The mysterious green bowling ball, found half-buried in the swampy area of our land under a tree. Where did it come from? Why was it there, on uninhabited land? Life is full of mysteries…

Doesn’t this look like fun to dig and plant in?

Before we got here, we wanted to do the least expensive thing, and build as close to the road as possible.  We bought the land thinking we would- and then right before we closed they did the perc test to see how the soil would drain for the septic system. “It’ll pass, no problem”, it was said. Surprise- oops, it failed! So we had to remediate the site, and spent about $5,000 having contractors bring in rocky/gravelly/clay-y soil and spread it all over some of our lovely pasture…

And then, of course, we ended up switching house sites. For which we will probably be glad later, but has meant that we are paying lots more money for driveway, power, etc. And of course, for our useless $5,000 dump fill/rock farm we have dubbed “Rock Island”.

It is a very unnerving thing to realize no one is stopping you from making mistakes on a much grander scale than you have previously had the opportunity to! We are trying to figure out how to use Rock Island, but my attempts to think of the piles of rocks we are amassing as wall-building material just isn’t very inspiring… Any ideas, outside world?

The “dirt” color you see in the above photo may look like dry grass, but it is just bare rock-filled, kinda clay soil with a few weeds here and there, with green pasture just beyond. Oh, and the straw bales on the left that you see are our little beginnings of land management. We build a composter out of bales of hay piled 2 high, 3 wide each side, and filled it with horse poop, straw, and some dirt. So at least we have a little something amendment-wise going on… The other bales you see lying around are just extra hay that can be tossed in there when needed.

We lumbered off in the RV, to arrive in Greenwich where all was green and the spring peepers were in full call.  We enjoyed it for about a month (especially after the porto-potty arrived, since the black tank was broken on the RV), then off flew Mihai, and then I, to CA to pack up the lab.

Green, spring wonderful vs. Lab

Ah, the lab. The lab which was supposed to fit, along with our house belongings, into the 20 foot trailer and big-ass pickup (technical descriptor) we’d bought.  The lab which was supposed to take 2 weeks to pack up. I arrived in SF on June 2nd, after being stuck in Boston due to the tornado (!), while starting a nasty case of tonsillitis. We arrived at my Mom’s in NY on July 6th. 40 days and 40 nights away from Eli!  Ugh. Very biblical.  I did get a good education in how to wrap chemistry glassware, so if you need your four-necked round bottom flask wrapped, just ask me for advice.  We had to stop back in Santa Fe to empty my Dad’s storage space, which took a lot longer than expected. (Surprise!)  The fires were still raging in the mountains, and had a wheel stolen off our trailer, but at least we got to see a good friend we hadn’t in a long time, and one of Mihai’s friends and co-workers helped us save my Father’s technical book collection from the dumpster. Literally- the library that had said they would take the books just tossed them in the trash, and Mark jumped in and rescued them!  I wish I had a photo of that…

And look- a double rainbow in Santa Fe!

Onward, again!  Only one more blown tire on our severely overpacked trailer, and we made it.  Here’s a bug that greeted us on the door- it was HUGE- about 4” long!  And I really want to know what it was, so I will give whoever can tell me a present. Don’t worry, it’s not the bug. 

 We unpacked, headed to my Mom’s and then into New York City to empty another storage unit.  Yes, in the extra longbed pickup and a 20’ trailer. In New York City.  Granted, Elena will tell you it was on the upper west side and just off the highway, which is true and made things easier, but still, it sucked as much as you might imagine.  Elena and we valiantly got it all out, and we headed back to my Mom’s and Eli, who was especially, wonderfully snuggly.  We missed him terribly.  It just didn’t feel right away from him so long… But it was done, and we had all that we owned in one state.  We headed back up to Greenwich and unpacked. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Just two syllables- unpacked. I have no words to express how tired we were, or how much swearing I did.  (Otoh, maybe I did have the words, but I will not repeat them here!)  I will say that my back and biceps were a hell of a lot stronger, though.

Over the next few months, we were able to enjoy many of the things that the east coast has to offer in the summertime.  Ice cream, fresh corn and watermelon.  The state fair, a permaculture festival, outdoor theater (the Mettawee players- Eli was entranced).  The one thing not happening was- the house.  Just waiting for engineer plans and county permit took 5.5 months.  Yup, virtually the whole season.  The land was glorious, though. And by mid-August, we finally had a driveway, a mailbox, and a hole in the ground waiting for us!

Driveway: 

Hole in the ground:

Glorious Land:

Enter Fall! 

We managed to go apple picking, and also made a nice big horse poop/straw compost pile so we’ll be ready to garden come spring!

Eli started preschool at Pooh’s Corner here in Greenwich, and is thoroughly enjoying it (which is good after his former juvenile delinquent status at his daycare in San Francisco.)  And we gained a new family member when we adopted Teddy, a rat terrier, from the SPCA!  Here are Tantie Elena, Eli, and Teddy celebrating my birthday in style-

Aaaand at the end of October we finally got our permit, and things began to happen, like the shallow frost-protected foundation (an insulated alaskan slab)…  And finally, the frame raising, which completed in time for the first night of Chanukah!  

Notice here the good old RV in the background, enjoying a new life as a construction trailer, with its generator serving to power construction tools.

ALL FINISHED!

Our plans are now to get a couple layers of the roof on (eventually it will be a screw-down metal roof) and wrap it up, waiting till spring to restart.  In the meantime, Mihai will work on his consulting and creating the lab, I’ll work on my new Music Together business, “Eenie Meenie Music” and singing and performing in various places, like with the fabulous Hubbard Hall Theater Co. in Cambridge, as Eleanor in an original musical about Eleanor Roosevelt, and with Temple Sinai’s “Tot Shabbat” program. And Eli will work on exploring and enjoying life as a little boy, which is really probably the most important thing going on. (Here he is building his own house with a present from beloved Uncle Rich, whom we still miss terribly!) 

And that is where we stand, miei amici e ma famiglia!  If you’d like to know more about the technical details of construction, well, you’ll have to ask Mihai, but he’ll be more than happy to talk about the exciting plans we have in store for this very low-tech, ultra high-efficiency homestead. I’m planning on doing a hell of a lot of permaculture inspired shrub and tree planting in the spring.  (Well, as much as a quite limited budget will allow!)  Thank you for reading about our adventures- hopefully it was entertaining, even if long.  And we really truly want to know how life is for you, as well- so please write, call, visit, email, send messages by pigeon or telepathy…  We wish you all the very best for this new year!

I wanted to send out an email to all my friends and family, but it just kept getting longer and longer… And then I remembered- hey, I have this blog that’s been languishing over here- perhaps that would be a good place to let interested people check out our year of madness, rather than involuntarily subjecting them to a tl/dr experience!  So, here we go.

Oh boy, my friends and family, it’s been one heck of a year!

It all started off right at the end of last year, when (after much hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing) we bought 13.68 mostly south-sloping, tillable acres, with a small pond and 2 streams, in the little rural town of Greenwich, NY, 50 minutes north of Albany.  We spent the first months of the year trying to figure out a plan for our very complex cross-country move, which was, of course, thrown out the window after reality roughly had its way with us.  The first drive from CA to NY (there were two) involved a 1975 Sportscoach RV, towing a tiny Honda HF, with a Honda wagon in chase position.  Mihai’s Dad flew out to help us pack and drive, which was a blessing, especially after I fell down the stairs and got myself a badly sprained ankle while loading the RV.  We left on April 13th, a week later than planned, and after 3 minor and 3 major breakdowns before got to Kingman, AZ, it was smooth sailing! (Well, except for the tornado in St. Louis.)

A new, green way to dry tiny shoes- with engine heat! (aka Mihai the European redneck)

Can you spot the small boy in this enormous truck stop display of lights? 

The RV is ready for a 70’s zombie invasion in the desert!

We met up with sister Elena in Santa Fe, where we opened the door to my Dad’s storage unit to discover… lots and lots of totally 1/4 inch dust-covered stuff!  We couldn’t even get into the unit, so tightly and complexly had our intrepid mathematician father knitted everything.  Well, that would be dealt with on the next trip. Onward! Elena and Mihai’s Dad had to get back to NY asap, so off they went in the wagon, driving in shifts from Santa Fe to New York in 2 DAYS!  We took slightly longer, with a few stops to entertain Eli/maintain family sanity.  Although we went to the fabulous Albuquerque Aquarium (Thanks, Sharon!), Tulsa Zoo, the Onandaga Caves, and visited family in OH, the most exciting thing was apparently the Chuck E. Cheese in Amarillo that Eli still asks to go to.  What the heck is this thing below? :)

Pond, check.   Some cattails, a little duckweed, plants growing around it, check.  So the mystery is why there are so few froggy peepers in our pond? It’s connected with a marshy bit to our neighbor’s pond, and they are rampant in there, judging by the wonderful nightly cacaphony.  Mihai double-checked, and there were a few in ours, but the difference is obvious.  So how do I make our property more happy for the insect-eating little guys?  I need marketing aimed at frogs!

(and yes, you must sing that post title to the Blue Oyster Cult song.  To make up for that, here is a picture of the stream with a little clump of marsh marigolds.)

We’ve made it!

Well, sort of, since we’re at my Mom’s and we still have to get the RV and ourselves up to the land 3 hours away.  And then we still have (at least Mihai does) to fly back and do another cross-country run with the truck and 20 foot trailer containing our belongings, along with another stop in Santa Fe to clear out the storage my Dad had.  Then, after we get back, we can get all the storage out from the NYC .  Then we get to truck it up and unload it all into Mihai’s “lab” space 3.75 hours away!  Oh, and somewhere in there we build a house. :) (<- that smiley, although real, is weary.)

But we made it so far!  We overcame me spraining my ankle just before leaving, and many breakdowns (all fixed by Mihai and his Dad by the time we got through AZ).  We escaped the tornado that closed the St Louis airport.  We survived road food across America as vegetarians.  (That means we ate a lot of cheese. Ok, ovolacto vegetarians- if we were vegan we’d have starved to death.)  And, we survived all this with a very active 4 year old.

Mr. Man did as well as could be expected- and let me tell you, the best tool of distraction was not the iphone, which led to incredible tantrums when removed.  The best tool, once he was in the RV with a table in front of him, was Playdoh.  Wonderful, aggression-relieving Playdoh that does not mind being stabbed, gouged, drilled, cut, and pounded…