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what sorts of things are in your plans? | (Read 83 times) |
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kelda
Posts: 263
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August 21, 2008, 06:06:02 PM |
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A good question, it depends on which 'house' I'm currently living at. For my current situation http://www.goddessfarmandmassage.com/, I'm trying to Just think about the food.
Install perennial beds: medicinal herbs, perennial salad and salad flowers, perennial braising greens, get perennializing abundant roots going, and lots more berries, asparagus, rhubarb, and artichokes.
Also, add trees and shrubs that will hang over the forage areas for both the chickens and the goats
(different areas).
What I like to also fantasize about though is:
Beef up the wildlife corridor, make more habitat, be able to harvest more from its edges into zone 4
Graywater/raingarden
Insulate the house! that alone would be awesome!
Create some solar access/thermal mass area so at least that could be passively heated part of the house.
The really juicy stuff, like photovoltaics, I haven't even let myself think to. There's so much that needs to be added to the whole house eco-system. Later I'll think about what needs to be taken out and changed. or maybe I'm just doing first the cheap stuff that I'm confidant with 
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SueinWA
Posts: 303
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October 13, 2008, 01:06:34 PM |
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I am so poor that it is hard to get much stuff done, because it all takes money.
I need to improve the soil, beginning with adding lime and nitrogen, because my soil test indicates it's seriously lacking in nitrogen, calcium and magnesium (to start).
My main problem with the house is that it's a stupid old mobile home. It's almost impossible to add things like passive solar. And the fact that the original owners planted fir trees on the sunny sides doesn't help.
The roof leaks and right now I've got it covered with plastic, but unless I fall into some money, a metal roof for rain harvesting isn't really possible.
I found some old section of logs that are too rotten for firewood, so I will use them as the internal moisture source for a herb spiral. I'm not at all sure about these herb spirals.... they look hard to harvest from, and I haven't heard how well they last, year after year.
All I can do is try, and see if I can trade for useful stuff.
At least my mortgage is only $400/mo, which is at least half what renting costs around here.
Sue
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1338
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October 13, 2008, 01:14:38 PM |
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Sue, you've probably already mentioned this, but ... whereabouts are you?
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SueinWA
Posts: 303
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October 13, 2008, 01:35:15 PM |
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I'm down in the little burg of Rochester (one signal light), south of Olympia.
Sue
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paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1338
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October 13, 2008, 01:46:14 PM |
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Wow. Land at $400 per month. That is damn sweet. How much do you have?
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SueinWA
Posts: 303
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October 13, 2008, 02:03:14 PM |
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Just an acre in an L-shape. The last estimate I had on it by a friend who was in the real estate business estimated the place was worth about $147,000 a few years ago (pre-mortgage panic). I couldn't afford it at that price. I bought it at $76,000 and have a $50,000 mortgage on it.
Some friends here bought 5 acres of unimproved land in 1988 for $16,000. The same area was selling at $35,000+/acre last year for bare land.
I break into a sweat when I think where I would be now if I didn't have it.... under a bridge with the rest of the derelicts.
Sue
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