Jeremy Butler

I'm done on my plot for the winter. It has been a great year. Things progressed slowly, but I don't mind. I've learned a lot and had a great time doing so! I just got back from an Asian timber framing workshop with Mr. Chickadee. That was an awesome experience and I learned a lot of things that I could incorporate into my timber frame cabin!

Have a great winter folks! I'll be back in the spring.

Oh and there are some more videos to check out on my YouTube channel:

Finally got my first beam up!

Michael Cox wrote:Some nice benches here. I'm not sure what timbers people have been using, but I have had a lot of success splitting trunks down their length using multiple wedges and a sledge hammer. In our woods the chestnut and oak splits beautifully. I made a pair of benches, but not following the BB guidelines, so will come back to that later. I have also been freehand chainsawing logs down their length, making crude boards and half logs - they would be perfect for this.

I see that the BB requires 7ft, and that various people have commented on that length. For the spot where I need to build benches - around our base camp fire in the woods - 7ft is way too long. I'd be building two 5ft if I wasn't considering it as evidence for the BB. And a 7ft half round is bloody heavy.

We have mostly pine and Doug fir here, neither of which split very well. Wish we had some nice chestnut and oak up here!

Hi guys! Sorry I've been radio silent for a while again. I've just been slowly working on my cabin. I've got some posts up now. Go check out my YouTube channel for new videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/jerButler87

I also have put out a call for volunteers to come help. Check out the thread here: https://permies.com/t/121685/experiences/Volunteers-Timber-Frame-Cabin-Ant#977487

Thanks for your support!

Looking for volunteers to come help me build a round wood timber frame cabin in the mountains of Western Montana on Wheaton Labs. I'll be accepting help from now until October 18th 2019. Right now I'm putting up posts and beams. This is my first cabin I've attempted to build, so don't expect me to be an expert, haha! I'm mostly just experimenting and learning as I go. Hand carved mortise and tenon joinery is being used. The roof will be a green roof. I'll be experimenting with different types of insulative walls (wool and light clay straw for sure. Maybe something with wood chips/saw dust and possibly straw bale). Check out this YouTube playlist on my channel to see what I've done so far: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEvbYQTD3UqAk1T9eJ8rldQdsCOgg3RJ3

I can pick you up from the airport or bus station in Missoula. I have a tent and a hammock you can use to camp out. There might also be the option to rent one of the other structures while you are here. I can supply staple foods while you are here. Maybe we can work out something where we cook together and share meals. I'd also be willing to give you a tour of the stuff here at Wheaton Labs. There's a good amount of cool stuff to see! I'm charging $100 to come. That covers rides to/from the airport and staple foods for a week. You are welcome to stay and help longer than a week, but you'd be responsible for your own food after that. Please note that Wheaton Labs does not allow the use of tobacco, cannabis, or other hard drugs.

Travis Johnson wrote:I was really afraid I was coming across as a Know It All which I did not want to do, yet let you know that I did buy farm land with a farm real estate loan too. How I did it, may be vastly different than how you do it, but I can only tell you my experiences after all.

No worries. That's not how I took it at all.

Travis Johnson wrote:I do not know anything about LLC's, but I might just try and keep things as simple as possible. With most of that stuff, it can both help, and hurt you on a loan. In my experience, lenders really wanted to help people, more than corporations, so I would tend to think that an LLC would hurt you. But that is just a guess. With the bank I went with, your "story" is 50% of the loan; the ability to pay it back is only 50%.

I'm very interested in how you pitched your story to get them to approve you.

Travis Johnson wrote:I guess my biggest question is, why bring so many partners into the ownership mix? I have seen some partnerships work, but not many so when I hear people suggesting partnerships, I start to wonder what each person brings to the table, and why they are vital to the success of the operation. Two people are hard enough to get along with, but three is that much harder. BUT I do not know any of you, so what I just said is 100% based on probability, and not anything profound.

If your friend is part of a Federally Recognized traibe, just as an example, she will not need any of you others to help fund the land purchase, she can get that on her own. So that is why I wondered why (3) people, from (2) states were trying to get together. That is not a judgement call on my account, there may be a valid reason for it after all.

Well part of why we wanted to do it together is because we wanted to create some community. We all have a permaculture mindset and are all wanting to homestead. We thought that it would be easier to find one large tract of land that we could all live on than finding 3 tracts next to each other. We planned on internally dividing the land equally between the three of us and having a small community space for us to use together and for visitors. Another reason would be to ease the financial burden of everyone as we would all be responsible. One of them has been my friend since I was a little kid. The other is her boyfriend. We all trust each other, are very open with each other, and communicate very well. Her boyfriend is the one that is part Native American, but he isn't part of a tribe. He was something like 1/8th or 1/16th native. Might not be enough to even worry about.

Wow Travis! Thanks so much for that info! It's super helpful and you answered so fast! I'll Look more into the FSA guaranteed loan. I just checked the list of lenders in NC and there are 55 of them! Do you think it would help to form an LLC for that? What are your other questions?

So me and two other friends are wanting to buy some land together. I live in Montana and the other two live in Georgia. There is a 40 acre property with good terrain and a creek running right through the middle of it that we would like to purchase in Burke County NC. The owner of the property does not want to do owner financing. We do not have the cash to buy it, so we will need to get a loan or find some investors. We are looking for advice on what might be the best option on how to obtain financing and how to title the property.

Some of our research:

--Starting an LLC--
-This may make things easier to get a loan (not sure though)
-Could title the land as an LLC and have documents explaining how the land will be divided among us and have an escape plan if one of us decides to move on.

--FSA Loans--
We do not qualify for their direct loans since we do not have the required 3 years of farm experience or 1 year of schooling. The guaranteed loan is an option, but we would still need to find a lender (credit union/bank/???). Might be easier to get the loan as an LLC?

--Special loans for minorities or women--
One of my friends is part native american. My other friend is a woman. I'm as white and boring as they come, lol

--Titling--
Joint Tenancy vs Tenants in Common vs LLC

Thanks in advance for y'alls help!

For these past two weeks, I've been a part of the 2019 PEP1 event at Wheaton Labs. It was really fun! Made some new friends, built some cool things, and gained some experience. Here's some links to the Badge Bits that I completed during the event.

https://permies.com/wiki/111863/PEP-BB-foraging-sand-dish#934923

https://permies.com/wiki/105867/PEP-BB-tool-sand-knife#926342

https://permies.com/wiki/99528/PEP-BB-dimensional-sand-birdhouse#934903

https://permies.com/wiki/40/99344/PEP-BB-roundwood-sand-spoon#934919

https://permies.com/wiki/105492/PEP-BB-textile-sand-patch#934940

https://permies.com/wiki/10/105866/PEP-BB-tool-sand-hatchet#934942

https://permies.com/wiki/10/99566/PEP-BB-roundwood-sand-bench#934945

https://permies.com/wiki/102588/PEP-BB-naturalbuilding-sand-adobes#934975

https://permies.com/wiki/105868/PEP-BB-tool-sand-freecycle#934980

I went to Freecycles with the group at the 2019 PEP1 event. We spent the morning doing some volunteer work. In the afternoon I got to pick a bike to repair. I was able to loosen up some sticking brake arms, tune up the gear shifters, and replace cog 7 on the rear wheel because it had some bent teeth that was causing the chain to skip.