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.

note- don’t see the wishlist? Enable “ads” on your browser.

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.

For now, check out this series from when we had a kickin’ camera, and some time. It’s all about the building of our straw-bale cottage, named the Winter Palace. Each filmlette has its own style, so watch ‘em all! They get funnier as the time goes on. Let us know if you like them, and maybe we’ll make more now!

Beware- after watching these, you should be fully equipped to start thinking about building a straw bale cottage of your own.

Winter Palace Pt 1- Let’s Dig- The start of our first building. A tool shed that emerged as a palace. Here we see the first steps (well after leveling the ground anyways) of digging the rubble trench.

Winter Palace Pt 1- Let’s Dig from Lea LSF on Vimeo.

Winter Palace Pt 2- The Work Party- We lure unsuspecting friends from three northeastern cities to the Southern Tier, where we put them to work on our land. Pt 2 is a riveting adventure of digging, gravel, tamping, tractor, casual conversation.

Winter Palace Pt 2- The Work Party from Lea LSF on Vimeo.

Winter Palace Pt 3-Concrete Day-  A human interest story about the pouring of a concrete foundation, of what will eventually become a small strawbale cottage. The concrete truck comes, pours the slop and our crew gets to work. This is what to expect when a giant truck full of concrete shows up at your place.

Winter Palace Pt 3-Concrete Day from Lea LSF on Vimeo.

Winter Palace Pt 4- Frame by Frame- A human interest story/ compelling dramedy about the erection of a frame, of a small building that eventually becomes a straw bale cottage.

Winter Palace Pt 4- Frame by Frame from Lea LSF on Vimeo.

Winter Palace Pt 5- Straw Bale Hijinks- A near-silent comedy about the countless opportunities to act like a monkey one can miss if they choose not to build a straw bale cottage. Critically acclaimed as the must see monkey short of this fiscal year. Sponsorships welcome.

Straw Bale Hijinks from Lea LSF on Vimeo.

A peak into the plastering process, and what could be some troubles in plaster land.

Plaster Disaster from Lily Gershon on Vimeo.

–what a sunny day in mid-November means for the main dacha house, a passive-solar, earth-bermed structure, and its inhabitants.

The sun is out after vacationing elsewhere for almost a week, and its brightening things up over here in many ways. Let’s review.

1. It’s heating up the floor and the room. For the first time in days we have not had the wood stove on and those of us at home wore t-shirts. We might not have to heat tonight either, b/c of residual warmth emanating from the floor and walls.

2. The sun is electrifying, our house. Tammie, notice the t-shirt, is checking the status of our batteries, and the input from our single solar panel. The lights shine green and we’re good to go, without having to run the veggie-oil generator to make enough juice for at least the sunny part of the day.

3.  The avacado plant grows several imperceptible units of measure and gets to pretend its flown to Mexico for the winter.  This space by the window is really warm, too hot to sit in without starting to sweat and develop thirst.

4. That’s the read out on our hot water tank. A month ago, we have put  group of 30 solar-evacuated tubes on the roof, and estimate that they have been providing us with 60 or so percent of our hot water.  However over the last week or so it’s gone cloudy, and their efficacy dropped greatly. One sunny day puts us back into action. We won’t be needing to heat the hot water with our veggie-powered generator, “The Jenny”, today.

1a.  There’s enough juice off that one solar panel, and from our four dinky batteries, to bring you this blog post!

If these aren’t enough reasons for all of us to switch to worshiping the sun right away then here are some other things to consider.

b. it’s always there for you when you need it, even if you can’t see it.

e. Vitamin D, you need it.

1. food, you need it.

2. light, it allows you to see.

9. It’s all powerful, and when it has a solar storm it brings you the northern lights.

bb. It gives life and can take it away.

4. if you look at it directly, you’ll go blind.

Also consider this: worshiping the sun as a religious practice includes simple rituals that you have time for, like, taking walks outside, waking up with your curtains open, swimming in lakes, gardening, and sun-bathing.

Thank you for your time. I hope I have written convincingly, and that you too will join the ranks of sun worshipers.  See ya on the beach!

We put windows in the sun room, goodbye wind-torn plastic, hello warmth and being able to see. Also, notice the sweet mortar job at the bottom;)

We mixed up tons of plaster and mortar the seal the exterior of the main house, addition, sunroom and cottage. We worked so hard that we broke every hoe, and now we need new ones.

We finally got a brush hog attachment to the tractor and began to landscape! Did you know that brushhoging/mowing in mid-November will ensure that there will be no more nesting birds in the way of the super- helpful, but in may ways destructive process. Brush hogging our meadow in varying rotations of 1-4 years will help maintain a mixed habitat for birdies and other animals.

Here Joe and Danila are putting up snow bars on the roof above the chimney. This will prevent snow from pushing down on the chimny, and bending it like it did last year. No more leaks!

It looks like summer here, but its really mid-October, apparently a perfect time to collect duck-weed from the living water system to use as incredibly potent natural fertilizer for our soil and plants.

Halloween can be important business. Here Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx practice their act.

We finished our berm!! Well almost all the way! Now we have enough earth behind the house to keep the back and west walls at the stable temperature of the ground. Next spring we will seed the berm, creating a grassy knoll for children to frolic around on, or something like that.

We put a wood stove in the addition! We purchased it at Finger Lakes ReUse, and have found that it is a really kicking’ egg shaped mass of warmth.

With the help of our friends we planted over 600 cloves of garlic, enough for eating and planting in 2012.  Arrow, the doggy, helped by spreading the straw all about and being cute.

The installation of an evacuated solar tube system will help heat our hot water. Solar evacuated tubes are rumored to work well even in partly sunny conditions. We will post on this as we have more information and get deeper into the cold weather season. So far, they are doing an excellent job. Hot showers for all!

We transplanted herbs for kitchen use. With care they will provide fresh accents to our winter meals. Also they make the sun room smell like a pizza pie.

Now its time to sit back and watch the winter weather roll on in, with the few exceptions being: building a wood shed, insulating the Jenny shack, and the last wall in the cottage, etc. Well ok, we didn’t get everything buttoned up just yet, but we’ve been told by old hands, that the work on a homestead is never done. So why not kick back and watch a movie already?

Harvest, muddy and cold

Harvest, washed and buffed
Calendula, cabbages, kale, tomatoes, parsnips, broccoli, chives, parsley, sorrel, kholrabi

Harvest, and me
Notice how I am not cold at all

Welcome to the Ice Age
Oh yea! And then it started to snow!

Dark Eyed-Junco, clearly also not cold
I was not able to take a photo of a junco, but here’s one I borrowed from the internets.
(By Ken Thomas (KenThomas.us (personal website of photographer)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

xoxo,
LSF

p.s. I’m all about getting psyched for winter, so send me your tips on how to stay warm and interested in life, despite the fact that in this area I won’t most likely see the sun very much until next April, unless I go down to Tijuana.

UPDATE: