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Blount (pronounced "blunt") Mountain from Canoe Creek Valley. Our property is the half-mile "hump" in the mountain at the middle of the photo. Our homestead is about 600 feet above the valley floor. |
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Canoe Creek Valley from the ridge of our property on a foggy morning. |
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One of the two small waterfalls in the deep ravine on our property. |
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A section of the cliffs that bisect our property from east to west. |
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A view of our cabin from the east. This is where we live for now ... a 12 x 12 cabin with a 4 x 8 "kitchen" at the back. When we move into our new house, this will become our home office. Eventually, this cabin will be incorporated into a grouping of three structures at the north side of our garden, including a small barn and a utility shed with root cellar (and storm shelter) below. The concrete block stairs and foundation walls will be surfaced with native stones that taper out from the bases of the tree trunks to the ground, hopefully giving the building the effect of growing out of the forest floor. The final touch will be some log railings and decorative twigwork. (Once our wood shop is finished, we'll build real casement windows, too!) |
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The east wall of the interior, showing Dave's rustic craftsmanship. (The chairs are purchased but everything else is Dave's handiwork.) The paneling and flooring are from trees harvested when we cleared the area for our vegetable garden. |
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A view of the southwest corner, showing the end of our bunk bed (also built by Dave). We use an electric oil-filled radiator (lower left) for winter heating. |
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Our kitchen. The countertop at right lifts up to reveal a two-burner stove top. Out of picture range to the left are a small refrigerator/freezer and a convection microwave. |
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Detail of the log ceiling. |
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The collection apparatus of our rainwater catchment system. The water supply line leading from storage tank into the cabin is underground to protect it from freezing. |
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The indoor water treatment apparatus of our rainwater catchment system. A combination pump and pressure tank (black unit on floor) pulls water from the outdoor storage tank and sends it through a series of three carbon filters of decreasing pore size (three leftmost white units on wall), plus a UV light (silver unit). Hot water is provided by an electric on-demand unit (far right). |
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A winter view of the vegetable garden from the porch of the Office Cabin. (Some of the beds are planted with a winter cover crop of rye.) Friends say it looks like a crop circle created by aliens. Beyond the trees at the other side of the garden is another clearing where our orchard is planted. |
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Our "outdoor" shower. |
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Shower interior, with more of Dave's rustic craftsmanship. |
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One of our 16 blueberry plants. |
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A sample of early summer fruit harvested from our homestead. |
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Our two female cats (sisters) -- Midnight and Shadow. |