4S: Stephen's Snowbirding & Sustainability Sojourn - February 2025

--Update 1--

Currently in SW North Carolina, visiting James and Liz: two folks I met at this past summer's PTJ. Helping James with refitting and renovating a house while I'm here. They have two dogs and a cat, along with chickens and a guardian goose. A creek goes right by the front of their house...it's great here!

I'll have pictures of their lovely place soon, but I wanted to add some pictures of the area I drove through before I arrived at their place. To sum it up: I went along the western border of North Carolina, then cut through the Great Smoky Mountains. The path I took was called "Newfound Gap," and while the roads seemed way too steep for reasonable driving, I think the views were wonderful.









As an aside: I think I need to replace my camera lens. It must have become too scratched-up over the past couple years, since all the sunny photographs seem over-blown with light and fogged-out. Working on it.

Jeremy VanGelder wrote:For your time in the Carolinas you might look into the Living Soil Foundation in Mars Hill, NC. They have been making biochar to remediate the soils that were polluted after the hurricane.

Jeremy, I'm following-up with these folks now with the hopes that I can assist them for a few days before heading out west. Thanks again for passing along this info!

--Update 2--

Here are a few photos of James and Liz's place out in western North Carolina. Over the past 5 years, James has been building a sustainable homestead operation one piece at a time. Liz moved in a year ago and the two of them are working together to create their own sustainable slice of paradise.



Here are the chickens and Goose, currently residing on the east side of the road.



Several of the guests from the 2024 PTJ had a chance to sample honey from James' beehives, and some of them are included here.



Here's a shot of the outdoor work shed/garden tables. I'd like to see us build something like this up at Wheaton Labs.



The garlic and onions over-wintered well. Over 400 starts were planted here.



James is also experimenting with inoculating logs with shiitake mushrooms in a few different ways. There's the traditional "plugs sealed with wax" method and "log sandwich" method here...





...As well as this "mushroom caps" method, which isn't discussed much outside a handful of YouTube videos. Hopefully this other method works well, as it takes less time and is less labor-intensive in general than the other two methods. After a small autumn harvest, James is curious to see what a full season's growth will produce.



One of the big outdoor tasks I assisted with was some logging. These trees had been downed for close to a year, and we decided to buck them to splitting length.



A few hours later, the logs were bucked and some other backyard odds and ends were sorted out for splitting and hauling in the next few days.



In the afternoon, James showed me around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was fantastic. I remember having gone there as a kid but remembered almost nothing about it. I'm grateful for the chance to be reacquainted with it.



We walked along the "Three Waterfalls Loop," which was close to a three mile walk with a variety of terrain and scenic views.





The park service staff had built a number of artful roundwood timber railings and bridges along this route, which blended seamlessly into the natural setting.









We later convened with Liz in downtown Bryson City to wrap up my visit with some local cuisine. Big thanks once again to James and Liz for their generosity and hospitality...!

I head out tomorrow morning to travel four days to New Mexico...! Looking forward to it!

Thanks for sharing your visits and adventures with us!  Keep it coming please.

--Update 3--

Currently visiting Amy Gardener (permies staff!) in New Mexico. It's been a real treat to be here: my first time ever in the state.

The big project we're tackling while I'm around is to repair the exterior of a 20+ year-old adobe structure:



My first task: break up a bunch of horse manure. Amy is fortunate enough to have a neighbour with a pair of horses. Amy receives a barrow-full of fresh manure each morning, so this was the closest to grass that manure ever could be. I broke it up into smaller, fibrous bits, then pressed it through a hardware cloth mesh. The result looked (and smelled) just like grass clippings.



The manure was blended in a bucket along with a cooked flour paste.



Using a scrub brush, we applied the paste to the exposed wood on the upper part of the structure's walls. These were actually the roof supports. The goal was to cover the wood with mud, but the paste needed to be applied to provide a stickier surface to which the mud would adhere.



We then used some loose-weave burlap in this 6-inch wide strips as a kind of "lathe for the plaster."



The burlap was added to the areas where we had applied paste, further providing more purchase for the mud. A second layer of paste was added to the burlap once it had been secured.



Amy mixed our mud, and we added in a small amount of the paste mix to the sand, clay, and water.



The paste was a huge help during the application process! Normally, mud won't stick well to wood, but after the paste and burlap layer was added, the first layer of mud was much more cooperative.



Mud was added to any burlap and exposed wood around the roof-line of the structure.



After we emptied the mud pan, I scored the surface with the hand trowel so there will be a rougher surface for an additional layer to stick to.



The drain channels, or canales, on the roof of the structure needed some additional support as well. I think one of the best aspects of building with adobe and cob is that you can easily modify a structure after it's been built. Here's we added some simple shelf supports underneath one of the canales. To achieve a good fit, we broke away some of the dried outer shell of the building.



The finished supports were linked to a strip of wood to distribute the weight of the canale. The whole of the support will be covered with burlap and the green paste, and finally by a layer or two of mud, to integrate the supports into the structure.



That's all for now. We're back to work tomorrow.

So great you could team up with Amy for this project!