This post seems so last year, oh wait, it is. Happy New Year!
Last week the institute was largely closed but we were still busy writing blog posts, preparing podcasts, finishing the roof, renovating the bathroom, and laying plans for 2018. As we were closed, this post sums up two weeks’ worth of activity.
Upcoming Blogs and Podcasts
We’ve been working on blog posts on barefoot running and winter-surplus recipes. We also have upcoming podcasts on minimalism and how it relates (or not) to self-sufficiency and homesteading. In the near future we’ll be announcing the start of our tool library — a place community and institute members can come borrow tools for free.
Roofing Largely Finished
A few clean-up jobs remain on the roof, including finishing some flashing and ridges, but for the most part, the roof is finished. This massive project took much of our time over the last year has stymied some of the institute’s work but now we should be able to move full steam ahead in 2018.
Bathroom Renovation
If you’ve attended one of our workshops, you’ve probably used our bathroom, which had more mirrors than a disco ball. We’ve torn it apart and are building it back up. We’ll discuss how most of the items pulled out of the old bathroom will be reused in an upcoming blog post. This is a conventional bathroom with some careful reuse of existing fixtures. Once we build a stand-alone institute, we’ll have a more ecologically sound bathroom.
Otherwise
We’ve been working around the institute preparing for winter. This involves chopping wood — lots of wood. We’ll have another blog post on that coming out soon as well. We got a few fence posts installed before the ground froze. The chickens are dealing with the subzero temperatures pretty well, although we did have one get injured: one of the barred-rock hens cut her comb. Once it was bleeding, the other chickens pecked at it and would not let the wound heal. So the chicken was brought into the basement of the house and has healed up nicely. The difficult thing will be transitioning her back to the outside temperatures.
