Ralph Anders

Thanks. It’s coming along. Slowly but surely. The insulation for the ceiling is still to be decided. If I had my druthers, I would be using wool. Still hoping to find a rancher that might be able to accommodate. Even the meat sheep get shorn.  Probably will end up using recycled denim. In the great arm wrestling match of time, energy, performance, and price, babylon tends to win, but we will put up a struggle. We’ve already compromised the original design ethos with the 1” of rigid foam over the roof deck, not to mention the OSB or concrete grade beam replete with PT plates..
I finally got the metal on and am all buttoned up on top. A few details and it’s time to start stacking.

Hello Rob,

Ah, Egnar ( range spelled backwards for anyone not in the know ), I like that country. I used to spend some time down in the west end when I was younger. Paragliding in the Big Gypsum valley, hunting over by the Lone Cone, and of course floating the Dolores, until its narrow window became an infestation of every breeding pair of yuppies with a raft in the state.

We are located between the Black Canyon and the windward edge of the West Elks, Crawford Country.  After a decade of snowmobiling half the year to our cabin in the high country (10'500), it's nice to not be wading in snow and have a real growing season.  Funny, when we were "off- the grid" we used soooo much more fuel to live than we do now.

Thanks for reaching out, thats whats up.

Peace.
Ralph


Holler if you ever get up this way.

Hunting is a deep part of our shared human heritage.

Prior to acquiring our homestead, hunting was a major focus and interest. I spent a good portion of my disposable income and free time in the pursuit of big game. As a bowhunter, a considerable amount of time was spent honing those skills roving the woods, foraging berries and mushrooms, shooting grouse and rabbits, reading sign and tracking. Countless hours sitting still, simply observing. I've taken more elk and deer than I have digits.

Hunting is not just a passion but a visceral connection to the mutualistic essence of the great biotic collective.

As we developed more and more capability to feed ourselves with food produced either right here on the farm, or by a neighbor, hunting has become less important as a method of obtaining clean, organic protein.  Perhaps age has tempered the bloodlust of youth, or maybe I just don't have as much time for it anymore.
As we bear witness to the sixth mass extinction, participation in the diminishment of biodiversity, evolution's greatest accomplishment, has become somewhat of a moral dilemma for me.  My response has been to increase the difficulty and challenge by ditching the fancy compound bow with sliding sight and adopting primitive gear and tackle. My success rate has greatly diminished.

Hunting is not a viable preparedness strategy.  

Ralph

Hi Jim,
Thanks for your well informed reply. I appreciate it.

I have been thinking about exactly this issue since it became apparent to me. How do I notch for timbers, keep the bales tight to each other and precisely stab bales onto the rebar?

The frame will be traditionally wood braced to resist shear forces. For out of plane forces, the plan had been the rebar, but meow....
I've got a few books on straw bale building, including the CBSBA book.  I should probably read them more thoroughly and not just glance at the pictures.  The detail concerning pins clearly states exactly what you mention.

The grade beam is actually 18" wide (as are the bales), not 16".  Had a micro-panic attack and had to go check. Once I'm done with a number my brain tends to purge it.

You've got me thinking about other options now. I may, as you suggest use 2x material as a guide for stacking, and then let in battens on either side, fasten them to the sills and top plate and sew them together.

We have no building code other than state electrical and plumbing.

I don't reserve much bandwidth for issues I'm not currently up against, but will be here soon.  Once the lid is on in the next week or so I'll be on to the pick-up framing, and finishing out plumbing rough in etc....  I doubt I will be stacking any bales until March or April.

Thanks again.

Ralph

Thanks for all the replies and imput.

Perhaps I should clarify, I am interested in redundancies. For all possibilities. I have a domestic tap. The well delivers. Limited by law to 15 gpm.  I have a regular high power pump, a solar pump down the hole, and one on the shelf. The well contains ferrous iron at 11ppm. It is clear. When exposed to air it oxidizes and precipitates.  We have a 2000 gpd reverse osmosis system preceded by an air injection and twin self flushing catalyzer tanks  but have never used it. It is a contingency plan. It uses consumables and electricity that I'd rather not.  I understand that I could easily build or buy a still and run it on top of a wood stove or fire and get maybe a couple gph. That sounds like a little bit more chopping wood than I'm into.
We have all the energy we need. Fusion energy is free abundant and available to all for a portion of the day.
I'm more interested in people's experience with something similar to the previous examples shown, or inclined flat plate type systems, or possibly vacuum tube parabolic systems, even that's starting to get a little too techy an fiddly for my steez.

I dig the fresnel lenses, melting stuff with them is big fun, problem with those is the constant need to be re-oriented.

Chemical and radiological remediation is the goal.
I want to have the ability to produce as much distilled drinking water for as many family and neighbors when the need arises.


https://www.researchgate.net/publication/295186633_Experimental_study_of_an_inclined_flat_plate-type_solar_water_distillation_system

I'm thinking small community sized....maybe three or 4 households.  Maybe 250-300gal/day?... yes that is alot, but the extra could be stored in the cistern for less productive days..  I also would guess rate of production is dependent on multiple factors including temp differentials, seasonal variations in angle of the sun,  brine concentration maybe.  I have seen a capillary system, but it seems it could maybe maybe to have a high amount of maintenance depending on the quality of water being treated.
I would imagine a fair amount of salt build up.  

I have no what this guys rate of production is or what all is in the box. That little bit could be the whole day's production.