Hello and welcome to Libresults.com. I am Kolomona Myer and is my site where I document my progress on bringing liberty into my life.
This page should serve as sort of an overview and quick access to all the content on this site. I will be pinning it to the home page of the site.
Walkabout
On Sept 1st 2021 I decided to pack all my belongings into a storage unit, all my camping gear into my car and set off to wherever the wind may take me. Here are the links for pages related to my walkabout.
A lot has happened here since my last update many good things as well as bad. With this post I will cover all the good stuff up front then discuss the bad at the end. If you want to skip directly to my bad news then click here
I am a property owner!
With the help of Amay I was able to raise the down payment for the property. I am now the legal owner of 8.5 acres in Fiddletown CA! Thank you ever so much! My mortgage payment is approx $1,300 so I decided to get a job. I am now working as a cook at a wonderful restaurant and have a 45min commute.
Finishing up my Garden Fence
I put a gate on my garden fence. It looks a bit crooked but it is square. I made it removable so I can easily move large objects in and out if I ever need to. I split some posts into fourths in order to keep it lightweight. This worked rather well.
Splitting posts for my garden gateIt doesn’t really look square but it is square, plumb and levelMy makeshift gate latch. Works great!
Making a Chicken Coop
I then decided that I needed chickens. If I’m going to have chickens then I need a coop for them to shelter in. I made a chicken coop using the wattle technique. It’s not at all air tight, but it should provide some protection for them. I like the way this turned out but I may replace it in the future if it doesn’t work well.
I made it so the roof is hinged so it is easy to lift and gather eggs from the nesting boxes. I also used the split pole technique which is actually a PITA to work with, but I made it work.
The idea is to be as light weight as possible so I can drag it around to different chicken paddocks.
The coop has so far survived crazy fast winds, rainstorms and two snow storms, all the while the nesting boxes stayed bone dry. I’m pretty impressed
Framing my coop. Again using split poles to keep it light weight/imgWattle technique, making good use of all the branches here.All finished and moved into the area where I want to raise my chickens.View of the inside with roof raised.Until I figure out exactly what kind of roof I will use, I bought some tarps to shelter my wood
My First Sawbuck
Since I have been working with round wood so much I figured that I needed a saw buck. This is so much better than destroying the stools that I’ve been using as sawhorses.
My first saw buck. I learned a lot, the next one will be even better.
White Christmas, almost
It snowed like mad right after Christmas. It was very beautiful but I’m glad that it’s gone now.
Snow Dec 2021
Building a Road Gate
I had a visit from the Department of Making You Sad so I built a gate to keep them at bay. This gate is inspired from the gate at Paul Wheaton’s Lab property. Due to the magic of physics, leverage, and counter weights it uses only one hinge (a 12″ spoke) and balances on it’s post. It’s very easy to open and close.
Counter weights keep the gate balanced on the post.
The “Department of Making you Sad” pays me a visit.
I will try to make this accounting brief. Earlier this month I heard a very aggressive pounding on my trailer door. Upon opening my door there was no one standing at it. There were however two people standing on the ground behind my door (door swings outwards.) This was a bit disconcerting to say the lease.
Two individuals a man and a woman in a mask. Their introduction to me was “We’re from Code Enforcement. You can’t camp here” I explained to them that I just bought the property. They thought I was the previous owner. I identified myself.
We then had a a long calm yet passionate discussion regarding Amador county’s laws regarding living in an RV. I tried to be a civil as possible and only called them Nazis once. I politely told them that they were no longer allowed on my property without a warrant.
The “long story short” of it is that I have been given notice to cease camping on my own property. I have until February 18th to comply or I can be fined $500 and / or 6 months jail time per day that I am in violation.
Needless to say that I’m very distraught about this and I’m not really sure what I’m going to do. I gues I could pitch a tent behind the Jackson Walmart, which for some reason is perfectly fine. I just can’t pitch a tent on a property that I legally own. We are definitely in upside down world.
If you have any suggestions please send them my way. kolomona@kolomona.com
In the meantime I think I will need financial support more than ever. Please visit my Support page.
For info about how you can support me visit My Support Page – It’s all about value for value for value.
I should probably come up with a different name as I’m no longer “walking about”, but for now it’ll have to do.
Turkeys, Turkeys and More Turkeys
There are turkeys everywhere, they’re almost a nuisance. I need to find out if it’s legal for me to live trap them and put them in a coop and run. I love the idea of raising wild turkeys. That way I don’t need to put them in a freezer, just keep them alive.
Turkeys, turkeys everywhere. (and not a freezer to put them in)
Much Needed Garden Deer Fence
Lately I’ve been pretty well settled into a routine of cutting trees, stripping bark and planting poles in the ground. I’m getting pretty good with the chainsaw. The tallest tree that I fell had been about 40 foot tall, and I still have all my toes.
I’m making an 8 foot tall fence to keep the deer out of the garden. I have some 3 foot chicken wire that will surround the base, then I want to put 7 foot deer netting up the remainder of the height of the poles.
All the poles are in. Placing the chicken wire around the perimeter.
As of this writing I’ve finished everything except making and hanging the door. I don’t have the deer netting yet so I went to the dollar store and bought 40 ft lengths of rope that temporarily I tied around the poles. Hopefully this will work to keep them out until I get the netting.
Nearly finished, just need to make the gate and get the deer netting.
Making Homemade Pine Tar
I’ve been harvesting the pine sap from the trees that I’ve cut. I made some pine tar which I want to mix with some linseed oil and coat the poles of the woodshed with to help give some weatherproofing. If I can gather enough I’ll do the same to the garden fence.
Making pine tar from harvested dry tree sap. Definitely should be done outside as fumes are very flammable and strong smelling.
A Ton of Rain in One Day
On October 25th we had nearly 6 inches of rain in one day. It was crazy! Fortunately, it afforded me the opportunity to see how the water flows on the property. There are 3 main channels that water enters into the land, two are through culverts that come from the road and the third into a small gully from the neighbors property. Everything drains into a main drainage gully that runs through the property.
So much water!Water filling the northwest valley.Driveway culvert filling the main stream. I think I’ve found where I want to put a pond!
In the northeast valley I noticed that the water was just digging straight through on it’s way to the bottom. Those familiar with permaculture will know that it is important to harvest water on one’s land. That is, to slow the water down and keep it on the property for as long as possible. This way it can hydrate the soil and recharge the aquifers. This also has the effect of greatly reducing soil erosion.
Just for fun, I experimented by cutting in some channels just a tiny bit off contour. This had the effect of moving the water out laterally and saturating the ground quite a bit.
I then started to think that I really need to put some hard thought into this subject. This property has some very steep slopes and the soil is heavy clay. Too much saturation can cause instability and possibly create landslides. That said I do believe there opportunities to put a series of ponds on the property that if done properly could possibly last year ’round and provide much needed moisture especially if there’s a wildfire.
Playing in the mud and cutting little channels to see how water flows.
What’s Next?
I’ve been getting the bug to propagate plants. I realize that it’s the wrong time of the year so I thought I’d build a greenhouse, but that’s kind of a big project. I decided instead that I will build a cold frame first. After I tackle the cold frame I want to try out building a lightweight round wood chicken coop then get some chickens. Eggs are getting too expensive!
Yes, every post will have a section where I will kindly ask you to send me some value in return for any value that you have received from my adventures. I am still not working at a worky job right now, so any help you can send my way is greatly appreciated. Please visit my Support Page, There are many ways listed there for you to help out.
I set up an Amazon wish list. All of the items on the list are directly related to making this a great homestead.
Also I need a job. People have been great supporting me lately and I am very thankful, but if I buy the place I need to secure at least $2,000 per month to keep the property. If you can help me with this, please contact me kolomona@kolomona.com. I have tons of experience in the restaurant industry, a whole bunch of computer technical expertise and a bit of programming knowledge. I’d prefer some sort of work where I could do it from home, that way I can spend more time on building the homestead. Not to mention that gas is nearly $5 / gallon now, ouch!
