Now where can I put that turret?

I like this design quite a bit, but it's lacking a turret! 

A very nice sound...

...greeted us when we got out of the car today and it sounded like the videos above.  The creeks are year-round, and at this time of year are a bit more vocal than they would be otherwise thanks to the spring rain giving them a bit more energy.  Normally in the summer or deep winter, the bottom creek is at best a foot wide and the top one about three feet wide and considerably less active.  The pictures don't give a good sense of scale, but they're both about three to four feet wide at this point and they sound impressive with the multiple little falls they pass down as they meander across the property.  One is currently beginning to undercut one of the old stone walls, so it's going to get moved - which is part of the plan anyway - and be incorporated in a pond with a slightly grander waterfall.  A pretty thing to listen to, stepping out a future back door.

None of the trees were greening up, but some of the undergrowth is beginning to show some leaves.  We can't seem to manage to get out there when the sun is shining and take pictures, I hope that this isn't a harbinger of the continuous state of the weather here.  One of the cloudiest and rainiest cities in the country is only 125 miles from here (Binghamton), so I guess we'll have plenty of water but a little less sun.  The ticks have come out from winter as well.  Most unfortunate, ugh...parasites.  Didn't have these in California where I grew up, but then I didn't have any deer, turkeys or anything except skunks and opossums really, and I grew up in a rural area.  Just have to make sure we get some ducks, geese and/or chickens to take care of the little pests.  I hear geese make nice "watch dogs" too. 

We've been in contact with some folks to see about getting the sewer put in before our permit expires, and visited a few architectural offices in the area as well.  We'll see how that pans out, and pics of any "groundbreaking" to follow as they can.

This is a unique castle, and a mine to boot

Hard Luck Mine Castle.  An owner built castle and a mine with a slightly industrial look, lots of metal fixtures.  For sale too.

Not much about this one...

A residence being converted to a castle.  I couldn't find anything else about it on the web, so here it is.

Stone Gate Castle, er... Manor I mean.

Had some spare time today while the kid was taking a nap to peruse the web to see if any new castles had come out of the closet and into the light of the web, sure enough I found one.  I must admit that the site calls it a "manor" and not a castle, but I figure it looks like a little castle to me. The site needs some work (or at least it displays poorly on Chrome), but the owners apparently hold classes that teach stonework and stained glass amongst other things.  I really like the interior, especially the great hall.


Photo from Stone Gate Manor site.

Add some renders for fun, added "car port"

EDIT: Removed and replaced car port pic.

Another Design

One thing that has become abundantly clear with the arrival of our child is that any time at all that I had for hobbies has been pitched out the window with force.  I have unfinished stained glass windows that I get to look at in passing on the way to other tasks, CGI ideas that never even make it past my imagination, and the ones that do actually get rendered take 3 times as long to get modeled.  That means nothing terribly original is going to come about, but I can still tweak and modify some of the things I already have.  So that's what's happened here, I'm sure you'll recognize the resemblance to the preceding models.

A new resource for getting off the grid a little - or just DIY in general.

I have a new news feed to keep up with, a very interesting site called Low-Tech Magazine.  The site's purpose is to point out that things don't always need a high tech solution to accomplish a task and it uses historical references to point this out.  A neat little mechanical history lesson! 

Now, how does this pertain to would-be castle builders?  I guess it's what you make of it.  There's information on timbrel vaulting, a more efficient way to build with brick; a link turns up to practicalaction.org that has information on how to build with stone and a host of other back to basics DIY info (a little dire, but good info), or even information on masonry stoves with their uses and design.  So, it's not directly castle related info, but it's certainly useful in adding DIY ideas to your to-do list along with maybe making your home a little more off the grid.  Worth a look!

Busy

Yep, the little one is consuming all of my free time.  All that spare time I had to peruse the web for castles and doodle my little houses with Sketchup:  *poof*.  Gone.  Now it's the never-ending chain of soiled diapers, feeding and entertaining a 4 month old with all of the inherent baby fussiness, and then scrambling to catch up on the household work that can be done while she naps.  Ah, the joys of parenthood!

Doesn't mean I haven't been giving thought to building.  We have plans to contract the sewer system this coming year.  Our permit for putting one in is only good for 2 years, so we need to get this done sooner rather than later.  Otherwise we run into the trouble and expense of having to have the approval re-done, and the potential risk of having code and environmental rules change in such a manner that we would no longer be able to build what or where we plan on the site.  This means we'll need to get a site plan done (which will help immensely in my building design effort), likely build an access road/driveway and then find someone to do the work. 

First steps are coming soon.  Wow.

Adirondack Castle Resurrected? (Leary Castle)

Back in February I posted a castle in the Adirondacks that a reader had found for sale.  Just recently another reader stopped by and commented that she'd found a blog featuring the very same castle!  It looks to have been purchased after the original owner-builder's death by the family that is working on it now.  Pretty cool! 

Looks like the castle is called the "Leary Castle".  I'll send them a hello message and see if they want to share any info about their project.

Thanks, Fionnait!

(Image from the Leary Castle Blog.)