Permaculture Readings

Our latest read is a book I borrowed from Jim Juczak at Woodhenge. It's called Permaculture - Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability. It's a comprehensive journey into the logic behind living sustainably, and opens up new thought processes for us, leading us in many new directions. It's written by the co-founder of the permaculture movement, David Holmgren.

Building the Wind Tower Components

Jim & I were busy this weekend, cutting, grinding, drilling, and welding the steel pieces for the wind tower. We made the base assembly, and the guy wire couplers for the tower sections. The wind was plentiful this weekend, and jim's wind turbines were actively pumping amps into the Woodhenge battery pack. See the pics in our photo album.

Wind Tower Delay

Due to weather and parts availability, we have to delay raising the tower. The sonotubes have not arrived, and we need a tamper to pack the ground around the tubes after the they have been filled with concrete and backfilled. Instead, we will be heading to Woodhenge this weekend to work on the tower assembly, and help out there with some of their projects. The Todd Cookstove is being delivered soon as well, so there will be a chimney installation project to handle.

Wind Tower Supports & More

Bob Emmett from Camp Mandaville was here with his backhoe to dig the holes for the wind tower guy wire pads. We blew a hydraulic hose on one of the horizontal stabilizers, but were able to finish the job.

The concrete is sitting in bags ready to be mixed, and the rebar needs to be bent into long "u" shapes and inserted into the holes for concrete filling. Tower raising is still on track for this Saturday at 9 am.

This morning we found a Todd Woodfired Cookstove, and made a deal with the local dealer, Evans & White Ace Hardware. Seems it's been sitting in their warehouse for 5 years and they'd like it moved.

The folks at From the Heart Cabinetry are supplying us with wood scraps from their kitchen cabinet building business for kindling and fuel for the cookstove.

As usual, pictures and commentary of the construction and installation processes will be posted, and long term data on living with these systems will be provided on this website for free. Donations to help with the projects are appreciated, and allows us to keep this information free, and flowing to all.