Working Hard!

     This has been the largest project yet. It started when we arrived on the property and will probably continue for years! Clearing and preparing the land for fall and next spring's projects.
     In addition to clearing the land we are also harvesting wood to burn, poles to build with, and items to craft with.
Pictured: Rick, PJ, and Joe "Doing Work"

 

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A great way to get rid of the unwanted sticker bushes and brush is a nice large controlled burn. In this way you are recycling the material back to the land for instant use come spring. As well as having a great time     building and enjoying one mondo fire!  

                

Building A Green House for 100$

     Money is not yet quite abundant just yet. Also keeping in mind that our attempt to achieve responsibility through self sustainability has us thinking natural, nature provided materials. We have begun construction on a greenhouse we intend to build for under 100$. Screws and Nails can be obtained almost anywhere cheep or next to nothing if you think a little out of the box. Yard sales, friends, family, neighbors, that old guy across the street.
     We happened upon ours which were overstock from other peoples projects we have collected. Our only other expenses have been 2x4's which ran 40$ and a roll of 6 mil plastic which ran 60$. Our poles are natural harvest. Which we found already downed hard woods which were standing off the ground and/or dried properly enough to be sturdy. A little hard work And wallah! Here it is.

Rick sizing up the middle pole for a level cut at the top.

Set the back poles to support the incoming roof.

Add a roof and a few supports to square it up.

Add some plastic. Snow out, Sun in!

    And there you have it! This now sits on the two acres in the back that we have been working very hard to clear of some major over growth consisting mostly of sticker bushes and velcro sticker plants. Stay tuned as this should be finished by Wednesday or so. Ill post our results as soon as we are complete! 

   ~ On-ward Fore-ward

Country State of Mind!

We have been busy at The Grove this week. Rick and I have cleared almost two acres of land in the back half which we are preparing for green house space, outdoor planting space, and animal pins. It is hard to appreciate the kind of work taking on a flat full of sticker bushes, thistles, small trees, and what ever else is in your way (downed trees) really is unless you have done it!
     It is a neat twist I am experiencing. A much needed change I would say. Im so exhausted after a hard days work by 9 o'clock or so I am ready for a Netflix and away I drift. The big city kept me on the move and a sleeping in. The country seems to be just the change I was looking for. Is that what the city is missing? always expecting little work for big payouts and never feeling the satisfaction of the burn and ability to stand back and say... I did that, goodnight, and still enjoy it come morning. By Saturday we had friends out and a wonderful fire and the 12 oz. curls almost too much, or losing their charm?
     Our lives are changing and we cant help but feel its for the better. The transition has been anything but easy. Lots of work and lots of attention. The amount of humility and honesty with ourselves it has taken is exhausting in its own. It seems to be a theme to life at the moment that even tho seems harder and at times can bring you to your end, why not just quit and go back to what we know. I have to stop and observe that what this is really bringing about is a peace that did not exist before, and a chance at living in balance with nature, tendencies, and ourselves that brings an easy state of mind. This brings an easier breath, an easier sleep at night, and a drive that easily go's. Work is harder, Life is easier, And I'm in love!

PJ's Eco Village Update!

Hello from The Grove! As you can see, Autumn is setting in. It is a cool 50 and below day here in The Grove. Sunday has brought a nice slow morning so I thought I would write an update.
     So far the majority of our settling in at the farm is in place. We still have loads of pictures and such to hang. It has been interesting as the four adults and two children living here permanatly learn to live together in cohesion. Cleaning and laundry are a major tribe effort and I am enjoying the group benefits. We have determined a good attitude going into this is there are no perfect people, there are no perfect relation ships. There is friends and family for those who we have found common bonds and the agreement to see each others imperfections in a perfect way. What fun it is to watch it all happen!
    The majority of the days this far have consisted of attempting to get everything in the house into position and in good repair. There has been alot of clearing wood and harvesting poles and building materials. With the minimal budget and the idea for the land to provide our imaginations are just teaming with ideas in natural materials, barter and trade, and finding other free or inexpensive resources for our start up projects. (See chickens below!)
     I keep myself busy at the moment watching documentaries on netflix, youtube, and else where to further my Eco Education and Awareness to issues we face. I as well love instructional videos and online resources in howto's and do it on your owns. My major fascinations going into fall at the moment is Building my own bee hive to hold my spring bees. Harvest and possibly mount poles for spring pens to house dairy goats, alpacas, and what ever else we become excited about! My most imidiate and favorite at the moment is Maple Syrup production. What a great easy way to make money and have fun in the fall time. Not to mention I believe I have found why our home is in a town called "Sugar Grove". I believe I have identified one major species of tree that pepers our property in large quanities and mature trees is the SUGAR MAPLE! I am quite excited!
     That's all for now. I do plan to make this blog a part of my day every day very soon! With the pace slowing here at The Grove as we settle in and the natural breaks winter applies to us all I may just find this time. On-Ward Fore-Ward!

Fracking Frackers

Our new homestead came with mineral rites and a pre-existing oil & gas lease which basically gives those rites to the oil company.  I received an illegible copy of it before we purchased.  We knew there was a Columbia Gas gas line running through the back 40.  It doesn't produce any gas for our use, only transports it.  We aren't even sure yet if it is still active.  All I could find out about the lease prior to purchase was that it did transfer owner to owner and would have to be dealt with at some sort of legal level later.  We decided it wasn't a show stopper.

I attended a meeting of Fairfield County landowners a couple weeks ago hosted by a local law firm.  They presented an overview of what the oil & gas companies were after, the fracking process, and how the oil & gas companies were misleading landowners into signing cheap leases.  The law firm was trying to form a consortium of land owners to provide collective bartering power and an educational forum so land owners would know how to deal with the lease negotiations.  Of course the law firm is making a chuck of change in the process.  Bottom line was that land owners are not in any position to negotiate these agreements without legal representation.  Agreed.  They also provide representation to those that, like us, who inherited crappy lease agreements from their previous owners.

There were about 40 landowners at the meeting.  The law firm has 10 members and 4 are totally dedicated to working the oil & gas leases.  They have been having these meetings for 4 months across 4 counties.  This was the 6th and final meeting in Fairfield County.  They had maps showing which landowners had already signed up for their program of representation in the event the oil & gas companies approached them.

I was a little amazed at the passive-deer-in-the-headlights expressions of the collective landowners at the meeting.  There were a few asking the right questions; what are the risks to health/environment?  What about all the 'accidental' spillage and 'earthquakes' we've heard about in the news due to fracking?  What chemicals do they use in the process?  However, the majority seemed to have $$$ in their eyes.  

We sit on the Utica Shale Shelf which runs through NY, PA, WV, OH, IN and on up into Canada.  It has been one of the oil companies interests for at least the past decade.  Instead of drilling for oil, they have determined that there is more money to be made in the liquid propane and natural gas they can extract from the massive shale shelves across the U.S.  In order to extract it, they drill several thousand feet to the shale shelf and blast it with tons of water and hundreds of various chemicals to release the propane for extraction.  This is fracking.  There have been hundreds of incidents of permanently polluted water supplies and families devasted by their early fracking processes.  They have been improving these processes and more and more state restrictions have been imposed.  They will never be SAFE. 

I see evidence of their drilling all around my rural community.  My property water suppy is spring fed.  Which means it could be polluted before it even reaches me and there's nothing I can do about it.  Wells aren't any safer.  There are many reports of wells being polluted by chemicals seeping into underground water supplies.  Just a matter of time before we hear of a village or a city water supply being polluted.  And of course the oil & gas companies NEVER admit their drilling was the cause of the pollution.  However, they have settled out of court in hundreds of cases.  Many of those effected can't afford the legal representation to even begin the battle of suing them.  And of course the gas companies know this.

These pics are of a Columbia Gas compressor station just 1 mile from my house.  You have to drive right through it to get to the  Wahkeena Nature Preserve entrance.  It links up all the fracked pipelines,  cleans & compresses the gas for transporting.  They are every 40-100 miles.

I am now in the process of getting a legible copy of our lease agreement so it can be evaluated and determine if our gas line is opertional.  Until then, I don't even know what our options are.

There is a very informative documentary on fracking on Netflix called GASLAND from 2009 (multiply the effects of this X 10 to see what is happening 2012).  It is a MUST see for every US citizen.  It does and will effect us all eventually.  We need to educate ourselves and our neighbors.