Ragnar's Eco-Cabin Weeb Site: The Land (The Farm)

	Ragnar's Eco-Cabin Weeb Site
	The Land (The Farm)

The First Shed: The First Shed was built in the very early days because Mom needed some place to lock up and store the stuff she was leaving on the land.
The Public Utilities Building: Called the P.U.B. it is built over the well-head. The generator is also in this building, it is occasionally used to generate electricity to run the pump and we've used it a lot in the construction of the cabin and all the out-buildings.
The Cabin: is designed on a pentagonal floor plan with triangular walls that lean in or out at around 11 degrees from plumb, this made windows and doors a little tricky. We started off with this little Eco-Cabin Book, it was helpful in building the cabin, but it was not easy, it didn't have a lot of follow up. Now in July 2005 the cabin was hit by lightning and burnt down. We are rebuilding in a spot six feet over from were it was and I've changed the design of the cabin and bunch of other stuff I think it will be much better than the first one. We asked several people if we needed a lightning rod on the old cabin and were told the it was not necessary, this time there will be a lightning rod on the cabin.
The Fire Pit: along with the burning barrel were among the first things built. Both are surrounded by a gravel bed to stop the fire from getting away and the fire pit has enough space for many people to sit around and enjoy a camp fire. Made of steel rings, we can cook on our fire pit. We've also got a spark catching mesh covers over the fire. The burning barrel is for burning trash on windier days.
The Wood Shed: is kind of part of the P.U.B. just behind it, this main wood shed is for hard wood the cabin stove. Another wood shed for the fire pit will be built, some day, near the fire pit, but right now there is still a lot of wast and scrap wood around to burn our camp fires.
The Bath House: was needed after Mom got a composting toilet. The building is rectangular and insulated, it will have a shower space inside and also outside. The bash house is located between the P.U.B. and the Kitchen.
The Kitchen: will be the biggest of all the buildings, it'll be part kitchen, dining room, living room and shelter from the rain. 16 foot octagon with low log-end walls and screen upper walls. A bar-b-que for cooking will be outside the kitchen.
The Fence: A very late addition, never planed for, the fence was necessary because of Dory, Mom's greyhound. You see this kind of dog cannot be let off the leash because they can just run away. So a fence 5 feet high is suggested, So I built one.
The Trailer: We got this trailer to live in while we rebuild the cabin. Since construction of the cabin was finished the trailer was gotten rid of
The Garage: This is a portable car garage we got for storing the wood for the new cabin so it won't get wet and is easily accessible for us to use. Destroyed in a wind storm, never replaced.
The Garden Shed: Planned at this point .
The Wood Shed - Fire Pit: Planned at this point .

This land, the farm, Mom has, is ostensibly a tree farm and there are hundreds of trees Mom's planted and dotes over. This is nice because once the trees take they don't take a lot of work after that. this has given us a fair bit of time to work on other things on the land. In the few years since we started building out there we've ended up building a lot of stuff out there

When we came up with the plan to build a cabin on Mom's land, originally it was to go much closer to the road. In the end the site where the cabin is now is more than twice as far back from the road as originally planed. Once an opening was made through the first, and biggest stone fence, the second one was opened too. The Eventually it was decided to build in the back of the third lot, this meant that openings were needed in the two stone fences. the first fence was a lot of work and Mom hired someone to help her with that. the fence, were the opening is was the narrowest part, was around four feet high and ten feet at the base. the second fence was a third that size.

So then Mom had a well drilled far back on the land, that was when I began to really have some working involvement in this project. The well-head was in this clearing unsheltered from the elements and and the generator was stored in the shed 200 yards away so when ever needed the generator needed to be hauled to the well-head to run the pump. So I went up to build the Pump House, We've decided to call it the P.U.B. The Public Utilities Building because it has both the water and electricity in it.

The driveway was built over a few years and in several stages.

Several years before Mom inherited this land a fellow harvested a lot of the wood in the back of the lot, we are building in the area where he had processed that wood. There was a lot of abandoned logs and scrap around when we started building. We collected up a lot of it and are slowly burning it as we can. There were a few logs that were around three feet across and over 12 feet long.


	© Ragnar Torfason 2013 June 16