:( November 29, 2012

1 day a week for 21 weeks straight I have dedicated my self to laboring to make this project happen ON THE WRONG PLOT OF LAND!!!  I can not even convey the stream of emotions I have gone through since I discovered the mistake.  It all started because I was attempting to get the project site on the map on thePOOSH.org and it was showing up in the “wrong place”….or I have been in the wrong place.  I am not arrogant enough to assume that I know more than google earth so I looked into things.  It took a few minutes to track the right page down and then I had to open internet exploder because I couldn’t look at the plot maps online using google…anyway when I looked at the deed and looked at the plot maps I could clearly see I was in fact in the wrong.  I wasn’t sure what to do so I gave Pug a call.  You all might remember him from the post Neighbors.  He’s the guy that offered to help with getting a driveway in.  He is also a builder and as soon as I told him I could tell it kind of blew his mind.  He got off the phone long enough to take a look at some plot maps himself and sure enough I am supposed to be directly across the street from Pug, not down the street.  Bottom line is the lady from the real estate office made a mistake when she showed me the plots and then again when she marked the plot for me.  You know this is one of the things I was worried about.  I still have the e-mail I sent her asking her to please meet me out there because I wanted to make sure I was certain which plot it was before closing.  We talked on the phone later and she told me she had marked it with pink tape for me and that I shouldn’t have a problem finding it.  You can see the bits of pink marking tape in some of the early blog pictures.

On the good side I have friends getting involved and we will be having a work party there this Sunday to try to get as much of my stuff as possible moved to the correct plot.  The real estate lady says she will “get it right” and I am trusting her that she will do so.  If you can lend a hand let me know.  The property is in Ravenel on Fox Dr and I should be there by 11am.  Many hands make light work!

Neighbors November 24, 2012

I was out working on the land today and one of the neighbors, “Pug”, stopped by.  He is a builder so of course I told him about having plans drawn up and what the idea is for the garden cottage.  Then I asked him about having a driveway put in.  I figure it isn’t fair to have people over and them not even be able to pull in from the side of the road.  I asked him how much it would be and he said “We don’t charge neighbors.”  This is exactly the sort of community feeling I am looking to grow.

I say this all of the time but I’m not sure I’ve ever blogged it before.  I am overwhelmed by the amount of community support I am getting for this project already.  The people living in the neighborhood where the property is are great.  The support from local non-profits is amazing.  The support from my massage clients is awesome.  The support from random people in the Charleston area is super.  The support from family and friends near and far is priceless.  Thank you Pug and everyone else who is making this such a great experience for me already.

Work party November 23, 2012

I will be out at my property this Sunday 11/25/12. I’m not sure exactly what I will be doing but a friend wanted to come over and hang out with me for the day so I thought why not make a party out of it. I have brush mounds that still need covered, wood that needs to be cut, split, and stacked to dry and an idea for a greenhouse from french doors and old windows that I have. I’m not sure exactly what time I will get out there but it will be before noon. If anyone wants to ride out with me let me know. I live in North Charleston and the property is in Ravenel on Fox Dr. It is easy to find and impossible to miss but let me know if you need directions.  You can leave a message here or message me on facebook http://www.facebook.com/revivalnatural

PermacultureGlobal.com November 21, 2012

Revival is now on permacultureglobal.com  Come check it out http://permacultureglobal.com/projects/1247-revival

November 18, 2012

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Town & Country Gardening

For those that are not regular readers of my Tiny Blog, I live several miles down a gravel covered dirt country road. Sometime life in the country is unforgiving and harsh.

I have a neighbor that is now 87 and still farming and ranching everyday. In order to protect his reputation I will call him Old Man Brown.

Mid July this past summer we were have a slight heat wave, each day the temperature was creeping up, 110, 112, 115 and on that day my tiny thermometer was hitting 118 degrees. It was so hot that I noticed that the lizards were carrying sticks.. more about lizards and sticks another time.
Anyway, I was out of both ice and tea. In the southwest during the summer being unable to make a glass of sweet ice tea is a serious condition. I headed to town to resolve this ice tea…

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More Than Honey – new movie

This should be good 🙂

beeguardianmaine

A new movie looking at the destiny of the honeybee and ourselves.  It just came out in Germany, where I saw it.  Amazing footage inside of the hive.  I highly recommend it!!!! Although I am not sure when it comes to the US.  Let me know when you see it.  I would love to bring it to Rockland!

Here is the link to more information and the trailer:

http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2012/morethanhoney/

“With dazzling nature photography, Academy Award®–nominated director Markus Imhoof (The Boat is Full) takes a global examination of endangered honeybees — spanning California, Switzerland, China and Australia — more ambitious than any previous work on the topic.”

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First Lowcountry Fruit Growers Society meeting

Earlier today I went to the first public meeting of the Lowcountry Fruit Growers Society.  While there I got to meet many new people as well as sample a variety of citrus fruits from local backyard growers and bring home some Dragonfruit cuttings.  You do not need to be an experienced gardener or fruit grower to join.  In fact I can already tell it is going to be a great way for beginners to come learn about fruit growing.  I think there were about 25 people there today, so a good turn out for a first meeting in my opinion.

The Lowcountry Fruit Growers Society started out as the idea of Darren “The Citrus Guy” Sheriff who is now president.  Darren is also a Master Gardener, blogger http://www.thecitrusguy.blogspot.com/ and writes for Charleston Dirt http://charlestongrit.com/darren-sheriff.   Other officers in attendance today included Chris Carnevale and  Dominick Giordano who are also involved in the Charleston Permaculture Guild.  They were looking for someone to design a logo and I have volunteered.  I’m not getting paid or anything like that (hence the word volunteered) but I’m still really excited about it.  This will be on everything from the website to business cards and probably be seen by thousands of people.  We have already discussed the design but I’m not giving it away just yet 🙂

 

New fruit

I just got finished planting these Dragonfruit cuttings. They are not cold hardy and will have to come in every winter. I am starting with 23 cuttings so I will have plenty to give away next year too. Thank you to Darren “The Citrus Guy” Sheriff for bringing these to the meeting today. For that matter thank you to Darren and everyone else that came together to make the meeting today happen. That really diserves a post of its own though so expect another post soon. First I have to put this picture up about 10 more places…

step 1 November 15, 2012

I met with April Magil, a local Architect and Natural Builder, on Monday and just heard back from her.  “just spoke to jim houser with chas. county building dept….he was a little ‘gruff’ at first but by the end of our conversation he was laughing and said ‘we look forward to seeing this.’ (that’s how they all seem to be)

he brought up all the usual’s….hurricanes, seismic, termites, etc….i told him we would address these issues.

bottom line, they will want my stamp as well as structural engineer stamp and we have to ‘answer any questions the county may have.’

i’m going to contact my structural engineer now and then i’ll work up a fee proposal for you in the next few days…..all in all, he was really nice and seems like they will be pretty easy to work with.”

So now I will be waiting for the fee proposal.  I feel excited and a little nervous that the numbers will be high and it would take me a long time to figure out the money for it.  Fingers crossed (not literally) and waiting.  I hope the structural engineer April has been working with is willing to work with roundwood timbers and cordwood and cob fill…and I can’t forget the reciprocal framed green roof.  If not I will have to find someone else.  Somehow I am less nervous about that than having the money to move forward.

Another view of the orchard garden November 11, 2012

The orchard garden

More logging

Logging

Some thoughts on removing carbon from the atmosphere November 4, 2012

As part of the Sustainable Energy class I am taking I was reading about some different ideas for removing carbon from our atmosphere and one of the ones discussed was growing trees, cutting them down, burying them and growing more. At current rates we would need more land area than exist to do this on a large enough scale to make up for what we are putting in and that is before you take into consideration all of the energy that would go into planting, cutting, and burying these trees.  What if instead of cutting them down in a way that would require replanting we cut them while the sap is down in the roots (winter) and allowed the same trees to regrow.  They should grow more quickly because the root system is already fully established.  Instead of digging into the ground to bury the wood that has been cut, they could be stacked up and covered with a layer of compost and then allowed to break down naturally resulting in better top soil.  I wonder how much carbon could be sequestered using this method. It is still obvious that we need to cut down on our fossil fuel consumption so the amount of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere every day decreases.

My Pecha Kucha November 1, 2012

I put this together for my Sustainable Energy class.

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while

The last few weeks I have been planting, but that is about it.  I have 1 dwarf plum, 3 peach trees, 2 pear trees, 3 blueberry bushes, 1 pomegranate bush, 2 fig trees, and 4 thorn-less blackberry bushes.  

I also moved my rhubarb, asparagus and savory out there and sprinkled some more seeds (Rye and Peas but I forget the varieties) out there to hopefully give a good cover crop and hold the dirt in place while the new plants are getting established.  I put some Swiss Chard and Kale out as well.  Did you know you can eat Ornamental Kale and Flowering Cabbage?  Do be aware that they may have been sprayed at the nursery or have chemical fertilizers used on them so keep this in mind if you’re thinking about giving them a try.  I have been planting flowering plants for beneficial insects as well.  

I will try to remember to take pictures this Sunday. It should finally be nice out again 🙂  I have been leaving the tags on the plants for now so I can ID them all easily.  I want to draw up a little diagram of it for a more long term record of the varieties planted, especially since I am trying to incorporate a large variety.  I think it would be a bad idea to rely on memory alone to know which varieties are planted where and I would like to keep track of performance so in future years I can buy the type that do best in my location if/when I expand or buy replacements.