Frontenac ResilienceSustainable community and more

Not so long ago there used to be barn-raisings around here as the community rallied to do together what would be hard for one pair of hands to do. There was no set of instructions and certainly none downloaded from the Internet. However there were plenty of resourceful people in the community and together they figured out how to get a good barn built with the resources they had.

No doubt there are many Frontenac News readers who would benefit from, and enjoy, helping build small buildings in a team this year, with others’ help. Parents with their children for example, codgers needing a project (I know you’re out there), teenagers wanting some healthy first independence from the family. Or a separate place for granny or grandpa that’s just away from the family, meditation hut, a guest place for family members to visit, a place for interns or hired hands to sleep, a shed. Or something you build just because!

Here’s how it works. We (Eric Joss who’s built a few, Lynn Shwadchuck and myself) are inviting everybody who’d like to help with building a number of new tiny houses this summer to come together with others and pool our resources to get these mini-mansions built. You could be in for a day, or if you’re having a house built, in for more. Whether there are four or forty-four people, we’ll take an inventory of our resources and interest levels and figure out how to proceed. Taking inventory means identifying who has what: building experience, a truck, existing materials, time, youthful strength, organizational ability, tunes and food for the downtime after a work day.

A group is able to take advantage of economies of scale, buying things in common and making one trip instead of many. Bowing to the spirit of the old barn-raisings, some individuals will doubtless give more than they get, paying it forward.

Tiny houses can range from the very simple (and very inexpensive, for example, built with scrounged materials), to elaborate and grand. For today’s purposes, we’re really talking about a 10×10 structure that fits under the building code requirement for inspection. But really other small structures could be “tiny.” (I’ve posted some pictures and resources at www.FrontenacResilience.org.) Eric is committed to this project as advisor and helper and I am on as organizer and Lynn as support. Speaking of commitment, since participants will depend on each other, success will depend on our accountability for what we say we’re going to do. This is a bottom-line real cost of participating.

The planning meeting will be March 6th at 1:30 at Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake. If there are a large number of us it may take a while to figure out how to proceed so the hall is booked till 4:30. With a lot of people showing up, we may need to break into separate teams. We’ll see how we stack up against those barn-raisers of old, and perhaps there will be a few out who can remember that far back.

Although I’d like people to let me know in advance if they’re coming (it helps with initial planning), no one will be turned away. To reply, add a comment below, you can email Andrew at countryknowhow (at) frontenac (dot) net, or phone 613.279.1966

If you’re starting to think about a tiny house in your family’s future – for the teen reaching for some independence, the getaway room in back, guest sleeping cabin, meditation shack – a great place to start is tinyhouseblog.com. There you’ll find a gallery of tiny houses, access to plans, more imaginative concepts and possibilities than you can shake a 2X4 at. Here are a few examples.

Click the pictures to see inside.

Yer basic hermitage cabin

This one's on wheels

This one has everything.

These “French cubes” are rented out to tourists, complete with the telescopes. These could be great with the grand telescope they’re looking at building in North Frontenac. Little wilderness getaways for folks coming to visit.

Sharbot Lake is going to have a community garden this summer! You can be part of it even if you live way north of Plevna.

It’ll be official when it comes out with details in Frontenac News shortly but here’s your heads up on this home grown idea: Abundance Plots will be small additions to your garden where you grow a little extra of something for trade during the harvest season with other abundance plotters. It’s like a non-contiguous community garden. The World’s First! You give some produce away, you get some. Everyone gets more stuff and has some fun – and hopefully some conversation with other gardeners.

Beginners will be welcome and likely gardening help will be available too.

You’ll be encouraged to declare yourself “in” to the Abundance Plot so you’ll be on the map and others can see who’s trying to grow what. The first bunch get a neat little identifying sign for their Plot. Perhaps a local commercial producer will give free consultation to one registered Plotter.

The idea is to have some fun and grow more stuff. People who declare themselves in will get a l’il garden sign to stick in their Abundance Plot.

Really it’s a community garden, with bits of land (and they could be very small) all over.

Roll out coming soon!

I’ve heard so many variations about what could and couldn’t be built I went to the source, Central Frontenac Township’s gentle but efficient Chief Building Inspector, Ian Trickett. Ian doesn’t make the rules by the way (the provincial government does);he just helps you work with them and ensures that they’re followed.

My own question was this: I wanted to build a “Tiny House” or “bunkie,” a structure that fits under the 10 square metre (108 sq. ft.) floor space limit after which a permit is required. I wanted to build it largely with used and scrap wood that I’ve been accumulating. What features could I have and what couldn’t I.

The 10 square metre limit refers to the total area covered by the foundation – the outside in other words, not the inside. Your Tiny House must be just one story so no lofts on top; that would add to the area. No inspection is necessary though if you want a fireplace or stove, you’ll have to have that inspected. A deck would count as part of your area too. Nor can there be be a cantilevered section that juts out past the 108 sq. ft. to get around the size limit. The 108 sq. ft. goes all the way up, in other words, though a normal roof overhang doesn’t count.

But you don’t have to stop at 108 sq. ft. You can build a sleeping cabin on your property that can be up to 400 sq. ft. as long as it doesn’t have kitchen facilities, which would make it like a second house. This much larger sleeping cabin would require a building permit ($80) and wood that’s been stamped as being of sufficient grade. If you use wood from your own property or other wood that’s been milled for you, you can have it evaluated by local people who are empowered give it the necessary stamp of approval if everything’s OK. And a toilet in the sleeping cabin may need to be tied into your septic system. This is true for a composting toilet too if it releases liquid into the ground as some do.

While you need approved lumber, old or new, for joists and studs in your sleeping cabin, you don’t need approval on siding, sheathing, trim or strapping. So it could be that you can build a much bigger space than 108 sq. ft. without spending too much on wood. Some of your used wood, if you have any, might be fine.

The next Country Know-how will be about a plan for a number of us to collectively plan, scrounge and buy materials, and build our own “Tiny House.” You’re welcome to join us and build a small structure on your property, with recycled materials if you like, this summer.

Ian Trickett will answer your questions about buildings, tiny or not, on Friday, February 19th at 1:00 pm at the Township Office. (613) 279-2935 Ext 226.

Seven people showed up for a Country Know-how workshop chez Pat Furlong and Laurie Brownlee at Elphin Gold, their Elphin heritage farm on Feb 1. They talked about the economics and practicalities of raising chickens. (I missed the mini-workshop myself helping bring a friend’s lumber up from Kingston.)

Folks were treated to a time at the kitchen table and barn-time too with the chickens.

Here’s a pic of Pat and Laurie. Thanks for helping out with Country Know-how you guys! I know you’re both busy, Laurie with multiple farm tasks and Pat most recently preparing for a community dinner at MERA this Friday evening (demo of east Indian cooking at 5:30, supper at 6:00, just $5).

On the right, green eggs, proving that Dr. Seuss had some things right all along!

green eggs

Keeping a few chickens

The Country Know-how column for the week of January 21 . . .

Can you keep a few chickens to give yourself fresh eggs and a little meat with personality? Sure you can. It requires some work, a bit of money and quite a bit of know-how though and we’ll just touch on a few basics here. An upcoming Country Know-how mini-workshop with Laurie Brownlee and wife Pat Furlong’s heritage Elphin farm will enable you to have another look.

The hundred acre property near the heart of Elphin has been in the family since early in the nineteenth century. A Brownlee married the original Stokes family’s daughter and it’s been Brownlees ever since. I was amazed at the number of breeds among the fifty or so chickens in the coop. Apparently, keeping the lovely and distinctive breeds apart so that they don’t all devolve into one McChicken is an art all by itself. These are heritage chickens with exotic names (e.g., Buff Orpington ), not the modern breeds that mature for the table in 12 to 14 weeks. Those varieties are raised in incubators and are unable to set on fertilized eggs to grow a new generation. .

Pat and Laurie’s chickens, like many in the area, don’t run around outside where predators can snatch them. Hawks from above, foxes, weasels, minks and fishers for example. Even the coop or the “chicken tractor,” a little houseful of chickens on wheels that is moved over fresh grass, must be kept tight so invaders can’t get in. One mink can wipe out the the whole bunch though the polite fox will just take one! So in winter the chickens are inside a coop, the hens separated for the most part from the roosters; in the summer they move in the chicken tractor over fresh grass. Egg production goes way down in winter’s depth and starts to pick up when the days lengthen.

Chickens eat grass, bugs, some kitchen scraps, fruit and grain twice a day. The grain is the main expense (a buck a kilo for the organic stuff). They’re fed grain year round, the amount they can eat in about ten minutes. Grain really increases egg production. A half-dozen birds will give you four or five eggs a day, beauties with deep yellow yolks that stand up on their own. Some of their eggs have green shells by the way – Dr. Seuss had it right all along!

Hens lay most frequently the first year, less the second year and much less after that. They can live for ten years but are usually destined to become meat after two or three. One option is to buy one-year olds for two dollars or less, house and feed them for the eggs for a year or two and eat them after. Preparing them for the table is a job you should be prepared to do yourself!

Pat and Laurie welcome you to admire and talk chicken at a mini-workshop based on your questions and answers on Monday February 1 from 2-4 pm. Call them for directions at 613.278.2868.

A reminder of this Saturday’s Country Know-how mini-workshop (January 23rd, 2 pm, Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake). The workshop is on the humble bean, and how useful it can be to you.

Here’s the Country Know-how column for the week of January 7th.

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The simple bean, nutritious, inexpensive, adaptable and delicious as it is, has made itself a staple of country cuisine the world over.I’m speaking of dried beans here. Green beans are what you eat out of the garden, dry beans are the many varieties of the same basic plant when shelled or threshed and stored. After original cultivation in the Andes and Central America at least six thousand years ago, beans became the foundation of Native Americans’ extensive agriculture. If they were eaten here in the north country they were more likely traded than grown, but old settlers in Central Frontenac remember when they were grown locally, with the threshing being done in a bucket.

Beans keep for years if dry. Newer beans cook quickly but if they’re older as they frequently are when purchased, you’d best soak them overnight before cooking. They’re easy to grown and despite the rainy summer we had last year we had enough success to get some seed crop for what we hope’ll be success this year. As beans become adapted to your garden’s soil they build up a relationship with rhizobia, a nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which helps them grow even more successfully. In other words, the more years you grow them the better they grow.

Even if you don’t grow your own, you can buy them inexpensively in bulk and store them. In mylar bags, especially when de-oxygenated, they’ll store a long time indeed. You can take advantage of your freezer and pre-cook them in large batches, saving time and energy. What you freeze could be just the cooked beans themselves, or the ready-for-eating bean dish you’ve prepared in bulk. With your beans stacked up in one-meal servings in the freezer you can pull them out for a quick and delicious addition to your supper. They’re cheap and eating more beans is often linked to eating a bit less meat, which is linked to health benefits. If you can grow beans as well as vegetables, you’re a long way toward being self-sufficient in food.

Country Know-how will have a mini-workshop on “Making the Most of Beans,” hosted by Lynn Shawdchuck on January 23rd at Soldiers Memorial Hall (Oso Hall) in Sharbot Lake. Lynn’s a talented local cook with a wealth of experience preparing bean dishes from a range of ethnic traditions. This isn’t a cooking class, but an opportunity to sample different bean dishes, ask questions about growing and preparing beans. Drop-ins on the day are acceptable but if you can, please call Lynn at 613.279.1966 if you’re planning on coming so she has a sense of how much food to bring.

I was reading Mother Earth News recently, from the Sharbot Lake library. The August/September ‘08 issue was on little known American communities that are favoured places to live. What they had in common was they’d built vibrant citizen response to the challenges of sustainability and in the process became places where quality of life and initiative was growing rather than shrinking.

Could this happen here in Central Frontenac? Sure!

What would it take? Vision and initiatives from us. We could wait a long time for someone else to do it for us, but don’t need to wait at all to move toward it ourselves. I’ve written about this here, but today want to point to these other communities and how a similar strategy has worked wonders elsewhere.

Generally the initiatives reduced energy consumption and created a sense of shared endeavour by doing so. Projects included home energy audits, edible yard projects and other local eco-activities (Berea, Kentucky); strong emphasis on land conservation (Bisbee, Arizona); strong emphasis on local food, restoration and preservation of regional trails (Bethel, Maine); becoming a stronghold of organic, sustainable agriculture and natural resource preservation (Viroqua, Wisconsin); restoration of prairie lands and native species (Moscow, Idaho); civic commitment to frugal lifestyle with a rich public life that makes large houses unnecessary (Greenbelt, Maryland).

We could portray ourselves as a go-to place for people seeking a sustainable escape from Toronto, Ottawa, or Montreal. This doesn’t mark us as poor folks wanting to attract other poor folks but quite the opposite. Thinking “sustainable future” is smart thinking these days and smart and savvy folks throughout Ontario, including many whose resources include money will want to be here.

If we have the vision and the smarts ourselves.

I think we’re going to see a great deal of change in the decade ahead. Oil prices are set to rise and keep rising because we’ve passed the peak of what’s available for easy extraction. Peak oil will change our lives profoundly, as will climate change.

Frontenac residents are going to be impacted. The more we look backward and hope for someone to help us maintain the life we’re accustomed to the less we’ll be able to see what’s happening and respond.

Making Christmas candles today with Dorina Friedli (not shown) showing how. Thanks Dorina!
Here are a few pix. Country Know-how returns after Christmas.

Wow, people turned out in force for the wood gas workshop, over 40 people (either 41 or 42 besides presenter David Shackleton). You can read about it below. Yes there’s a real interest in alternative energy in Central and North Frontenac!

Here are a few pictures from the workshop on November21 at Oso Hall. Click to make them bigger.