Her Side Funnies

To see a complete index of slipforming posts, click here.  For an index of comical posts, click here.

Colorado tax lien sales are a mystery to a lot of people.  For that reason, I took my freshly-turned-18-year-old out of school to attend her first tax lien sale in nearby Montrose County.  She was wide-eyed at the process and the people.  She returned to school and bragged to her high school civics teacher that she had done something “civic” during her absence.  She now knew about tax liens.  The teacher requested that I come to class and share the lesson with the other students.  I agreed, but struggled with how to put the enormous importance of tax lien sales into a lesson that a high school student would understand.

This Chinese restaurant in our local small town did not pay their taxes of $16,000.  A buyer who pays this amount for three years can apply for the deed to the property.  At present, this concept has benefits and drawbacks.

I gathered some facts and figures for the 28 students.  Dry statistics lose audiences, so I took a few pages of the tax lien along.  I created alphabetical jobs (26 occupations), plus one retiree, and one unemployed person.   I also grabbed some “Life” game cards with houses on them, and divided them into similar ratios as we have in our county, i.e., there are more mobile homes than mansions, and only a few very large properties. (more…)

The following post is a guest post from my dear friend Kitty, who constituted one-third of the initial work “crew.”  This post follows Slipforming, part 12 – Repairing masonry blunders.  To see a complete index of slipforming posts, click here.  For an index of comical posts, click here.

First let me start by saying I have known Dani since high school. I was not all that surprised when she said she was going to build a house.  In many ways it is so “Dani.”

When we first met on the site we went into a little camp trailer where she enthusiastically showed me a copy of “Mother Earth” magazine and outlined the project to me. I had a hard time grasping that we were going to use these Styrofoam panel things and later do rock work. I was available to help Dani in the mornings because my middle son David was going to a nearby preschool. I neglected to tell her I was pregnant with my third child.  My husband and I had not broke the news to anyone yet.

Even though I could not grasp the entire project, I signed on to help explaining to Dani I was a little confused but could certainly follow directions and be a good grunt. The footers had been poured and you could tell where the windows and door were going to be. I painted many a panel with linseed oil as Dani mentions in a prior post. (more…)

*I would like to thank the special lady who allowed me to view the food rack that her father built for her.  I adjusted it slightly and built a food rack of my own from looking at her rack and am posting the idea here to help others as she graciously helped us.

My husband, Ken, calls it the Mormon can museum – a tribute to Mormon food storage.  Though neither of us are Mormon, we  have a lot of friends who are Mormon and many adhere to the philosophy of storing a year’s worth of food.  I loved the idea of having some extra foods stocked away, especially since we have suffered lay-offs more than once, but I was never able to manage the foods without a lot of waste since the expired foods would get lost in my cupboards and expire before I could use them.

Complaining to a friend, he urged me to come look at a rack I could build with scraps of lumber.  I did build my own version of it, and I cheer anytime I can incorporate using canned food in my dinner menus.  I enjoy watching the cans roll down the rack filling the hole where I had just removed a can. (more…)

This post follows “Slipforming, part 9 – Some cool rock inspirations.”  For a complete list of links to all slipforming posts on this blog, click here.

One of the greatest things about building your own home is that you can incorporate inspirations from a host of places.  For me, I found a lot of inspiration in old books on Germany.  The architecture there is ah-maaaa-zing!  But just as amazing was looking at my surroundings with a new awareness of how much beauty is local and still standing.  For me, I get ideas from everywhere – of what TO do and what NOT to do.  I cannot use every idea in my project, but sometimes seeing something – breaking it down to elements – and then re-evaluating how you can include something similar in your own plan makes the impossible seem suddenly possible.

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This post follows “Slipforming, part 8 – Successes and failures.”  For a complete list of links to all slipforming posts on this blog, click here.

For whatever reason, perhaps the sheer effort involved, the popularity of building with rock was a rather limited affair.  Finding buildings that are still standing is challenging.  Luckily, there are a few that were built in the early 1900s near my home.  I am going to add some photos of them as I found them inspiring as I built mine and thought you might find them inspiring as well.

This is the Community Methodist Church built in 1929 in Hotchkiss, Colorado.  It is three stories tall and judging by the work involved, the masons must have started it in 1500 (just kidding).  The main part of the building shown here is square – again, easier for forming and cheaper on insurance.  But the architectural details are fascinating.  For instance, notice that the corner blocks are lined up with the window sill blocks.  Interesting. (more…)