Taking a break down here in my hometown (Atlanta) for the holidays with friends and family, I finally have some time to catch up on developments in the Holler this past fall.  It's been, busy as usual and there's much to tell...

One big change is the evolution of the Orchard South.  What began as a spice bush forest, turned pig pig, became a home of semi-dwarf fruit trees––peaches, asian pears, european pears, an apple, and a cherry.  Before the frost could set in I was also abel to fit in an understory of black currants, northern bayberry, wormwood, tansy, mountain mint (native), chokeberry, lavender, rosemary, and so much more!  I'll let the photos tell the rest, but expect more on fruit trees and their planting!

I must begin this piece by expressing my endless thanks to Peter Bane & Keith Johnson, without whose assistance I wouldn't have gotten far on this project.  Peter and Keith have built many tanks such as the one I am going to describe over the years, and graciously answered the phone many times knowing I had another slew of detailed questions to throw their way.  They even came out with their apprentice Ross and plastering toolbox to help wrap up the frame and get started with plastering!  Their Permaculture expertise writes volumes and continues to inspire new generations of future thinkers, and I am thankful for their friendship!

Living off the grid requires adapting to climate change in ways most of the people in our country have not yet considered.  How many people have a back-up plan if the water goes out, or becomes polluted.  Most people use municipal water even though it is already polluted with chlorine, flouride, and who knows what else.  Water in Bloomington is supplied by Lake Monroe, which backs up to my street (and in the case of the 100-year flood of 2011, floods the road).  I will swim in lake Monroe; I will canoe in Lake Monroe; I will sit on the banks and watch sunsets and collect sandstone for raised beds and chrinoids fossils for art; but I would never, not even for money (maybe for a million bucks) drink that water or eat any of its inhabitants.  I watch the number of boats leaking gas and oil into the Lake; I know government SuperFund sites contaminated with PCBs and Round-up ready Monsanto fields drain into it; I know a town is buried beneath it; I know that "fragrances" in conventional soaps, shampoos, and all kinds of everyday hygene and household products contain endocrine disrupters that cause male frogs and fish to start producing eggs for reproduction and that these (among many other) chemicals are flushed downstream into Lake Monroe every second.  

So despite being so close to Lake Monroe, from the beginning I had no intention of using it's water for anything other than non-motorized recreation.  But what other options are there?  In order of cleanliness:
1) Springs that run near the base of the creek that borders the property.  It runs intermittently during the wet season between fall (October) through late spring (May/June)
2) The hand-dug well, which I actually did not know about when I first bought the property.  The smell is sulfurous so it isn't the tastiest, but with boiling or the help of a sand/charcoal filter, would be more than adequate as drinking water.  This however tends to dry up during the developing drought months between June/July-September.
3) Rainwater:  Currently every structure has a rain catchment tank attached to it.  275 gal on the chicken coop and outdoor kitchen, 650 gal on the tool shed.  

Even with all these, with the new drought season developing here in the summer and several thousand plants to care for, these sources cannot provide all of our needs for home and nursery (the garden would be and has been fine without irrigation thanks to the mulch and swale approach).  Now that the Treehouse is in ship-shape, it's time for the next big thing: A roughly 4500 gal emergency back-up ferrocement tank to hold enough water to make it through a drought.  The primary use this water will see it for the nursery, since that is what requires the most water during summer months.  

So how does one build this ferrocement water tank contraption?  

Start by scraping off the topsoil and digging down about a shovels depth or until you hit subsoil.  Here we encountered and removed a few big roots from nearby trees, so we made sure to tamp the soil down and compact it.  This should prevent looser soil underneath the tank from settling over time, which could cause the foundation to crack.  

After all was tamped to our satisfaction (at least 3 turns around the 10ft diameter circle), we poured in 4 inches of gravel as a base to lay the rebar frame.  I neglected to take photos of the rebar in place, but basically you need to have a grid of 3/8" rebar on 1 ft spacing.  The grid is built in place and set on rises to that the rebar 'floats' in the middle of the concrete pad floor  Each piece is bent into a right angle at the edge of the tank and must rise at least 1ft above the pad, so that once the pad is poured the walls can be tied to the floor.  All of the rebar and remesh is tied together with 6" loop ties and nifty little loop tie tools P&K let us borrow on the condition we guard them with our lives.  

Piping must also be set in place before pouring the concrete pad, and you can wait to cut them to the desired lengths once the entire tank is finished.  I don't particularly like PVC, or any plastic for that matter, but it is the standard for this type of construction.  I reasoned that since the pipes are underground at a moderate temperature they should not leach any harmful chemicals.  Two pipes are needed (one for outflow and one as a back-up flush), 2-4" piping is acceptable, although the wider your pipes are the more flow they can accomodate, meaning higher water pressure flow.  (If you are bringing water from underground, a third intake pipe is necessary, but I did not use that method and will not discuss it here) 
We used 3" piping since this will only be a back-up source used to water nursery stock and soak mushroom logs. 

One trick Peter taught me is that in order to keep water from finding a seam along your pipes and leaking underground is to cut your pipes and rejoin them with a coupling.  Place this coupling so that gets embedded entirely in the concrete.  This way if water finds a seam along the pipe, it will be interrupted by the coupling and prevented from flowing all the way through.  This same method is used when building overflow pipes in dams.

In the photo above you can see we've poured the foundation with pipes set and rebar from below sticking up into what will become the wall.  Next we repeated the floor foundation pattern by setting more rebar on 1ft spacing up the walls.  Using 20ft pieces of rebar, we could cut them into thirds, giving our wall a height of 6ft 8in––almost perfect since Peter recommended 6.5ft as the ideal. Above you can also see the remesh with 6" wide squares, which we tied to the rebar next.  

The final step (seen in the photo below), was to attach the fine mesh (a.k.a. expanded metal lathe) to the remesh.  THIS WAS BY FAR THE MOST PAINSTAKINGLY TEDIOUS WORK I THINK I HAVE EVER DONE.  I don't think it's hyperbole to say that tying the two mesh layers (inside and out) took about as long as everything we'd done up to that point.  I think it took 3 days to get everything secured, retied where the gap between inner/outer layer was too narrow or wide.  Ideally you want everything tight to the remesh, but no so tight that it warps the EML mesh.  

After everything it took up to this point, it was a relief to finally be able to plaster away.  We made a mix of 3 parts fine sand, 1 part portland, a cup of half/half water/Elmer's glue solution, and water.  
The first coat gets pressed into the space between the inner/outer EML mesh layers.  The second layer, applied at least 24 hours later once the first has dried, is smoothed over the first layer.  

By no means am I a plastering expert, so I'll leave more erudite instruction on concrete plastering work to others.  I will say that as I get more experience some of these things, I find that intuition plays a large role.  If the plaster feels smooth and butter under the mixing hoe, it is likely is the stuff you want to be holding your tank together.  Learning to listen and trust that feeling is a different matter, but I suppose when you've tried a lot of different things in life––traveled, and been in a number of unusual situations––learning how to navigate the unfamiliar begins to come naturally.    

That wasn't more apparent than when it came time to apply the final waterproofing plaster coat.  We used a product recommended by Peter called Thoroseal, which is safe for coating potable water sources, and adds life to the concrete plaster.  What I did not realize at first, though, was that there is a solvent, Acryl 60, which must be mixed in with water to set up the Thoroseal.  Needless to say the test batch Jonas and I tried to mix did not, well, mix.  It pretty much stayed in a solid state and did not blend into a gooey plaster like we were informed it should.  It didn't feel right at all.  So I read the instructions again and went to go buy the Acryl 60 solvent.  

Because we got started a little late in the fall, we didn't get to the roof before winter set in.  Not a big problem--we've got things under wraps and insulated to keep water from settling and possibly cracking along the exposed top.  Once things warm up we can get back to work and finish the roof, hopefully in time for April showers. 

With autumn approaching, it's time again for pigs!  In addition to letting them clear more land, which will become a chestnut/italian alder coppice grove, our three new friends are also fertilizing and building terraces (behind the logs we laid out on contour).  

Yes this time around we've upped the ante to three little piggies.  All still live in a revised and infallable pallet palace (in the top photo).  The only big bad wolf around here is the Berkshire Boys, the 6 of us who will eventually be butchering, curing, roasting, and basically, eating these delectable animals.  

For now the boy (Notorious P.I.G), and girls (Pinky & Flub) are pulling their weight.  In the nearly two months they've lived in the Holler they've worked over the soil, wallowed out a potential spring into a natural pond--time will tell if it holds.  This gleying redux will hopefully prove more successful--more pigs, given more time to seal the pond walls.  Compost this fall has consisted of much pumpkin and tomatoes, and we've been supplementing this with some acorns from the forest and comfrey from the garden.  30 gallons of food rarely lasts a few hours with these porkers!  Check for updates on their growth.

We had a wonderful tour to our first official Bread & Roses Garden Tour this past Sunday!  We lost count but there were nearly 35 people in attendance from the Bloomington community and beyond.  With help from Dason, our friend and faithful IU student intern, and the lovely ladies Kristen and Katie mixing up refreshments, everyone enjoyed homemade Holler salsa, salad, and a number of herbal sun teas--nearly all of the ingredients came from our soil!  
Since Jonas and I were busy showing everyone around the gardens and introducing them to our countless animals (how many chickens and duck do we have?), we were unable to take any photographs.  Luckily, Dan and Jami Gaither took and were snap-happy, and sent us a link to all of the spectacular shots they got of during the tour:
"Will Holler Garden Tour" sent by Dan Gaither

Here's a sample:

As the tomatoes have started pouring in...

...canning has commenced!

Most people my age woefully have no experience or knowledge of canning, despite the fact that fifty years ago it was commonplace.  Now I find myself in the amusing situation of the elder, 'Old Man Willard', as the young interns have called me, because I've learned how to do things that are now old-fashioned.  Honestly its a shame that young people these days lack the skills that have been known and passed down for generations.  More than that, it's a bit scary given that if for some reason we have a food shortage, or transportation breaks down, supermarkets would run out of food in 3 days.  

I feel like food preservation is a sacred act of harvesting the sun's energy for the winter days when we have little to spare.  It nourishes our bodies when there is little to forage in the cold.  Most basically, it keeps us alive.  The best part is that anyone can do it--how liberating and democratic is that?  Everyone has the ability and right to ensure their own means for survival.  

Well, enough of my rambling.  If you've never tried it before, trust me, it's easy.  Can today for a meal tomorrow!

Old Man Willard's Canning Instructions

Old Man Willard's Canning Instructions

1) Make you favorite marinara or salsa.  If you don't have one, no problem, skip this step.

2) Bring the concoction to a low boil.  Get it hot and thoroughly cooked.

3) At the same time put your lids in a pot of boiling water immediately before sealing.

4) Put your sauce into a sterilized jar and put on one of your sterilized lids.  Twist lid shut.

5) Set in a place with good airflow to cool.  After a few hours go check to make sure the lids sealed tightly.  If you poke the top of the lid, it should not bounce back at all.  If the jar hasn't sealed entirely, just put it in the fridge and easy within a week or so.  

That's it!  I wasn't kidding, it's that easy.

4 inches of rain Thursday evening filled the pond to the brim! It also half-filled ours attest addition, built thursday just in time for the storm.

Gosh it feels good when things work out so well! Think I'll name the new pond serendipity--a word I mispronounced often as stupidity when I was a kid. Funny how close and yet so far off I was.

Thanks especially to our committed summer interns Dason, Erica, and Morgan, we've continued to make a great deal of progress in the month of June installing a total of 6 new terraces up the hill, and a roughly 1200 gallon pond in place of the old Airstream!  Terracing will certainly continue into the autumn to make room for a small vineyard, field of figs, peaches, apples, pears, and more fruit trees that will make up the new orchard space (behind the solar panels you and see in the photo below).  

July has and its 100+ degree days and traveling schedules have dogged us lately, but things are always evolving here in WIll Holler!  Now that the temperatures are cooling down again (and it's only August!) things are picking up again--look forward to more developments soon!

The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country is creation of friend, colleague, and mentor Peter Bane of the Permaculture Activist. I picked it up from him yesterday, less than two weeks after its recent publication. On this sultry 90 plus day during my usual siesta, I soared through the first chapter finding reassurance that my wild woodland lifestyle and permaculture methods are not madness, that my endless hours of working for a self-reliant future are shared by many.
"To understand the profound importance of regenerative agriculture, the kind of farming that builds natural capital, we need to see it not as a fringe or retrograde activity..., but as a heroic and undersung achievement in the face of overwhelming institutional neglect, cultural dissipation, economic monopolies, ad dire ecological challenges from chemical, nuclear, and genetic pollution, climate change and an eroding resource base in the land and in society...We must now champion to reclaim the common wealth of the earth itself and to secure a future for ourselves and our descendants."
Thank you Peter.