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!

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/

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.

3) Cowboy Mouth "Fearless" (Music)
I first experienced Cowboy Mouth last summer at the Bele Chere music festival in Asheville. I was familiar but besides "Jenny Says" I didn't know much about them. Well, turns out they are one of the most amazing things to see live. The drummer is also the lead singer so he is at the front of the stage and is exceptionally animated and really gets the audience into the show. There is nothing like seeing Cowboy Mouth live. That being said, the new album is very very good. In an almost Frank Zappa sort of way, they have a particular sense of the absurd in their song writing. There is a catchy tune about Kelly Rippa, for instance. Another favorite is "Belly", and anthem for all the not-so-skinny girls out there. There are some more straight ahead rock songs like "I Believe" and there is a touching song the lead singer wrote about his mother when she was dying called "Maureen". I do highly recommend this CD, especially if you are already a fan. If you have never heard them before, what I would really recommend is going to see a live show.

4) "Healing Appalachia: Sustainable Living Through Appropriate Technology" by Al Fritsch and Paul Gallimore
I had found this book a while ago and asked for it for Christmas. I thought that it would be very useful in building our Tumblweed Tiny House on our little piece of the Smokey Mountains. For the most part, the book was very good. It was very well researched and organized and offered a lot of affordable suggestions. I did get a little turned off at times when the authors became a little "Greenvangelical"*, but I could deal with it in the context of their subject. I marked several things that I thought would be of particular use for us in Asheville. These include building an Elbow Torch Stove, planting American Chestnuts, growing herbs native to the region, creating an artificial wetland to handle gray water, and Yurts (a favorite of oneandonlymatt. There is also a section on putting in an attic vent, something I think would be most useful in our tumbleweed house. If you are anywhere near the Appalachian Mountains and want to find out more about using appropriate technology to live sustainably, this is a great resource for you.

*I think I just made that word up.

As I mentioned to reikimaster, I don't normally write down my New Year's Resolutions. However, as I sit here I figure it can't hurt to get some goals on the official record. So here are some of my goals for 2009.

( 2009 )
I wish everyone a happy and healthy new year. Best of luck on your own personal resolutions.

Just a quick updated. I wanted to tell you all about the Tumbleweed House seminar this weekend.

We are so excited and energized to start building. We learned a lot of great things and had some ideas to make our house work for us. It is typical for people to build a tumbleweed house on a trailer, but we are going to build ours on a foundation because of where on our land we want to put it. So we know what kind of foundation we want to do (concrete peers). We also know that we can do some extra stuff inside the house because we don't have to worry about weight restrictions since we aren't traveling with our tiny house. We also learned that the best siding option for us would be Board and Batton siding. We are going to order the plans soon and start building in the spring.

I will be sure to blog about the experience and I am slowly but surely chipping away at oneandonlymatt to also blog about the building process. I told him that it sounded like a lot of folks were interested in hearing about it. I will, however, be the photo historian.

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.