purchasing an acre. Building a 'Tool shed' with the accompanied solar array and rain catchment. The secret hidden bunker underneath to house the potatoes. ;) Paid outright.

I'm learning that it really isn't about how much you make in a year. It is about the margins of disposable income. The meaning of this is simple. If you can reduce your over head to its absolute minimum, then even with modest income, you'll find that you have the disposable income of a higher wage earner.

If your 'home' is paid off. The land is yours. You harnest the power of the sun for your energy needs. A bountiful veggie garden view out the window. What do you truly have left other than taxes? ;)

One could travel the world at that point based on savings from minimal wage positions. Now please do not misquote me on this aspect. I still wish to remain a plane flying career, veggie eating, cat petting, all around cool dude. The idea is to bring life back to what it was.

I am fairly certain that nature did not develop the human being simply to spend the majority of their days working to get by. Personally it seems a shame that we have switched ourselves from the majority of our time gathering food, storing it, creating textiles etc to one of working forever to pay off your 'over leveraged future time'.

On that note should you be so inclined, feel free to watch a documentary that hits all the little nerves inside my skull. :) Oh, yes. I want a tool shed as is seen about 50 minutes in.

Thank you!