the log home

When we moved out here, we intended to build right away. We wanted a log home; well, technically we wanted a log-sided home. Is it the most "green" of all our options? No. But it was part of the package for us. We wanted the acreage and the log home on it. We love log homes - they bring many happy memories with them for both of us. We do a heck of a lot of other stuff to reduce our impact on the planet, and we wanted to give ourselves this one luxury.

But as these things go, giving ourselves a luxury every now and then doesn't mean we give in to our whims completely. We've been actively researching how to make our future log home as low-impact (and least costly) as possible.

So we decided on a few things. First, we're going to make it a stick-built home with log siding. We have newer-growth edge woods (7.5 acres of them) that have been untended for a very long time. Jeff is currently cutting down our red cedars - actually in the juniper family - to use as our siding. Red cedars are what they call "pioneer" trees, meaning they are one of the first to establish themselves on a field that is left untended. They're very prominent in new-growth woods like ours. As the hardwood trees start to grow up around them, they eventually shade out and kill off these juniper pioneers.

Our woods could use some culling, for certain, and the red cedars are a great option since they will eventually die out anyway (in fact most are already dead except their very tops, 20 feet up), and since they regrow so quickly. As luck would have it, they are also one of the best trees to use for a log home since they are so bug resistant.

We are also building a two-story home with a small (less than 1200 square foot) footprint. The bottom story, which will house our bedrooms, will be underground with a walkout into our woods. We're having a standard concrete basement poured, then we'll finish it with three bedrooms and a small living area with a woodstove that looks out into our woods.

It can get very hot in our area during the summer, and we usually end up running the air conditioner for at least two months each year, for both temperature and air quality. Having our sleeping areas underground should eliminate the need to run our air conditioner, except maybe a week or two in mid-August when the tomatoes are ready to can. The prospect of canning in 95 degree heat with 70% humidity makes canning not happen.

We're using as many free and recycled items as possible to finish the interior of the house. And we're situating the house to take advantage of the solar gain in the winter.

We're very excited about our plans, and the fact that we will one day be living in our log home on our land, just like we intended from the beginning. We think we have it figured out financially so that we won't have to borrow any money to complete the house.

And the best part?

We're starting on the basement next month! By the end of winter, we should have the entire basement poured and weatherproofed. We might choose to finish it and live in it before the rest of the home goes up. We could then sell our mobile and have that cash to use for the framing and/or the roof.

This is a huge step for us, and it definitely keeps me going on these endless cold, cloudy days. :-)

And now, a quick plug for my other blog, Supper In Seconds. If you've never been there, it's a recipe blog I started a couple years ago dedicated to scratch cooking that takes 15 minutes or less hands-on time.

We eat little to no processed food here. I am extremely sensitive to chemicals (another bonus on using our own logs for our own home), to the point where I was on medication for nearly 15 years to deal with my chemical sensitivities. I stopped taking medication 5 years ago, and have learned a lot about keeping myself and my family fed without convenience foods.

I started documenting my favorite quick recipes, because if you don't have the sensitivities I do, and you can eat convenience foods, I suspect most of you probably eat more of them than you want to simply because they are quick to prepare.

Supper In Seconds was intended to offer some alternatives.

I've had some camera issues for several months, so the blog is very deficient in pictures for a food blog! However, my dear husband just fixed those camera issues for me as my Christmas gift, so I can now start including pics of the finished recipes too.

In the future, you can access it on the right sidebar of this blog. I hope you enjoy it too!

And finally, on to some recent photos:

We lost our Christmas stockings in the move somehow, so I sewed some more & Sassy and I decorated them tonight. She decorated the one with the Christmas tree.



With Jeff home full-time now, finding a quiet space to do some schoolwork in our very small house - or any non-distracted work - is very hard for Sassy. I carved her out a little spot today.



She, in turn, immediately set to work choosing a tablecloth for the table an setting up her desk.



And lastly, yes it's true we have no TV input. That's right. No cable. No satellite. No network news. However, aside from Hulu, entertainment still abounds, no worries. For example, just last week I spent 30 minutes watching and documenting...

The Death of The Fly, starring The Tiny Spider One-Fourth Its Size