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Mackay
Almost Self-Reliant
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cl, I planted those hybrids exactly because they grow fast. Moving on in years you know...can't wait for ever...they will border the entrance to the property. We are not really thinking wind break at this point..I am thinking of planting a wood lot of ponderosa pine which do grow in Idaho, just not right where we are. This wood lot is for future generations of course. Not too may trees native to this part of the state. Cottonwoods mostly and some tree that kinda looks like an aspen but isn't. We have a couple that are dying. Will put in some aspens before long.. Moscow is a pretty long drive for us, not too likely we will get over there for trees. All in all I don't plan but to plant about 20 more trees. This neck of the woods just doesn't have many unless you get into the mountains...but the wood lot is a must and I will put them on the corner of the property by the bend in the road where the view is not so good in that direction. May scatter a few clusters of aspen here and there and I am thinking of a couple of large maples, mostly for their compost potential on leaves...but I will have to hunt around for just the right kind.
The building wrap did start to blow off after a bad storm about a month ago. Our neighbor went over and stapled it up for us.... imagine that! Real, alive, awake, concerned, generous neighbors....but then again, we always give them beer when they come by
I'm thinking that upstairs in a small house will be pretty warm since heat rises and we may put floor vents in to allow for even more of that. I once lived in a 3 story house with poor insulation on the Long Island Sound. 17 below in the winter. Wind chill like crazy. The heating bill was enormous, as the house was. The further upstairs you went the warmer it got. The roommate on the third floor had to keep his window open. And then another time I lived in an apartment in an old farm house near Kansas City. My heating bill was essentially paid by the renters in the bottom floor! And then I remember my grandmother who lived in the apartment upstairs from us (in a house that is now 125 years old) when I was a kid in upstate New York..she would come down stairs all the time and complain about how hot we kept the house, but we were cold downstairs in the middle of winter unless we kept it turned up!
The house plans are slowing down again. dh has been spending time thinking of irrigation, and purchasing a culvert and a head gate for the irrigation ditch. We gotta get that stuff in before the water gets turned on in May or it will have to wait till next year and we do want to get a road built. The culvert will be to make a bridge on the part of the road that crosses the ditch, as he says the bridge I put in just won't support a fire truck. Oh Well. The plan is to have two entrances to the property, and the one that goes over the ditch will be the front door so to speak. The road will come in over the ditch, through sage brush, past the garden, to midway down the side of the pasture where it will circle up a bit to the garage then take off around the rest of the pasture to come out on the corner of the property at the fence line with our closest neighbor. dh says all good ranches have a drive through if they can...what do I know? He's the one raised in ranch country. This second entrance that we currently use will be shared with and serve another house if we ever have to sell a part...and I'm prayin that never happens...but we are prepping for it. Electric is pulled up to access that potential site already... it was more cost effective to do it now than later.
The building wrap did start to blow off after a bad storm about a month ago. Our neighbor went over and stapled it up for us.... imagine that! Real, alive, awake, concerned, generous neighbors....but then again, we always give them beer when they come by
I'm thinking that upstairs in a small house will be pretty warm since heat rises and we may put floor vents in to allow for even more of that. I once lived in a 3 story house with poor insulation on the Long Island Sound. 17 below in the winter. Wind chill like crazy. The heating bill was enormous, as the house was. The further upstairs you went the warmer it got. The roommate on the third floor had to keep his window open. And then another time I lived in an apartment in an old farm house near Kansas City. My heating bill was essentially paid by the renters in the bottom floor! And then I remember my grandmother who lived in the apartment upstairs from us (in a house that is now 125 years old) when I was a kid in upstate New York..she would come down stairs all the time and complain about how hot we kept the house, but we were cold downstairs in the middle of winter unless we kept it turned up!
The house plans are slowing down again. dh has been spending time thinking of irrigation, and purchasing a culvert and a head gate for the irrigation ditch. We gotta get that stuff in before the water gets turned on in May or it will have to wait till next year and we do want to get a road built. The culvert will be to make a bridge on the part of the road that crosses the ditch, as he says the bridge I put in just won't support a fire truck. Oh Well. The plan is to have two entrances to the property, and the one that goes over the ditch will be the front door so to speak. The road will come in over the ditch, through sage brush, past the garden, to midway down the side of the pasture where it will circle up a bit to the garage then take off around the rest of the pasture to come out on the corner of the property at the fence line with our closest neighbor. dh says all good ranches have a drive through if they can...what do I know? He's the one raised in ranch country. This second entrance that we currently use will be shared with and serve another house if we ever have to sell a part...and I'm prayin that never happens...but we are prepping for it. Electric is pulled up to access that potential site already... it was more cost effective to do it now than later.