The Diedricksen Brothers hit AUSTRALIA (Tiny House Building Workshop)

Boom! Hells yeah!- My brother (Dustin) and I are Australia bound! The Workshop's almost sold out too- only like 6-7 spots left (all before it was really even announced!)... gonna be fun! Again, its HANDS-ON building, and me trying to decipher Australian slang (and them not understanding half of my nonsensical American catch phrases).... I just might have to make a few up just to confuse people. For instance "Can you schlep that noggy boondockle to my krantz briffle (my nizzle)?"- which I'll later explain as meaning "Can you pass my knucklehead brother that 2 by 4?". The later phrase would be quicker, yes, but far less fun to say! 

The people we've been dealing with (who set this up) are GREAT and the build will be in conjunction with this place called "The Bower"- which, more or less, is like a super-cool salvage warehouse/re-store. Commence drooling.... salvage-goods EVERYWHERE!

And MEGA-THANKS to pimp-daddy extraordinaire KEVIN FITZPATRICK from www.KMGIllustration.com- he's done MANY workshop flyers with us- the guy is damn reasonable, prompt, friendly, and sexy as all hell! ;) Check him out if you need any artwork done- he's got a really fun style, and great ideas. I highly recommend him....

And if you don't happen to live down unda'- Dustin and I (with MANY guest speakers, teachers, and more!) have a workshop in Putnam, CT- THREE DAYS long- fully hands on! We'll build and design a tiny art cabin (INSIDE an art gallery downtown), work on a LARGE collaborative art piece or two, and potentially even build a little side project or so.....  so many things to do, see, hear, learn!

Putnam, CT is also home to a converted railroad boxcar which serves as a museum for the author of "The Boxcar Children" book- Gertrude Chandler Warner. We'll probably be touring that too!

The gallery will also be hosting an opening for the awesome artwork of Maltee Sinanan while we're they're as well.... not to mention other cool happenings. We're excited for this event and want to thank  both Paul Toussaint and Ann Monteiro for letting us do this project in their super-cool gallery- "The Empty Spaces Project" (photo of the "build room" below- one of two floors we'll get to use!). Putnam is a GREAT, quaint, little town too! Great food, antique stores, a live music venue next door to our build, and so much beyond that....

If interested in details or signing up, click on the workshop banner on the top of this page before May 1st....

-Derek "Deek" Diedricksen

Porcupines? A threat to Tiny Houses and Cabins?? Yup....

Its not like we have enough things to worry about and maintain as homeowners, weekend cabin builders, and tiny house enthusiasts, but yep.... I've been waging an ongoing battle with porcupines on my land in northern Vermont, and I'm slowly, and barely, treading water in this battle.
In several areas of the country, porcupine are so damaging to cabins, stored materials, sheds, and tools, that you're bound to get a heroes welcome if you bag one. Beyond that (and I talk about this more in my book "Humble Homes, Simple Shacks") in some regions, the porcupine problem has gotten so bad that an introduced species (Fishercats- almost looking like descendants of Wolverines), have been brought in to combat this woodland problem.
They say that if an axe was left unattended in the woods for a long enough time (and not even THAT long, I imagine), that its handle would be eaten clear off by these spiked critters. Porcupines, you see, LOVE salinity, whether it be the oil in your hands that is left on an axe handle, or the salty and aromatic glues used in most plywoods on the market.



The aim of the video above wasn't to illustrate the "Porcupine Threat" point (and yes, I realize that they were there first), but you'll get to see a mere fraction of the damage that one porcupine did to our backwoods tree house sleep shelter in Vermont while we were away. This peek of the damage is shown once this short tour moves to the interior of this little tree house.

Notice the metal collars on the poles of this structure? It helps (a bit) to keep them at bay.... keeping nearby trees at a distance (to keep them from climbing a tree to get onto your structure) is also a very good idea too....
As for other techniques to keep Porcupines at bay- I list a few further below....

And should you happen to catch a porcupine red-handed, here's a recipe I found for Porcupine stew- kidding.... somewhat....  Many people in this region shoot these animals when caught, so if that was to be your choice of action, why let the animal just go to waste? I don't hunt, but I also don't like seeing anything wasted, IF someone was to bag a "quill-dog".

http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/porcupine-stew/7165

As for my book, where I get more in depth with my dealings with Porcupine, you can check it out here....
They ARE fascinating animals, with an amazing adaptation for survival, but man oh man they're a pain in the butt!

HOW TO KEEP PORCUPINES AWAY FROM YOUR CABIN
(a short list of what works and what doesn't- (I've tried EACH of these techniques for long durations after they were recommended to me, or researched online).

SPREAD HOT SAUCE ON THE AFFECTED AREAS- DOES NOT WORK (hot sauce is loaded with salt, I could almost hear them laughing at night)

PLACE MOTH BALLS and MOTH FLAKES around the base of your cabin and near the damaged areas... DOES NOT WORK- made no difference...still LOTS of damage....

CLAD THE LOWER AREAS OF YOUR CABIN. They seem to like pressure treated wood and cedar less (they WILL still nibble on it), but metal is a deal-breaker for them, whether it be corrugated panels (our entire outhouse is now clad this way), hardware cloth (screening), or pole sleeves (metal). DOES WORK or at least slows 'em down...

PAINT ON SOME USED MOTOR OIL WHERE THEY"VE BEEN EATING- Nope... DOES NOT WORK

HIGH SPEED METAL COMING FROM A GUN- DOES WORK, but you'll get new visitors in your territory soon enough....

Fox Urine- seriously, they sell it online.... HAVEN'T TESTED, but I hear that they results are mixed, and you need to reapply at the base of your cabin frequently (and it stinks!).

Porcupines are nocturnal too, so they can be hard to nab. They are very slow though, and have no real enemies, aside from the Fishercats, and fox, by occasion.





Also (above)- "MICROSHELTERS" is my NEXT upcoming book- now on pre-order for a September release....

For the cottage-industry/self-employed folks saving for a tiny house.....

     As you might have noticed by now, after 5+ years of rather eclectic posts, Relaxshacks.com is not JUST about tiny houses, shelters, forts, tree houses, cabins, and campers/rvs, but about a money-saving diy, thrift, and craft-based ethic. Its for this reason that I occasionally post on subjects that are decor, homemade-art, craft, or self-employment related- all of which DO fit in with the free-spirited, creative, and resourceful ethos of the tiny house movement. Running a cottage-industry business? Well, this idea might just save you some money, or save you in a pinch, when you're out of packaging, out of time, and just don't want to run to a store to buy factory-made mailers.

So, here's a little money-saver that some of you who sell and ship through Ebay, Etsy, or who self-publish from home, might appreciate. These homemade mailer packages are EASY to make, as you'll see, cost nothing, and are made from recycleable materials you often already have right in your very home.

Enjoy- and if you dig it, pass it on.... it'll keep a few more cereal boxes out of the waste stream, even if just for a bit, and prevent the need for plastic packaging, and the wasting of your hard-earned money....

-Derek "Deek" Diedricksen