Luckenbach

We took possession of the land today. We have arranged for one of the neighbours to graze 13 cattle for a while. That should leave me with plenty of grass for haymaking. We’ll need the hay for mulch around the fruit trees when we get started on that.

Our own livestock number already in the thousands - I took a beehive nuc box onto the property yesterday. I will transfer the frames and bees to the actual hive in the morning - hopefully before the bees have started their day’s foraging.

We chose to start keeping bees for a number of reasons: the honey, the pollen, and the pollination. Bees are one of those permaculture staples.

Why would I want to turn my house around?

It was built in the 60’s (I guess), and the orientation would have been chosen to take best advantage of the views. The longest axis of the house (which is roughly 6m x 18m) runs north-south.

Basic solar energy requirements are that, at my location, a house length is 2-3 times its width, and that the longest axis run east-west. This is so that the winter sun can reach deep into the house through the north windows - all day. In summer the higher sun can be blocked from the interior by the eaves. This cannot happen when a house is lined up north-south.

In addition, there are currently no sunward roof faces. So there is no place to put solar PV panels, or solar hot-water panels. It is an energy inefficient house.

I used to have this philosophy about keeping stuff. If I hadn’t used something in the last year then I threw it out. It was all about simplification. Now I think that one possibility is that I shouldn’t have acquired it in the first place. Could I have done without, or even borrowed it?

And some of that stuff I learnt at university? Well some of it wasn’t directly related to my major - I just turned in the assignments and attended lectures. After all, why would I ever want to analyse shear force and bending moments in beams? So I threw those notes away in one of my moves.

So when I want to turn the new house around 90 degrees where do I start? I can pay a building moving company some large amount to to it, or I can figure out how to do it myself. It wasn’t so long ago (well it was actually - before big trucks) that home owners would move across town and take their house with them. And do it themselves (with a little help from their friends, I suppose). Just how hard can it be to spin a house around? In 2006?

I don’t think that houses are built quite the same anymore. Therefore I will need to provide structural support for the building. My first idea is to put two beams along the length of the house, and sit it on them. Then move resulting load.

And to do that I’ll need to analyse the shear force and bending moments so I can specify the beams I’ll need.