Chillin' in October

Jerome reading a bedtime story by the fire at night. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. We roll the couch up to it. Phoenix and I had fallen asleep here a couple of times last week.
Phoenix and Jerome making jack-o-lanterns on their date night. I was working outside and snapped this through the window (where they had drawn with window marker.
I am finishing off the gluten-free sweet potato/butternut squash pie. I don't bake with sugar, but with honey and sometimes a little stevia (does grow in this climate). This is both for sustainability/fair economic practices and health.

Its been getting colder this month. We are focusing on warmth! This means fittings for the wood burning stove (that we found on craigslist), more fires in the fireplace (fun and warm, but inefficient), and getting tires pounded.

Since we are often working from before sunrise until after sunset we have had to make sure we are getting some fun in too. We put up a wood swing and I have been working on a ring of tires dug halfway into the ground around our fire pit outside. Phoenix enjoys climbing on these. I am also making this a priority because Phoenix is planning to have a Halloween bonfire for her preschool class next Friday.

With Fall and frost come squash. We brought in our butternut squash. Because it is cold out I now have a great reason to bake. I love butternut and acorn squash pie, and pumpkin pie of course. If these pies last beyond one meal they are unlikely to last a whole day.

Today I began to make my first bottle bricks! We have a drafty west window that I am just going to take out and replace with bottle bricks. For now this will eliminate the draft. We are going to move the old window to the south side of the house for more solar gain. Eventually the west window will be buried in the berm.

After checking around we came to the conclusion that the the best water barrier for the cinderblock foundation would be painted on. We took the plastic down and have been painting on a sealant outside. This is something extremely important to me. I've mentioned in other posts that when we first bought the house water was coming in three rooms when it rained. Initially the foam under the carpet kept the leaks disguised, but we had to rip out all of the carpet because it stunk. We sealed from the inside and have not had leaks since, but I want to be very certain it will last for years and years to come.

We have also been working on fixing up a section of the barn for our new goats :) . The chickens will go in there this winter. The chicken tractor was not built for cold weather. I began an Earthship chicken coop, then realized they could just be in the barn for now. I have other things to focus on. I will certainly revisit the chicken coop later.