Easter Weekend Part III (Sunday)

Durham, NC

What a difference 8 hours of sleep makes. That coupled with being able to stretch out diagonally in bed - sorry Christy - makes all the difference. Adrian and Keith are awesome hosts. They're so accomodating and I just thoroughly enjoy myself whenever I visit. So today is Easter Sunday and my mom, Ron, brother Roney, his wife Beatriz, and kids Parisa, Bianca & baby Micah will be joining us for dinner. This will also be the first time I see Micah who was born a few weeks ago.

Adrian and I ran a few errands during the day. While out and about we saw this woman with rain barrels in the back of her truck. We pulled up beside her and asked where she got the barrels. She gave us the name and number of her source and so we called and made arrangements to meet the guy selling them. Adrian and Keith had already installed one at their house and wanted a couple more. So we ended up purchasing 4 - two for A & K and two for Christy and me. The guy who sold them modified them himself. Two of the barrels were formerly used for olives from Argentina. It looked pretty easy to modify so perhaps we can do so in the future. I'm envisioning Christy and me having a water collection system in excess of 500 gallons. Consider this, for every 1" of rain falling on a 1000 sq foot roof, 600 gallons of water can be captured. That's incredible! So after one inch of rain fall one could fill 12 50 gallon barrels. We don't have to suffer the consequences of a city imposed restriction on water use if we all collected our own rain water.

Before dinner, Roney had taken the girls to a nearby park. I ended up joining them for some tennis. On the way back to the house I borrowed the soccer ball Bianca was holding and kicked it up ahead of us. The ball did a Beckham bend and ended up hitting the driver side of a car in which a woman was sitting. She turned to look at us and immediately drove off. I couldn't believe it. Here I was feeling so guilty and expecting to have to apologize and she simply drives off. I guess she felt a little intimidated by the girls presence.

Dinner was enjoyable as always at A&K's - a baked ham and roasted vegetables followed by a homemade velvet cake my mom made. All was delicious as was the company.

Afterwards I did a little demonstration on how to put together a hot batch compost bin.

Pre-demo discussion

Adding leaves...

and even more leaves

Adrian and Micah

Keith, Micah und mutti

Easter Weekend Part II (Saturday)

"The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness." Bhuddha

That's easy to say when you've had a good night's sleep. So even after a hearty breakfast I still wasn't feeling up to par after minimal sleep the previous night.

I tried to keep busy by purchasing some garden posts at the local farming/hardware store and doing some work clearing fallen debris on the property. Then after a failed attempt at getting some sleep in the afternoon I decided I'd leave Floyd a day early and head to Durham. I stopped by Ed and Randye's to buy some of their cheese for my mom and take a shower. It turned out that they had a limited supply of hot water so their son Eli offered his place saying "I've got unlimited hot." He has an unlimited supply because he has an outdoor wood furnace that supplies all of his hot water. So after a nice hot shower I ran over to David and Annie's to say bye. We had planned on getting together so I wanted to at least drop by to say hi.

On the way to Durham I witnessed something surprisingly disturbing. Disturbing because my reaction was unexpected. Traveling east on route 58 (posted 55 mph) I saw a deer get hit by a pickup truck. It struggled frantically to get up for what seemed like minutes although the event took less than 10 seconds. When it finally did get to its feet and managed to take a few shaky steps, it's mouth was dripping fluid that didn't appear to be blood. Just as I passed the scene it lept over the guard rail and took off. During this whole time 3 more deer bounded across the highway unscathed. I think I found it disturbing because I was imagining the panic the deer felt at the moment. It made me think of the movie "Powder" when the hunter is made to feel what the deer is feeling after being shot - see here (go to 1:40). I've seen plenty of animals get killed but this was different. Now where's my PETA membership renewal form?

Here are some pics from the day:

Easter Weekend Part I (Friday)

I arrived in Floyd on Friday morning after a 2 1/2 hour ride from Charlotte. There I met with Dennis Anderson of the Virginia Department of Forestry at 9:00 AM sharp - he's very punctual. On our previous encounter - to view property he was selling - he called Christy and me 1 minute before we were to meet to see where we were - we were only a block away. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with punctuality. In fact as I get older I'm finding that timeliness is a good thing. I believe someone once told me that being on time is a sign of respect.

Forester Anderson is a veritable fountain of knowledge when it comes to the natural history of the forest. There we were, walking the property with Dennis pointing to and naming trees, shrubs, invasive species, etc., and me furiously trying capture all he said in my notepad... "here, smell this." as he handed me a twig he broke off , "this is black birch". It smelled of wintergreen. A little further into the woods ,"Deer tend to defecate where they eat" he said pointing to a small shrub which had its end nibbled off. And sure enough, not 3 feet away was this:











So I learned quite a bit in the hour and a half that we spent together. It's pretty cool that the state of Virginia offers professional forestry advice for landowners.

After the meeting with Dennis, I met with Dr. Mark Schonbeck, a soil scientist. I figured he was an alright guy when I saw his Dennis Kucinich bumper sticker. We chatted a bit about hybrid cars and why car makers are putting out hybrids that barely get as much mileage as some cars did 20 years ago. His Corolla gets >40mpg. My friend Tom's Civic also gets over 40 miles per gallon. And so the obvious question is - why is a hybrid that gets 30-40mpg so great when a regular gas combustion engine car can do the same? Why spend $25k when you get a used
Civic for $3-4k? So Mark took some soil samples from near the home site and also some from the field below on Level Bottom Rd. The thinking is that we may want to grow something down in the field. Although sun exposure is a concern there during the spring and fall. But if we grow crops that don't require full sun during those seasons we could put the field to work.

In between meetings I took the time to set up my tent:



After meeting with Mark and getting settled in I took my mountain bike for a spin. I drove by Ed and Randye's son Eli's house and noticed some people working at the burn site. There was a 30 acre fire a few weeks ago that started on Eli's property and stopped just shy of ours. So I rode up to the house to find that those two people were Ed and his hired-hand (or caretaker as Ed likes to call him), Jay. They were segregating burnt wood for the furnace from structure wood (because of nails and screws). So I ended up helping them for an hour or so until we broke for lunch and drove up to Ed and Randye's. There we had a delicious meal of spaghetti with seasoned ground venison (very tasty) along with brocolli, green beans and salad. Again, most of the ingredients from their garden.

Driving to Ed and Randye's with theirs and their son Eli's dog keeping company.

Ed and Randye invited me to an Equinox party later that evening at their friend Luke and Laurel's house. I wish I had taken pictures of their house because it was amazing. Luke & Laurel built it themselves. It's huge, spacious, and surprisingly "green", although I dont' know if an 8,000 square foot home can be considered green. I'm making that number up but the house was huge. Nor did anyone claim that the house is green. That was my adjective in describing the design and materials. They're going to be installing huge underground cysterns for collecting rainwater. They also have solar hot water panels.

I met a bunch of cool and interesting people at the party. It was just a casual potluck get-together. A woman, Christine, I was talking to asked me "Were you at the recent Green Expo in Roanoke?" To which I replied, "Yes!" (Yes, there really was an exclamation mark afterwards.) She proceeded to tell me that she had met Christy at the Expo we attended, and they talked about us buying land. In fact it was Christine who put us in touch with another woman at the Expo who was looking to sell some of her land.

After dinner, a bunch of us went to their sunken livingroom where there was much singing and laughter. It was a lot fun.

I got back to the tent around midnight. It was a beautiful clear night with a new full moon. Full moons do not make for good sleeping in a tent. With the wind, owls calling, coyotes howling in the distance, and hoping to hear a deer walk by the tent, I may have slept for an hour in total. It was not a fun night to say the least. Next time I'll bring eye covers and ear plugs. Comfort wise I was fine. Even though it got down to the 30s my down sleeping bag kept me quite warm.

The next morning I had breakfast at the Blue Ridge Restaurant. It was a bit busy inside. I always feel akward when going out to eat by myself in a crowded restaurant. Thank god for newspapers.

Show and Tell

This past weekend Christy and I were joined by Jim, Linda, Nancy, Adrian & Keith in Floyd. Saturday's weather wasn't all that great but it was nice enough for the boys to view the property. The Pugh clan arrived late Saturday so they checked out the site on Sunday which turned out to be the nicer day. Everyone got to meet two of our neighbors, Ed and Randye. They're into growing their own food and raising goats... and a slew of other projects. In fact we got a little tour of their place and had some of their goat cheese. It's interesting that the goat cheese most people are used to has been aged and thus has a fairly strong (goaty) flavor. Our friends don't age their cheese so it has a really mild and delicious flavor. We all tried some goat milk, too and it tasted just like regular cow's milk - literally.

While the Pugh clan stayed at the eco-friendly Floyd Hotel, the rest of us stayed at our other neighbors - Annie and David's - house who were away for the weekend. The accomodations were awesome. They have a beautiful house that they built themselves. There's the main house that's about 800 sq ft not including the loft and mudroom. They also have a cute little artist studio, a green house and barn (see pics). Adrian & Keith slept in the loft while Christy and I slept downstairs.

On Saturday night we all had a fun dinner at El Charro. Thanks to Jim and Linda for treating everyone. Afterwards we went upstairs to Cafe del Sol to catch the tail end of their monthly Spoken Word Open Mic Night.

Tomorrow Christy heads off to Puerto Rico with her college roomie, Anne. They'll be staying on the island of Culebra and camping on the beach - http://www.islaculebra.com/puerto-rico/camping.html while I'll be camping in Floyd. What a contrast!



Our accomodations courtesy of Annie and David



Their greenhouse is partially made with cob (straw, sand & clay)



Mary and Jesus



Adam and Steve

Diamond Knob at Level Bottom

We did it! On February 25, 2008 Christy and I purchased a 7 acre lot in Floyd County Virginia. We're quite ecstatic over what we've accomplished. After beginning our search for property in Floyd last July we finally found what we've been looking for. It's a mostly wooded lot with quite a diverse character. From sloping to level, and cleared to heavily wooded, it's located in a very rural setting. It has two springs and a small branch (stream). The property is situated on the corner of two gravel roads - one named Diamond Knob after the quartz ledge that this area sits on. This part of south west Virginia is mostly farmland with lots of pastureland for raising black angus cows. There's tons of wildlife - deer, turkey, grouse, black bear, coyote, turkey and black vultures and various and sundry snakes to name the most common so I'm in heaven of course. The far left side of the property has a cleared strip for power lines - fortunately they're not the high tension type and are pretty unobtrusive. This is where we put our tent last weekend.

There are a few neighbors within walking distance, although only one house is visible from the property. What's quite cool is that we've already met one of our neighbors - David and Annie - a few months back at a Green Expo in Roanoke, VA. David is a master electrician that runs his own photo voltaic installation business - yes, PV! In fact, last weekend while camping on the property, Christy and I were invited to their house for dinner where we also met another neighbor couple - Ed and Randye. Everything on the menu was local - roasted potatoes, squash soup, cauliflower, salad grown by Ed and Randye, and finally roast pork. And yes, we ate pork. It was an amazing, delicious meal. And we were so pleased that everything we ate came from within 5 miles - including the pork.

Christy and I are presently living in Charlotte with Christy's parents. We're quite lucky to be in the situation we're in. Jim and Linda have opened their home to us and it's working out very nicely. Christy and I are both working at jobs in our respective fields. Christy is the Controller at the Carolina Raptor Center - a rehabilitation/education center for raptors (birds of prey). I'm working as an engineer at Alpha Security - a company that provides theft prevention devices for the retail market. Our plan is to live in Charlotte for the next few years while we save for the next phase - building the house.

One of the great things about the community of Floyd is the number of people that are into sustainability, environmental stewardship, and organic farming. There are quite a few people that have experience building "green". We've met a number of people that are builders and either have experience or want to build with straw bale. I'm completely amazed that we've found this community of like-minded people. I mean, when we go to get approval from the county to build our straw bale home we're not going to greeted with "what the heck is straw bale and why would you want to build your house of straw?"

I have to apologize to those who have been looking for updates on our blog only to find no entries after September 25th. Christy and I had hoped to have purchased our property much sooner than February. But we're so glad that things worked out the way they did. We had also planned on living on the property while working locally to save money. But it turns out that it's more practical to live in Charlotte where there are better paying jobs which will enable us to save more efficiently.

Today is my granddaughter Adriana's birthday - she's 3 years old. My daughter Lindsey is giving her a huge party today. I wish we could be there to celebrate with everyone. It's tough to be so far away. I'm missing my daughters quite a bit. It's more difficult than I had expected... sigh. So I'm hoping this year's snow accumulation will encourage them to migrate with the Canadian geese someday soon.

Living in Charlotte is quite a trip. The amount of people, traffic, and development is unreal. The contrast between here and Floyd is like night and day. The one thing I can't get past is just how many people run red lights down here. I mean we've all seen people run a red light here and there. But here they run them at every intersection. And it's so blatant. 3 or 4 cars will plow through the intersection when that light was clearly red, well before they got there. I'm just incredulous every time I see it. Massachussetts' drivers have nothing on these folks. And the thing is is that most of the people here now are not native. And I'm one of them...but I don't run red lights - really.

Having said that, there are lots of cool things in Charlotte, too. Julia's Cafe is one of them. It's run by Habitat for Humanity. It's a great place to hang out and watch some live acoustic music. There are also a number of excellent cultural events, shows/concerts, museums, and places to eat - tons of places to eat.

What else is new? Let's see... Christy, Jim (Christy's dad) and I are enrolled in a Master Composter training class. It's a 12 week course that's funded by the county to train people on how to reduce waste by composting and for us to spread the word in the community. We're learning so much like soil science, landscaping, gardening, oh and composting, too. In exchange for the free training we have to commit to 40 hours of community service utilizing what we've learned.

Next weekend Jim & Linda, Nancy, Adrian & Keith, and Christy & I will be heading up to Floyd so we can show them the property. The timing is such that David and Annie will out of town and have asked us to feed their pets and stay at the house. So that'll be a lot of fun. The week after that Christy and her college roommate, Anne, are going to Puerto Rico for a long weekend. They'll be camping on the beach - how dull is that? That same weekend I'll be in Floyd camping on the property. I'm meeting up with a local forester to evaluate the land and a soil scientist to test the soil where we plan on farming. On Easter I'll be heading to Adrian & Keith's for the family Easter dinner. The last week of this month I'll be flying with a co-worker to Dallas for a three day training class - PADS PCB layout for the curious.

Wow! It's 12:18 AM... well in another hour and 42 minutes it'll be 3 AM - Day Light Savings Time. I heard on NPR the other day that there was some research done showing that DST no longer saves energy in certain locales. The reason is that it actually causes your heating system to work harder because you're now getting up earlier when it's colder. This only applies to those who program their thermostat to be cooler during sleep hours and higher during the waking hours. I thought that was interesting.

Here are some more pics of the property:

Christy near the southwest corner. Level Bottom Rd is just visible in the background.

Same corner looking east.

Itty bitty spring fed branch that runs along the west side of the property. It's fed by two springs that originate near the northwest corner.

Small field on south side that runs along Level Bottom Rd. We're thinking this would make a great spot for soccer, frisbee, golf practice, planting a few fruit trees, family picnics, or a good old tent rivival.

Same field looking west.

The ubiquitous quartz.

Apparently this property used to be pastureland around 50 years ago. This tree with barbed wire is on the northeast corner of the property with the arrow point west.
NE corner looking south

Our potential building site just happens to have a dirt road running adjacent to it. It runs from Diamond Knob Rd and meanders west and slopes down towards the spring branch

Lazin' on a Sunday afternoon. Note the clearing for the power lines. This runs along the far west side of the property. The spring branch is just to the left of the tent (not visible).

Ricky with handmade Chilean cotton hat courtesy of Nancy Pugh

Looking southeast from the potential building site. There's a really good mix of hardwoods. The south side of the property next to the field has a grove of tall, white pine.

And speaking of pines... what might be noticeable is the amount of fallen debris. There was a storm that came through the area a few weeks ago with severe winds that did quite a bit of damage.

I'll try to make more frequent entries in the future. Das ist alles...no mas...