Angora van Doorn

Hallo there,
As far as stone and heat retention is concerned I can tell you from my own experience that stone takes a HUGE amount of fire and heating before it will retain any heat.  I have built a double walled stone fireplace with a wood stove in it and the stone after a full days burning is still ice cold.

May I suggest that you rather build your interior wall in adobe or red clay bricks which retain the heat from your room much better. Then you put in a thick (at least 20-30cm) of styrofoam under your floor to retain heat, plus proper insulation (the rock wool would work for this too).  You still need to put in dampcourse under the styrofoam layer to stop it absorbing cold moisture from the soil.

My house is adobe with an interior wall of baked claybrick/cement mortar.  I have a 10cm air space between the walls with heat barriers of dampcourse (black) plastic (used under concrete floors).  3 layers of this in the cavity = floor then under the windows and above the windows.  This stops any heat trapped from the sun via the adobe outer wall and stays in the wall for longer. (Next time I do this I would also put in a styofoam barrier at the top).

Friends of mine have a rocket mass heater system with pipes running between the styrofoam and adobe floor space which keeps the floor hot and effectively also the room.  Personally I would not build in stone.  It is not a cheap system.  Rather look at adobe or strawbale which retains huge heat.  Here in South Africa we do not have very cold winters like you do but it gets very hot and the way I have done it there is a difference of 10 degC between outside and inside the house.  So if it works for heat it will also work for cold.
Good luck.
rgds
Angora

DE is tasteless but because ours is grey it looks unappetizing. I mix it with some yogurt or in 1/4 cup fruit juice. The pets I simply sprinkle it on the food and mix in, chickens, goats etc get mixed with feed. I do not mix it in their water.

Hi everyone, I am so happy to see that some of you out there are using DE. I live in South Africa where the stuff is mined - looks like grey cement powder here. Supposedly not for human consumption but I have been using it for years and it lowers blood pressure and keeps the system clean. I use it in the chickens, rabbits, horses, goats, cats and dog food. It is mainly used here by animal farmers = sheep, cattle etc. = no more deworming necessary and apparently it enhances the quality of the milk.

As my horses are kept naturally, that is on grazing all year, no pampering, grooming etc. I had a problem with ticks and fleas during our hot summers. Besides having to de-worm regularly. After I started them on DE their coats shine like morrors, no more worms, very few ticks and no fleas plus I noticed that when other horses were covered in flies mine were not. This is because by giving them (1/2 cup per day in the feed) DE internally they no longer have worms in the feaces = no flies!!

I never give my chickens calcium grit or other supplements. They only get DE in the feed. They have minimal problems with fleas, lice and the eggshells are hard.

Rub it into dog's coats for fleas but be warned that is is VERY drying to the skin. I put it on their bedding and also use it as a carpet powder regularly. Leave it to tread in for a few days and then vacuum and we are flea free.

Yes it does work for ants but there is more......

It is fantastic against slugs and snails in the veggie garden. I have not noticed it becoming inefficient when wet. I sprinkle it straight into the lettuce, cabbage etc heads and put a nice thick edge around my seedlings. Snails do not cross. Besides if you do ingest it it will do no harm, in retrospect it is good for you. Strong hair, nails and I noticed a better memory. Remember that our bodies are created from silica and when we get older this becomes less eficient so use DE - it is silica and you will enhance your memory.

I also use it in food storage bins. 1 cup in a 20kg bucket of wheat or whatever else needs protecting. Put some into your legume storage. Just wash it off before cooking.

I call it a Magic dust because it is.