John's profile

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John is currently reading

	06/10 John is currently reading: Finding & Buying Your Place in Country (Finding and Buying Your Place in the Country) by Les Scher bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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	06/10 John is currently reading: The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It (Hardcover) by John Seymour bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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John's recent updates (rss)

June 17

John made a comment on Terence's review of The Chronicles of Narnia Set

John wrote: "I've enjoyed reading about your re-readings of this. When the first movie came out I went back and r...more "

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June 16

John voted on the poll: Please vote for the book that you would like to read in August and discuss in September. Voting will end 12am PT on June 27th.

June 10

John made a comment in the group Green Building Geeks—Finding and Buying topic:

John wrote: "My wife and I were in upstate New York (western Finger Lakes region) this weekend looking at propert...more My wife and I were in upstate New York (western Finger Lakes region) this weekend looking at property. Now we have to decide whether to make an offer on it.

The big thing this land has going for it is that the price is right--it's just over 31 acres with an asking price of $40k, which even for the area (where land is relatively cheap) is pretty cheap. Now, there are some reasons for the low price, which I’ll get to as I describe it. First, there’s no road frontage, which we don't have problem with, especially as the right-of-way is well maintained. Heck, we rather like the isolation. However, once you get back on the easement, it's not currently possible to drive onto the land, as there's a small drainage ditch and a triple row of pines right there. The pines are too close together and need to be thinned even outside of our desire to actually get to the property.

The property is basically a rectangle, with the easement running halfway up the long side (it continues up to a hunting cabin—and another cabin was off the easement before it gets to the property we looked at). The pines continue along that entire edge. The back edge of the rectangle is basically a woods, there’s another thick row of pines bisecting the rectangle and parallel to the other trees, and then the other side of the rectangle has a woods as well. As to the open parts, the first one is fairly open while the second is fairly clogged with brush—both have some. I'm not great with trees, but the open space seemed largely to be maples (not, sadly sugar maples) and something else. The land itself slopes from west to east, with a slight south-facing slope.

Another worry about the land is that there’s no surface water and no well dug, which is worrisome, though not insurmountable (the book Finding and Buying Your Place in the Country says never to buy property without knowing it has water available on it). We can drill a well and take our chances, we can harvest rainwater if it comes down to that—the area gets plenty of rainfall. There are no structures on the property. Considering how much vegetation is on the land, it seems like decent soil, and also well-drained (it had rained the day before and most of the ground had drained well). I gather that the owner inherited it about 30 years ago and basically hasn’t done anything with it.

Now, if we were to buy this place, I think it would influence how we built. Since we already need to cut down a bunch of trees, it would seem to make sense to build with wood, then infill with strawbale. We’d probably use cob inside to add thermal mass. It’s a little daunting to imagine taking this land from nothing to a productive homestead, but it’s exciting as well.

Any thoughts or questions you have about this land, please feel free. I’d also love to hear about your own journeys toward the green building dream.(less) "

John added:
The Natural House: A Complete Guide to Healthy, Energy-Efficient, Environmental Homes (Paperback)
by Daniel D. Chiras
bookshelves: re-reading

my rating:

read in December, 2007

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John gave

to:
The Warrior Prophet (The Prince of Nothing, #2)
by R. Scott Bakker
bookshelves: re-reading

my rating:

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John is currently reading:
Finding & Buying Your Place in Country (Finding and Buying Your Place in the Country)
by Les Scher
bookshelves: currently-reading

my rating:

add a comment

John is currently reading:
The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It (Hardcover)
by John Seymour
bookshelves: currently-reading

my rating:

add a comment

John gave

to:
The War With the Mein (Book One of the Acacia Trilogy)
by David Anthony Durham

my rating:

read in June, 2009

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John made a comment in the group Fantasy Book Club—August/September Nomination -- Results are in! topic:

John wrote: "David's welcome to elaborate, but I'll second Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson. It's the first ...more "

June 06

John made a comment in the group Green Building Geeks—Which building method(s) interests you and why? topic:

John wrote: "Stone isn't completely out of the diy crowd's consciousness. One of the famous homesteading couples,...more "

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John's groups (recent posts)

SciFi and Fantasy Book Club — 1939 members — last activity 1 hour, 28 min ago
Welcome to the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club!

SciFi Czar: Brad
Fantasy Czar: Brooke

Are you a GoodReads Author of SciFi or Fa...more

Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library — 1150 members — last activity 11 hours, 37 min ago
All the good, important, and must-have books from SciFi and Fantasy... ageless, timeless, and without boundaries.

Add your books to the lis...more

Green Building Geeks — 19 members — last activity 22 days ago, 05:59AM
Interested in alternative building methods, such as cob, straw bale or rammed earth? Let's share books, techniques and ideas, and even make local conn...more

Fantasy Book Club — 833 members — last activity 2 hours, 11 min ago
A fun social group for those who love the fantasy genre and focuses on fantasy series, stand alone fantasy novels, short stories and companion books. ...more

Tabletop Games & SciFi-Fantasy Books — 43 members — last activity 05/24/2009 06:16AM
This group was established to provide a forum for people to discuss games and SFF books. Tabletop gamers, RPGs, and video gamers are all welcome.
...more

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