Twenty Acres in Trinity County, California

(Page 3 of 3)

September/October 1977
By John W. Schlote 
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We have all our lumber milled by a local lad who owns a VW-powered portable sawmill. Once, he cut us enough rough siding in a day to do a pole barn and the pumphouse that we intend to build soon. (He mills our logs for $75 per 1,000 board feet, which-of course-includes plenty of free slabs for the woodpile and sawdust for garden mulch.)

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Right now, we're finishing up a 16' X 40' pole shed (see the accompanying photograph) that features a chicken coop on one end, the goat's living quarters on the other, and room for two cars in the middle. The chickens have a run outside their little compartment, and our rabbits live at the other end, against the goat quarters. (How's that for efficient use of space?)

Our number one goal since moving here has been to become as self-contained and self-reliant as we can as fast as possible so that we won't feel the big shock that usually comes with a retirement income, inflation, and rising taxes. (The last item-taxes-may force us to sell some of our woodlot someday. California land values are going up so rapidly that it's simply foolish not to figure ever-increasing property taxes into future plans.) Our number two goal is to power our place with wind, water, sunlight, and (perhaps) methane.

We've come a long way in the past four years toward meeting our first objective. Perhaps in four more years we will have attained our second goal. We can hardly wait to find out!

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