What started out looking more like Dacha graves, soon took on a better look. Here is our first bed:

Danila picked up some black locust wood – a truck full of odds and ends which made pretty sweet boxes.

Thanks to our visitors, Lauren and Brian, we took a day to cut and put it all together.

This snake was watching us lazily from the pond rocks!

Well, we were goofing off a bit…I mean, we were just measuring the beds to see how comfy they would be…yeah…

As of now, we’ve planted some broccoli, lettuce, kale, more kale, and beets into these babies.  More to come as we make room for our many plants, which I can’t wait to eat.

We used a survey sent out to oru community to ask "How would you describe the Dacha Project to someone?"

This visualization played a big role in our first Vision + Mission meeting, which we had this morning. We are using it alongside our own list of words and ideas to create a Dacha Project tag line. So far there are many in the works that we like. If you didn’t get a survey, but would like one reply with your email address!

We will surely share our new tag line and mission statement as they solidify over the next two weeks. There might even be a community vote regarding the tag line!

Danila is pointing to the blown fuse, the small glass tube with its filament no longer in one piece

On a blustery early spring day, I was juicing carrots, oranges and parsley, when my juicer suddenly stopped working. I love this juicer and did not want to throw it away, so heart-broken I asked for advice. Joe and Danila said, let’s take it apart and see what’s wrong. After a few minutes of fiddling with a Philips head, we found a blown fuse on the circuit board. You know a blown fuse when you see won, because the filament inside the glass tube is broken, and no longer continuous.

We promptly replaced the fuse with one we had lying around (.25 cents at the hardware store), and in just ten minutes my old but sturdy juicer is back in action!

Joe says: Today, many appliances are made in such a cheap fashion that they don’t even have a fuse. Still, checking the fuse, or for the fuse is always a great idea. In this case, it saved us 80 dollars.

Danila says: Tips to remember- Label your wires and keep track of your screws.

I say: Fuses come in different gages. Look for  the gage number written on the fuse or on your appliance, and replace it with one of equal value. Fuses are easy to replace, you can pop one out with your finger, or a butter knife, and they pop back in easily as well.

Your appliance will come apart with a Philips heads screwdriver in just minutes, and inside you'll find all sorts of treasures.

September 27, 2009. Photo by David Korman

This photo was taken at the Lake Street house in Ithaca well before any of us moved out to the dacha.  Outlined on the blackboard were three words to describe our agenda for that specific meeting: energy, dedication, warehouse.  Gawd knows what it meant to us back then, but let’s have a stab at it.

“Energy,” could have been referring to a generator, but then again it could also be referring to human power. Yes, looking at the date, I think “energy” refers to the personal energy we all needed to have to button up the shell of the common house.  We had worked all spring and summer, and the cold weather was descending, eventually.  Therefore we needed to discuss “energy!”  I’m pretty sure at this exact moment Joe is saying, “And, why not? We’ll just keep building.”  Go Joe!

“Dedication” well I think that went really well along with the first agenda item.  Case closed. We hardly had to discuss that after talking about “energy,” and that is why Danila looks so happy.

And of course, “warehouse.”  If I remember correctly, its referring to that crazy idea we once had of opening up a magnetic toy company, and needed to decide on the type and size and color of the warehouse we’d need. Oh wait, that was something else. This actually refers to the time when a lady invited us to scoop odd things like industrial sinks and brand new wooden doors from her warehouse in Ithaca, and we needed to vote on whether we wanted to trade her raking leaves for the stuff.  The next few weekends saw us raking leaves on her various properties around town.  The doors are now protecting our bathrooms from unwanted intruders, but something tells me new leaves have gathered on her lawns. I think we know who got the better end of the deal, and that is what I, Lea am sitting there smirking about as I look into the future, or just into Joe’s ear.

Everything is possible in the past.  And what does the future hold for the Dacha Project? Stay tuned in 2012 for a brand new season of this Brand New House.

-Lea LSF

A group of people having an important meeting.

…we are posting our notes from our last meeting, held yesterday Dec. 14, 2011.  The notes should mention that the meeting was concluded by each member drawing a name out of a hat for Secret Santa, and that the whole affair was followed up by a sauna. Please no inquiries about who got who for Secret Santa, as our byway-laws forbid us from ever divulging anything that might ruin a surprise, and hence cost someone a burrito.*

Dec 14 2011 All Dacha peeps present.agenda:

agenda

bulk buying
internet media
grant
little bathrom
stacking wood
garbage run
permaculture plan
kitchen
solar panels
emanual
driveway
turning off genny
secret santa
chore review

solar panel:
friend says 135/watt, 240watt – $324 a panel.  Rack can fit 2 more panels. No other wiring required. $644 for 2 panels plus tax. Lea says she will buy one panel. Do we need LED bulbs so that the batteries will make it? When will we get the batteries? Maybe Spring, maybe August. We agree that we should buy both then. Yey!

grant:
monthly grants each of 1,000. Could this be a DIY lighting grant? We are using CFLs but we can take this from good to awesome. We can contrast the two realities. Metering systems for Dacha might be a possibility.

It doesn't look so bad here, but don't let that fool you! Photo by Katya G.!

Driveway:
Driveway sucks – ruining lives. 125 feet of material joe has left over. Can we use that? It’s not enough, but how about for walkway?
Joe thinks crushed concrete would work best. How long is the driveway? 425 long is the length of the roll. $488. do we need to try to get people to park other places in the future?Can we do something before Spring? Prob not. Should we have a driveway fund? Or just put that on the shopping list? Maybe! Buy a foot of the driveway dance fundraiser? Maybe mid-March?

Little bathroom:
Danila is going to tile the shower. Yey!

Bulk buying:
We will try the putting in money thing and if it doesnt work then we’ll revamp.
What do we want to have on common things list:
salt
olive oil
toilet paper
nutritional yeast
Lea will make a bulks list on google docs. We can pay at the time we pay taxes?

Garbage Run:
Cubies and glass need to go to dump. Joe and Lea and Marina will load and take on Friday.

Kitchen:
Open boxes above crappy table part of kitchen? Maybe the boxes don’t need to be too deep. Lighting, maybe at top of shelf? Push over stove to make full length. Make some low shelves slide. And drawer for utensils, too. Magnetic knife rack and spice rack. Hanging stuff for pots and pans.

Internet Media:
How can we make the best of the site? We can post even links to articles – easy! Pre-spring time media party? We should also give Ari veggies and make a meeting with her.

Permaculture plan:
Next year will be more agricultural. Maybe we print maps and give to everyone, set up perma-library, and people can put ideas down. You don’t need to be an expert!

Action list:
Lea will make bulks list
Joe will contact solar friend
Sharon will look at grant application
Price real driveway cost – Joe?
Put tractor chains on.
Stack the wood – this weekend
Marina will mark the water level.

Everyone's left to go SHOPPING! Let's get some shoes!

To buy:
solar panels – 330
thing for tractor – 30
125 ft of
dump run – 30 and some gas.

old shopping list:
One more window for sun room – $100
drywall – $28
plywood – $15
another bag of insulation – $16
door for hallway – $125 look at sig elements
radiant floor – pump (AC) – $200

* burrito- a form of currency. ie. I will bet you a burrito that it will take longer to finish building the bedrooms than three months. To date- the author of this post is owed a burrito from Lily. Marina also deserves a burrito from Lily, and Danila is owed a burrito by me, and by Lily. Joe probably owes all of the people here burritos do to a health dose of positive thinking, and it won’t be long until Sharon is owed some burritos, even though she just moved back to the area.

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Dacha Angels Pose After A Long Day of Doing Good Deeds

Money does not grow on trees, but it can help plant them! If you’ve got some spare dollars, consider helping us fund the growth of this organization. To donate any amount securely, using PayPal, click on the button above. We have 501c3 non-profit umbrella status, so any donations are tax-deductible. Or check out our BRAND NEW Amazon Wishlist above.

More info
All gifts from Paypal or via Amazon Wishlist will go directly towards improving the homestead and expanding our infrastructure to better be able to build, accommodate and inspire our community of neighbors, builders, artist, partners and friends. Much of what is on our wishlist is specially designed to work with minimum resources to help a homestead like ours to power, heat, cook, garden and function efficiently.

Money is nice, but we like things used at least twice!
(Building materials, tools, furniture)
Besides donating money or buying gifts there are plenty of other ways of contributing to our efforts. We are always in need of building supplies and tools. If you know of any just laying around, we’d love to hear of it! Example- an intern/friend of ours, pulled an abandoned wheel barrow out of public brambles, and delivered it to us. Since then we’ve used it countlessly to transport kindling and straw. Thanks Matt!

Now that we’ve built a house, we could use furniture. If you have couches, tables, or chairs in good condition that need a new home where they will provide years of exciting service, let us know and we’ll arrange a pickup or drop-off! You can contact us at dachaproject-at-gmail-dot-com.

Upcoming Needs: Kitchen
As many people who have visited here know, we are in dire need of kitchen carpentry. This winter we will be building more shelves, counters and cabinets. If you have skills, or any material (ie. tile) that can be specifically great for a big farm kitchen, it would be put to good heavy use here, and directly go towards feeding many awesome people. Also if you have skills in kitchen building that you’d like to donate, we’d love that, a lot.

Thanks for your consideration and support of the Dacha Project! For updates regarding ways to support the homestead visit our Donate page.