Faerie Camp Destiny Design Blog

Workshop Design Sketches by Doug Nov. 2011

2011-12-06T14:29:00.005-05:00

These are design sketches for the future workshop to be built on the area cleared and graveled below the shower area.

march 2010

2010-03-09T11:07:00.003-05:00

here's a look at the camp in march 2010. the latest cutting has opened up a fantastic view to the valley. we always knew it was there but couldn't see it. the clearing helps bring sunlight to the garden and to the north west wall of the kitchen which will help keep the north wall dry.

the second photo is a panorama from where the future dining room is planned.

winter greetings

2009-12-18T13:54:00.011-05:00

summer 2009

december 2009

summer 2009

december 2009

the design blog has been asleep for quite a while, but the faeries at destiny have been wide awake and at work. we'll be reporting here on the progress at the kitchen, bathhouse, new buildings and on the forestry here over the winter, and will be bringing new design ideas for yet-to-be-consented buildings to you as they develop.

four pictures here show how the land has changed with the beginning of our forestry efforts. faerie camp destiny is largely conserved forest land managed with the help of two wonderful foresters, don and nina huffer. working with bambi, primarily, they have developed a plan to promote forest health, which not only benefits the forest but saves us a bundle in property tax, as the management of the forest is considered agriculture by the state. we also took advantage of having a logger on the land to complete the opening up of the development area, a roughly five-acre area in total (about 2.5 acres was opened up three years ago) in which we've agreed to contain all our development. the development area was consented at the 2005 annual meeting (i think) and is the basis of our state environmental permit. the remaining 160-acres of destiny will remain managed forest land. the opening has provided a fantastic view (we've known it was there for a long time), just about doubles the amount of sun the garden, kitchen, and meadow gets which will help keep our structures light and dry and ultimately assist in solar electric and hot water.

Completed views Shower

2008-11-14T09:59:00.003-05:00

The structure was complete 3 1/2 days !! A lot of muddy foundation digging. Some scary moments pushing up the first truss. Overall a fun time. We have many more pictures to share and will be putting them up soon. Im writing from a motel in the Berkshires between our visit to Hancock Shaker village and Mass MOCA. Chris

2008-11-05T10:04:00.001-05:00

massage 3d

2008-11-04T21:05:00.003-05:00

2008-11-04T18:22:00.002-05:00

first attempt at site collage

2008-11-04T17:47:00.002-05:00

Latest renders

2008-11-04T17:23:00.002-05:00

2008-11-04T17:20:00.001-05:00

this site is ready thanx to Thad and Moss.

2008-11-04T08:13:00.000-05:00

Model studies

2008-11-03T13:09:00.003-05:00

bracing. the trusses are 3 feet apart at the bench end.

structure 3ds

2008-11-03T11:23:00.004-05:00

The Massage trusses are higher in a series to give a vaulted ceiling. Trusses are the most efficient way of using timber as they are braced triangles the members can be quite small using less wood. The massage is more like gothic cathedral space so it might be the "cathedral of massage"? There is a loose mushroom like shape with the sloped roof and small base with diagonal bracing under.

Here are 3 d renders of structure for the shower which is a series of trusses radiating around a connection to the rock.

Shower Shroom

2008-11-02T13:42:00.002-05:00

More detail emerging for the shower shroom.

Shower Shroom

2008-11-01T23:07:00.005-04:00

Focus on shower. Here is rock location. Build on end of rock with rock wall behind shower. Curved screen wall outside edge.

Development Site

2008-10-30T15:14:00.006-04:00

We have been developing different building types. These are very rough images of work in progress. Today we met the engineer again and have refined the structural details. These will be in a later blog. We are very excited with the project and everyone the stage today was very impressed.

Site Layouts with sauna performance hill in foreground. Massage, changing and shower in the back.

Coceptual 3d of the Masaage Mushroom with wood strip screen.

Shower "mushroom" screen wall studies.

Early Layout

2008-10-28T14:41:00.003-04:00

Here is concept plan layout. With Massage, Sauna(Sweat), stair Projection, Changing, Shower and firepit for sauna rocks.

Different Bathhouse Structures

2008-10-26T20:14:00.002-04:00

Designs/Tech Drawings So Far

More thoughts

2008-10-23T14:14:00.005-04:00

Wild Mushrooms in the woods.

Instead of one large building a cluster of small structures would be easier to build and expandable.

Exploring the quirky

Bathhouse Concepts

2008-10-23T12:07:00.007-04:00

Bathhouse

Today the students worked further on structure. An engineer came in and analysed structural issues at joints and spans for lightweight timber.

The brief was discussed in detail. Thoughts were:

- Need to respond to the community.

- Provision for Shower, hand washing, sauna, changing area, and massage.

- Intitial concepts have been grand and ambitious and not easy to build.

- Desire to provide the beginnings of a poetic set of spaces that would be easy for the community to complete as future modules.

- Need to focus closely on one simpler scheme.

Bathhouse RCA

2008-10-21T12:27:00.005-04:00

First concepts of RCA students

Bathhouse IDEAS

Hello everyone. We have split the group of ten students into 3 groups.

Group A has been exploring a sloping deck (sunspace performance area) with the showers and sauna below. This group has focused on a performance space/decking facing the meadow.

Group B has many ideas they drew on the blackboard. Their task is to focus and develop one of these. The strongest seems to a series of small structures clumping together rather like mushrooms in the woods.

Group C is working with a conceptual birds nest. The sauna is the nest itself. The images are concept abstract and their task for Thursday is to translate it into a buildable and affordable structure.

2008-09-02T19:37:00.003-04:00

framing

second coat

new porch roof

chris, drew, michel, bambi

michel up in the clerostory

joshua

michel

karl

Daisy says:

Hello Destinettes,

I'm just back to NYC after laboring at Destiny for Labor Day. We had quite a crew! Bambi kept the list; I doubt I'll make a complete one here. Forgive me if I left you out.

I arrived Saturday, early afternoon. I'd caught a train to Providence and rode to the Land with Joshua.

We dove right into the work in progress. Autumn and Dale added strawbales to the spaces above the windows in front. Jason was chomping on the bit to fire up the cement mixer Matt rented to start making some mud. Joshua, Jason, and I started mudding the damage spots on the back wall. Drew kept his naked self on the porch roof most of the weekend screwing in the clear roofing. (We have such a beautiful porch now. WOW!) There was a car load of kweens none of us knew from New York.

Matt and Michel worked on framing in the bathroom, dressing room, and kitchen walls. The entrance is going to look so majestic with the high wall of the bathroom up to the ceiling. Bambi assisted with carrying lumber and measuring and being a "butt clamp."

We mudders, including Karl Volk and Orange, completed the second coat of mud on the north wall, the south windows, the shower, and utility room.

Jade, his brother, Jeff, and his friend (Sarah?) came up on Saturday night and prepared a feast of local foods with Michel. We were a little tired from working, but had a little jam session by the fire joined by Damian and Michael Spears.

Chris Proctor joined us on Sunday. He and Drew, still naked, workd on the porch roof ends and were starting the overhang where the dining hall will one day stand. Bambi cooked up a great supper of jerk tofu with a miso gravy over mashed potatoes. Jason made lunch. Michel kept us in fresh bread. Man mowed the lower meadow and tended his realm by the brook.

We were too tired for music on Sunday evening so just relaxed and laughed our heads off by the fire.

Today Matt, Bambi, and Michel continued to frame up the clerestory so I can get back to stuffing in the strawbales and mudding next weekend.

The garden is a little dry since there hasn't been much rain. But what bounty!! There's tons of kale and collards. The pole beans are thriving and are meaty and delicious. There about 5 different kinds of squash, tons of basil, and a little lettuce. The pumpkins are the size of softballs. There hasn't been as much attention paid to mid-summer planting, but what good eating. I had green beans and cucumbers on the bus back to NYC.

That's a little (long) report of my weekend in Santuary. Ahhhh!!

Come help us get this sucker done for the fall. See Bambi's list of work events.

I'm planning to come up next weekend as well. Stay tuned to this Fae station.

Lovingly, Daisy Shaver

porch up

2008-08-11T18:04:00.011-04:00

beams go up (with some fossil fuel help)

jade in dave's machine

beams and rafters

greg marks purlin locations

rafters set

drew attaches purlins

matt and moss install roofing

hummingbird

roof installed...

...just in time for rain

porch--60-feet long!

we got the porch up! just in time for rain. friday, our excavator came up with his machine and helped us lift the beams into place. it all went well until the last bits where a number of errors (mine) came to light. it's been funny with this building. the south-east corner has harbored nearly all the mistakes and is, of course, the most prominent corner. we were shy two braces, an entire mortise, one mortise was too shallow and a tenon had not been drilled for pegs. so, i hastily fabricated a couple braces--a bit too hastily--they were four inches too long and i had to eat crow and trim them down. thankfully they were too long and could be trimmed. the other mistakes were corrected with a few twists of an auger and a bit of sideways chiseling. timber framing, especially, teaches haste-makes-waste. and for some reason, the "pyramid post" as we've been calling it was two-inches low. chris and i debated what to do and after considering a few solutions jacked up the corner and inserted two inches of stone under the post base that fixed the problem. by day's end, the beams were up and the rafters too. we were able to lift up the rafters by hand. chris and i drove into walpole to pick up the roofing and a couple hammers (we had just one old crappy one) and roofing screws. thanks to jade, jeff, dave from tmg excavation, mac, bugbane and chris for showing up to help.

saturday, chris and i measured out the rafter locations and drew, jeff, jade and hummingbird showed up and helped with the purlin installation (purlins cross the rafters to support the roof) and a few other odds and ends. michel dished us a delicious "thai-ish" dinner and we all retired to the yurt afterwards to relax.

sunday, we had just the right sized crew. friday and saturday were heavy work days and i, at least, was tired and appreciative of the "local power" as we dubbed it. we finished the purlin installation. moss arrived with a chop saw that sped up that process and just about lunch time we started to install the clear roofing. the porch turned out to be out of square which made our pre-drilling of the roofing panels a mistake, but we managed to crab the panels a bit every sheet to compensate, and in places it was perfectly true. as chris said, "sometimes you just never know why." i underestimated the number of screws were were going to need and it looked as if we were going to have to stop, but greg and jade found a hardware store open and saved the day with a couple boxes of fasteners. we still have to go back and install more screws, but we got all the sheets up and they'll be fine until more screws can be installed. thanks to moss, greg, jade, hummingbird, drew and jeff, a fabulous crew for the day.

during the screw fetching, chris conferred with moss about the new bathhouse location and we decided to do a little pruning in advance of the expected fall construction to see what the rock ledge looked like behind all the vegetation (it looks beautiful). moss unpacked his chainsaw and got to work doing what he loves to do. we now have a nice bonfire started for the october gathering.

and just as the last panel was being screwed down, drops of rain started to fall and we were able to enjoy the meadow without getting wet. jade cooked us some yummy chili with salad. i think most of us were exhausted from the work, but personally, i like that feeling once in a while. i got up this morning and sat at our local cafe for FOUR hours sipping mint tea. it actually felt great.

the building is looking a lot more finished with the porch. i'm happy with the look and feel. overall, it still feels incomplete, and in fact it is. the dining hall, that will attach to the western end of the kitchen--when it is built--will balance the design.

timber frame carving complete, porch partially erected, plus the kitchen sink!

2008-08-04T13:27:00.006-04:00

last weekend we finished our timber frame carving for the kitchen. reaching this milestone has been a lot of work, and at times it seemed that little was happening, but one of the joys of timber framing is the speed with which the work goes up once it's finished. yesterday, the porch posts and braces went up in a couple hours. after the hours of measuring, re-measuring, chipping away, hand drilling, to see it all fit together and be mated for a lifetime, makes it worthwhile to me. it feels good.

thursday, a mighty crew reconnoitered to white river junction to load the big big stove into my pickup for transport to the land along with the three bay sink, pots and pans donated by rick cole. we set the stove more or less in place and it took command of the kitchen right away, and also expelled any doubts that the building might be anything other than a kitchen.

friday and saturday we continued to carve. i kept saying things like, "this is the last joint!" only to realize, no, there was one more. but, as of today, we are in fact finished with the timbers. this coming friday, because we want to get a move on with the interior, our excavator is coming up to the land to assist in lifting the heavy beams and rafters. so, if you can help friday morning, 7:30am, please come on up!

as you can see in the pictures, the porch is taking shape. i'm always amazed by how vertical elements change the feel of a place. i'd been concerned ever since we designed the kitchen that the porch would feel too small, and with just the concrete stubs to hold the porch posts, it did feel small to me. with the posts up, though, it feels grand and i'm happy the sight lines up the circle seem to work well. i had thought the roof might clip the view.

many thanks to daisy, especially, for persevering the entire last month to get the timbers cut. in addition to daisy, we had help last weekend from zenya, greg, bugbane, peat, chris and hummingbird. thank you to the entire gathering for carrying the beams up from the workshop to the kitchen. we could not have done it without you, literally.

next weekend will be dedicated to finishing the porch. this will include fastening the rafters to the support beams, attaching strapping on which the clear roof will sit and building narrow ledges over the tops of straw bales.

timber frame near complete

2008-07-28T16:35:00.004-04:00

about a dozen folks are on the land for lammas today, many staying through until next week. the work force has dwindled to a half-dozen dedicated folks but we got quite a lot done over the weekend. we have just four pieces left to finish, two of which are mostly complete. another day or two and we will be done with the timber frame carving for the kitchen. this is a major milestone. much thanks to everyone who has persevered for the past two seasons.

it's worth pointing out that we have actually accomplished the construction remarkably quickly given the number of days we have worked. for instance, the porch, which has a total of 37 pieces and around 80 joints, has taken, to date, just 12 work days to carve, most of them with two or three workers. that works out to around 6 joints per day carved, which is more than i anticipated would be done. taking into account our entire work effort on the kitchen, we have approximately 54 work days into it, which would be, with a normal work week, just 11 calendar weeks, or a bit less than 3 months. so, we ought to pat ourselves on the back for building quickly and with quality. of course, that's not to say we can slack off any time soon. we still have the interior of the building to finish. i'm hoping that all of you with decorating bents (and i know there are more of you in this category than in the timber framing catergory!) will step up.

blow-by-blow:

thursday, daisy, peter, autumn and i worked the beams and afterwards dined out at zachary's pizza, where we either utterly entertained or completely irritated the waitress. later, in the yurt, we had a sweet (and naked) jam session and worked up four new songs.

friday, i finished up the braces with chamfering and other finishing touches while daisy organized the wood piles and cleaned up in general. i layed out a couple more beams, including the monsters that will hold up the porch that are 24 feet long and many hundreds of pounds in prep for carving saturday.

saturday, we had a revolving work crew, that included zenya, daisy, greg, mac, orange and me. mostly we mortised the beams and i cut one of the scarf joints that joins the porch beams into a continuous stretch. i stepped out for the evening, but the gatherers donned red apparel--jungle red in fact--in honor of the theme for the gathering, a reality tv version of "the women" to be enacted next weekend. moss moved much firewood.

sunday, mostly more of the same with mac, chris, daisy, me, neth, orange, greg, bambi and jim pitching in. we moved the longest of the beams with just four people. personally, i find it a lot of fun figuring out how to move huge things with just a few people. i realize this is somewhat unusual. moss and greg in their quest to tame the meadow, which apparently shook the engine mount bolts right off the lawn mower, spent part of the day getting new bolts and fitting them. moss also relocated the lower kitchen solar panels in hope that a bit more sun would charge the battery enough to keep the lights on regularly.

7/20/08

2008-07-22T12:35:00.000-04:00

despite sweltering weather and a lot of rain, we had a productive weekend. the porch rafters are complete, porch posts are 80% complete, porch braces are about 40% complete and i figured out the layout for the porch beams, but we haven't pulled them out. they are heavy and we'll need many hands to lift them for work. one is 24 feet long! it looks like there may be enough people by the end of this week on the land to help.

friday, peter and i put together a couple tent platforms. it took about a 1/2 hour a piece to assemble the frame and then we lugged them up to their sites with the help of moss and daisy and nailed boards to the frames to create the platform. we made them of green hemlock i bought from a local sawmill. i'm pretty sure some of the boards were only a day or two out of the mill so they were heavy! the platforms are propped up on rocks to keep them clear of the ground. i must say, it's awfully nice to sleep on the level. when we get to thinning the forest as part of our forestry program, we ought to have plenty of timber to mill for more of these. they're easy to make and light on the land. meanwhile, glitter and daisy kept up work on the porch posts, carving the tenons and reductions expertly. michel took up kitchen duties and learned how to make white sauce and used it in an innovative way with eggs and rice. it was delicious.

saturday, drew and greg pitched in with landscaping, mowing, and some carving. drew cleared the area around the stage at the old kitchen and greg managed to get a good part of the meadow mowed. it's looking well kept, grassier, less prickery. glitter, daisy, peter, paul and i worked on carving. greg and i layed out all of the braces and sawed them in prep for chiseling. it's been two years since we last made these. we scratched our heads for about a 1/2 hour trying to remember how to lay them out. after we'd figured it out i remembered my timber framing book had detailed layout instructions. sure enough, we figured it out right, but i decided to keep the book handier. greg got to work cutting brace tenons. michel continued to make lovely meals, with more white sauce. daisy made chocolate cake. yum. and we sang around the fire.

sunday i awoke early to get a jump on laying out brace mortices on the posts. it's a easier for me to do layout in the quiet of the morning. moss arrived mid-morning and began a burn pile to clean up the area around the circle. drew operated the boring machine preparing mortises for chiseling. greg continued work on braces, daisy on posts, glitter worked on his tent site, and we had some visitors from putney in the afternoon whom we met at the moondog in chester (where peter works) during lunch. mac arrived later in the day and took to work on the posts with daisy. i wrapped up two posts with mortises, peg holes, some cleanup planing and chamfering.

during the week, daisy is hoping to finish up the posts and some more braces. this will clear the way for bringing the beams in for layout and carving next weekend amidst lammas activities. we may be able to get a couple pieces of the porch up next weekend, but if not, most likely the second weekend of lammas. we're also going to pull out the peg jig to produce the handful of pegs we'll need to hold the porch structure together.

looking ahead, once the porch is up we will work on completing the upper windows and the bathroom corner, as well as framing the interior, installing plumbing, gas and electrical.

as always, it helps to let us know you're coming and we can almost always use help. register on the website in the calendar section (www.faeriecampdestiny.org).

back at it

2008-07-15T11:55:00.012-04:00

howdy folks. we're back at it this summer, making good progress on the kitchen porch structure, which will be able to seat a good number of faeries in screened comfort. it's actually more of a trellis, but does have a translucent cover to keep it dry while letting light filter through. pictured is ophelia carving the bearing surface on one of the porch rafters while his kitty looks on with curiousity.

we'll be on the land every weekend through the october gathering (weekends are three-day affairs, friday through sunday, and sometimes monday, too), so come on down, or up, and give us a hand! we want to get this baby done!

if you're curious about what a work weekend entails, imagine awaking in your tent to the songs of birds and a misty new england forest. then a lazy stroll down to the "old" kitchen for coffee and, if you're lucky, some daisy muffins or a bambi omelette, and some fire-side chat. about 10am we head up to the construction site where we figure out who is doing what and where. in addition to construction, we spend a lot of time gardening and landscaping. around noon we have a coffee/tea break, and then lunch around two. after lunch we continue until the light fades, these days around seven, but as the summer strides to fall, about six. every once in a while we need all hands on deck and you will hear a shrill "yoo-hoo" thread its way through the trees announcing a "major movement" of some sort, such as the lifting of a large section of the timber frame. it's basically an eight-hour day, but we start late and work late. after dinner, we often gather to play music. some folks listen, others draw or write, while the self-proclaimed musicians jam. we've developed a small repertoire, thanks to daisy writing things down. we practice it and also explore new riffs, melodies, words, instruments, and anything else we think to throw in the mix. we've recently contemplated working it all into a musical describing how faerie camp destiny came to be! if it's raining or cold, we play in the yurt, and if not, by one of our three campfires. we knock off when we're all yawning. we welcome all talents (even the self-proclaimed untalented). we've been recording of late for our podcast, faerie home companion.

2008 building season begins

2008-06-27T17:44:00.003-04:00

the readers are restless! funny you should ask about what's happening. we have been quietly cutting some rafters the last couple weekends and we'll be ramping up construction the weekend after next. it just so happened that june didn't work out very well as a construction month for many of us so we'll be starting during the governance gathering over july fourth.

we have a lot to do this summer, mostly finishing the kitchen building, but also starting to design the cabins, bathhouse and workshop, all permitted for construction on our little two-acre cleared plot amidst 165 acres of forest.

the kitchen survived one of the heaviest winters on record in vermont with aplomb (around 14 feet of snow!) we had a mysterious event wet some of the plaster on the north side of the building during a freeze/thaw period which caused the plaster to break so we'll have to re-do that. the straw behind the plaster is fine, however, and simply needs remudding.

stay tuned for more stories and photos.

Winter

2008-01-20T17:39:00.000-05:00

i took a hike up the drive in about a foot of snow two days ago to see how the camp was faring with our heavier than lately snowfall. everything's in good condition. the old kitchen, the yurt and the new kitchen, as well as the straw pile, have weathered winter so far just fine. i was most curious about the snowfall near the new kitchen. with straw bale it's critical that moisture be kept away from the walls. i was happy to see that there was bare ground around the entire building except where there is no overhang on the west side (in anticipation of the dining room). the overhangs seem to be doing their job.

roots and mud

2007-09-27T12:46:00.000-04:00

root cellar formwork

root cellar poured

greg installs mesh

gingersnap shapes bales

jeff mudding

moonfire chops straw for the plaster mix

well, things change. last weekend we installed the footing and slab for the root cellar which will live ultimately under the dining room but for now is exposed to the elements. i decided to pour the slab and foundation rather than wait because the excavation of the cellar would likely have collapsed in the spring when the ground at the site becomes saturated with runoff. no sense in wasting the excavation money we'd spent. so, in one pass on friday we poured the footings and slab, pictured here. the slab has a drain in the lowest corner to provide an exit for water that gets into the cellar. we also poured the six porch footings.

by monday, we'd almost finished the mudding, inside and out. we're about 95% of the way there, with just a couple spots to cover with the first coat. the mud is drying well with little cracking and repels and bumps quite well. it's not indestructible, but certainly won't be damaged by regular activity.

we still have a lot to do to wrap up this project: put on the roof, build a temporary west end wall, trim the eaves, place a second coat of exterior mud, carve the porch timbers and erect the porch (this may happen next spring), and a lot of other little things. but, i'm very pleased with our progress this summer. the energy and commitment of the volunteers is inspiring. i'm a bit pooped from all the work, but i know i'm going to miss the community and physical labor come winter.

inside

2007-09-19T13:45:00.000-04:00

we're working our way inside with plastering and it's looking and feeling really great. i'm very happy with the window sizing and placement and the quality of light within the building.

there's still lots to do, but it looks like we'll get all of the building plastered, inside and out, the windows installed and the building secured for winter by the end of october. we're about a month behind schedule, not too bad considering that we're all volunteers. the weather has been fabulous this summer, perfect for construction.

i've installed a few moisture sensors in the walls so that we can watch what happens in the bales over time. each location has three sensors (two stainless screws in a piece of wood attached to some telephone wire), one on the outside, one in the middle, one on the inside. because straw bale construction is somewhat experimental it's a good idea to have a way to look inside the bales to see what's going on. i put two in the shower area because that will have a substantial amount of moisture that could make its way into the bales.

this coming weekend we'll be pouring the porch foundation, receiving the timbers for the porch, and we'll start carving those timbers for a mid-october raising of the porch. we'll also continue with plastering and finishing up straw details.

we've decided to put off any more work on the dining hall, which attaches to the kitchen, because we're close to the end of our budget. the group decided to move ahead with the dining room this year at the annual meeting, but we have spent so much effort on construction that we haven't had time to do much fundraising. that will be this winter's project.

mud!

2007-09-05T16:57:00.000-04:00

hey, we got mud! on the walls! most of the straw bales are up and a good half of them are mudded. this coming weekend we'll be aiming to finish it up. the first coat that is. we've got a couple more to go. then we move inside.

as you can see our mud is very gray in color. the clay comes from the connecticut river valley and is a mix of about 25% clay and the rest sand and some silt (more than we want). so it's not really clay but clayish soil. when mixed with masonry sand (washed and screened) and straw it makes a pretty hearty mix, but i was concerned about it washing off too easily. so, we experimented with mixing in slaked hydrated lime in various proportions. the lime made the mix much stickier and, when dried, much harder and water resistant. so, that's what we've used. the recipie:

5 parts connecticut river clayish soil
3 parts washed and screened sand
1 part slaked hydrated lime putty
2 parts straw chopped to 2" in length or less

the final coats will be lime and sand mixes.

straw up

2007-08-28T21:50:00.000-04:00

daisy and a bale

the first corner

testing clay plaster

tim and jay

nearly to the top

we've been workin' our butts off getting the straw walls up. lots of lessons. first, measure your bale height not by the height of a single bale but a stack of five or six. they seem to gain a few inches in stacking. second, make all your openings a modulus of bale dimension. third, figure out connection details in advance, preferably in three dimensions.

we also had a day and a half of excavation work during which the water lines, gas lines and the porch foundation piers were installed and a pit for our root cellar was dug. so, we now have pressurized water. we'll be shocking the well and submitting water for testing and hopefully all will pass so we can drink the water, finally! it's been great having the water handy for construction, but to drink it will ice the cake.

plaster tests have been ongoing. masonry sand is recommended for plaster and having tried out two different sands i have to report that masonry sand creates a much better, tougher plaster. it would appear that our connecticut river valley clay is about a clay-ish soil, not pure clay. a 1:1 mix with sand or 1.5:1 mix seems to dry to a durable finish. we've tried adding a bit of lime putty to the mix and this really helps bind the mix. i expect we'll go with some lime, though it means we can't apply the plaster with bare hands. i wouldn't recommend it anyway--i've peeled a good deal of skin off my hands in the last week!

some new pix

2007-08-18T08:21:00.000-04:00

sips arrive

straw arrives

puffy little clouds

sipping the roof

gracing the roof

not much time to write, but here are some pix of our roof going on and the straw all nicely stacked.

roof's watertight & we're testin' clay

2007-08-15T17:46:00.000-04:00

last weekend we received and installed the 6-1/2" insulating panels (structural insulated panels, R38) on the kitchen roof and installed a drainage plane made of roofing paper over the top as a temporary roof which will also act as a backup roof after the finish roof goes on. thanks to the small crew that did so much and braved standing so close to the edge!

next weekend (starting thursday) we will begin framing windows and doors in anticipation of straw bale stacking. i'll be giving mini straw bale workshops over the weekend describing how it all goes together and works as, essentially, a structural insulated panel. we'll cover how straw bales are made, the way they lay in a wall, how to re-shape a bale with moss's groovy giant sewing needles, how to stack, pin and attach the bales to the frame.

i'll also be showing people how to mix clay based plaster (using local connecticut river valley clay) and how to apply it to straw bales. michel and i performed experiments yesterday with various ratios of clay and sand to determine a good mix for our walls (one is pictured).

we're planning to delay the installation of the metal roof until the straw process is rolling so as to give ourselves as much plastering time as possible before freezing weather sets in. the roof paper we used is rated for six months of exposure. the metal roof is scheduled to be delivered this friday.

thus far we've received a good deal of the kitchen equipment. thanks to rick cole who has donated a three bay sink with wings and a cook top for the snack area as well as restaurant grade stainless pots. we also have stainless sinks for hand washing and the snack area. but, we still need a stove! so if you're privy to restaurant auctions or know someone who's looking to offload a restaurant stove, please let us know. we'd like an eight-burner with two ovens ideally. we're also looking for restaurant grade stainless prep counters.

next monday and tuesday we'll have thaddeus, the exacavator, up on the land, installing the water and gas lines and the 500-gallon propane tank. if i can get them up to the site, the final well connection will be made as well, leading the way to potable water from the well (after we shock and test it).

frame raising movie

2007-08-02T16:36:00.001-04:00

here's a movie by man of the frame raising. thanks, man!

roof deckin'

2007-08-02T16:20:00.000-04:00

ragged ends

morning circle

neth on the roof deck

the roof deck is on...in one day! much praise is due to everyone who helped pull this one off, especially since we didn't really get started until 2pm. by 7:30pm we had the main roof finished with just a small section of the shower area to complete the next day. we had a midnight tea dance deejayed by steve sandberg to celebrate.

frame complete

2007-07-31T13:57:00.000-04:00

we completed the timber frame last weekend with the lifting of the last section and the positioning of the rafters. here we are (well some of us) relaxing in the afternoon heat under the tarped frame. it's a nice spot to hang out! it's made me realize how important having enough windows is going to be. if this project were in a temperate climate it would be wonderful to simply screen it.

we lost a bit of time to my confusion about the final corner. first, the scarf joint was laid out upside down. that was okay in the end because it's a symmetrical joint and we simply flipped the beam and carved a new mortise. but that was the least of the issues. it turned out i'd confused the porch and the main roof framing in my plans and had laid out the top plate six feet too long. all of this was uncovered with the lifting crew watching and i had to eat crow and mea culpa. it felt remarkably good, actually, a perfect balm to the shock of realizing a major mistake. luckily, the beam was too long, as we simply cut the end off. but, i learned an important lesson about plans. i'd combined a bit too much information into a single framing plan and forgot that i'd made the combination. i was reminded of einstein's advice to make things as simple as possible but no simpler.

next we'll be setting the wall plates and putting on the roof deck.

saturday night, a fog rolled in and the near-full moon came up illuminating the meadow and timber frame with a beautiful diffuse light.

gin pole rafter lift

2007-07-24T18:25:00.000-04:00

last weekend we got the gin pole up and secured and lifted the remaining rafters up onto the structure. once we got the hang of it, we moved along at a good clip, lifting and positioning 14 rafters in a bit under 3 hours.

we also secured the frame to the concrete slab using the first steel in the building. the rafters are also being secured with very long lag bolts. we're not being completely purist here at faerie camp. but, i do like the fact that we're using as much natural and local material as we possibly can.

we have one last section of the frame to lift. we hope to get it up next weekend during the coming gathering. come the first week of august, we will hopefully receive our roof decking and shortly thereafter the roof insulation and metal roof itself.

angle iron

2007-07-18T21:24:00.000-04:00

i picked up the 26 steel brackets (4 x 6 x 5/16 angle iron with four punched 3/4" holes for bolts) today from the steel yard. i also picked up lag bolts, lag anchors and washers to fit the angle iron to the posts. the angle iron and bolts will secure the posts to the concrete foundation and keep the frame from floating away, a serious problem in light buildings like ours. yes, despite all the huffing and puffing, in the realm of buildings, ours is a lightweight.

this weekend we will bow to the evil generator which we will have to run to power the hammer drill that will make the holes for lag anchors. we'll bore the posts by hand, however.

decking woes

2007-07-18T21:12:00.001-04:00

after navigating a somewhat complicated process of getting some roof decking milled, and waiting a week for it to show up, and then going to the lumber yard to find out that they hadn't put the order in and it would be three weeks before it would be milled, i cancelled the order and spent the afternoon considering other options.

the kitchen building has a small budget--very small--around $30,000 give or take. we've spent about 1/2 of that on the foundation, rough plumbing and the frame. we're not in a position to spend freely. so, i'm thinking about using green lumber milled locally. it's about 1/3 the price of kiln-dried similar material, but does have the downside of shrinkage which could cause problems. however, buildings have been built with green lumber far longer than they have with kiln-dried. we could stack and air-dry the decking on site until fall when it would be substantially dry and we would then be able to apply the insulation layer immediately since by that time we surely will have received the insulation.

as far as the overall project goes, we can tarp the rafters as a temporary measure to protect work underneath. we've been working successfully and dryly under a tarped structure all last fall and this spring and summer. while it's not as secure as a deck roof with metal atop, i think it will do until fall, and whether or not we let the green lumber dry, we'll be about $2000 better off on the bottom line.

good progress

2007-07-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

lifting rafters

joinery

a peg

from the meadow

evidence of planing

view from road

i finally remembered my camera and snapped some shots of the frame. after some trouble with the gin pole (mostly my fault for trying to make it into a jib crane, something it doesn't do very well), moss brought a couple come-alongs and rigged them to the end of the frame where we lifted, one-by-one, the 23-foot rafters up onto the frame and slid them down into position. michel, carl and moss dug a footing hole into which we set a concrete footing topped by a decorative pier formed from our own hemlock. it will support the outer-most post of the frame which stands clear of the building and welcomes people as the walk up to the front of the building. eventually, there will be a bench attached to it.

i visited the farm from which we'll get our straw. it's ready to go. we just need to figure out how to transport it. a friend has a big old chevy 6-ton truck that i hope we can use to shuttle the bales.

i also visited a company that supplies clay for pond linings. i've got a sample and am going to play with it to see if it behaves well for straw application. it doesn't seem as sticky as it ought to be, but it does look a lot like the clay that we used on the house in new hampshire last year. i've got a good sample from that project and will do some comparison.

the roof decking has been ordered and will arrive, hopefully, this week. with the rafters in place, we can proceed to roof the building. at first, we'll simply tarp it to keep water out, and so that we can proceed with bringing the straw in. after we choose a roof panel system, we'll remove the tarps and install the panels and cover with metal roofing of some sort, also to be determined.

frame raising pic from michel

2007-07-13T06:48:00.001-04:00

here's one picture! there are more at michel's flickr site.

straw

2007-07-12T22:31:00.000-04:00

i'll be visiting the farm where our straw has been grown tomorrow afternoon to inspect the bales and chat with the farmer about delivery. the farm is about 19 miles from destiny. i'm not quite sure how we're going to transport 500 bales of straw from there to destiny, but we'll figure it out. ideally, a nice big flatbed would be fabulous. but, we may have to resort to a rental truck or moving van. the bales are about 18 inches wide, 30 inches long and 14 inches tall.

i'm hoping we can take delivery of the straw in the next couple weeks so that once the roof deck is on we can move immediately stacking the straw and plastering.

clay

2007-07-12T22:25:00.000-04:00

i've found a local source for clay, just down the road a bit and up the connecticut river. it took the better part of an afternoon to find it. the search reminded me a bit of a job i had 20 years ago writing software that needed a computer mouse. back then, mice were little animals and calling companies asking if they made mice was led to some humorous interactions. it was much the same this afternoon cold calling people asking if they knew where i could find a bunch of clay. i resorted to trying people on roads named "clay pit road" and also calling town clerks to see if they knew of any clay pits.

i finally called an excavator whom we've used in the past and they directed me to a company in charlestown, new hampshire, about 18 miles from camp (local). i asked if their clay was local and he told me they dig it up out of the "back yard." had we not been able to find clay, lime would have been our option, and we will likely still final coat with lime because it has superior weather resistance properties in our climate, but the undercoats can be clay which is fun and safe to apply by hand.

roof deck ordered

2007-07-12T22:19:00.000-04:00

the roof decking material is on order, hopefully arriving next week or early the week after. i ended up ordering milled 2x6 stock from our local lumber company. it turned out to be just about the same price for kiln dried and green material! we're having the 2x6s tongue and grooved and v-jointed. this will make a nice looking wood ceiling. tongue and grooving meshes the individual roof deck pieces into a well connected structure that resists racking of the structure along the roof plane. i ordered lengths that will join at the center of rafters so that joints are well supported and not visible.

frame is up

2007-07-12T22:15:00.001-04:00

and no pictures to show for it. well, i didn't take any pictures because i forgot my camera. but, there are some coming and i'm taking my camera down this weekend to shoot some pix and raise some rafters.

the frame went up quickly on last saturday, with only a single hitch, a small but correctable measuring mistake (mine). i'm impressed with the stature of the frame, not only its proportions which feel majestic but also it's muscularity. looking at it i realized that the beefiness of timber frame is one of the things that attracts me to it.

we have one lift remaining that we didn't raise because we haven't installed a footing. we're hoping to get that in this weekend.

"Barnraising!"

2007-07-06T16:30:00.000-04:00

This coming weekend we'll be raising the rest of the frame. All week we've been cutting rafters that sit upon the frame. As of Wednesday, we had all but eight completed. I haven't been at the camp for the past two days but hopefully those eight are finished and ready to go.

If you're considering visiting the camp, this would be a good weekend to see faerie power in action!

timber frame goes up

2007-07-03T17:13:00.000-04:00

a bit ahead of schedule, last weekend we raised a portion of the timber frame. with a few minor glitches (forgotten braces, shallow mortises) it went together as planned! we plan to raise the rest of the frame this coming weekend.

gin pole / block and tackle

2007-06-26T20:11:00.000-04:00

i've done my typically obessive bit of research on lifting timber frames and have spoken to a few folks with experience and i'm voting for raising our frame ourselves without a crane. here's why: first, it's less expensive; second, less fossil fuel involved; third, it will go slower making me more comfortable; fourth, if we discover mistakes in the frame, we don't have to pay the crane to sit around while we figure out what's wrong (at about $120/hr); fifth, it will be really cool to know we did this ourselves; sixth, the technology to raise it ourselves is very very simple and also cool; seventh, we'll have all the hardware we need to raise other projects without power equipment at no additional expense.

the simple equipment is known as a gin pole. to make one you find a nice straight tree somewhat taller than the highest thing you need to lift and preferably with a crook near the top to which you can attach a block and tackle. the tree is held slightly off vertical by three or four guy lines that are secured to other trees or staked to the ground. the block and tackle is this very cool piece of gear that creates mechanical advantage so that one person can lift what would otherwise take two, four six or more, depending on the number of pulleys. you may have seen them on sail boats or on some cranes.

the picture shows the loads developed in a four pulley block and tackle. the load is held up by, in this case, four lines that share the work so that each line carries only 1/4 of the weight from the bottom block to top top block, which is secured to something capable of supporting the entire load. in our case, we'll be using three-pulley blocks so the line will carry just 1/6 the total load.

because the frame is in contact with the ground as it is tipped up, half the load is taken by the ground, half by the block and tackle. therefore, if we lift a 2000 pound section, the block and tackle's load is 1000 pounds. because the block and tackle load is taken to ground by the gin pole, all that's required to lift is 1/6 of 1/2 of the weight of the timbers. for a 2000 pound section that amounts to 167 pounds. an informal test with a bathroom scale shows that i can pull comfortably 130 pounds so with two of me the lift would be easy. add into the mix a few people helping to lift the frame directly (each reducing the load by perhaps 80 pounds), the job gets easier yet. as the frame tips up, less pulling force is required because more of the load transfers through the timbers to the ground and ultimately no effort on the rope is required when the timbers are standing. because the load through the rope is so much less than the full load, a relatively small and inexpensive rope can be used, which is good because the rope has to be six times longer!

almost finished with joined frame

2007-06-26T19:27:00.000-04:00

timber-o-meter

photo: stuart auld

it was hot (photo: jim jackson)

well, we're almost finished with the "underframe"--that part of the frame that supports and braces itself--essentially everything but the roof. the picture shows the completed pieces (completed pieces in light tan). it deceives just a bit--there are about four more hours of work to get to where the picture shows. after that, we cut the rafters and then we'll be ready to raise. i expect rafter cutting to proceed quickly because there isn't much to do to them--probably just a few days with four people. they will be fastened to the structure with metal, a breach of timber frame etiquette to some, but in our case, with a shed roof with substantial uplift loads from wind, we decided to be safer than sorry. i'm thinking we might be able to cut the rafters, and then have a second crew lift them up onto the roof.

we have yet to carve the porch timbers. we plan to use whole logs for the posts and we have plenty of them around already cut from our clearing. the porch beam will have to be milled as well as the rafters.

next weekend through the following weekend is our long summer gathering at the camp and i'm hoping that enough people will help out that we'll get the underframe erected by july 8th.

also on the horizon: the dining room slab. for this we have to submit more plans to the state, which is my job. this will be another concrete on grade insulated slab that will form the floor for our indoor dining/gathering space. we won't be putting a structure on top of it for a while but so that concrete trucks can get into the site we'd like to get it prepped and poured before the porch structure goes up.

lots done, lots more to do

2007-06-12T23:08:00.000-04:00

we completed the tie braces last weekend, bringing to completion all the carving for the bottom of the frame (columns, braces and tie beams). we're now moving on to the top plates, of which there are seven. here stuart bores a mortise that will receive one of the end posts on the west side of the frame.

with the frame raising nearing, we need to start peg production. to facilitate that i'm making a peg jig up here in white river junction this week. it allows you to hold down a stick of wood using your foot and shape it into an octagonal peg with a draw knife.

once the top plates are complete we'll move on to cutting rafters, of which there are 24, if i recall correctly. these are pretty simple: just a couple notches so the rafters seat on the top plates and some end dressing. i'm afraid we're going to cheat with these: the rafters will be fastened to the top plates with lag bolts. the potential wind uplift made this necessary. you won't see it. don't tell anyone. shhh!

frame-o-meter

2007-06-06T20:12:00.000-04:00

above is our newly minted checklist of framing timbers shot with my crappy cell phone camera. it's a moody shot of analytic information. how about that? and also, our new frame-o-meter, which shows graphically how much of the frame is completed, waiting to be carved and, in bright green, timbers that have yet to be milled. we anticipate milling the remainder of our timber on site because it reduces the amount of energy involved in the wood production substantially (no transport of timbers to and from mill, no kiln drying). an aside: i recently looked into the embodied energy of kiln dried versus air dried lumber. kiln dried uses 10 times more energy.

we accomplished a great deal last week with several faeries staying up on the land during the week and then staying over the weekend. i was there three days to try to keep ahead of everyone's improving carving skill.

with a couple more days of carving and planing (planing seems to be the ire of many--i have to figure out how to explain how to do it better, because when you do it right it's a joy and the plane almost literally sings) we will have the lower part of the timber frame structure complete, we could stand it up! but, i think we'll wait until we have the top timbers cut so that we don't have to lift them up onto the posts. traditionally, entire bents are lifted at once, but i'm thinking we might want to lift bent sections (three or four per bent) so that we don't need a crane.

up and running

2007-05-30T10:07:00.000-04:00

last weekend, during the first gathering of the season, the timber frame workshop at destiny came back to life with chisels, planes, squares, pencils and lots of laugther, a brief review and introduction to timber framing and a couple of good days of work during which we started carving the cross beams that will tie the three bents of the kitchen together.

the timbers survived the winter well, a bit drier now that six months has passed, a bit mildewed here and there (lesson: do not tarp your timbers too tightly) but nothing that a few swipes of a plane won't remedy.

our plan is to complete the timber cutting over the next five weeks and raise it in the first week of july. i'm not sure how exactly we'll raise it. there are a few options. my inclination, though i'm not sure it's the smartest way to go, is to put raise small sections that can be lifted by a small number of people rather than lifting the entire 50-foot bent which will weigh in the thousands of pounds. the frame is set up in such a way that two column sections can be lifted into place and secured independently, then tied together once they're all raised.

the picture...hmmmm

work begins!

2007-05-15T11:41:00.000-04:00

From Bambi:

Work began this past weekend with Moss, Matt, Daisy, Zinnnia, Michel, Symbient, Wave & myself showing up for three days of lovely weather. Ken from Newfane stopped by for a visit on Monday.

All of the spring flowers were popping out all over along with the garden seeds planted at the last work weekend. The variety of vilolets: yellow, light blue, and whites along with a flowering dogwood near the brook made way for sightings of trout lily and spring beauties. Three deer were sighted in the new meadow munching along a perimeter of of dafodils and we found beer tracks in the mud near the workshop area.

We all worked on mapping out a schedule for the work (something which I'll post on the website calendar), disussed next steps before Whitman begins, cleaned out the kitchen, splitting the summer's firewood (thanks Moss for hauling the splitter down), filling drums for wash water, and seeding in the new meadow with conservation mix and red clover. We also set up the workshop with the red frame & tarps as well as heralding the arrival of the timber framing tools.

Wave has arrived to start his extended stay on the land until early June. Please make a point of visiting to say hullo. We're planning on having work weekends every weekend in the foreseeable future to begin work on the timbers again. The hope it to have dedicated crews pull things together so we can raise the walls at the Governess gathering. Come on up and help out with the timber framing, tend the garden, or help out with making meals.

While we were on the land, we'd hoped to make it down to Azteca to have a well deserved dinner out. Well sadly, it's closed. We'll have to look into options for getting water and a good burrito. We ended up at Nick's Sports Bar and had the place to ourselves harrying the barkeep with orders of curly fries as we switched the TV to the Nature channel. We also made it down to the diner in Chester where we crammed into a booth (for a bit) and were treated to a sample of some fine custard. Yum. I won't mention the run to Baba-a-Louis for cream puffs and other pastries.

Thaddeus was able to make it up to gravel and grade the road, something which was sorely needed after amazing mud! We're asking folks to try to drive up the road slowly! Put your vehicle in a lower gear, it will give your engine more torque to make up the hill and it won't rip up the fresh gravel.

See you all on the land!

first design meeting of year

2007-01-30T18:11:00.000-05:00

we'll be having our first design meeting of the year this coming weekend in new york. we plan to focus on kitchen detailing, such as cabinets, counters, exact placement of sink, stove, tables, pots, pans, utensils, cleaning equipment, you name it, we're going to think about it. and hopefully draw it too.

check in with the destiny website for details.

they're watching

2006-10-25T12:35:00.000-04:00

here's a new satellite view of destiny from flickr's map feature. you can see our parking lot and the meadow before the current construction. this must have been shot last summer.

wrapped

2006-10-23T14:17:00.000-04:00

tarped tables

burning brush

the camp is wrapped for the winter, in some cases literally. here the picnic tables are stacked and tarped. it looks like some kind of futuristic ark to me. about 20 of us worked over the last weekend to close the camp. the timber framing tools are all back at my place in white river. the timbers themsevles have been stacked, stickered and tarped at the building site. the new foundation has cured to about 75% of its final strength. i'm planning to take a break from all this during november to do some travelling and a 10-day meditation retreat. we'll be posting more info here over the winter as we design more of the project and as we do shop work in white river junction.

the next two weeks

2006-10-10T11:53:00.000-04:00

one feather, rip and wave timber frame

view from kitchen site

work continues at the camp now that the big fall event, pouring the slab, has occurred. we've got a couple more weeks during which we'll be working on the timber frame and securing the construction site for winter. i'd like to see us finish cutting and planing the posts and cross beams before tucking the timbers in for winter. wednesday through sunday for the next two weeks we'll be there, so join us if you're inclined. we'd hoped to get the frame raised this fall, but it actually comes as a relief, to me anyway, that we'll be taking a break until spring. the last month has been wonderful and invigorating but also exhausting. the timbers should keep just fine over the winter. we've got them stickered so they whatever drying does occur will happen evenly.

foundation week: sunday

2006-10-09T14:55:00.000-04:00

circling the new foundation

we gathered for a heart circle near the new foundation, sitting in sunshine most of the time, enjoying clear blue skies and the warmth of the open space. after one go-round we moved the gate that we'd built at our spring gathering in white river junction up to the top of the meadow. we circled around it, chanted a bit and then spiral danced our way down to the foundation, entered it where the front door will be and circled forming walls with our bodies.

foundation week: saturday

2006-10-09T14:27:00.000-04:00

one-third poured

stuart floats concrete around grease trap

the shower form

protecting the slab

inaugerating the new fire circle

i awoke at 5:30am to get going. the concrete trucks were scheduled to arrive at 7am sharp. by 6am a few folks had gathered at the kitchen for coffee and a bit of food. around 6:10 peat and i strolled the road howling like coydogs to wake everyone up. by 6:45 we had a crew assembled and awaited the trucks. around 7:10 we heard the rumble of the truck coming up the road. we were concerned that the truck wouldn't be able to pull up next to the foundation because of soft soil but because of a couple days of warm weather the soggy mess that earlier in the week would have certainly caused us problems supported the truck adequately.

after talking up the strenuousness of a concrete pour the night before, the first truck driver made me seem alarmist. he placed the concrete so gingerly and precisely that we literally had to do nothing but screed it. the second driver proved less sensitive, but we got the first driver back for the third load and we tipped him for his fine work. in all we placed 30 yards of concrete. about 29 of it went into the foundation slab and the remaining we used to pour a small propane tank pad across thge road and down in the woods a bit. i was pleased that we had so little waste. concrete is expensive but you don't want to end up short.

with the concrete in the forms we screeded off high spots and filled low spots by dragging a long board (actually two boards spliced) across the tops of the forms. this is arduous and we had people switch off. once screeded we floated the pour with a long-handled magnesium paddle that literally floats across the concrete smoothing and levelling the surface.

i don't have many pictures of this because i was coordinating the pour and often in the concrete. i'm sure more pictures will surface.

by 11:00am we had the pour setting up. the weather couldn't have been better. the morning was cool and sun didn't hit the slab until it was floated leaving us a comfortable couple hours to feed ourselves and take a break. around mid afternoon the slab hardened enough to make the first pass with a power troweller. this is a four-paddled machine that smooths the concrete by levelling progressively thinner thicknesses of the cream that forms when you trowel curing concrete. i'm afraid i hogged the power troweller all day.

finally, we covered the slab with tarps and plastic to keep moisture that's critical for curing from evaporating and to keep a potential frost from damaging the surface.

while the slab was curing and i was running power troweller the rest of the gathering worked in the gardens and and up above the kitchen site creating a new fire circle that will eventually replace the current one by the temporary kitchen. that evening we drummed and danced enjoying the view of the sky and forest illuminated by the full moon.

foundation week: friday

2006-10-09T14:20:00.000-04:00

jeff cuts rebar

peat and pauli lay rebar, mesh on bricks

stuart inscribes the meadow with light!

last day before the pour. this was supposed to have been a relaxed day, but because of losing a day to moving the footings it turned out pretty hectic. i was more stressed this day than any other so far. we had a lot to accomplish and by mid-day i realized it might not happen. but, like a miracle, people began showing up to help out and by the end of the day we had the foundation covered with a vapor barrier, the rebar in the perimeter beam and in the post footings in place, the wire mesh for the slab sitting on bricks to keep it raised two inches off the vapor barrier, the formwork for the shower and even a bit of radiant heat tubing that i had laying around sewn to the mesh under the bathroom and shower floors.

by 8pm, most of the crew had arrived at the camp and we held an informal meeting in our yurt. i described the tasks and the sequencing of the pour and stressed how much work it could be.

since many people arrived for dinner and hadn't seen the foundation site we paraded up the road under full moon light for a tour. standing in the newly re-re-graded gathering circle (the original meadow), looking down upon the new kitchen site, we discovered stuart's talent for writing backwards. my camera takes long exposure and there was enough light to capture both his flashlight writing and the scene!

foundation week: thursday

2006-10-09T14:12:00.000-04:00

stuart tamps and bevels

this was the day i planned to start laying reinforcing bar and wire mesh. but, jade and i discovered early in the day that something was amiss. after a few minutes of earnest denial i realized i was going to have to move all the post footings by hand because i'd taken a critical measurements from disagreeing drawings. lesson to myself: always make sure drawings have the same footprint!

luckily we still had two days before the pour. it did take the entire day to move all the footings. i also took time to re-tamp the flat part of gravel infill and to bevel the walls to a 45-degree angle so that the slab would have a gradual transition from perimeter beam to interior slab.

foundation week: wednesday

2006-10-09T14:02:00.000-04:00

installing perimeter forms

backfilled forms

foundation plan

the day began with the setup of wooden formwork. using my rough foundation plan i nailed together lengths of 2x10 to form the perimeter of the slab. thaddeus and crew added a second row of ripped 2x6s on top of the 2x10s to provide a 16-inch high form. we squared corners and verified diagonals, fixed the corners with stakes and crossbraces and then backfilled the forms with earth being careful not to bow them in. they did start to bow in places, so we staked them from the inside and braced them against the crushed gravel inside the form.

foundation week: tuesday

2006-10-04T13:46:00.000-04:00

laying insulation

gravel fill formed to make post footings

with the plumbing in and covered we began preparation of the foundation. first a layer of six inches of crushed gravel was laid down over undisturbed native soil and levelled to within 1/4". this was compacted with with a mechanical tamper. next two inches of blueboard insulation was laid flat on top of the gravel to provide a thermal break between the earth and the slab. the insulation extends six or more feet beyond the edge of the slab to keep frost from heaving up the soil beneath. this is called a frost protected shallow foundation.

next ten inches of crushed gravel was laid on top of the blueboard. this particular blueboard supports up to 25 pounds per square inch, or 3600 pounds per square foot, enough to handle the point loads created by the posts in the building. the gravel on top of the insulation is essentially formwork to provide a sixteen inch deep perimeter beam with 2x2-foot footings for the 8x8 posts.

recent pix

2006-10-03T22:10:00.000-04:00

caryatids--faeries where columns will be

testing a joint

our land steward, dhami boo

foundation prep

roy hand planes braces

jay and gingersnap work a post

jim carves a mortise

greg tosses in a game of timber-dice

plumbing is in

2006-10-02T16:42:00.000-04:00

faeries posing as posts!

our rough under-slab plumbing is installed and we're ready to prep for the pouring of the slab. we'll be preparing the formwork over the next few days in hopes that we'll be able to pour the slab during the fall gathering on saturday. so far everything is working out.

timber framing is continuing at a slowed pace because we've had our energies directed at preparing the slab but with lots of great help from probably over thirty volunteers at this point we're ready to begin cutting from a new batch of timbers that will arrive wednesday. we hope to get the frame finished in the next couple weeks for a "barn raising" in late october.

i have pix, but can't upload at the moment. more later....

update

2006-09-26T19:55:00.000-04:00

we are nearly done cutting the posts for the kitchen building. we have started cutting the cross beams. orange cut the first saturday. timbers to complete the project will arrive later this week. we could use help unloading, guessing friday will be the day.

the plumber will place the rough plumbing thursday or friday. this will make way for layout and formwork for the foundation slab which we hope to pour just before or during the october gathering, weather permitting and concrete company willing (to deliver on saturday). if you plan to attend the october gathering and wish to participate in the pour i recommend bringing rubber farmer boots if you have some. we'll need a few folks to wade into the wet concrete to help with levelling and smoothing. it's fun.

after the foundation is poured, we'll focus on finishing up the timber frame for our "barnraising" in late october. if weather permits, we'll go ahead and get the roof on, otherwise we plan to tarp the frame, place everything we wish to keep dry inside the frame, and close up for the winter.

water samples sent

2006-09-19T17:34:00.000-04:00

water samples from our new well have been sent to the state laboratory for analysis. we should hear back from them within three weeks. these tests will tell us what is in our water and if there are any problems with it. since there is nothing above the camp except our moundy mountain it's unlikely that there will be any issues.

work and play

2006-09-19T10:43:00.000-04:00

bambi bores mortise

chris double digs a row in the garden

a quick "shower"

dhami boo's peas sprouting

i'm back this week just today. we're in the middle of a work week and about a dozen faeries are on the land now gardening and timber framing. the weather has been fantastic with days near 90 degrees, sunshine and light winds to cool. we'll be receiving new timbers from a local sawyer tomorrow that become the front posts of the kitchen. the sawyer will be cutting more timber for us to complete the project later in the week. hopefully this week we can get the plumber up to do rough in work so that foundation work can proceed.

the sight of faeries working and playing in our new space, which is quickly transforming from a rough patch into a beautiful faerie-sculpted garden has taken my breath away more than a few times.

timberrrr

2006-09-13T09:02:00.000-04:00

timber framing is going splendidly. we've cut about seventeen pieces of the frame, mostly braces. three posts are complete, one of them the most complicated in the frame. it took me a full day to cut it.

more or less, except for tuesdays, i will be at destiny for the next month. so, reports here may come in only once a week.

it's wonderful living and working on the land. dhammiboo has prepared fantastic lunches and dinners, though he claims no expertise! we gather in the morning over breakfast, talk about the day's tasks, plan trips into town when we need to, and then get to work. under our large work tent we've got three sets of sawhorses supporting three workstations. we keep collective tools on the stack of 2x4s drying next to the workstations. each person usually has a piece that's theirs to finish. everyone works at their own pace and we help each other out when it's needed. most days include teaching someone new how to work a chisel.

the magic of timberframing, for me anyway, is the joinery. i've said a couple times to folks when showing them chiselwork: "you're not just whittling away here, you're creating a relationship!" you spend the day, sometimes longer, chipping away at a timber, working your way down to some lines that don't necessarily make any sense to you. you do your best to create the smoothest most accurate work you can, often betrayed by eagerness and impatience. the wood works with you sometimes, against you others. each cut is a new challenge asking you to be present and attentive. at times the workplace is silent except for the sound of tools. at others it's raucous with jokes, laughter and stories. and, eventually, when you're all done and your back is a bit sore and your palms are calloused from the thousand whacks of the chisel that you put into your piece, you stand back and you see you've created a beauty despite all your "learning." then, my favorite moment happens. you try your piece with its companion. there's nothing like the look of wonder and accomplishment when people first see how the piece they've worked fits with its mate. without fail it's a moment of clarity that induces exlamations of "i get it!" and waxings about the simple profundity of the work they've done.

work weekend pix from jason

2006-09-06T19:01:00.000-04:00

jason took some fun and beautiful pix of our work weekend. you can view them here. working with chisels brought out the best in all of us.

water and wood

2006-09-05T15:56:00.000-04:00

michel and the hose

peat and the saw

peat, michel, jason, dhamiboo and i semi-ceremoniously ingaugurated the construction season at destiny last weekend first with a powerful spray from our newly functional well, second with the erection of a tarp city over the timbers providing weather-proofish workspace, and third by chiseling up a storm as prolific as the hurricane.

"the well is in." we can now say that! how long have we been waiting? while it's not yet connected to a building, we can hook it up to a generator and pump 20 gallons a minute for construction purposes, or just create small floods. 20 gallons a minute is a lot of water.

we can also say construction has begun. after a good deal of discussion we decided to start cutting braces, the 45-degree angled pieces that keep the frame from racking and which are one of the hallmarks of a timber frame. these are good pieces to start with because they're small so if, for instance, we cut the end off too short (we did this) you haven't wasted a big timber. also, much of the chisel-work is hidden reducing some of the pressure those tending toward perfection felt while practicing their new skills. it also happened that we have more brace stock than anything else and it was on top of the pile.

i think we were all pleased with our progress. with a regular faerie carpenter corps (a few people each day) working the frame we should continue to make good progress. i encourage anyone and everyone who can take a day here or there, or more if possible, to consider contributing your skills. we will be working on the land most days from now until november. if in doubt call me, bambi or dhamiboo to find out what's happening. calling is probably better than email since we'll not be checking it while on the land. many of you have requested we post in advance the tasks that will be happening on specific dates. i understand the need to know, and we'll do our best, but please also try to understand that the tasks change day-to-day depending on weather, who shows up and our contractors. there's plenty of work to do! if you don't feel comfortable with sharp tools, we can employ you as a butt clamp--someone who sits on beams to keep them steady.

we begin cutting timbers and other things

2006-08-31T17:04:00.000-04:00

this coming weekend we'll begin sawing and chiseling the timbers we milled earlier in the summer into frame components for the kitchen, marking the beginning of our volunteer-powered construction season, a bit late to start, but starting nonetheless! the fall is a great time to work and hopefully we'll have a good two months to get the foundation and frame up for the kitchen.

for the next two months we will be working regularly, especially weekends. if you sign up for our work list at the fcd website you'll get notices of opportunities to help. the more help we get the faster we'll have a kitchen.

the septic system, well and 95% of the earthwork are complete, tremendous accomplishments!

mud

2006-08-29T11:25:00.000-04:00

the road

septic line buried

site prep

septic mound

we've had a good amount of rain in the past week, enough to make working a challenge for our excavator. the road has turned to deep muck as you can see in the picture. hurricane ernesto will likely bring more rain by the end of the week. luckily, heavy trucking for the septic system is complete, leaving just the loaming, mulching and seeding of the septic system to be completed today.

our excavator will wrap up work for the time being tomorrow with the regrading of the circle, creation of garden terraces, installation of a new culvert in the bend of the road just before the meadow and ditching and resurfacing of the road just before the parking lot. we agreed to wait on the kitchen site work because it has become too muddy to work. he's installing a swale to divert water from the site into the larger swale through the meadow in the hopes that it will dry out the kitchen site enough to work it in a couple weeks when he comes back.

meanwhile, we are in search of a plumber and electrician to do stub in work under the foundation. we've received no response to our request for a plumber in our local gay paper, out in the mountains. so, i think the next step will be the phone book. it's a particularly hard time of year to find contractors because everyone is very busy trying to wrap up projects before winter.

septic system installed

2006-08-26T13:35:00.000-04:00

septic line through the woods

our new septic system is installed and inspected. so we can poop. well almost...we need a toilet and some water to flush it with. that's coming. our well installer will be placing a pump in the well next week with temporary piping for construction purposes. this will allow us to do concrete work once our building permit comes through. we'll also be able to do our water tests, the kits for which i've received from the state.

next week our excavator will finish up the other work we have scheduled, including grading for garden terraces and the gathering circle as well as drainage work around future building sites. he'll also repair the road which has suffered under the construction traffic.

construction drawings

2006-08-17T00:13:00.000-04:00

i've finally got a set of basic working drawings prepared for submission to the plans review folks at the state. if i'd known it was going to take as long as it did to get these completed i would have started months ago! it's been a lot of fun doing them, although it stressed me out at times. i have much deeper respect for people who put construction documents together.

you can take a peek at the drawings by either viewing the following in your browser (though i don't know how well that will work) or downloading them and viewing them in acrobat (or preview on the mac). they are sized for plotting on 24x36 paper.

pump surge

2006-08-11T17:49:00.000-04:00

a technical lesson: motors draw lots of power when they start. why do we care? our well pump is a 3 horsepower motor that draws about 3200 watts when totally loaded. but, when it starts, it can draw 3 to 6 times that amount, sometimes more, so we're talking 9,600 to 19,200 watts! this means that our generator would have to supply this spike in power momentarily to get the pump rolling. this is wasteful because 99% of the time a generator capable of producing the peak would be woefully underutilized and inefficient, not to mention expensive.

but...i've discovered these things called soft-starters. they are devices that modulate voltage and current so that the motor starts smoothly and slowly, gradually increasing the speed of the motor until it's running full bore. this diminishes the peak load substantially and should allow us to start the pump with a generator. that's the theory anyway.

there are lots of makes of soft starters, with different configurations, complexity and pricing. one which is pretty nifty removes the need to have a pressure tank at all by keeping the pressure in the line constant. the pump, more or less, runs all the time, very slowly, using very little energy. but we can't use that one with solar, apparently. i'm working with the well driller and the manufacturer of the pump to figure out which soft starter would work best for us. ultimately, it needs to work with not only the generator but also our solar power.

woodshop and materials

2006-08-11T17:34:00.000-04:00

about a month ago a cabinetmaker friend had to suddenly move to baltimore. he wasn't going to have the space to maintain his woodshop and he sold it to me for a fraction of its value. i'm looking at all this equipment as the "destiny woodshop" and hope that over the winter we can build much of the finish furniture that will go into the kitchen and bathhouse. we have at our disposal: a 10" cabinet saw (high quality table saw) with sheet feed and router mount, band saw, thickness sander, joiner, compound miter saw, router, dust collection system, stands and tables (on wheels) for all of the above.

he also donated a great deal of construction materials to destiny. i'm storing all this stuff in white river junction since it seems our finish carpentry will happen next year. i'm excited that we'll have a woodshop in which to make some of the finer things for the camp.

here's the current list of what we've got "in stock":

(2) 12' x 6' skylight frames
(10) 28" x 48" storm sash
400 LF bamboo flooring
(1) 48" x 25" butcher block
(3) 44" x 7-3/4" x 1" maple
(1) 2" x 10" x 60" oak clear
(1) 2-1/4" x 10" x 67" maple/cherry?
(1) 1 x 5 x 40" maple
(1) 1 x 5 x 45" maple
(1) 1 x 6 x 50" maple
(1) 1 x 5 x 49" hardwood (very dark)
(1) 1 x 9 x 59" maple
(1) 1 x 5 x 47" maple
(1) 1 x 6 x 47" maple
(1) 82 x 42-1/2 x 2 door
25 SF red oak zickgraf flooring
(1) 2 x 4 x 50" oak
(1) 19 x 32 butcher block
(2) 3/4 x 18 x 25 glued panels maple
(3) 1/2 x 5 x 36 maple
(1) 4-1/2 x 10 x 84 beam from NYC
(1) 2-1/2 x 8 x 62 beam from NYC
(1) 3 x 9 x 84 beam from NYC
(1) 48 x 48 x 1/2 plywood
(1) 16 x 8 x 3/8 plywood
(1) 32 x 79 x 3/8 plywood
(1) 5/4 x 12 x 87 stair tread pine
(1) 1 x 10 x 60 crenelated t&g panel
(1) 2 x 8 x 8 KD spruce
(1) 3/4 x 7-1/2 x 72 walnut?
(1) 3/4 x 7-1/2 x 85 walnut?
(1) 3" x 120 molding
(2) 1 x 4 x 8 clear pine
(4) 1 x 6 x 8 clear pine
(5) 1 x 3 x 5 clear pine
(1) 1 x 8 x 8 clear pine
(1) 5/4 x 3 x 8 clear pine
(1) 2 x 4 x 6 KD spruce
(30) 1 x 6 x 8' wainscotting
(5) 4 x 8 luan
(1) 4 x 8 x 3/4 walnut ply
(1) 4 x 8 x 3/4 birch MDF
(1) 4 x 8 x 3/4 birch ply
(172) 2" x 4" white tile
7 LF 20" wide copper flashing
(3) caulk guns
(1) bag gasketed roof fasteners
(13) 8 x 1/2 J-bolts
(1) bundle concrete ties
(1) roll tie wire
(7) 2 x 8 joist hangers
(3) 2 x 10 joist hangers
(5) 4 x joist hangers
(1) large box nail gun finish nails
(32) tubes construction adhesives (various kinds)

i'm not looking to get into the salvage business, but i do have more space to store things over the winter should we need to.

tanks are in, trees are down

2006-08-11T16:25:00.000-04:00

still muddy, delivery truck needs a pull

presby piping delivered

bathhouse septic with soil lines

kitchen septic

meadow from the circle

meadow from the road

i stopped in at the land this afternoon. the first thing i noticed was how much larger the meadow felt without the trees in middle. they've been taken down and stacked next to the pile of boulders. take a look for yourself by clicking on the two meadow pictures. two septic tanks for the bathhouse and kitchen are in the ground. the bathhouse is a 1000 gallon, the kitchen a 2000 gallon. the presby system has been delivered to the septic field. thaddeus ran off to get more gravel to fix the construction road to the septic field because it's become so slippery that trucks can't make it up the hill. he had to tow the presby delivery truck out with his dozer.

i can't tell you how satisfying it is to see action!

i'm finishing up the construction drawings this weekend. it has taken much more time than i ever anticipated to complete them.

well decision

2006-08-08T17:32:00.000-04:00

after a long bout of alternative well and power research we've decided to keep it simple. our water options were: 1) a pump feeding a pressure tank; 2) a pump feeding a storage tank uphill 90 vertical feet; 3) two pumps, one feeding a storage tank in the kitchen and a second in the storage tank to feed a pressure tank.

we've opted for number one primarily for financial reasons, but also because it's the simplest system and can be easily operated. the other two options, if they were feasible at all, would have cost us substantially more, required more maintenance and operator know-how. with the budget for this project in the tens of thousands we can't tolerate any budget inflation.

for the time being, until we install a solar electric system, the pump will be powered by a generator. yes, it burns fossil fuel but we're taking the long view. the generator is a stop-gap measure we can afford that bootstraps the camp water/power system. as the camp evolves we'll install solar panels, maybe just one or two at a time, batteries, inverters and all the gadgets required to make your own "juice" and eventually we'll ween the camp from fossil fuels almost entirely. if anyone out there is feeling flush and wants to drop a cool $20k on us to speed up the process, we're happy to indulge you! it's tax deductible! donate here!

actually, waiting isn't imprudent according to the experts i spoke with at solarfest. they told me solar technology is going to make significant leaps in efficiency in the next couple years, on the order of two to three times, with the expectation that the cost per watt for solar could begin to compete with utility-generated power. some of the new technology is being prepared for production now and is expected to be available in a couple years. this kind of development is perhaps the silver lining of an energy crunch. it's now worth it to spend money to find alternatives to fossil fuel.

breaking ground!

2006-08-08T17:21:00.000-04:00

trees

today, we broke ground! the report is that the ground is still very wet, water table just 12" below the surface. our excavator is going to lay stone down the construction road to the septic field so that the 30 to 40 truckloads of sand can be brought in.

he's also going to begin working in the meadow, moving the swale a bit west, cutting a new swale above the future building site, and installing septic and water lines. we saved six trees last fall when we cleared the site in hopes that they could be worked into our designs. but, beecause of the earthwork required due to the slope and wetness of the site we're having to cut them down. we plan to use their trunks for the porch posts, so while they'll not be growing any more, they will take part in our project just a few feet from where they grew. they're pictured here and will come down tomorrow.

this week i am completing the drawing set that will go to the building department for review. once the drawings are submitted a plans reviewer at the state will look them over and if all is well issue a permit. we'll hopefully have permit in hand by september so that we can begin construction.

progress report

2006-08-03T16:07:00.000-04:00

the ground in vermont is finally drying out with the recent heat wave. a couple days ago the ground at destiny steamed as water rose up and into the atmosphere. our excavator is planning to start work on the septic system this coming monday and will also be working on landscaping garden terraces and reworking the circle so that it drains. he'll begin some site grading around the kitchen area, installing a swale above the construction site to help dry it out for the installation of a foundation once we get our building permits.

we are still working on getting our water system finalized. it has been a challenge because our water requirements as a campground are difficult to meet without spending a lot of money. we're trying to avoid that. the simplest system, a 230-volt pump in the well feeding a pressure tank, requires a pump that draws about 5500 watts of power on startup. while this is easy for the grid to handle, it's a chore for a small alternative system and a waste because the system has to be sized to accomodate the start up of the motor, which after it has started draws just 1/3 of its startup wattage. so, your system has to be two to three times the size it needs to be because of your well pump. there are controllers that slow start motors, which would help, but a better solution is to avoid using AC power at all and use the kind of power that solar panels produce directly: DC, or direct current.

i attended a workshop on solar water pumping at solarfest a couple weeks ago and learned a lot about low-power DC pumps that are being installed in remote locations worldwide. unfortunately, these pumps do not produce the flow that the AC pumps produce, partly because they use less power. but, depending on the static level of our well (the level of water in the well casing) we may be able to utlize one or two of the DC pumps in combination with a storage tank in the kitchen building to provide our water supply. even though the pumps are low power, they still use enough juice that installing solar panels to power them would be expensive. the word at solarfest was that new technologies will increase the efficiency of solar panels over the next few years. my current thought is to set up destiny with low-powered DC pumps that run off batteries charged periodically by a generator and perhaps a single solar panel. as we move on and have funds to grow, we can install solar panels to augment and eventually eliminate the generator.

we also explored the idea of pumping water uphill to a large storage tank that would gravity feed the camp. for you budding engineers out there, 2.31 feet of rise produces 1 pound per square inch (psi) of water pressure. our camp must have at least 40 psi in its lines so you do the math and the tank has to be 92.4 feet above the highest fixture. my rough estimate is that this means the tank would be about 500 feet on the ground uphill from the bathhouse. since there has to be a feed line and a return line, that's over 1000 feet of water line that has to be installed. the beauty of this system is that once the water is uphill in the tank, there's no pumping required. whether there is a site that could host a 2000 gallon tank uphill is unknown. clearly, this system would only work in warm weather and the water lines risk being damaged by falling trees and animals if they are not buried.

so, that's where we are with water and power. i sure have learned a lot about solar and water in the process. this coming saturday, at 10am or thereabouts, we'll be having a circle to discuss all this at destiny.

update

2006-07-07T09:57:00.000-04:00

we're waiting for the ground to dry out. this spring has been one of the wettest on record and our soil is saturated. last weekend we attempted to dig a couple of holes for the foundation of the gate. within a few minutes the hole began filling with water and after an hour was completely full, to the top!

there are lessons in everything, and this situation clearly points to including substantial water diversion around all our built structures that sit on the ground, the kitchen in particular.

with the soil so wet we have been unable to break ground on either the foundations or the septic system. according to weather sources, the rain cycle should end by mid-july. this raises hope that by august we might be under way.

this three-month delay has set us back a bit. we won't be getting straw bales up this year. but, we hope to get the foundation in, timbers up, roof on and the water system running with some solar panels, perhaps. in the grand scheme of things, a few months is not a big deal, just dissapointing to all of us who wanted to see the kitchen completed this summer.

sawmilling

2006-06-20T11:08:00.000-04:00

operator's perspective

loading a log

jay

stacked

clark

michel

mckim

the blade

faerie power was out in force last weekend. through sudden downpours and sweltering afternoon heat, we transformed our log pile into stacks of beautiful timbers.

here are some pictures and a movie! i'm very happy with the timber we sawed out. the quality is very good to excellent, only one bad log. we cut all the kitchen posts, a lot of 4x6 stock for braces, a good number of 5-1/2 x 8 purlins, lots of one-inch boards for various uses, lots of 2x4s for general purpose use. since our logs were mostly 12 feet in length, we only cut one longer timber for the porch, a 6 x 12 x 14'. the remaining timbers we'll order from a local sawmill.

the sawyer, mckim mitchell, did a great job working with us. with a crew of about six on average we rolled the logs down to the mill from the top of the parking lot, got them onto the mill's lifting arms, then mckim operated the mill sawing out timbers from a list i gave him. we then offloaded the timbers into my pickup and drove them up to the kitchen site where they're now stacked. i'm guessing we got about 3500 board feet, or about 300 cubic feet of timber. your average fridge is about 20 cubit feet. i had mckim saw some of the curved logs into 4 inch slabs for naturally curved braces and i had him slab one short, large diameter log into 3" thick bench seats with natural edges. we produced an six-foot high pile of edge waste in the parking lot much of which could probably be used for projects.

act 250 granted

2006-06-14T14:41:00.000-04:00

good news! we received our act 250 permit last week. this means we can move ahead to get construction permits.

the bad news, lately, is that it keeps raining. the ground is saturated and our excavator cannot start work until the ground dries out. the land drains slowly. most recent guesses are that excavation will begin in two to three weeks, if it doesn't rain much. in the mean time, we'll be plotting out how to proceed given that our foundation work is delayed. there is work that we can do before the excavator shows up, such as sawing timbers (we're doing this this coming weekend), starting construction of the bathhouse (which it seems will not have a foundation), perhaps working on the privy building by hand. i've sent out word to the communities around destiny, through a variety of networks, that we're looking for used/free building materials. i've received a number of responses offering lumber, windows and other building materials. this is promising!

pictured is the latest rendering of the entrance to the kitchen.

porch

2006-06-05T16:50:00.000-04:00

a friend stopped by and turned me onto the architecture of samuel mockbee. the picture here is of a gorgeous porch somewhat like the one we'll have at destiny. the building is "hay bale". believe it or not, this is affordable housing in alabama. i love the immensity of this porch. it's definitely a porch! the columns enoble the space, marking it as important. the bases of the columns offer nice places to sit. there is ample room for chairs. unlike most porches, this one calls out the heavens above with the beautifully slatted steep clear roof.

timber sizing

2006-06-04T22:01:00.000-04:00

i've spent the last few days sizing the timbers for the timber frame. i've not done structural work since architecture school, so a good day was spent reviewing old notes and books to refresh my memory. i also had to find the current allowable stresses for timber since they've changed from when i was in school.

i actually enjoy doing structural calculations. i feel good understanding what's actually happening in a piece of wood and why it needs to be a certain shape in order to work. it helps inform design.

my friend andrea, a timber frame designer who has been helping me with this project, sent a spreadsheet with the sizing calculations nicely programmed which saves a great deal of time. doing the calculations by hand is interesting, too, and helped me understand the theory behind the sizing, but it is time consuming.

the upshot of my structural work has been an adjustment to the design. what i had planned for originally required timbers i felt were too large for us to handle. i'd prefer not to have to hire a crane to lift our work. so, i spaced the elements of frame closer so that each was carrying less load and could be made smaller. we will have to carve more joints as a result. other factors contributed too: the recommended values for snow loads (the major load on our building) have increased about 40%. so, while my house built in the 1830s has 7x7 beams spanning 13 feet (the cat makes the floor bounce), our building will have 8x14 beams spanning about the same distance (and you could probably drive a truck onto the roof with barely a jiggle).

portable sawmilling

2006-06-04T21:46:00.000-04:00

gabriel and i drove down to destiny yesterday to meet mckim mitchell, a sawyer from new hampshire. he's also a former new hampshire state representative as well as family. mckim read the destiny star and noticed that we were planning on sawing some of our own lumber and let us know he'd be happy to do it with his equipment. in the rain, we all took a look at the log pil. mckim confirmed the logger's estimate that the pile contains about 3000-4000 board feet. mckim noticed some center rot and what's called shake, a condition where the rings of the tree seperate. this will limit the quality of wood coming from those logs. overall, however, the logs look good. if you're wondering, a board foot is 12" x 12" x 1" of lumber. it's a common volumetric standard by which lumber is quantified. imagine one square foot of shelving board and you've imagined roughly a board foot. our project will likely take eight to ten thousand board feet, so not all of it will come from our land, but probably 1/3 to 1/2. since we needed to clear the land anyway for our building and septic sites, the logs were essentially a bonus which means we're getting the timber we saw on-site at about 1/2 the cost of buying it from a mill.

mckim has another job he's finishing, but he estimates he will be able to start work at destiny around june 13. he's going to try to work over the weekend of the 16-18 so that folks can come up and help stack and move the wood. if you're interested please sign up on our work email list by contacting bambi at info#faeriecampdestiny.org (replace the # with @).

biodiesel?

2006-06-01T12:40:00.000-04:00

the price of fuel is going up. a new thought: we might think about running our generator on bio-diesel or even waste veggie oil rather than propane, as we had previously thought we would. a propane generator will make our fuel supply simpler, but propane is not renewable. veggie oil is. at this point, veggie oil can be had for free from restaurants. in the future, if using it catches on, that may not be the case, but there is a lot of waste veggie oil out there. i've found a web site that details how to take a used diesel engine of lawnmower size (6-10 horsepower, $150-$200 and attach a DC alternator ($165) to that for operating pumps, charging batteries and inversion for operating 120v devices. this might be a great way for destiny to lower operating costs and be a bit greener.

sawmilling

2006-05-31T15:23:00.000-04:00

i've contacted a sawyer, mckim mitchell, who has agreed to saw our on-site timber for us between june 10 and june 20. we have somewhere between 3000 and 4000 board feet (12" x 12" x 1") of timber from our clearing last fall that we'll be using to build our kitchen and the composting toilet facitily. we will need to order some more timber, most likely, to complete both.

spring survey

2006-05-31T15:10:00.000-04:00

the "meadow" during whitman

kitchen survey

bathhouse survey

composting toilet survey

during whitman gathering michel and i, with the help of a few others now and then, surveyed the three building sites we plan to work on this summer. we used a self-leveling laser to shoot elevations and set up grade stakes at the corners of the survey. we noted the locations of rocks, trees and other landscape features, such as the swale near the kitchen. i plotted one-foot contours on the drawings shown here. click on any one of them to see a larger version. the survey's are accurate to about 6", good enough for our purposes.

i also took the noon sun location to give me a bead on south (i have never had a compass on the land). taking the position of the sun at clock-time noon gives you a rough location on south. it varies slightly because of the relationship of the earth's orbit to the sun. here are some photos and descriptions of how the sun varies: http://solar-center.stanford.edu/art/analemma.html.

small is better

2006-05-22T18:04:00.000-04:00

some fun small houses: tumbleweed houses.

timber framing weekend

2006-05-09T13:46:00.000-04:00

the gate and faeries

the timber framing workshop in white river junction produced a beautiful hemlock hand-cut gateway for the land, pictured here laying flat with most of the faeries that worked on it. over two days we covered the essentials of timber framing and everyone got to try their hand at sawing, chiseling, boring and finishing.

i'm happy with the way the workshop turned out. my goal was to demonstrate that almost anyone can do this kind of work. over the two days i felt the mood shift from nervousness to excitement and hope. i heard expressions like, "wow, this is really beautiful" and "we can really do this!" as the beams started to take shape, as we tested joints and finally assembled the whole. we all created a marvelous transformation of rough timbers into finished interlocking pieces.

there are pictures of the workshop in a couple places: jim jackson art and the faerie camp destiny web site.

act 250 update

2006-05-02T16:39:00.000-04:00

one of our neighbors has requested an act 250 hearing around our application. the issue is a right-of-way that they believe extends into our property. they are concerned that we are changing the right-of-way and may be building in it. however, according to their deed, which they supplied to the state, their right-of-way extends only 1975 feet up the road from route 103, ending well before the road reaches the area in which we are building. at first glance, it is not easy to tell where the right-of-way does go, so the misunderstanding is understandable. we've been debating this for a few years amongst ourselves. but, it is very clear from the deed, and from our survey drawing, that their right of way ends well before our parking lot. we are trying to get this cleared up without a hearing. communication with our neighbor has been friendly and hopefully this will conclude peacefully.

Timber Framing Introduction Weekend

2006-05-02T16:33:00.000-04:00

the gate we'll be building

May 5-9 at "The Millbillies" White River Junction, Vermont

In this weekend workshop I'll introduce faeries and anyone else interested to the principles and practices of timber framing that we'll be using to build some of our structures at Faerie Camp Destiny. I'll be passing along what I learned at the Yestermorrow School of Design/Build last fall. We will make a simple two-posted information board/gate for the land that will be erected at the parking lot to help people arriving.

FRIDAY, MAY 5
5:00pm-8:00pm Arrival & Dinner
8:00pm Welcome Circle & Introduction to Timber Framing

SATURDAY, MAY 6
6:30am Yoga (optional!)
8:00am Breakfast
9:00pm Joinery: Mortise & Tenon
9:45am Tool Demonstration (Saws, Chisels, Planes, Drills, Squares & Pencils)
10:30am Break
10:45am Measure & Cut Posts
12:30pm Lunch
1:30pm Cut Tenons
3:30pm Break
3:45pm Finish Posts
6:00pm Dinner
8:00pm Drum Circle

SUNDAY, MAY 7
6:30am Yoga (optional!)
8:00am Breakfast
9:00am Measure & Cut Beam
10:00am Mortise Demonstration
10:30am Break
10:45am Cut Mortises
12:30pm Lunch
1:30pm Bore Peg Holes
2:00pm Frame Assembly (weather permitting)

THINGS YOU WILL NEED TO BRING

Work Clothes that you don't mind getting dirty
Sleeping Bag, Pad & Pillow
Eye protection recommended if you don't wear glasses
Work gloves recommended if your hands are sensitive
Instruments for jamming!

tile!

2006-05-02T16:30:00.000-04:00

fired tiles

in the last month faeries at dick and daisy's loft have crafted some beautiful tiles. here are some pictures from the tile-making sessions and a picture of one fired tile at the bottom. these will probably be set into the kitchen's plaster walls.

act 250 progress

2006-04-10T11:28:00.000-04:00

if you'd like to follow our act 250 progress here is the link to the state website where act 250 permits are stored: fcd's act 250 permit

act 250 filed

2006-03-30T08:16:00.000-05:00

our act 250 application

here it is: our act 250 application just before going in the mail. i didn't expect it to take three weeks to put it together, but that's what it took. it now goes through a one-week administrative phase where the state checks it for completeness, then it has a 21-day comment period during which abutters can request a hearing if they have concerns that apply.

now, we can move forward with planning the summer, getting construction under way. if all goes smoothly, we will have a new act 250 permit in about a month, which will allow us to move ahead with our new plans. if a hearing is requested and approved, we'll have to go through that process, which will delay the permit a bit. however, our current act 250 permit is still in effect. it allows construction of most of the camp, including the privy, bathhouse, a smaller kitchen, the septic system and all the tenting sites. so, while a delay would be a drag, we'll have plenty to do until the new permit comes through.

more nitty gritty

2006-03-17T09:50:00.000-05:00

For the past couple weeks I've been working on our Act 250 re-application. I thought this would be a quicker affair than it's turned out to be. But, it should be out the door in short order. Currently, I'm waiting for state officials to return calls and emails. We have to have approval from our town, wildlife and forestry departments before I can submit the application. While they approved the prior application, they need to review the current one in order for us to proceed.

If you're interested in what the site plans look like they're posted here as PDFs:
site plan
site plan detail