It’s the time of the year that all Roosters fear. All Hallows Slaughter… Not really, generally I have this job done already, and since I am late I will have to cull 5 more after the new Hens start laying in a month or so….
Happy Halloween! The Bloody Beetroots – Rock Steady
The Catalyst Cabin. Well, will be soon…
Modern: based on or using the newest information, methods, or technology.
Home: a place where something normally or naturally lives or is located.
Stead: the place, position, or function, properly or customarily occupied by another.
So a Modern homestead is a place that uses the newest methods of technology on a property with a home and a stead for others.
When my recent Volga German ancestors settled here in Kansas in 1880ish they were modern homesteaders just as I am today. They had living space on two pieces of the property, and they used the most modern technology of the time. Though many things have changed since then, homesteading is not self-sustainability and that is still the case.
The only way to be self sustainable is to literally create all that you use. No one on earth, not even the t-shirt wearing tribes of the Amazon make everything they use anymore. Those days are gone.
As a strong advocate for Resource Based Economics in the future, people wonder why I have such a passion for living simple. The easy answer is that my personality would never allow me to live in a Fresco designed city, I would go crazy. But no one who understands the concept of the RBE actually thinks anyone will be forced to do anything, let alone live in a circle city.
I love efficiency, fabrication, growing food and medicine, challenges, nature, and being creative. And there is no place like a homestead to feed those passions.
Recently, the opportunity to acquire a 16’x22′ garage at a minimal cost came my way, and desiring another living space on the property for some time now, I have devised a plan to see this through earlier than I expected.
In the spring of 2015, I built some raised beds on an old foundation in order to utilize and beautify the slab. The dirt that I had delivered for the project ended up being laced with poisons and my tomatoes told the story with their classically curved leaf tips. My intention after discovering this problem was to continue growing in it thus bio-remediate the soil.
However, once the building became a reality I quickly dismantled the entire setup. Not very efficient in the micro view, but the amount of money and resources saved by reusing this old foundation makes up for it by a long ways in the macro.
The existing foundation and slab is 14×24, with 30″ deep footing with stem walls. That is something like… a lot of extra digging and yards of concrete that are already in place for me.
Here we are facing South. You can see the existing slab and the new form ready for fiberglass reinforced concrete. Where the peach trees are located is where a set of french doors will exit into the beautiful poly-cultured gardens.
Here we see how the new Cabin will sit in relation to the original home and garage. The Cabin will have a large roofed porch on the front/North side that will connect to the garage and provide a covered breeze way.
Here we see 6″x6″ wire mesh for he cantilevered West side which is also pinned to the existing slab via re-bar. Also visible to the left is a two stage, four line in-floor heating system using 1/2″ pex. The center pipes are electric coming in from the pole, and out to the garage. And the far right standing white pipe is the main 3/4″ pex water line; if you follow this line down to the yellow insulation you can see the drain for the kitchen sink.
Here we see that I had to break through the original footing to a depth of 30.” This was done so the waste line can’t freeze and because the vent stack needed to come straight up through that section of the stem wall. So we see the vent stack and clean-out, toilet and shower drain here. Also note the extra precaution taken around the old stem wall with wire mesh to give a long-lasting edge to the new slab.
Not shown in this picture is the 1 1/2″ tubing that brings over the 12v electric from the house solar system. And note that the in floor heating will not be optimum because of the expense it would require to fasten the line in 6″ loops. The way it sits it cost 40 dollars, if done the ‘right’ way it would be a thousand dollars. I intend on hooking this up to a solar water heater, so it is a matter of supplemental heat in the winter, and I can run cold water through it in the summer months.
This cabin will be a greenhouse, man cave, winter home, guest home, summer and canning kitchen, and an example of a very efficient yet modernly equipped tiny house.
I can also see living in one of the homes full-time while I draw a rental income from the other, or maybe advertise the place just rent it for a night at a time to passerby’s. Another huge part of modern homesteading is living cheaply. The less money we need to live, is the more time we have to live. The less money we need to live, is the more money we have for ‘living.’
There is much more to say on this project, but I will keep you filled in as it proceeds. The concrete will be poured by Nov 5, 2015, and I will haul the garage the 10 miles to my home just after. Good times!
Whats that? Loser – Beck
Yep.
Open source, free, no charge, gratis, complementary, unobstructed, unrestrained, no copy-write… As I like to say, take what you will, leave the rest.
Many times the following observation has been made in this order: First they laugh at you, then they hate you, then they learn, then they advocate what you advocate, then they still ignore you, then everybody wins. Not quite the order or character of Gandhi’s quote, but more accurate to the humility needed of a Catalyst in the field of human betterment…
Unfortunately this nuance of society does not have the ability to learn how to trust the catalyst’s among them. Time after time catalysts bring forward rare and obscure information that will become a part of the future and never-failing, they laugh, hate, learn, advocate, ignore the catalyst, then its a win for all.
A.I. and transference of consciousness, resource decline, Resource Based Economics, poly-culturing and regenerative agriculture, the decline of mytho’s religions, math as the only guarantee, additives in food and the mono crop soil tragedy… Just a few topics many catalysts have personally suffered to advocate for, and all topics that have now gained serious mainstream platforms.
It seems as though we are headed in a direction that claiming anything as your own ‘intellectual property’ has a ridicules tone to it, at least outside of tagged original material art. My poetry has been used elsewhere with no credit, not to mention my thoughts, ideas, ideals, perspectives and all out concepts. And I say great, Catalyzed! The use thereof will not be stopping me from advancing and forming new thoughts to contribute.
A. You want fame and money to help others, or B. you want to further the world with what knowledge you have to offer. A, has no (M)erit and B, has only (M)erit.
So what, we die having all our words regurgitated without our names ever being muttered. When you know the meaning of life, you will find that everything you have consciously achieved here is retained no matter what was stolen in the material world. In Fact, what was ‘stolen’ only benefited the progress of another, and since I only compete with myself racing has no concern to me. Teleologically bound!
To sum it up, and give yet another tidbit of the future of humanity; ideas do not come from individuals, they are simply dialed in from the background via a capable consciousness. This is not new either… And neither is the truth that a humble man honors the fact the he stands on the shoulders of giants. Isn’t that right Mr. Newton…
To suffering, for it makes the strong stronger, and the weak ignavi.
O.T. Catalyst Coop…
My garden gives me pleasure
from its filth then to its leisure.
My garden gives me hope
when division rings around the pope.
My garden keeps me busy
in a fallacy weeded tizzy.
Thus my garden is also distraction
else I’d O.D. on relentless satisfaction.
Joy to world, my garden is sung
its solitude perfectly suits me
its quiet bites my tongue.
Tabula Rasa was my garden
now is glows and begs your pardon.
My other garden also gives me food
but that is not the garden of today’s mood.
The garden that I speak of here
is found only in my head.
It’s a garden of complete freedom
it’s the garden where worms shed.
Let outer light shine into thy darkness
via knowledge from the dead.
The garden that I speak of
is golden after lead.
The gnosis that I speak of…
is where I choose tread.
“If you’re lost no one can show you.” The Garden GNR
M-Day of Rage, are you up yet!?
“All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us.” Michael Jackson
“Change is what we are my child.” Puscifer
“Swing on a spiral our divinity and still be a human.” TOOL
“Pray to your christ to your god, never taste of the fruit.” Perfect Circle
“I ain’t reading that mother fucking book because a human wrote it.” Hopsin
“Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too.” Beetles
“So you think you can tell heaven from hell, blue skies from pain?” Pink Floyd
“Some say what you don’t know can’t hurt you, I say what you don’t know already murdered you.” Pho
“Ram your religion so far up your ass, until it becomes just a thing a of the past.” Decide
“And if you save yourself, you will make him happy. He’ll keep you in a jar, and you’ll think you’re happy.” Nirvana
“I’m the man in the box, buried in my shit, won’t you come and save me?” Alice In Chains
“I see faith in your eyes, never to hear the discouraging lies.” Metallica
“The people sat waiting out on their blankets in the garden but God said nothing.” Crash Test Dummies
“And I’m starting to feel a lot like Charlton Heston, stranded on a primate planet.” NOFX
“M-Day.” Astro Raph
“I’m more than just a little curious how your planning to go about making your amends, to the DEAD.” Perfect Circle The Noose
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