We are very close to having the roof finished. We have even set a date of May 7 to have the roof guy come and start installing the plywood and metal onto the roof. Last weekend we finished putting up almost half of the trusses. We got stuck on how the corner of the hip needs to be installed and apparently they never gave us the plans. We put a call into the place we bought them from and should have the plans this week so we can complete it.

This weekend we put in the rest of the 32′ beams that we can put up without building the rest of the wall. It looks amazing. We are so impressed with it. I want to move in tomorrow!! This is the first time we are really seeing it come together as a house.

The next two weekends will be spent building the last of the walls and installing the final trusses. It’s so amazing to be able to stand under our roof.

We are also getting really nervous because we are quickly running out of money. We figured out how much we need to finish the house and pay off the land so that we own it outright and it’s completely reasonable, now we need to get a bank to see it that way. I’m very nervous that the fact that we are building it ourselves will deter a bank from lending us money.

Today is one of my favorite holidays! It is Earth Day!! We will be spending our Earth Day trying to get as much of the roof up as possible. Our goal is to have the roofer start by May 7. At that point things should start moving pretty quickly. I will post updates on the house later this week. There are lots of cool pictures.

Instead I would like to spend today talking about the importance of living and protecting the earth. I know a lot of you out there either think that climate change isn’t real or that it’s progression isn’t affected by human involvement. First off climate change is real. I think very few of us can deny that we are currently seeing the effects of climate change. The most evident of those effects being the melting of the ice caps and the increase in drastic weather patterns. Now we can argue for days about whether these things are naturally occurring, human made, or a mixture of the two. Instead let me pose a question: climate change aside, our earth is definitely hurting from the amount of damage we inflict on it. So if a large meteor (large enough to possibly not break apart in the atmosphere) was headed for earth would you want to try to destroy it or would you sit back and accept your fate because it was a naturally occurring event? You would probably try to destroy it to save yourself. So why aren’t we doing this with the damage we are currently inflicting? If recycling, and using renewable energy sources, and decreasing our carbon footprint can help extend the time we have with the earth as it is currently wouldn’t you want to do it? Or are the consequences too distant for us to care?

We care. We want to live on a clean earth. One where islands of floating plastic don’t exist in our oceans. This is completely possible!

I am that person who will bring my own to go boxes to a restaurant, I carry my coffee mug with me everywhere “just in case”, I recycle everything I can, I compost, it’s become a game with myself to see how little trash I can produce. I’m not saying you should go to the extent that we are, but I do encourage you to change one thing that you do. In fact I challenge you to change one thing. Stop using straws, start recycling, start bringing your own mug when you buy drinks, whatever it is I challenge you to do it for the next 30 days, and tell me about it!! I want to hear what you are doing!! Let’s not wait until it is too late to fix.

After the devastation last year of losing one of our hives to thieves and the other to the hive leaving we went ahead and bought two more colonies. They arrived yesterday so we had a fun day of prepping the hives for the new bees and transplanting the bees into their new hives. Here’s hoping that they take and enjoy their new homes!!

I am so behind in writing blog posts. Sorry guys!!

Two weekends ago we put up 1/2 of the lower trusses. We also started putting up the upper trusses too. We are really enjoying getting them up and it’s motivating us to work what little we can through the week too. It still looks like we will be on track for finishing the roof by the end of April!!

We put our first truss up! Only about 50 more to go 😩. Now that we have a better idea of what we are doing putting the trusses up should go a lot faster. It is really nice to have the roof going up too. Hopefully we can have the roof on by the beginning of May. There is still so much more that needs to be done before we move, but having the roof up will be the beginning of the end of building!! Yay

We have decided that since the soul is so bad, there is little to no drainage, and our tractor broke we will be planting in raised beds. We have put up one so far and added our early spring plants.

We have carrots, spinach, lettuce, beets, kale, and Brussels sprouts. We did not anticipate the 20 degree temperatures that would plague us right after planting so hopefully they didn’t all die. I am going to be very sad if they all died.

The concrete worked! By this time last year we were repairing the first wall collapse of the season. The rain, snow, and general wet of winter had caused the tires to weaken and collapse. Not just once but twice. It took us until halfway through he summer to be back to where we were before the winter hit. It was a terrible setback.

This year the only issues we had was some settling of the tires that made parts of the loft sink and two sections of the loft wall fell. It took us two days to put it all back together. We even added framing for a door to the loft so we can build an upper deck that is just for us (and also so we can bring our furniture in). We are very excited!! Let the building begin!!!

I hate winter.

I actually don’t have winter, but I hate that it brings out house build to a standstill, and living in the cabin is so much harder during the harsh winter months.

The weather has warmed up, and despite the current flooding situation in the Louisville area we should be able to get back to building sometime this week.

After months of trying to figure out what to do about the roof situation we have finally decided to do the bulk of it ourselves. We ordered the trusses we need and will be installing them (hopefully with the help of some friends) when they come in. We still have some prep to do beforehand so we won’t be without activity until they arrive. We will also be ordering all the supplies for the actual roof installation and *may* have someone who can install it. Once the roof is on I can hopefully breath a bit better. I’ll keep you posted.

Last week, right before Christmas, we backfilled the rest of the first floor. Even though we had concreted the tires almost all the way up we were still very nervous that it would cause another cave in.

C did a great job running the backhoe.

Half of the first floor is now completely underground.

he flattened and partially graveled the spot where the water cisterns are going to go. We will have 2 1500 falling cisterns.

he also dug out the area for the battery house and straightened out the driveway. We got a lot done in 2 days. The best part: It rained for 2 days straight after we backfilled and the tires haven’t moved at all. We are pretty happy with those outcomes. Stay tuned for my next post on why we haven’t been productive since then. Spoiler alert: it has to do with the ABSOLUTE FRIGID TEMPERATES.

We are currently waiting for the roof guy to start. He said mid-December. While we wait we have a list of stuff that can be done. The main thing being concreting the tires. The tires. The stupid stupid tires. Oh the things we would do differently if we could go back in time. We should be finishing concreting the tires this week. It looks good. There are places it looks like crap, but mostly it’s looking good. When it’s done we will go back and chisel away the parts that are off and mortar some parts to smooth it out better, but all in all it’s ok.

We are concreting in about 1-2 foot sections. Any more than that and the plywood starts to bow out.

We also leveled out the concrete along the greenhouse and installed the interior greenhouse window.

We had a visitor sometime after the leveling was done. The cat walked the entire length of the greenhouse wall. Just to prove that cats are assholes. Also, these are my favorite shoes. The yolks are kissy face emojis. I love to wear them with my chicken dress.

It took the help of my cousin B (who is amazing) but we were able to lift the greenhouse wall after only two tries.

We will be installing venting windows, plexiglass, and a door, but none of this goes in until after the roof goes up.