Alak Cabin

  We raise meat rabbits. We first started raising rabbits as part of our kids animal husbandry lessons. We also prefer hormone n steroid free protein. And to us knowing that they are raised with care.
   We have black New Zealand does and a Californian buck. Several years ago year we restarted our rabbitry and bought our breeding stock from kits. The next year we were able to start our breeding program. We added a stray that appeared to be a drop off. So with our 4 does n 1 buck we produced over 300 pounds of processed meat. Fresh frozen n vacuum sealed and canned. We will grind the heart,  liver n kidneys along with any scrap meat to make sausages.
 We also use the manure. Dried enough to get it through a branch/leaf mulcher then mulched. The hay that drops through the pens absorbers the urine. It along with mulched leaves n small branches all gets mulched together. Finishes out looking like fine topsoil with small pieces of hay in it. I feel like the hay helps keep the soil from compacting and provides another environment for beneficial microbial growth throughout the entire tilth of the soil.

  Things have been going fast. The walls are up n today we will roll the trusses. We built the outside walls without the interior walls up. As we have scissors trusses and I left out putting the window n door headers n jams. We're custom building so that leaves us a bit of wiggle room. Pictures of the slab. Nice that the sewer plumbing and heating system are also mostly done.

Hello all. I've been researching reflex house wrapping insulation. According to the information  I can achieve up to R-21 if I use the white faced 5/16" material. If I have a minimum 3/4" dead air space on each side. With using 3/4"x1-1/2" wood lathe strips on the outside and closed cell urethane on the other I can achieve this.
    This was according to how I understood the manufacturer instructions. Has anyone here used this product  ? Can you all see any risks?  Thanks,  all advice is constructive

Thanks folks.  I researched ridgid panel insulation on the out of the plywood. Kinda expensive. With the spray urethane between the studs I get R-7.5 per inch. Near R-40. The reflex insulation has R 2 plywood adds a bit. With the dead air space and the wall finished . My walls will be near R-45. Pretty good. Trying to amoratize more investment in insulation with the price of the other building materials prices going up. I need to make decisions and try staying on budget

D-1 is 3/4" minus rock fractured on at least 3 sides.   3/4" crushed rock. This is used so we can have an environment where moisture won't hold. And let's us make sure that the ground under the foam insulation is real flat.  And 4" from the top. So slab is even and correct amount of cement ordered.

Well the cement pour went very well. I'm going to be stripping n cleaning the form boards today. Then me and my carpenter friend will fly out to our cabin for 4 days and get some stuff done there.
   The trusses arrived unexpectedly,  great. The framing package will be delivered on 19th.
Shooting for a week to frame n roof the house. Will be soo nice to be dried in
     Pictures of the in floor heating system. I went with putting the tubing in at 8 inches instead of 12" so I would have more heat mass and less fluctuations and cycling with the boiler.
    Took a month to get this done. Whew. Anf feels really good tooooo

That was the foundation. Well there was some fill on one end. I  mined 200 yards of gravel fron the site. Burying brush n stumps. Had a lot of glacial silt in it. I kept it wet n compacted it with a ten ton roller compactor. It's like cement. Then there is 7-12" of D-1. Compacted. A non wickable soil must be under the slab so no moisture can acure. So no frost possible. The R-20 insulation will allow minimal heat under the slab and allow just enough under the slab to ensure it can't freeze. No frost heaving. The drip line will be 6' out.
   We have the in floor heating tubes done . And ready to pour,  yeah

    Thanks for any n all feedback.
 Will have humidistats for mechanical moisture management.  Passive fresh air make-up from air tube from outside air to inside. Outside on the bottom. Inside vent at the top. The heat stacking within the pipe mitigates drafts. A mechanical induction system,  fan in the stack, will probably be installed if I want to bring extra air in to exhaust the house.
I believe that the air in a home needs to change so fresh air is added. Creating a passive air exchange will a turbo in it if desired. In AK we are generally more concerned about dry all winter. And put water pots on the woodstove to add moisture into the air.
   Rocket mass stove. Lots of space and would not provide a heat source that would need our demands. I am using 2 separate systems. Both use diesel fuel. Woodstove in the garage. Getting older means getting harder. But will still have a nice orange glow across the floor as a night light And I enjoy watching a fire. The drip stoves of today look like small wood stoves. Don't take up much space.
   We are doing in floor heating so using the slab in the same way as a heat sink. And it transmits conductive energy to all the furniture n such. Making then heat sinks also.
  Triple pane low E argon windows. We will make insulated curtains. And probably put the shrink wrap plastic on the windows.

I'm not familiar with RMH.
 Our choice for energy sources are fuel oil, electricity or wood. Electricity not practical tooooo expensive. Retirement home so cutting wood is for the garage or cabin. We burned wood pellets for many years and they worked great. But trying to reduce the manual labor.
     We're spending a considerable amount of money on the insulation. Gets cold in ak.
Also I feel comfortable knowing that our university has spent many years developing plans for the building envelope in arctic climate. And we are using their information as a guideline.
   Always open to learning , that's why I posted this so thanks.  I consider it all constructive

   Yes I am familiar with the rocket stoves. And I've cut n burned wood my entire life. We are on 1 acre lots. And will probably put a woodstove in the garage.
   Our daughter built a portable rocket stove prototype from 4" square steel I want to try out.
    Because we will need to use fuel oil,  I want to limit it. So building as energy wise as I can.