Introduction

The 57 acres that comprise Cedar Ridge Farm are located in the beautiful rolling hills of South Central Kentucky. My wife, our four children, and I are on a homesteading adventure as we work toward increased self-sufficiency. We grow much of our own food and enjoy being in touch with the agrarian roots of our lives.

One of the major projects we have undertaken is the building of our own home. The house we're building has three major distinguishing features: 1. we're building it without incurring any debt; 2. it is a timber frame structure; and 3. the exterior walls will be plastered straw bales. We live debt and mortgage free, and building our house with that approach makes perfect sense. Large timbers in a home possess a beauty and project a sense of strength, stability, and warmth that we want in our home. Straw bale walls provide insulation and make ecological sense. This blog is a record of our home-building project.

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Pantry shelves

Across the hallway from the main bathroom is the pantry. This small room is intended for the storage of canned goods and other food items (including grains and beans stored in air-tight containers). The room is about 8 feet long by 6 feet wide.

Last spring, Malchiah and I built the shelves in the pantry. The design was for shelves on three walls, extending the length of the room from either side of the doorway and across the back wall. Anne and I determined the shelf heights based upon their intended uses, including a lower shelf capable of holding 5-gallon buckets and shelves for quart-sized canning jars. I had previously purchased several 2x10 boards for building the shelves, and we used these. I had to rip about 3 inches off of each one in order to make shelves 15 inches deep (a 2x10 is a little over 9 inches in width).

After we built the shelves, we oiled them with hemp seed oil. They came out looking great! (Never mind the dust on the shelves – that’s a result of sanding the floors and will be cleaned off soon.)

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Posted by dp at 9:57 AM
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