Building new friendships with a creative builder

So, are you sick to death of details of our moving too many possessions hither and yon? I am, too. Unfortunately, that is all we are doing right now. Furthermore, my camera is on the fritz (the lens cover is stuck, which is why my pictures in the last posting and this one have that ominous black shadow in the upper left and lower right corners, and don't look as crisp as they should). I'll take it to the camera shop when I get a chance, but in the meantime, there is a dearth of new pictures of our saga.

So I thought I'd make a detour to tell you about our neighbor's adventure, since I already have some pictures. Our only real neighbor (close enough to hear and see him coming and going) is a young fellow named Jeff Moore. He is a fascinating character. His resume makes mine look positively mundane. Like my niece Sarah, he spent a college year in Spain and majored in Spanish. After graduating and starting out on a successful business career, he chucked it all and went to Argentina for some adventure. He ended up hooking up with some Argentinian hair boaters and for four years made his living photographing the wildest whitewater rivers in the national parks of Patagonia from a kayak. After that he traveled around South America and Mexico. He has also been a rafting guide on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, worked in a bear hunting camp in Alaska, and various other adventures. He is a mountaineer and a mountain biker. He and his brother came to Montana in search of powder snow for telemark skiing and now he is a licensed contractor doing both new construction and remodeling in Livingston. He owns the land at the head of our little valley. He lived there off and on for a few years in a tipi, but this last year was his first full year-round stay, for which he abandonned the tipi and brought in a little travel trailer to live in.

Jeff is building a house completely from recycled, reused and surplus materials he has scrounged.

The structure of the house is a used grain silo. He can add more height by simply adding more courses of metal strips. He has cut holes in three sides to add extentions: one for an entryway, one for a bathroom, and one for a breakfast nook with a fabulous view down the valley and out toward the Absarokas. In this picture, you can see the house, plus the stack of insulating panels (six inch rigid foam) that someone gave him, which he will use to insulate the walls. The posts and beams he is using for framing the extensions are giant beams he has removed from old commercial buildings he has demolished in his contracting business. Eventually, he will stucco the outside of the walls and add insulation and roofing and a central skylight to the roof structure.

He uses a large stock tank which has been spray-coated with three inches of insulation on the outside for a hot tub/swimming pool. On hot summer days, he lets it fill up and just jumps in at the end of the day. When he wants a hot tub, he stokes up a little wood stove that heats it up as hot as he wants. The wood heater is not visible in the picture because of the stupid lens cover. He also has a nice log swing with a view of the valley.

Jeff has a lovely, gushing spring on his property which he has developed for a domestic water supply. We are glad he does, because until our well is ready, we use his spring water to fill our tanks. Here is a picture of the Wee Beastie getting a drink from Jeff's spring:
Jeff is a great guy, fun to talk to, full of ideas and enthusiasm, and knowledgeable about nearly everything. We are really happy to be sharing the valley with him, and hope to have a great friendship with our new neighbor.