It’s only taken 18 months, but I finally have willing partners (a Ukrainian church in a small town near the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone) to build the first (known)
RMH as a prototype. The plan is to share the info widely to help with rebuilding partially destroyed villages. See my YouTube channel for more background:
Lifting Lives in Liberated Villages of Ukraine
I’m reviewing everything I learned for building
RMH last winter but only got as far as outdoor test build & fire up of 8 inch J tube from The Book before having to leave Kharkiv. Great help from Ernie & Erika along with their book &
video. Just got Paul’s video set, too. However . . .
Air raid alerts and artillery practice daily, limited infrastructure, no car, extreme daily living challenges. (did I mention no car?)
My brain is on overload and all my RMH knowledge has morphed into mush.
Can anyone help bring clarity to this critical
project?
Please, few words! Pretty pictures, video, step by steps, best for my team – and me.
Major issues:
•
First Urgent Need: A foundation for the building – Need to get out of the elements FAST!
• We are well into winter. Ground is not yet frozen, but next 10 days are soggy and freezing 24/7
• The build (especially the housing) must be basic, DIY-simple (no power tools), cheap, and fast.
• Likely need to improvise on some material – no fancy thingamabobs.
• Very little common language. Conversations are mostly video, images, short & simple words (preferably run thru Google Translate).
• Metric, please. Conversions eat up time (5-6 hours sleep most nights) and brain cells.
• We must first build a tiny cottage:
- How small can we make it without turning into a sauna when RMH fires up?
- Looking at bow-roof design, 4 meters x 5-6 meters.
- Simplest foundation?
Waiting to hear recommendations from the team, visit stores and sawmill tomorrow, but partners expect to see more detailed images & videos, hopefully with some preliminary materials lists. RMH I have from The Book. Cottage build, nothing organized yet. But a very interesting link from the enemy camp:
enemy insights on bow-roof greenhouse
The young russian does wax poetic on the "American Arch" as he calls it, so perhaps there is hope for his country.
For the armchair traveler:
I like to find my materials on the Epicentr website. A lot like Home Depot. Sadly, nearest store is over an hour’s drive in Kyiv – no can do. But the URL for a given item speaks volumes when we plan. Maybe someone can even determine quantities for a building construction estimate.
If anyone wants to take this wild computer ride:
Epicentr! Ukraine's answer to Home Depot
and don’t forget to pack:
Google Translate Ukrainian/English
Safe journey! Maybe I’ll see you in Ukraine someday. I’m here to stay. They need a lot o help for decades to come.
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