Thought-provoking media...

Just a quick post here about a movie (and book) I loved, 180* South, a beautiful kind of adventure film about climbing, climbing history, and environmental perspectives that made me laugh and inspired me, as well as reminding me that the house-building process is just the first in a series of choices in our life that are going to tie us down. I'm about seven parts excited about the future and one part sad about the paths that are probably either gone or on hold for some years...

And then I've just started reading Dirty Life: On Farming, Food and Love and kept laughing out loud and reading passages to Jon while he was trying to do serious things like write grant reports for Search and Rescue...

House Plans

For those interested, this link should take you to a package of our drawings. The interesting pages are:

• 1 - the site layout including existing shop, house, garage, goat barn, garden, orchards, etc.)
• 3 - the downstairs, kind of a daylight basement with the bedrooms, a root cellar and guest room
• 4 - the upstairs, the main living area, basically one big room harnessing sun from the south and a big deck, as well as windows and a little deck looking north and east, to take in the mountain view
• 8 - some 3D shots of the exterior, to give you some ideas

Some other cool features that we're excited about, we have a long piece of plexiglass in front of the windows by the south deck upstairs, to allow sunlight to filter downstairs into the hallway, as well as the root cellar (partially built into the slope), a 'living roof' on the garage, and probably wool insulation! I've been (mostly) enjoying spending hours in front of the computer looking up products like wool insulation, plants suitable for a living roof in our climate, how to build a root cellar, and designing the goat barn. For some cool sites, check out the wool company Oregon Sheperd, a cool looking living roof on the Ballard library in Seattle, and a great site to follow the crazy antics of the journalist-turned-sustainable-living-writer Doug Fine.

The first chapter...

Our first excited project, which Pie graciously helped me bring to physicality, was a beautiful composting toilet, complete with a transparent roof through which to see the stars. After a couple weeks of design, shopping and construction, we got it near enough done to have a celebratory BBQ.

Then, sadly, word got around and the health department politely requested it's demise, so all that remains is the cement pad, paying homage to the cheery building.

Welcome to the virtual FGF!

Welcome, family and friends, to yet another digitized back-to-the-lander, too excited about the sustainable family farming life to keep it to herself. As an easy way to let you in on what we're working on and excited about, here's our digital abode. It'll be a little bit 'farm', a little bit weekend trips, and probably some family to come. Thanks for visiting!