Kristine Walker

that all sounds great. if it was just me i'd be in, but i have four kids and just purchased a home this year. the idea is perfect though, if it were close to where i am, between sudbury and sault ste marie. good luck though, i hope you can find others. maybe i will be able to join you some day.

i haven't had rubarb in years. when we were kids we used to pick it from the garden and dip the end in sugar then eat it just like that. thanks for the suggestions...... i have already reconsidered the tires for growing although i have already got some. it doesn't cost money to get rid of them here, there is a drop off area where they are collected weekly which is where i got them from. the kids have them made into an obstacle course. i'm now thinking of hay/straw bale gardening for the potato's. i have seen a few online set ups using this method that look good. i have never considered a wind block before. i seem to get more wind than anyone else because the highway goes by our house and there are lakes in both the front and back of my neighbourhood so it might be a good idea. it's definitely windy especially in the winter. it is increadibly cold today and i am so glad to have a freezer filled with things i harvested over the summer. i am making a big pot of apple sauce for the kids today and pumpkin pies for my hubby and me, and an elderly neighbour who has no family.

thanks for the link. we caught the tail end of Catrina and it totally destroyed our yard and everything i was working on.....sigh. took off half our roof too so i can only imagine what it was like for the people who lived near the impact zone. on the bright side, it cleared out everything i was thinking of getting rid of and made space for me to set up things the way i actually wanted them. this week i built some teepees with fallen trees and i am going to grow as many beans/peas as i can on them to store overwinter. i reassembled my pagoda into a trellis area where i am going to grow climbing squash of different sorts, and i have put in two raised beds. one is fairly small and the other one is descent sized. i have found material to build trellis for that as well. i am planning on going with blueberries/cranberries in my front yard and assorted edible flower like nustertiums. my shed ended up upside down and roofless so it is now being reassembled into two good sized compost areas. i found four nice raspberry bushes along my fence while i was pulling vines and trimming trees, i will be adding blackberries with them. it's pretty cold out right now and everything has a nice layer of the white stuff on it so i am staying indoors from now until spring. i started an aquaculture system in my southern windows to get my gardening fix over the winter. i have organic lettuce and nusturtiums growing, and some tomato and hot pepper plants which i'm not expecting to be productive. i can't wait for spring so i can get going on this!

i will definitely be posting pics and progress reports once i get going. thanks (:

lol...followed your link to the other part of the forum and found a builder in the first thread i looked in. thanks!

i will look into if there are any natural builders around here. i highly doubt it. there is one couple who has an earth ship about eight hours from here who do work shops but there are no buses that come here and i don't drive so i'm pretty much stuck where i am...lol.

it will definitely be a dry basement. it is actually dry right now, but not structurally sound because whomever re-did it didn't know what they were doing. right now we are fighting insurance because the previous home owner hid the damage and sold the house rather than doing the necessary repairs. it is going to be lined on the outside with a moisture barrier. insulation is a must, as i live in Canada and it gets pretty cold in the winter time. i am thinking to get spray foam insulation if i can. i am going more for asthetics but also because i think it would be cost effective. i am on a fixed income and i am going to be up to my ears in debt after this is finished so it's either diy something or keep it unfinished. i think the cob is probably the most appealing option for me. thanks for your advice. i'm not too keen on getting a engineer so i guess i will pass on the addition.

have you considered raised beds or hugelkulture beds? you can probably fill them in with the wood chips and just add a layer of nice compost/topsoil on top of it.

is it possible to add cob walls inside an existing standart home or to add on a porch type room to the back made from cob? i just finished tearing out all the walls in my basement, the foundation is being rebuilt soon and then we will be left with an unfinished basement. i really love the look and practicality of the cob and the little niches you can add, and the creativity involved. there will be plenty of clay dug up in the process of doing the repairs which i think i could ask them to leave me a big scoop or two to use.

okay, thanks. i am going to keep my eyes open, i think those would be useful to me as i am just getting started into permaculture and i will be building all me beds, ect. this fall/in spring