Ryan Thomas

I stand corrected. It isn't addressed on that page. It is addressed on other pages on his site. I realize the guy has some whacky ideas. I actually called him and talked for a while. But a lot of his ideas check out on the science side.

The condensation/mold issue is addressed. He claims it has never been a problem for him, but you could easily slope it to a drain. And this isn't just "earth tubes" like are common in alternative construction, there's compression involved, which actually makes it refrigeration, not just cooling.

Check out Paul's article on Sepp Holzer permcaulture: http://www.richsoil.com/sepp-holzer/sepp-holzer-permaculture.jsp

Pretty introductory, but he has a video where he talks about growing citrus. And that's somewhere that gets very cold in the winter. There are ways to do what you want.

From everything I've read, you want a mix of many different types of rock. Granite alone probably will have some benefit, but a more balanced rock dust would be better.

Good resource: http://remineralize.org/

I've thought of using sheet piling like you see along a waterfront. You drive it in with a pile driver so you don't have to dig a trench. I have no idea how much it would cost, but you would have to go probably 4 feet deep or so to significantly reduce the problem. Probably much easier to focus on reducing the gopher population.

This is something I've been reading and thinking about for a while:
http://mb-soft.com/public3/selfsuff.html#refrig

It's kind of unfocused, but seems like a lot of good information there, or theory at least. It doesn't sound like the guy has done any of what he talks about. And my high school physics is kind of rusty so I'm a little lost with that part. But I know air cycle refrigeration is still used today, such as in airliner air conditioning. With the ground as a thermal sink like he talks about, you're really on to something. What do you think? Has anyone ever seen or heard of a system like this in actual use?