Clean water ahead! Pond renovation project completed

Heavy equipment operator Rickie leveling out the
pond wall. Rye grass has also been planted on the
the top and outer wall to help prevent erosion.

Valhalla's pond has been completed! While a $3,000 electrical fence still needs to be installed very soon to keep cattle and other large animals out, the pond itself is finished while we all wait for rain to fill it up. Rye grass seed planted on the top and outer wall will help prevent erosion, and native wildflowers will be planted on top of the rye next spring. The result will hopefully be a riot of color that attracts humming birds and butterflies.

The new concrete watering tank

Once the fence goes up livestock and wildlife will still be able to drink all the clean water they want from the concrete tank that has been installed in the front wall of the pond dam.

With this incredibly dry weather it could take a while for the pond to fill up, yet a small storm that showered two inches of rain on the property last week proved that the pond will in fact hold water. Once filled, fish and specially selected underwater plants will be added to help keep the water fresh and clean.

There are times when progress on preparing Valhalla for the first Soldiers and war zone civilian workers seems to be moving very slowly - too slowly - and while completing the pond is a major benchmark, it can be frustrating to know that it won't be absolutely complete until the fence is installed.

The original uncropped photograph of Gordon and me in
Afghanistan with Soldiers from the 18th Military Police Brigade
and their Afghani trainees. A cropped black and white version
of this same picture appears in our book "Warrior Police"; all
profits from the book have been pledged to help finance
Valhalla operations. (Click photo to enlarge)

Yet then we remember something that seems extraordinary and almost impossible to believe: exactly one year ago today Gordon and I were still in Afghanistan with little more than a crazy idea in our heads to build a place called Valhalla! We had never even heard of Yellville, Arkansas back then.

The Soldiers in the photo above were among those who not only inspired the concept but repeatedly egged us on. And here we are, just one year later, making what is in fact major progress in preparing the house and property for their eventual arrival - and for dozens and dozens of other Soldiers and war zone civilian workers who we've never met before. Progress only seems slow to us... until we stop to remember how far we have come.

Photo credit: MRAP gunner / Sergeant Matt Kunz,
who also took the most excellent very-authentic
photograph of the US Army MP that landed on the
cover of the book "Warrior Police." Thank you
Matt for the excellent photography!

Valhalla will have goats - but not camels! Life is very hard on animals in Afghanistan, like these little goat kids that we saw strapped to the back of a camel that was walking down a dirt highway. The goats that will eventually live here at Valhalla will have clean water, proper housing and excellent care while we remember how things were in a war zone.

Our IRS application for nonprofit status is being processed, 
yet you can still donate to help Valhalla today!

Trying to Beat Winter

In a four-season climate the destructive power of the winter months always nibbles at the edges of your mind when the beautiful fall color decorates the hillsides. Perhaps because Valhalla had not been farmed in decades and maintenance on the house was neglected, the sense of urgency to get key tasks accomplished prior to cold, wet weather setting in seems a bit overwhelming at times.

Art Sasser, heavy equipment sculptor
and pond designer extraordinaire!
(Click on photo to enlarge)

True enough, lots of things are getting done. Art Sasser and his excellent crew have completed our first major pond expansion and improvement project. Art has the well-earned reputation of being a creative sculptor with a bulldozer when it comes to making ponds, and the way this one is laying out it will be a gem. Wet weather in the future means it will likely fill and settle over the winter and be ready for stocking with fish and as a watering hole for the abundant wildlife on the property as well as having a holding tank to water livestock.

Gifts - both monetary and in-kind donations - continue to trickle in. However, before Valhalla can receive the first Soldiers and war zone civilian workers there are two critical tasks that must be carried out for health and safety reasons: guarantee both electricity and physical access to the property at all times.

Our biggest hurdles at the moment are some significant expenses for putting in two large culverts at both a creek that crosses the property's only entrance (during the rainy season that creek will swell and cut off access for days at a time, obviously dangerous and unacceptable) and a second creek crossing that accesses the majority of the property, purchasing a large propane generator that will automatically kick in during the frequent, sometimes extended power outages here, and painting the house exterior - it has not been touched in more than a decade - to protect it from the elements this winter.

Cody brought over his gear and pressure-washed
the house to remove layers of mold and old paint.
When the water poured in through the closed
windows and sliding glass doors as he worked
we realized that all the sealant had worn away -
sealing and weather-stripping is now high on
the Valhalla needs-list alongside a new paint job!

Nevertheless, it is a sour gift indeed to look on all this and see what still lacks doing. The sad exterior of the house is screaming for paint before yet another winter slams in, adding to the spots that are beginning to rot and flake. The broad, empty yard in front of the house just lacks a few rough-cut lumber pieces before we can begin to create the raised beds that will produce much of next year's food supply. Our garlic is already on hand and we expect the asparagus roots any day now.

A regional Arkansas nursery has some thornless blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry plants ready to ship and Karla at the Crooked Creek Conservation office said she is ordering some fruit trees that ought to do well in this growing zone. Apples, pears, plums, peaches - we're eager to go but need some small equipment and eager hands to get the job done.

Valhalla civilian volunteer and Viet Nam veteran
Keith Hurst came by with a deer feeder and
helped to set it up. When the acorns run out the
deer will have plenty of corn to eat this winter.

While the list of preparatory tasks can seem daunting at times, it is impossible not to enjoy the sheer wonder of the Valhalla property every day. As we drove up the driveway two days ago a total of 17 turkeys shot out of the woods one by one right in front of the car, flying over the planned garden area and into the forest on the other side.

And the deer are already feeling frisky and we have a young buck - looks like a forkhorn or six-pointer who keeps roaming around the yard snorting and acting like the boss. We have a feeling there are probably more than a few older, more cautions senior bucks around who will teach him some manners before too long, but for now he's feeling the cooler weather and acting like the boss!

Smile! You're on Candid Camera!

This red tail hawk lives down by the

creek at the bottom of Valhalla's

lower pasture. We see him all the time, and he was clearly embarrassed when he accidently dropped his lunch (a freshly killed squirrel) on the driveway the other day. While he's very camera shy, it was only a matter of time before we captured at least a blurry photo of him glaring

down at us. What a grump!

Our IRS application for nonprofit status is being processed, 
yet you can still donate to help Valhalla today!

Thinking outside the box within the Valhalla Vision

While staying focused on the many immediate tasks at hand before us on a daily basis, we must never lose sight of the larger picture of what Valhalla will eventually become. A home-away-from-home for Soldiers, post-9/11 combat veterans, and war zone civilian workers. A unique self-sustaining retreat where Valhalla participants will work together to produce their own food, design and build their own cabins from scratch, and support each other while working to reenter a civilian society that doesn't always understand or appreciate their enormous sacrifices.

Example of a cob cabin built almost exclusively
from clay, chopped straw and sand. While this
blog has naturally focused on renovating the
existing house here, we must not lose sight
of the much larger Valhalla Vision either.

A very special "Hoo-ah!" place where thinking outside the box is the gold standard, with innovation and creativity encouraged at every step along the way.

In efforts to prepare the house and property this blog has naturally focused on the here-and-now, yet some of you have asked me to post some of the videos showing various techniques and innovations that may be applied at Valhalla in the future. 

First off, someday soon we'll be building cabins out of cob! While I'm personally not into some of the eco-groovy reasoning mentioned in the following video (and the mere idea of carbon taxes makes me cringe), it is difficult to question the benefits of having fireproof, weatherproof, beautiful structures made from what is already available for free on the property. Take a look:

Here is a slideshow tour of different completed cob cabins and small houses:

Since cob cabins can be built without any internal framing out of little more than clay and chopped straw, they are an extremely economical and sustainable alternative to tradition construction techniques.

Note that Valhalla currently has two immediate very-pressing needs to take care of before hosting Soldiers and war zone civilian workers for weeks or months at a time by next spring, namely (1) A culvert to ensure continued access to the property during the rainy season (note that the front entrance crosses a creek that may become impassable for days at a time with fast-moving waters following storms); and (2) a large propane-run electrical backup generator to power not just the well but all systems within the house. These and two other critical projects - the new pond fence and painting the house - are holding the overall project up for the time being. Yet these essential projects will get done one way or another. Failure is not an option, and we've only just begun!

In the meantime, the much larger Valhalla Vision remains intact. When you look at an old tree stump that's in the way, what do you think of? By popular demand from several Valhalla fans on Facebook, here's a video showing the kind of thinking-outside-the-box approach this project will always reach hard to undertake -- even when something looks scary and foreign at first, if it's ultimately a beautiful unique solution then we'll certainly strive to get it done one way or another:

"We're not shipping out, no way, we have it too good
here. In fact we'd be even sleeping in... if you humans
weren't always waking us up. We won't think
'outside the box' since we're happy in this box."

Our IRS application for nonprofit status is being processed, 
yet you can still donate to help Valhalla today!