saving daylight

Hours were not always finite. They were undulating, flexible things, defined not, by the duration of periods of radiation of caesium, but by the more tangible position of the sun in the sky. Sunrise marked the begging of the twelve hour day, and sunset marked the begging of the twelve hour night. Except at the equinox, day hours and night hours were not the equal. Time was a comparative measure, always relative to the sun peaking at mid-day.

Power

I decided that I am done using power tools.

I think that everything that has happened in this project has been leading to this point, but the moment was up on a ladder. I had decided that I wanted to do the bracing for my house timber frame style, so I was cutting out a notch in one of my posts. I was up on a ladder drilling holes that I would be able to chisel out, and the drill was going wild. I had to hold the thing over my head and every time i pulled the trigger the bit would catch and the drill would spin and wrench my arm around. It hurt. And it was not safe. And I was frustrated. I started to fantasize about having a hand powered drill that I could actually control, and that was went it struck me. It was time to give up power tools.

I embarked on this project to change my thinking. I noticed how often I felt reliant on technology in a way that was self defeating. I was so used to having a computer, and the internet and a calculator, and a gps, and a cell phone, that there was never a time when I really had to problem solve. When I encountered a problem my brain would shut down and I would look for an existing solution. I would also panic if I didn't have my technology. If I was driving a long distance and my cell phone died, I would freak out because I didn't know what I would do if something happened. But there was a time before cell phones, and people managed alright.

I started to think that all of the technology that was making my life easier was just making me scared. I was scared to try to figure things out on my own. I was scared I would be lost, or that I would do something the wrong way, or that I would get hurt. Mostly though I was scared of looking dumb. I was afraid that I would get lost and have to tell someone. I was afraid that I would try to figure out how to make something on my own and I would do it the wrong way. I guess at the root I was afraid of taking risks, I was terrified of failing.

Somewhere amidst the recognition of my own feelings of insecurity and fear I started thinking about colonial settlers. I thought about coming to a new place and looking around and thinking, OK I need shelter, what do we have here? Trees, some clay, that is enough. From there it was all problem solving. There was no landing in the new world manual. They had to figure it out. I wanted that kind of power. The freedom of knowing that I have the ability to take care of myself.

So I decided that I would build myself a house, and I would do it as sustainably as I could. I didn't want to just build a house with more things that i did't understand. I didn't just want to go to lowes and buy house materials and make a house. I wanted to really understand it, and I wanted to make myself think about where my materials came from and what it means to use them. That is why I had to try to be sustainable. I needed to be conscious of what i used and the best way to do that is with a goal or constraint. So my goal was to use materials where I knew the source and understood the life cycle and could truly envision the impact.

I have been moderately successful at that. It has certainly been building. When I started the project I was used to buying everything I needed at lowes, But am moving more and more toward living with objects and processes that I know.

Let me explain about knowing. I don't just want to know something like when I drill a hole with my battery powered drill it used x watts of power. I want to know what it feels like to drill a hole. I want my body to know the work of drilling a hole. Just like I wanted my body to know the work of digging a trench. I want to really understand my house, I don't want to be removed from it by way of a back hoe, or gas powered auger .Giving up the power tools was an obvious progression, in some ways I am surprised it took as long as it did. I had been thinking that the real experiment was not going to start until I moved into the house, but it started as soon as I committed to the idea. I have been changing. I know what it feels like to do things the dumbest way possible and have to tell people about it, I know what it feel like to fail, and I know what it feels like to know that i can figure out the next step. I have been slowly transferring power from the objects that made me feel robbed of my capability back into my hands.

gathering pt 2

It was a strange and wonderful thing having my instructor arrive on my doorstep. Since no one else came to work, we went into the backyard to look at my mess and talk about it. After a few minutes she pointed out that really I was not ready to be building; I had some thinking and planning to do. She asked if it was ok to invite her husband to come take a look and give his input, of course it was not only ok, I greatly appreciated it. He came by and told me that the information about needing to be five feet away from the property line did not currently mean anything because I did not know where the property line was.


To be continued....eventually

gathering pt 1

Last Monday I went on a strange adventure. It began with this piece of paper, which came into my possession a few weeks ago:
That paper was an interesting and contradictory thing. It boldly claims to be both a notice of violation and a stop work order, but then in the area that should detail the violation it says is very neat script:

this is not a fee/fine as of now need more info to determine if building permit is needed
thanks D L Alley

So it is not actually a notice of violation. It is a notice of confusion. The inspector was confused and concerned, and quite nicely asked if I would call so that we could sort everything out.

I recieved this paper by way of my house mate, who called and left me a message saying:

there are some men in the back yard lookin at that thing. I told them I don't know about it. I don't own this place, I'm not building that. I just don't know. But then he was real nice. Left you a paper. Your supposed to call or something.

I didn't get the paper until after the offices had closed, so I called in the morning and spoke with DL Alley. He was very nice. He told me I was doing a really good job, but that my house was too big to build without a permit and that I needed to check with zoning because I was probably too close to the property line.

So I biked down to the building permit building. Which is the same building as public utilities. I walked in a told them what had happened and I showed the guy behind the counter a drawing of my house, and he said that it looked good, but he needed some more information and that he would check with zoning. He walked to the desk next door and asked that guy something then came back and told me that my house needed to be at least five feet from the property line.

That was the information that would eventually lead me to my adventure.

I was sad about the fact that I would have to move my house. It was on the property line. But also happy that I found out about the zoning issues before I put the roof on and had walls and everything. When I got home I went out into the backyard and think. I decided that I could move the whole house, or move part of the house. I thought about it and half formulated a plan and felt pretty good about it.

From there I needed to have a work party to execute the half plan. I invited all of my friends to come over on sunday for a build party. I did my usual email and text message invites, but I had a feeling that it was going to fall through, possiby because I was not persistant in my coersing, because I was worried about my plan, but no one came except my instructor and it was perfect.

The beginning

For the last six months or so I've been trying to build a house. House is an exaggeration. It is a shed, but I have every intention of inhabiting it. I have another blog documenting the progress, but I wanted a place to put some thoughts and experiences that have happened because of this project, but are not really about building a weird house out of straw.

For now I will start where I am, but I'd like to go backwards in time too. A lot of things have happened.