Slab with gravel, plumbing and vapor barrier
Crew leveling the concrete
Finished slab
Catherine enjoying her new skating rink (for now)
The timber framing has had a setback, however. The timbers we have didn't cure 100% true. We are going to have to individually scribe the joints which will take a bit longer to do. That process is ongoing and we hope to be back to doing actual joinery soon. It does mean that we will not be ready to raise the frame before next spring though. :-(
The weather has been getting steadily colder (not surprising - it is October now) and we've noticed. This past summer a family of wasps built nests in the heater, so we haven't been able to turn it on yet. That has led to some additional clothing being worn around the house...
Catherine ready for bed
Jacob bundled and protesting.
The first frost has also brought our attention around to the projects that really need to be taken care of before real winter sets in. The immediate rush is to preserve the last of the summer garden produce. We didn't have much variety this year, but we do have a tremendous amount of peppers! We already made a round of home made tabasco sauce that turned out really well. Now we're moving on to dried peppers which brings us to the next bit of exciting news...
We now own a solar oven! It's been on our list for quite some time and we finally did it. We have so far cooked some delicious chicken stew in it and baked some rolls. We're going to try using it to dehydrate our peppers for crushed pepper flakes next. It works like a champ and is super easy to use. We're looking forward to lots more carbon free and delicious meals!
On the gardening front, we planted about 150 cloves of garlic and 25 clumps of potato onions last weekend. The garlic was mostly Music, but we also planted Ukrainian and Silverskin garlic this year. We planted yellow, white and red potato onions. They are supposed to be a much longer keeping onion and they are perennial. The single bulbs we plan this fall should turn into clumps of 10 or so 2-3" bulbs for next year. They aren't as big and pretty as a single bulb grown from seed or sets, but they aren't as much work either. It's another thing we've been wanting to try so we decided this was the year to do it.
I think that mostly catches you up with where we are. This is the sunset from the top of our hill. Enjoy and stay warm!
