On Unskilled Labor
We hired a contractor to come out and rebuild the front and side porches, since both were riddled with wood-rot and falling apart under our feet. He also fixed some soffiting above the porch and some rotting wood siding on the house. We hired a local guy because we want our money to stay here in the community, but promptly started to second guess ourselves when we read in the paper that his son and one of the guys he had helping him were just arrested for distributing dozens of pounds of Methamphetimine. I asked him never to bring that other guy around again, and for the rest of the job he brought a lady-friend of his to help. As you can see in the above and below pictures, it ended up turning out alright. He was on time every morning and showed up every day until the job was done, which is more than I can say for the contractors we hired in Denver.
I’m still a little upset at myself for even having to hire someone to do this stuff. Isn’t our desire to homestead supposed to involve a strict DIY mentality? A lot of people buy land and camp on it in a trailer or yurt until they build their entire homes with their very own hands. And I can’t even build a little side porch? Our next door neighbor used to be a shop class teacher and he is working on a few projects this summer around his place. I’m hoping he’ll let me “help” him so I can learn a few things. I enjoy my work in marketing and it pays well, but I am SICK of not knowing how to fix and build my own stuff. This ineptitude simply has to stop.
That being said, it wasn’t exactly like we sat on our rear-ends all weekend. For now at least – I figure it’s good to leave the skilled jobs to the professionals (for lack of a better word in this case) when it comes to the home we plan on living in for many years to come. But we are perfectly capable of a little hard work as unskilled labor. I personally filled this roll-away dumpster to the full-line over the last couple of weekends:
A lot of what was in that dumpster came from a “wood” pile in the backyard. There were yards and yards of rusty barbed-wire that I had to pull out with my tractor riding lawn mower… not to mention the vomit-inducing full canning jars from the mid-eighties and the sacks of decade-old rotten grain inside bags like tissue paper.
I was glad to find out the two refrigerators and the washing machine we moved out of the barn and workshop were operational enough to keep them out of the landfill. There was also an old chest freezer in the workshop that I plan on filling with venison this fall. We’re still waiting on people from Freecycle or Craigslist to come pick these up. Surely someone needs a free, working refrigerator or washing machine right?
Well they’ve been there for two full days now with nary a bite. In addition to the appliances, we also saved everything that we couldn’t use, but which we didn’t want to throw out. Whatever is left over by tomorrow evening is going to Goodwill or the Salvation Army.
Meanwhile, Missy finished up the last of the decorating and painting in the house, worked on a freelance graphic design job, helped me move the appliances, cooked several meals, washed all the clothes… and I did the dishes, moved the broody hen into the empty coop, cleaned up a rotten egg mess in the old brooder box, cleaned the main coop, and re-burned what was left of the wood pile. And what comes of all of this work? You can see what it got my lovely wife:
As for me, I’m answering non-work-related emails, blogging on this website and several others, and being happy that, thanks to this farm, I’ll never be bored again. 
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Category: The Transplants, Uncategorized
We believe that humankind has lost some important things in the march toward progress. That is not to say progress and simplicity are mutually exclusive. We believe we can have both, and this site catalogs our journey as we try to do exactly that.
The Transplants
TreeStone Farm
The Old-Timers
Don’t beat yourself up over not doing everything yourself. Enjoy your new life, rebuilding/repairing the things you can and, by all means, avoid burn out.
Continue to have fun!
I can empathize with the hire someone / DIY dilemma. We had to hire a contractor to replace our roof. Unfortunately they did not do a very good job and were assuming our ignorance would enable them to get away with it. They assumed wrong and it makes us want to do everything ourselves now. Still, theres a time versus money issue with that, and the dilemma goes on.
Hey Everett,
I love following your dream, it’s takes time to get where you are headed, but you will get there!
Oh a side note, if you haven’t heard about knockoffwood.blogspot. com, you should check it out. This girl breaks it down on how to build furniture with wood lists and measurements. The point is doing some of her projects will get you comfortable enough to tackle more involved projects. My husband has been a carpenter for 30 yrs and is going to make me a couple of pieces I want(like the farmhouse table and benches). IMO you just need something to give you some confidence! Go for it!
I am in no way affiliated with her site, I only think it is a great way for anyone wanting to become more knowledgeable about wood and building things to have a starting point for inspiration and know how. I bet Missy would love it!
BTW as a young girl I traveled thru Hillsville many a time on my way to stay summers with my Dad in NC. Always brings such sweet memories to think of Hillsville!
Thanks for your support everyone. I’m 33 so I figure if all goes well we should have a few good decades left with which to learn and do. Until then we’ll just do what we can.
Sandy I’ll go check out that site right now. Thanks!
WOW Sandy that is an AWESOME site! What a great idea for a blog! I think I’m going to try this one: http://www.knock-offwood.com/2010/04/furniture-plans-super-easy-but-little.html
Hi Everett, I came across your blog recently and am really enjoying it! You and your wife are doing a great job! I am also 33, and moved out to a 20 acre hobby farm in Missouri five years ago with my two dogs with the same DIY spirit that you have. It has been a wonderful journey so far but has been equally frustrating, lol. I can so relate to your experiences.
Don’t sweat not being able to tackle some projects yourself! I have found myself feeling similar to you in that I had envisioned myself getting this place into tip-top shape with my own hands. As it turns out, modern day people keeping up a small homestead and working a job to support that life definitely have to choose their battles. The homesteads of yore kept themselves up with the hands of many, sometimes more than one family on one farm, and farmhands to boot! The farm WAS their day job.
At some point, you just have to hire someone to do a job here or there in order to expedite the process. I take on the projects that I can manage and hire out people to do the jobs that I can’t, or don’t have time for, and sometimes just because of they have expertise that I can glean from (I ask a lot of questions and absorb as much as I can while they’re there)!
As time passes you will gain more knowledge, confidence, and skill. Your projects around the farm will find a balance between what you can do yourself and what you find help with.
Have fun keepin’ it rural and good luck to you both! I will keep reading!
You Simpletons (grin) are doing an amazing job! AMAZING!
I wanted to make sure I said that first, because you should not beat yourself up for hiring out the work you cannot do. Did you grow up doing carpentry? Have you ever trained for it or apprenticed for it? Then how, praytell, are you supposed to know how to do it sight unseen?!!
Give yourself time to learn these new skills you wish you had. Just like with everything else you have learned how to do, you will eventually learn carpentry and all of the rest of the stuff.
Accept that you may never know how to do everything. Do you all grow cotton, pick it, process it, dye it, weave it, and make your clothes? Do you think you ever will? Do you manufacture your own appliances, or plan on returning to the days of beating clothes against rocks to clean them? If you never do, that will be ok, yes?
Don’t look at someone else’s journey and feel that yours should look the same. There is no shame in not doing everything yourselves. You two are an incredible encouragement, you know, with the skills you already have. Blessings!
As an old house owner, I work on those things I can do, and let others do what they can. The journey is important, but the final state is also important. Enjoy the new porch. Spend some time enjoying what you have and get ready for the next task. There will always something else that needs to get done! BTW – The new porch looks good!
Hey again, I thought of something from one of your earlier posts…about not having any time for gardening. I’m doing straw bale gardening..no digging. Just prep your bales by watering daily for 2-3 weeks or accelerate the decomposition by doing a fertilizer prep. We did the water prep and planted our tomato’s this evening. This is our 3rd year, so I know without a doubt it works!
Home depot will cut your wood to length for you so making the raised beds would just be a matter of screwing them together. Check my blog..under labels …go to straw bale gardening and take a look at ours, and see what kind of bounty I got last year. Totally doable for you guys with a little effort and those delicious home grown tomatoes can by yours to enjoy all summer! If you want the exact dimensions for a raised bed with 2 bales like the new bed I’m doing this year, let me know and I’ll have my husband figure it for you. (2 bales = 4 tomato plants)
Don’t beat yourself up about it. One thing at a time, right? We just moved to the country and there is so much we don’t know how to do. We’re getting ready to process our first chickens and I’ve been reading everything I can find online. We built our first chicken tractor which turned out OK, but could be better.
I figure with every project, we learn a little more so we can tackle the next, bigger project.
You provided a job to a neighbor in a crappy economy.
Nothing to be ashamed about that.
You may have a skill he doesn’t that you can offer him someday. THAT is a sustainable community.