Manda Bell

We have no ac so we mostly just leave our windows open from spring through fall. In summer when days reach 80 (way too often lately!) we shut the windows and close our cellulose shades completely immediately open waking. This keeps the house surprisingly cool as long as night temps were nice! We only open them again when the day temps have dropped below our interior temps.

We are surrounded by very tall pine trees and that helps protect us from the worst of the evening heat, at least. But I see a possible heat wave coming up and the worst part is nights will be in the 60s as well. This is not cool enough for the house to remain comfortably cool all day, sadly. Hopefully it won’t last long.

Anyway, you may be surprised at just how effective (and free!) it is to use exterior night temps to regulate your home’s temp where possible.

Maurice van der Molen wrote:(Sorry if my english is a bit sloppy, I'm Dutch)

I've had some experience with insecthotels through the years and they are great! Anything (organic!) that's stacked in large piles and slightly protected against rain will do and will host thousands and thousands of different creatures from the whole range of the animal kingdom. I'm personally not afraid of the 'wrong bugs and parasites'. As long as you make a lot of them, make them big enough or create a lot of small ones, there will be an ecological balance. The more you have of them and by using many techniques, the more biomass you attract/create and the more ecological complexity there will be. Many birds, lizzards, hedgehogs and so on, will be attracted to this richeness and they all poo in your garden for free!

I encourage you not to make insecthotels but insectcCITIES!

This one I created on my piece of land in the northern of France and is about 6 yards long, 2 yards high and 1 yard deep, so more of a "Insect Metropole. All in all  have about 30 cubic yards of "piles" on the property. Even snakes are wellcome because they are rare and harmlous. And I don't have any problems with rats either because they are pretty harmlous too.

Some recent beds with extra animal accomodation:

My 'gate' also attracts insect because the wood is full of holes from larvae and caterpillars:

Your structures are incredible! I hope you’ll post updates since it’s been a decade since these were posted. It would be wonderful to see how long these held up and how you’ve maintained or built new ones.

Insect lives and needs are complex, just like nature. As you said— we must try to mimic the variety in nature and provide habitat for all otherwise we’ll never have a balanced ecosystem.

Bravo! Love these! Thanks for posting them.

We rarely bake bread but we do have lots of batters and every weekend we have waffles. Really. Maple is a good group here.

I keep my starter at 100% hydration and usually starting Monday or Tuesday begin gathering discard everyday into the silicone container I use for batter. I also add raw amaranth seeds, thickly rolled oats and various grains to mix it up sometimes, souring them during the week with using the discard. Don’t be afraid to add small whole grains like quinoa, amaranths, millet, teff, poppy, whatever. They give it a delicious crunch! By Friday I’ve got a very sour batch of too-thick batter. That’s when I make it waffle ready by adding vanilla or other flavors, spices if a please, some salt, a bit of yeast and enough water or plant milk to make it thin enough to pour. Over the weekend I usually rest my starter in the fridge and start over next week. If we need to add to the batter I just add another discard and mix it in. Super easy and flexible.

Of course you can always use your discard whenever to make crackers or quickly waffle a corn bread or anything like that really. It comes in handy and is easy to just keep alive cold when not in use. You can even use some of the discard to add to your compost tea (that you make outdoors!) in summer.

If you have a fridge you don’t have to worry about missing a week or two of feeding. It’s much easier than I thought it would be and wish I had tried it decades ago.. but I’ve been using my starter I began, like many people, during plague quarantine. I’ve even taken it on our moves across three different states now.

“I do have an InstantPot. Would it be sufficient for 90 minutes?”

This is exactly how I make my grain spawn bc I also don’t have a large canner. Maybe someday but this totally works for now. It’s slower bc you can only make 4 16oz jars of spawn at a time. But it’s easy to do a grain-to-grain transfer into larger jars and expand the spawn that way.

My easy everyday method is to layer used coffee grounds and filter + a bit (less than the amt of coffee you add) of grain from these small jars into a larger jar. Then when it’s nearly filled I start another and keep it going. We drink a lot of coffee so it adds up pretty fast and I’ve had zero contamination in these jars too, which honestly I was surprised by!

Does anyone (in Maine perhaps for pickup?) have any fruits, frozen or fresh, or cuttings for sale? The description of the sour taste sounds lovely to me!

I’ve had success planting seeds from sun-dried and frozen fruits like goji and cranberry so thought this may also make it easier to sprout sea buckthorn from the berry as well.

david danielson wrote:links to my  Instagram are within the video makers description...

I answer more and all questions via Instagram,not here really

Oh, sorry I completely forgot to check under the video.

Perhaps I'll check out instagram eventually. Thanks for the info and the video inspiration!

david danielson wrote:I have built another and it is my factory.

Is there a site or video for your greenhouses too? Did I miss it? I would love to see how you did it! You clearly know more about this than we do.

We're comparing the pros and cons of building up with insulation versus digging. We want to start with the greenhouse since it should be easier and require less investment on an experiment.. but I would love to get the largest gain possible because we won't be using electricity to heat. I'd like to hold on to as much as I can! I'm sure that means digging would be better -- but cost will also be a part of the equation and we have no idea what it'll cost yet.

Just watched that video of you on YouTube and immediately searched for more info about your home. I must say, I was blown away by the interior- it is spectacular! You would have no idea what’s buried under there from a glance. Bravo.

I’m very interested in at least partially burying our next home, which is in a very cold and snowy climate. Did I miss how you dug out the original structure? Did you dig or perhaps just add to the top of the hill? We’ve always wanted an earth-covered shelter but haven’t found one that we want to imitate yet.. but I did love how natural in shape your earth covering looked.

Since you dug out your home I’m curious if you also considered a walipini, or buried greenhouse? That is something we plan to do first and that’s what got us thinking that burying the house would be equally nice.

I’ve contacted several realtors with listings in northern Maine and am already sick of speaking to them. They don’t include any pertinent info in the ads and then act like you’re putting them out by asking questions.

So I’m wondering if anyone here has land for sale in northern Maine. We’d love at least 40 acres. Or perhaps you know a better way of finding this type of property without going insane?

Currently we live about 40 minutes north of auburn, Maine but it’s just not far enough north for us. We want darker skies, more quiet, more wildlife and more land. We’re growing a small food forest here and it’s great practice learning what grows in this climate but we are looking for a better place to retire in solitude.

So, any info or connections or lots for sale be greatly appreciated.

I have had great luck using aloe for cuttings. It’s easy to keep some around so what I always use. I don’t have easy access to prickly pear but now I’ll definitely try that too, the next time I get my hands on some.