Earthen Construction
Our most recent construction project, our rammed-earth well house, is finished for the season and pictured at left. It will receive a final coat of plaster in the spring. More pictures here We're now gearing up for our new cabin!
Livestock
Animal care is a major part of daily life at the farm. We're currently raising goats, bees, and chickens. Daily chores might include anything from feeding, watering, and milking to trimming hooves, cleaning stalls, repairing fences, or attending births.
Gardens
We are developing a diverse vegetable garden, as well as our rainwater harvesting system and irrigation. we're also planting a variety of fruit trees and berry bushes.
The main gardening work this winter (2012) consists of developing areas we have already cleared with goats for vegetable/cover crop/livestock rotation. There is also always work keeping existing beds weeded, harvested, and planted. We're continuing our development of hedgerows, or living fences, that will help contain our livestock and provide a wide range of medicinals and perrenial herbs for them (and us) to forage.
Finished Projects
We have several finished projects that are no longer listed here.
They do offer visitors an opportunity to learn about various building methods that we've experimented with, including cob, earthbag, tire retaining walls, passive solar design, a living roof, and recycled construction.
photos of these projects are available by clicking on the pictures below:
Our cob toolshed was one of our first construction projects at the farm (Summer 2009). It incorporates cordwood, glass bottles, recycled materials, and locally harvested timbers.
Our earth sheltered mini-greenhouse gives us a sheltered space to start new seedlings, and features an earthbag foundation, and living roof (Winter 2009-10).
Our new barn at the haven provides living space for our goats, and tool and materials storage. It is built almost entirely from a recycled chicken house that we de-constructed.(2010).
We learned a lot during our service trip to Guatemala where we spent two months building a school from used tires, cob, and trash bottles. (2011). more info on this project at Long Way Home
We've done our own used tire construction, and built two retaining walls using tires littering our dirt road.
