Quote:
Originally Posted by Islander
Ooooookay, this was a spinoff from the "Ask Islander" thread that someone posted on my behalf in the "Better Living through Posting" forum. All the backstory can be found there. To save you the grief of reading 2 pages of bob loblaw, I'll try to summarize real quick below.
First, the easy one: I have 8 feet of usable counter space plus 5 feet of butcher block in the kitchen. I could feed a small Laotian village if you supply the pig.
History etc: Our huge 1860 farmhouse-woodshed-barn-garage burned to the ground in 1982, killing all the stock on our diversified farm except for a modest flock of sheep in a separate barn. We were vastly underinsured and had $30k to rebuild with. I designed the core of a passive solar house with the intent to add on later when we saved up for it. Solar engineer tweaked the plans; south side is on an insulated slab topped with slate. That, plus the fieldstone chimneypiece, form a heat sink that radiates back at night. Later we added a study and garage on the north, a woodshed on the west, and a deck on the south end. We did all the stone and slate and much of the rest of the work; the $30k went to the contractor for stuff we couldn't do. We six lived in a tiny trailer on the front lawn that summer; the foster children were relocated. Two farm apprentices camped out behind the barn and helped with the rebuilding.
When I retired I sold all but 2 of my 50 acres, but I continue to raise a few meat birds and grow a garden which, with the orchard and berries, all of which I preserve, feeds me through the winter. I have 3 wells, I heat with wood, and if the infrastructure collapses, I will survive.
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This. This is why you're a legend around here Islander. I know when tragedies happen most people just get on gettin' on, but the number of people who rebuilt a house by hand, after planning it themselves, with a budget of less than a quarter of the median house price, and then who continue keepin' on supporting themselves through subsistence farming, canning and self-sufficiency...
I am in awe of you. Seriously.