Dale Ziemianski

Thanks.
So I was wondering... Does water do a better job of maintaining a livable temperature than, say, earthbags?

I just saw the video and found you on here.... and I love your place.having trouble finding you on Instagram. How do you write your @? I keep getting millionaire crap that I'm not interested in.

As a digital illustrator and 3D modeler I'm a little biased towards digital.
There are several programs out there for free that are awesome.
Krita is a painting program that can simulate watercolor,oils, pencil, chalk, markers, ink, all kinds of stuff.
Inkscape is a vector program that great for more graphic style art.
Gimp has painting ability also, though it's more of a photomanipulation program.
Blender is a 3D modeling and animation program that's practically industry standard.
All of these are FREE.
I use them all.
I got a Huion 680S pen tablet to draw with for around $60

https://d-alien.com

They leave no mess.
You can make mistakes and take risks without creating waste because you can always hit Ctrl>Z
You use almost no resources (except electricity)
Once you have your art exactly like you want it, you can now print it on anything, any size - canvas, mugs, T-shirts, greeting cards.
No mess
no waste

My girl used a furnace filter that she found at the store that had been lightly damaged so she got a discount on it. Then she took it apart, saving the wire for armature for art projects, then cut up the furnace filter paper (lots are allergen blocking) and stuffed them into her cloth masks that her friend made that has pockets in them to insert the filters. You can get a LOT of filters from a furnace filter!

I've been gardening in the weeds.

We had our blueberry plants get overrun with weeds one summer to the point we lost a couple. No they didn't die.... We freakin' lost them. Couldn't find them. After hacking down a bunch of Johnson grass and goldenrod and blackberry bushes that didn't produce well, we found them again, and they were healthier than the ones we had exposed earlier. It's as if they were nourished and protected by the weeds.

So last spring I decided I would run with it. I started by laying out the cardboard and straw to keep the weeds at bay a little, then planted in between the cardboard.

As the weeds grew up past the tomatoes and peppers, I only chopped and dropped the weeds that were on the south sides of the plants I was growing for food, just enough to let the sun hit them. I let the ones on the north side grow up tall. They ended up supporting the tomato plants and even some smaller viney squash.

From outside the garden it just looked like a weed patch. The critters thought so too. The only food that was stolen was from the plants on the outer edges of the garden.

Later in the season I noticed the Japanese beetles were ignoring the tomatoes and peppers and only eating the surrounding weeds.

The weeds held in the moisture, protected the plants from too much exposure and I think even helped to feed them. The smell when you bent down into the weeds was rich. I never had to water at all, even in the dry summer.

We had a good harvest. Finding veggies was like a treasure hunt that never ended, and I could never bring enough containers to harvest everything.

I think my next design will include covering the ground with a thick, lofty layer of sticks so the tomatoes, when they bog down the tomato stakes, will stay off of the ground and stay dry. Some rotted from all the humidity so I may cut the southern weeds down a bit lower in summer also... Just to eliminate the excess humidity.

i think, you would need an electirc dehumidifier inside your cave, alongside with other measures to reduce air humidity

I lived n a cinderblock house with cement floors and when we put in vinyl floor tiles water pooled up on the floors from the condensation. My brother in law said I'd need a dehumidifier. Instead I lit a fire in the fireplace and the humidity got sucked up the chimney and I never had humidity problems ever again. I think a little fireplace - or a rocket mass heater.. with a bypass vent that would let the heat go straight up a chimney in the summer time rather than store in the thermal mass... would do if you want to go off grid.

Do this

(maybe sans the living roof - cuz you'll want to collect rainwater to water your plants)
Greenhouses should be underground otherwise you have a tons of cold air rolling in at night. Berms hold in the heat. Sun only comes from the east-south-west.
Put together a 'plant processing center' (under the radar talk for 'kitchen') - sink, counter space for cleaning plants, etc..
Put in a rocket mass heater to keep the greenhouse warm in winter (under the radar talk for 'stove')
Put  bed in there cuz sometimes you work late (under the radar talk for your bedroom).
Build lots of storage and a root cellar for storing plants and canned stuff - and sometimes you have to keep your clothes there. (under the radar talk for 'closet')
Get internet - cuz sometimes you need to ID weeds for edibility and medicinability (is that a word?) or pests, etc (under the radar talk for 'internet')
Tell 'the man' you live somewhere else and use a friend's address as your residence.
Don't tell your neighbors anything. They'll think you just live there. Legally you just work there. You just work a LOT.

Mine started with Mike Reynolds back in the 70s. Then Mike Oehler. Then with the dawning of the internet I'd have to say Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton. Lately it's been Paul Wheaton cuz he's really on top of the new innovations. And I have to mention the Primitive Technology YouTube Videos! They're amazing! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA.   Uncle Mud (Chris McLellan) and Sigi Koko I saw at the Mother Earth News Fairs in Pa and they conveyed invaluable building information. Wonderful people in this world! I'll be eternally grateful for what they teach us all.

Mike Reynolds designed a thermal mass refrigerator that I hope to build when we finally build our little shack on our land. He's got a full description of how to build it in I think his second Earthship book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_mass_refrigerator



It uses a thermal mass chimney to suck the heat out of the air as it sinks down from outside. He lines the food part with beer cans - the little bit of alcohol in the beer helps prevent freezing and the metal also sucks out heat. He keeps it closed in the summer and open it in the winter to let cold air in. He also adds refrigeration coils and motor that runs on very little power, mostly cuz it doesn't have to run that much. You could use it without the coils, just disconnect it, but the coils are a good backup during really hot weather.

I've never used it so I can't vouch for it -- still a couch permie -- but it makes sense. I'd build it so it opens from the top to keep the coolth in. I like that it also uses the already cold winters, so we don't have to have a cold bx in a hot box

We read an article in the Bangor Daily News a couple years ago where people were commenting about the power outage from the ice storm they had there that lasted a few weeks. One person complained that all their food in their refrigerators was going bad cuz they had no power. LOL. It's an ice storm! Ice = cold = refrigeration?

Also - we saw Sandor Katz at Mother earth News one year and he's awesome. The way he describes it, you really can't screw up fermentation without it showing obvious signs of 'ew'.
http://www.wildfermentation.com/
We have his book and have tried several things. It's a lot easier than it seems.