I wanted to post, to the best of my recollection, the events that occurred between June 26th and July 5th.
( You've seen the photos, now read the drama )

I will post a complete recap of our building vacation, but in the meantime I wanted to share pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

Also, lerg posted many great photos on his flickr page too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/akalat/

I just wanted to stop by and post the link to flickr for more photos.

This weekend, on Saturday we took the two 16 foot 4x4s up the hill to the build site. I was going to help Matt carry them but he said it was just easier if he did it himself. I followed him to make sure we didn't have any problems. That didn't take as long as I expected it to. Then we took the dremmel tool up and measured the bolts and brackets and cut off any excess bolt. The bolt can't touch the wood, so we had to trim them a bit since setting them in concrete isn't an exact science. once we did that, we could put down the brackets and level with washers. We didn't have the right ratchet so we had to go to the brand new Lowes in Weaverville. We got as much done as we could. Just as we were finishing up, it started to rain. A little thunderstorm directly over Mt. Matt, but the skies were blue all around. We waited until it seemed mostly done and took our showers and then went to Lowes. We got a few things and then went to dinner in Asheville. (Thirsty Monk for Steak Frites...YUM). We came back and watched some of John Adams, which is really good by the way.

The next morning we woke to more rain. We knew we couldn't do much and checked Weather.com for the hour by hour forecast and it didn't appear it would stop until about 11. We did the only thing we could think to do...we went out for breakfast. When we got back we went back up to the clearing to level and do the temporary braces for the 4X4s. We got the brackets tightened down and it looks really good. We didn't have time to cut the 4x6s that make up the posts, so that will be among the first jobs for next week.

I also sprayed the heck out of the poison ivy with Round Up. I will kill that stuff!

That brings us to next week. We leave on Friday for our week long building extravaganza. Different friends are coming to help over different parts of the week. I am so looking forward to it!

Check out the latest photos.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

This is just a quick post to share the pics from the last two trips. We finished the last concrete pier on Saturday. Even though we mixed the concrete by hand, it was MUCH easier than doing all 7 of the other ones.

We also did a lot of work on the land itself. I didn't get pictures of that. Matt did a lot of weed-whacking. I opened up armageddon on the poison ivy and then made a nice wood pile for the fire pit. For the first time all year, I feel ready to host people. That is a very good thing, since people are showing up in two weeks!

Here are the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

So, we last left our heroine watching oneandonlymatt cart 30 bags of concrete up the logging trail to our Tumbleweed Clearing. Well, after that we made some lunch (we had brought steaks and brussel sprouts for dinner on Saturday but decided to go out instead, so I made them for lunch instead). It was just the fuel we needed. We took ourselves back up to the clearing and started mixing and pouring concrete. It took a couple tries to really get our stride, but we did. We had to find a relatively flat spot for the mixer (harder than it sounds) so Matt had to carry each 80lbs bag of concrete from where he had dumped them to where we had the mixer - about 10 feet or so. By the end of the night we calculated that he had lifted and carried 2400lbs. I was in charge of water - one gallon per bag and we mixed two bags at a time. Then we would fill a bucket and take it to the sonotube and pour it in. Since each sonotube was a different size, the number of bucketfuls differed drastically. Despite our best efforts, we did run into a time issue. We had worked all afternoon and the sun was starting to go down. We really wanted to finish it all, but we had to leave one tube unfinished. We did get the anchor bolts set in the remaining 7 tubes. Next visit, we will have to mix some concrete by hand and finish that last tube, but we figure we can make that happen.

So by this time it was dark and we had to get the ATV back up to the clearing and cart everything back down. We made two trips of stuff essential to return to the barn and covered everything else with tarps. Then we packed up our things and our car and started home. We didn't leave Marshall NC until 11pm Sunday night. My original plan was to sleep in the car and sleep when we got home and go to work at my usual time, but at 1am I realized that wasn't happening. I left a message and said I would be in later in the morning. I hate doing that sort of thing, but I never do it so everything was fine. Matt was really tired at that point so I took over the drive at Tallulah Falls in Georgia and finished the drive all the way home.

In our rush to get things finished up, we forgot to cover the last sonotube. And I also discovered that my camera didn't make it back to Atlanta with me. That meant, it must not have made it off the mountain. I emailed our neighbors who are very gracious to us and asked if they would help us out and cover the tube and find the camera. Both of these things have been accomplished. That means no pictures until after the 14th of June, but I think you can all handle the anticipation.

We will have a post and pier foundation in time to start the build over the week of 4th of July. Hooray!

oneandonlymatt and I are up at Mt. Matt working on the foundation for the house. We have been very pleased with our progress and are planning to stay as late as we need to tonight to get all the cement done. (Hooray for good weather!)

We got here on Friday night and went straight to bed. On saturday we got up intending to do everything but realized there was only so much we could do. So, we made really good progress. We got all the tools up to the tumbleweed clearing. We measured all the sonotubes so we could cut them. We did that with a water level which is my new favorite tool. I enjoyed water leveling as much as I enjoy creating flow charts. You may not know that about me, but I love making flow charts. Then we cut all the tubes. Crazy thing about the human brain. When you look at them they don't look even remotely even but sure enough they are level. Crazy optical illusion. Once we got all those set up and leveled we back filled the holes to brace the sonotubes. And that ended up taking most of the day. We had originally brought food to make but we decided that it would be way too late to start pouring concrete since we really couldn't stop once we started, so we went in to Asheville. We went to Hannah Flannagans and had a couple of beers and some yummy food. When we got back to Mt. Matt we fell right to sleep.

This morning, we got up pretty early and went back up to the clearing. We set up the batter boards and tied up the strings to make sure we have everything level and square. Right now, Matt is taking the concrete up to the clearing three bags at a time on the ATV. It is working very well, but there is little I can do for this process, so here I am. Once he is done with that we will eat some lunch and then it is concrete mixing time. Matt did already deliver the water and cement mixer up there as well. We decided since the weather is so perfect for it, we would stay and do this work as late as we had to. That may make for a long and miserable day at work for me tomorrow, but I'll work it out. It is all worth it to have the Tumbleweed house!

I have taken some photos and will take more. I'll be sure to pop those up on flickr when we get home.

So, back to building. This weekend we were joined by our faithful friend Chad who really loves helping us with our project. And the goal for this weekend was digging the holes for the concrete piers and then pouring those piers. Well, the weather conspired against us and we were only able to dig the holes, but I still call that a success. It was a lot of hard work. We weren't able to stay late today because it rained pretty much all day and rain and concrete don't really mix. Well, they mix all right but not the way we would prefer.

Check out the new pics on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

We were, as you may imagine, up in Asheville again this weekend. We did a lot of work. I don't have any pictures this time around, but I promise there will be many more to come.

( click here if you would like to read a recap of our building project )
Thanks for coming along with me on this crazy journey!

oneandonlymatt and I went back up to Mt. Matt this weekend to keep working. The project focus for this weekend was marking out the area for the foundation.

We got up to the land on Friday night after work, which put us there around 11pm. We set up camp and then watched the final episode of BBC's Robin Hood, Series 2. It was probably the worst written and acted episode of all of them, and that is really saying a lot because none of them were really good. I have no idea why, but I was really invested in that story. I feel like such a dork.

We slept until 10am on Saturday. When we got up, we had a quick breakfast and started to work. We loaded up the ATV with steaks and string and all the tools one would need to get the foundation area set up. Matt drove up to the Tumbleweed Clearing and I headed up the new northwest passage that we cleared. We spent some time planning but apparently took a little too long and broke for lunch before we got much done. When we got back to work, we were on the clock as we had made dinner plans with our North Carolina Neighbors. This led to some arguing, which didn't help our case for time but we finally decided to stop for the day after getting the front wall area and the two sides pretty much strung and leveled.

As it turned out, it was a good thing we stopped then. We went back down to the barn and took our showers and started to get ready when a sudden downpour started. We waited until it was over when we walked down to our neighbor's house. The four of us went into West Asheville to a Latin Cuisine restaurant called Tomato Kitchen. We sat out on their patio which was gorgeous. The food was fantastic and, of course, the company and conversation were great.

When we got back to the barn, we were pretty tired and we decided just to go right to bed and wake up early. We got up about quarter after 7 and started out the morning by putting together the trailer for the ATV. We got that most of the way finished and went back up to the Tumbleweed Clearing to get some more parts of the foundation area set up. We got one line of stakes set up for the concrete piers.

At 11am we had the car packed up and were ready to head back. We needed to make a stop at the Neighbors' place because a tree had fallen across the road. The Element could get under it no problem, but it will become a problem. Matt and John tried to pull the tree down with John's truck, but that idea didn't quite work out. We finally decided that we would just call in a professional next week to get it take care of.

Now we are home. Matt went to the Bruce Springsteen concert tonight.

I uploaded a couple of photos on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

The Tumbleweed Tiny House blog has a post about a guy in British Columbia who just built a Tarleton. This is the model we are building in North Carolina this summer. It is so cool to look at all his photos. oneandonlymatt said it even answered a lot of his questions about the construction.

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/build-it-yourself/wills-tarleton/

We got an absolute ton of work done yesterday. onandonlymatt, our friend Chad and I went up to Mt. Matt on Friday night and set up camp. We got up early on Saturday and Matt and Chad went into Asheville to rent a DR Brush Mower from a rental place. They brought it back and got right to work. They cleared the entire meadow behind the barn. It looks soooo good. Then the mower broke (the battery died and the guy at the rental place just told them to jump it when they called him to tell him it was dead). We borrowed jumper cables from our neighbors and used the battery pack that we use for our power up there to jump it. It worked and they took it up to the Tumbleweed Clearing to get that prepped for building. They wanted to do two more spots (the lower clearing and the ridge) to make camping areas but since they had to deal with the battery they ran out of time. But we are very happy with the progress that did happen. And we can clear the other two spots with our chainsaw and weed-eater, it will just take a little more time. Then we came home last night instead of staying in Marshall. Today, Matt and I are not doing much of anything.

Enough babbling from me. I'll let the photos do the talking. I took a million of them and they are now on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

We went back to Asheville this weekend. We have been there three weekends in a row and are going back next weekend, too. The good news is we have made a lot of progress on the barn. Moving forward, we are stopping all work on the barn to concentrate on the tumbleweed house and then we can get back to the barn. So, that means the wall cladding will have to wait. I am okay with that decision.

This past weekend we went up with mtn_hermit for a birthday extravaganza and work weekend. He helped Matt finish the ceiling, which was pretty quick. We also delivered the ATV up to the land. We started on the wall but a miscaluclation will cause us to start over. Luckily, we had only started a small test wall.

Here are some Photos of our adventures this week.
( Photos! )

We also went into Asheville to celebrate our birthdays, since all of us had one coming up. (Mine was Sunday, of course. mtn_hermit on Wednesday and oneandonlymatt on Thursday.) We had dinner at The Thirsty Monk, which was divine! Steak Frites! I can't stop thinking about them. Then we ended at Sante for dessert. Yum.

Just a quick post about our weekend because I don't have much time. We did some more work on the barn room. The problem with a room that has no straight lines or angles is that it is hard to make things straight. We started out not worrying about it but them Matt's OCD kicked in and we took down everything we did last weekend and started again. Truth is, he was right and it is much better.

The ceiling isn't done yet. Along the seams of the flashing will be 4 inch battens in a dark brown stain to match the dark brown that will go on the walls.



The ultimate purpose of this room will be 1) a place to camp while we finish the tumbleweed house and 2) a studio for music, or writing or whatever creative endeavor we would like to pursue.

So, we were in a quandary about a situation at Mt. Matt. Where we are building the Tumbleweed House is up the logging trail on the hill. The Element was unable to up that trail. For the most part, we can easily walk up to the cabin site. We do not want to build a road of any sort up there and we don't want to buy a pickup truck. Part of the reason was bought a mountain was to keep it natural. But, while we're building we'll need to get building supplies up the trail and once the Tumbleweed House is built we will need to get some groceries and such to the house as well.

oneandonlymatt called me today and he purchased a solution to this problem: http://www.polarisindustries.com/en-us/ATV/2007Models/Hawkeye/Hawkeye4x4/
It is the green one!

Due to the current economic climate, we were able to get a great deal on it. It was at a dealer on consignment. It was bought really as a utility vehicle not so much a recreational vehicle. We are also going to get a small trailer and, the best part, we are going to get the trail mower hitch. This will help us a great deal to keep the meadows clear.

I am SOOO excited about it. I need to get a super cool helmet.

oneandonlymatt and I were back at Mt. Matt this weekend. We got a little behind earlier this year so we are working on catching up. Our friend, Chad, helped us get a lot of the insulation started in the barn room two weeks ago. We had to stop only because our batteries ran out. So, Matt and I brought extra batteries and got to work.

We left early on Saturday morning. Even though it was going to be a little chilly, we decided that we would camp. When we got to town we stopped at Ingles to get sandwiches and stuff for breakfast. As soon as we got to the land, we got started with the project. It didn't take long to knock out the rest of the wall insulation.

Then we put all the tools away and got out the air mattress and sleeping bag and such. We also had a thermometer in the room to see how the insulation was helping. The floor isn't done at all so a lot of the cold air still comes in there. However, it was much warmer than before insulation.

After we got camp set up, we grabbed a bottle of wine that we brought with us and walked down to our neighbor's house. They live there year round and we want to get to know them. They seemed genuinely thrilled to hang out with us and truth be told, we completely lost track of time and were there for almost three hours. It was about quarter to nine when we realized that we still needed dinner and the tiny town of Marshall "rolls up it's sidewalks" pretty early, as they say. We had forgotten our flashlight so we borrowed one to get back to our barn. I forget how dark it gets without a city around.

We went into Marshall and caught Bacchus Bistro still open for another 45 minutes. The food there is fantastic.

We finally made it back to the barn. We tried to watch the final episode of season one of BBC's Robin Hood but the disc was having issues. So, we put the heater on low and went to bed. It ran out in the middle of the night, but it stayed pretty warm in the room. The next morning the thermometer read 60.

We slept in to about 9:30 and then made some eggs. Then we took down the bed and stuff and started on the ceiling. We decided to do the ceiling with metal flashing. We thought it would be an easy and still rustic solution. It is a barn room that was tacked on to an old barn with no real rhyme or reason and walls are crazy crooked, so rustic is still the best look for it. We did three panels (which puts it at about a third of the way done).

Then we went to the nearby town of Weaverville for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Then we drove home. We didn't get home last night until about 7:30. Then we downloaded that last episode of Robin Hood on iTunes so we could see what we missed.

Here is a link to flickr to check out the latest photos of our progress:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/

We had an extremely productive day at Mt. Matt this weekend. Our friend Chad came along and was a huge help. We got most of the barn room insulated. oneandonlymatt and I should be able to knock out the last wall no problem next time. We hope to start on the ceiling cladding as well.

I felt great all weekend. No potential ill effects from my car accident on Friday. I have a theory about it, too. I should have been much more sore based on the actual impact of the Grand Am to the back of a Saturn. However, Asheville in general and more specifically our little mountain has a *lot* of quartz. Cultures have recognized the healing powers of quartz for thousands of years. Perhaps there really is something to it. Or, Mt. Matt is like the island from LOST. I'm not sure which.

On the way home, it snowed. Lots and lots of snow. It is even still on the ground a bit at my house.

( click here for photos of our work and of the snow )

Because life is never dull for me and oneandonlymatt

( It all started with a truck in a ditch )

oneandonlymatt and I went up to Mt. Matt this weekend along with our friend Chad. We had some projects planned out for Saturday. On the way up, we stopped at Home Depot and our well laid plans were suddenly thrown into uncertainty. Turns out, even though every Home Depot in Atlanta had the supplies we needed, the Asheville store did not have what we were looking for. So we drove over to another Home Depot and unfortunately discovered the same thing. We had to punt and come up with something else to do as we really wanted to get something accomplished. Our intended project was to insulate the barn room, but neither home depot had the kind of insulation we needed (white expanded foam board, in case you are wondering. The pink extruded that is more common is very tempting to bugs and we don't need to encourage that).

We decided that we would use this trip to take out the old fence at one side of the meadow by the barn. We wanted to be able to use the meadow for parking, plus we needed to get the fence out to get a bush hog in there to mow it down and make it usable.

When we got up to Mt. Matt we discovered much snow! Brr. Of course, once we were working we warmed up a bit. I did get some great winter photos of the land, though.

( click here for photos )

After taking down that fence and cutting a bunch of firewood out of tree branches we cleared out the way, we headed into town. We checked into the hotel and then headed out on the town. We went to Barley's Tap Room and Matt and Chad played pool. Then we walked to the Laughing Seed for dinner. Then we headed over to the Bier Garten to watch the end of the Capitols hockey game. They won, which was exciting for Chad who is a huge fan. Then we played a ton of games of Air Hockey. They walked me back to the hotel and they went back out. I watched an episode of Doctor Who on the college tv station and that was followed by a Doctor Who Confidential, so that was pretty cool. The guys got back to the room about quarter to three.

This morning we grabbed some mexican for lunch and came home.

So we learned an important lesson when it comes to work weekends - make sure the tools and supplies you need are available. We will be much more prepared next time we go up.

Just an announcement that I have added some new photos to my flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13073825@N07/?saved=1

Tomorrow, oneandonlymatt and I are heading out to Asheville. We have some work around the land that we want to do on Friday and then on Saturday we are attending a seminar led by Jay Shafer. Jay Shafer is the mastermind behind Tumbleweed Tiny Houses (http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/) and we are going to learn to build one. We have the place on our land picked out and ready to go. Our goal is to start building the tumbleweed house the first part of next year and we expect that we will have it finished by the fall.

The is the first step in a master plan. After the Tumbleweed house, we are going to build a Tree Deck. It won't be a tree house as it will be open air with, at most, canvas to shield from the rain. The we hope to graduate to other forms of building such as Cordwood Masonry.

I am excited to move forward with the plan.