Safe Shelter, Decent Road
Donation protected
ATTENTION: GOALS HAVE CHANGED DRAMATICALLY!
I've racked my brain, I can't think of any other way to do this. Long story short, we lost our home of 26 years in the 'recession that wasn't' leading up to the crash of '08, along with our jobs, retirement account, life insurances, savings and 2/3 of our material possessions. What we did NOT lose was this little piece of forest where we had intended to retire. Choosing this over living under a bridge in town, we moved out here in April of 2009, having overwintered in our friends' basement. We built the 12' x 20' structure pictured using hand tools (no power back then) and a chain saw, out of mostly recycled, donated and salvaged materials and trees from the woods, intending it to last three years. Well, this fall it will have been five years, and it's falling down (a medical crisis prevented our planned building of something more permanent). The door and one window no longer close completely (we killed a copperhead snake that got in a couple weeks ago, I think that might have been the last straw for me). The floor is sinking dramatically in one corner and there is no insulation beyond a dead air space between layers of tarp. Oh, yeah...the walls are made of TARP. Now we're both disabled (but only getting one disability check) and don't have the physical strength or stamina nor the financial means to build, so I come to you.
There are no building codes out here. Unless you're digging a well or putting in a septic system (and as long as you don't have minor children living with you), they don't really care how you live. Our needs are simple, we're not fancy people.
So, on that note, and given that people are volunteering time and muscle, we're thinking of using the more labor intensive but materials-cheap stackwood-and-cob construction method. It still requires a framework, roof and floor of dimensional lumber, but the rest of the materials can be locally sourced (basically logs, clay, sand, water and straw). Lots of people are interested in learning this ancient, inexpensive building method.
A thousand bucks would give us a big jump start. It would accomplish five goals at one fell swoop...$500 to clear the building site and cut up the wood for materials next spring, $500 for the backhoe guy to level it, ditch the road, add material to the road and dig up clay for cob next spring. Some crushed granite gravel will still be needed, since our sandstone tends to wash downhill pretty easily, but with ditching and dirt added, far fewer loads will have to be purchased.
We'll still need to get at least a cord of seasoned wood in before the cold weather hits. The trees on the building site aren't really good firewood, but they'll do fine for building...plus they wouldn't have time to dry enough to burn for this winter.
I've racked my brain, I can't think of any other way to do this. Long story short, we lost our home of 26 years in the 'recession that wasn't' leading up to the crash of '08, along with our jobs, retirement account, life insurances, savings and 2/3 of our material possessions. What we did NOT lose was this little piece of forest where we had intended to retire. Choosing this over living under a bridge in town, we moved out here in April of 2009, having overwintered in our friends' basement. We built the 12' x 20' structure pictured using hand tools (no power back then) and a chain saw, out of mostly recycled, donated and salvaged materials and trees from the woods, intending it to last three years. Well, this fall it will have been five years, and it's falling down (a medical crisis prevented our planned building of something more permanent). The door and one window no longer close completely (we killed a copperhead snake that got in a couple weeks ago, I think that might have been the last straw for me). The floor is sinking dramatically in one corner and there is no insulation beyond a dead air space between layers of tarp. Oh, yeah...the walls are made of TARP. Now we're both disabled (but only getting one disability check) and don't have the physical strength or stamina nor the financial means to build, so I come to you.
There are no building codes out here. Unless you're digging a well or putting in a septic system (and as long as you don't have minor children living with you), they don't really care how you live. Our needs are simple, we're not fancy people.
So, on that note, and given that people are volunteering time and muscle, we're thinking of using the more labor intensive but materials-cheap stackwood-and-cob construction method. It still requires a framework, roof and floor of dimensional lumber, but the rest of the materials can be locally sourced (basically logs, clay, sand, water and straw). Lots of people are interested in learning this ancient, inexpensive building method.
A thousand bucks would give us a big jump start. It would accomplish five goals at one fell swoop...$500 to clear the building site and cut up the wood for materials next spring, $500 for the backhoe guy to level it, ditch the road, add material to the road and dig up clay for cob next spring. Some crushed granite gravel will still be needed, since our sandstone tends to wash downhill pretty easily, but with ditching and dirt added, far fewer loads will have to be purchased.
We'll still need to get at least a cord of seasoned wood in before the cold weather hits. The trees on the building site aren't really good firewood, but they'll do fine for building...plus they wouldn't have time to dry enough to burn for this winter.
Organizer
Beverly Murphey
Organizer
Londonderry, OH
