Noah Jackson

Hi,

We cannot offer pay, but our interns do get a lot of experience. We offer room and board and are happy to consider you for as short as two weeks this summer. We are currently have two interns booked for this coming growing season, but they are staying from 2-6 weeks. You can read our WWOOFER-USA profile here (https://wwoofusa.org/farm/sweetroot-farm/). You can find us on Facebook too, at SweetRoot Farm. We are in the Bitterroot Mountains of Hamilton, Motana. Please reach out to us directly at noah @ forestvoices dot org

Thanks for your interest!

This is our second year farming in the Bitterroot Valley and we are focusing our work on building infrastructure and social infrastructure and community that makes for a strong food system. We have intern opportunities starting in mid-April and would be grateful for some help. Projects for April include a strawbale farm store. Please message us for details, or check out our updated wwoofer-usa profile! https://wwoofusa.org/farm/sweetroot-farm/

Happy Growing,
Mary and Noah at SweetRoot Farm

You are right, Paul....

This is totally doable. As you know, you need to watch thermal bridging with steel (as well as wood). Most doors have rigid insulation inside, and that's a wonderful application for this project. Go ahead and build a prototype! When I stop by in the coming days I'm happy to give you and the crew a few suggestions that I'd consider as starting points.

Stay warm,
Noah

Good to see and the crew building so much, Paul. We've had many of the issues you've mentioned on the last few podcasts. Keep plugging away. For our sheep barn and chicken coop, which are both on skids, we've attached heavy-gauged metal roofing to the 4x4 and 4x6 skids. You can do something similar to preserve your wood, if you are worried about that. It's working out really well, and we can pull both buildings with our tractor. We've just used fir and utility grade salvaged timbers. Our moveable coop will eventually be upgraded to wheels, but the moveable coop moves every week and holds more than 120 birds and is quite heavy - much heavier than your empty woodshed, I reckon since it was a quick large-timber construction. For long term storage, when they aren't using them, we'll put those two skiddable buildings on blocks.

As we start to have multiple outbuildings with wood heat, we are electing to have the wood drying in separate sheds near the buildings. You've got the dump truck and, if you need another portable wood-getter, that f250 7.3 diesel we have is still for sale. Let me know if you are interested. It would be a great winter vegetable oil conversion vehicle if you want another project! Keep up the struggle.

R Scott wrote:Look up deep snow sleigh runners. I will see if I can find a link when I am at a real computer, too.

Basically, you have a 2-4 inch strap of steel down the middle as the ice runner, the the log is chamfered so it won't drag on ice or dirt but help float in mud and snow.

Rufus - with all the farm work, you can see, we never got around to that coat of paint! I'd help someone on the forum do the conversion. I have experience and it would be a fun project.

Noah Jackson wrote:Rufus and Co.,

I just wanted to let you know that we are re-selling our diesel rig. It worked really well to move our farm; we purchased another diesel truck, newer, to haul supplies to our farm long-distance. Our 1990 f250 would make a great vegetable oil conversion. Let me know if you are interested - http://missoula.craigslist.org/cto/4572637301.html

Rufus Laggren wrote:> how much paint...

Don't know, sorry. As a WAG based on square feet, about 1/2gal/coat with roll/tip. Sprayed I'd stlll guess a gallon for full coverage with three-four passes. Leave the bottom of the bed for last. <g>

Rufus and Co.,

I just wanted to let you know that we are re-selling our diesel rig. It worked really well to move our farm; we purchased another diesel truck, newer, to haul supplies to our farm long-distance. Our 1990 f250 would make a great vegetable oil conversion. Let me know if you are interested - http://missoula.craigslist.org/cto/4572637301.html

Rufus Laggren wrote:> how much paint...

Don't know, sorry. As a WAG based on square feet, about 1/2gal/coat with roll/tip. Sprayed I'd stlll guess a gallon for full coverage with three-four passes. Leave the bottom of the bed for last. <g>

Nice work. We have a lot of skiddable buildings on our place too. Those joints turned out very nice and clean. How'd you make them so nice and clean??

Someone asked about the 20V drills/drivers. We have the dewalt 20 volt lithium version and it works just great.

Hi Christy,

Noah Jackson from Montana here. I'm building my first two top bar hives. Regarding ventilation, would you stay away from stainless steel window screen in the bottom? We have access to coffee bags as well, and that might be darker and do the job better. Any thoughts on those two materials?

Thanks!!

I've implemented the caster and locking caster idea in my shop too, Paul. Thanks for the tip. It works well, and we have multiple workbenches and speciality tool tables that can be rolled together to serve as out-feed and project-support surfaces. I used casters for a rolling, double-sided pegboard as well. Recently, I found a lowering stand that I'll use to mount machinery on, that provides for more flexibility. My shop might just be a tad larger than yours, but space is still a premium, and like you, we need to sometimes move in vehicles and have a large, working space. Check this, USA made lowering/raising stand out.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00002262M/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER#productDetails

Cheers,
Noah

paul wheaton wrote:Here are the casters we used at the bottom of the shelves:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000DD1EG/rs12-20

Sounds like you are all setup for this project, Zach, so I'll let you have full dibs. Good luck. I think the idea of scorching and then sanding or planing is great.
Noah

Zach Weiss wrote:I have access to a number of species as well as a shop right now and could make up some signs, along with some blanks for later use. We have Black Locust, Cherry, Ash, Pine, Maple, and Birch on hand.

It would be interesting to have 2 or 3 different species all together, maybe Locust, Cherry (also pretty rot resistant), and then Pine or Fir from the project. Then when people come 10, 20, 50 years down the road they can observe how each of the different species has held up.