Peak Everything

countryraven wrote:the fish had access to bugs.

Would this be enough food? What is the food source for the fish?

I've had great success with topically applying a 20% ethyl alcohol solution once per day after washing my face. It can be slightly painful if your son has a habit of picking at the acne.
Regular exposure to salt water or chlorine water also works well. I've never tried garlic, but I suppose it could work.

Lowering his consumption of greasy foods will also help.

Len wrote: it seems that nickel doesn't lend itself to sponging like lead. Surface area is harder and costlier to get.

If you are trying to maximize surface area, couldn't you electroplate steel wool?

jacque g wrote:Your best defense against what seems to you to be unwarranted intrusiveness is to first get some understanding of why the regulations exist in the first place. Then you can think about how to make the case that the purpose can be met in some other way.

I recently had a small fire in my home, and since we had a fire, my 85 year old home was now considered a "new construction" under the law and fell under new building codes.
Due to this, the inspector said that I needed to replace all of my doors, which were a little dirty but in fine working condition. I needed to replace all of the vents in the home, and put in new cold air returns in every room, costing me over $6,000. "Code" requires both forced hot and passive cold air ducts in each room. The hot air ducts were undamaged by the fire, and the cold air returns never previously existed in the home during its previous 85 years of use. The inspector alerted me that I needed fire resistant drywall in the home... AFTER the drywall was installed. So we were forced to tear down 200+ square feet of already installed drywall. The inspector told me to replace the newly installed windows, because they were too small, and in case of a fire, a person would have to be able to crawl out of the windows. (The windows in question were on the 2nd story, with nothing but a concrete driveway underneath them.) Since the 2x4 frames were also too small, they all needed to be removed and replaced. The opposite side of the house, which saw little smoke, no water, and no fire was to have all carpets removed, all walls re-primed and repainted. I scrubbed my palm on a large section of wall and was barely be able to see the soot residue on my hand. Also, my insurance policy hasn't kept up with the inflation of building supplies or contractors, and therefore I've since ran out of insurance money and must dedicate several hundred hours worth of my own labor as well as the remaining needed supplies to fix my home. We received all of these forced mandates for a home which my wife and I simply wanted to bring back to its previous state. The inspector made it clear that if we didn't follow 100% of his orders, we would not receive our certificate of occupancy and would not be allowed back into our home.

The inspector himself/herself may not be unnecessarily restrictive, but the codes are. Unfortunately, if the inspector overlooks any codes, he feels as though his very job may be on the line, since building codes are "the law".

I honestly believe that the purpose of building codes are to force people to build the "ideal" house, based on a far away bureaucrat's or home builder's ideal. Also, to protect the myriad of industries based on modern home construction. How would the drywall, joint compound, carpet, shingle, insulation, tree farm, lumber mill, etc. industries react if people were suddenly allowed to build a cheap, well insulated straw bale home? How many products and industries is cob able to effectively replace? Would the banking industry suffer if people were able to build a new home for $20,000? There is a reason why these building styles, which have been around for centuries, are now illegal. It is either ignorance, forced conformity, or worse: forcing everyone into massive mortgage debt.

gary gregory wrote:I am currently reading Joe Saletin's book, "Everything I want to do is illegal".   It is a good read and well written but I still wonder as I read what some folks would try if all codes were done away with.

Who are "some folks" going to possibly hurt by meddling around on their own property? Only themselves. And more than likely, poor construction will lead to head aches and major repairs, not injury or death.


Also, aren't we all about cutting corners here at permies? How do you build a $5,000 house without cutting corners? Couldn't you define corner cutting as increased efficiency, assuming the end result is just as functional?

Cooking on the wood stove will work, but it may get a little hot in the summer. 

You could always buy an electronic grill. They use 120VAC and will be a little slower to boil water, etc, but would be much easier to control.

DaS Energy wrote:
Hello Seth Pogue,

I being and old bushy have had much experience with the ram pump.  To stop them washing away they may be buried in stream /river bottom without effecting operation.

A further use of such pump is to raise water into a holding tank ten foot or greater above ground level.  The tank effectively takes out the surge as the water released from the tank is constant as it flows back through a hydro turbine.

Constant electricity may be generated this way so long water flow to the pump is sufficient. Ten gallons of water through the pump raises one gallon up.  The greater the wattage requirement the greater the flow or pressure need.  Calculous being, one litre per second at 9 bar pressure generates 720 watts increasing with flow or pressure.  Peter

Very cool idea. Have you built one of these? I'd love to see pictures and get some details on water flow and electrical output.

Unfortunately, it requires a moderately sized stream with a steep drop.

Casey Halone wrote:Which makes me then ponder, with all the free or cheap glass avalible at habitat re-stores and the like, could a roof support a whole roof solar hot water heater?!? seems that would accomplish what I am doing now and shade the roof, PLUS give you drinkable hot water. Thoughts?

If you wanted to spend the time and $ to build it, then I don't see why the roof wouldn't support it.
With a solar water heater of that size, the water would be close to boiling by the time it reached the other side of the roof.

One of the ideas I've had was to create a natural pond/swimming hole and heat it using a solar water heater(black hoses, lol). If you don't have the space, you could build a natural jacuzzi instead. There is a thread on this forum on how to build a simple and effective natural chemical-free pond filter as well.
Just an idea for all of that extra hot water you'll have.

Here is the source of all of the problems, as well as all of the solutions:

The Secret of Oz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swkq2E8mswI

Money as Debt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFb26u9g8


Gee, that was hard! Now can congress and the media quit whining? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmaF6IOODFc ;