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Jesse's Ant Village Videos

Cassie Langstraat

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posted 8 years ago

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Aww seeing all you guys on video at mike's makes me miss you all!

I loved your introspective video Jesse. I've struggled with a lot of those same thoughts and I just really commend you for working through them and making the tough decisions you are making.

I too, never want to fall into being an entitled millennial. But I also am trying to cultivate a strong sense of self acceptance and I that I think you are worthy of cultivating as well.

Operations Manager for Water Stories - a learning, training, and action platform dedicated entirely to Water Restoration

Luke Perkins

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Location: Northern Ca

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posted 8 years ago

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Hey Jesse-

Been following you and all the Ants from down here in sunny (drought stricken) California. Seeing the work and struggles each of you are going through is both inspiring and therapeutic to me. While watching your updates about Allerton Abbey I was grappling in my mind with how you would possibly be able to get such an enormous task done, especially after seeing the amount of work left after the first super week. A lot was accomplished during the super week, but even with some very talented natural builders in town... progress appeared to be rather slow. I think you made the right choice of shifting your focus to your own winter shelter. I understand your dissapointment with not being able to complete the work you committed to, but am glad you didn't throw in the towel and are still working on your plot. For a while there was a lull in your posting and I was concerned that you might be second guessing the whole thing.

Your video of slowly debarking the tamarack is one of my favorite postings you have shared. Bill Mollison often made it seem like permaculture was easy work. I think that that is certainly the goal: an environment that sees to the needs of its designer with minimal needs of additional labor and resource inputs once it's all set up. However... getting there can sometimes feel like it would take a lifetime of work to get the whole system set up.

While I too find that I am typically most driven when pursuing my own projects, I think that your reflections on working for others are a bit extreme. I don't mind getting away from my own projects on occasion and lending a hand to someone else's work and finishing the day with a nice wad of cash in my hand. However, it looks like your situation got out of balance. Paul recently put up an interesting post which advocated taking large projects head on (perhaps in reference to you?)... but I also really like the reflection of Henry David Thoreau on his preference for day labor which he penned in Walden Pond (one of my favorite books of all time, especially his chapter on Economy). He worked as a surveyor, carpenter and 'day-labor of various other kinds in the village in the meanwhile, for I have as many trades as fingers'.

"For more than five years I maintained myself thus solely by the labor of my hands, and I found that, by working about six weeks in a year, I could meet all the expenses of living. The whole of my winters, as well as most of my summers, I had free and clear for study. I have thoroughly tried school-keeping, and found that my expenses were in proportion, or rather out of proportion, to my income, for I was obliged to dress and train, not to say think and believe, accordingly, and I lost my time into the bargain. As I did not teach for the good of my fellow-men, but simply for a livelihood, this was a failure. I have tried trade but I found that it would take ten years to get under way in that, and that then I should probably be on my way to the devil. I was actually afraid that I might by that time be doing what is called a good business. When formerly I was looking about to see what I could do for a living, some sad experience in conforming to the wishes of friends being fresh in my mind to tax my ingenuity, I thought often and seriously of picking huckleberries; that surely I could do, and its small profits might suffice — for my greatest skill has been to want but little — so little capital it required, so little distraction from my wonted moods, I foolishly thought. While my acquaintances went unhesitatingly into trade or the professions, I contemplated this occupation as most like theirs; ranging the hills all summer to pick the berries which came in my way, and thereafter carelessly dispose of them; so, to keep the flocks of Admetus.(5) I also dreamed that I might gather the wild herbs, or carry evergreens to such villagers as loved to be reminded of the woods, even to the city, by hay-cart loads. But I have since learned that trade curses everything it handles; and though you trade in messages from heaven, the whole curse of trade attaches to the business.

As I preferred some things to others, and especially valued my freedom, as I could fare hard and yet succeed well, I did not wish to spend my time in earning rich carpets or other fine furniture, or delicate cookery, or a house in the Grecian or the Gothic style just yet. If there are any to whom it is no interruption to acquire these things, and who know how to use them when acquired, I relinquish to them the pursuit. Some are "industrious," and appear to love labor for its own sake, or perhaps because it keeps them out of worse mischief; to such I have at present nothing to say. Those who would not know what to do with more leisure than they now enjoy, I might advise to work twice as hard as they do — work till they pay for themselves, and get their free papers. For myself I found that the occupation of a day-laborer was the most independent of any, especially as it required only thirty or forty days in a year to support one. The laborer's day ends with the going down of the sun, and he is then free to devote himself to his chosen pursuit, independent of his labor; but his employer, who speculates from month to month, has no respite from one end of the year to the other."

He mentions the value of leaving someone else's work to them at the end of the day. With the abbey project you were taking on the whole thing and it consumed you, instead of being something you could show up to for a day then leave. Both forms of employment (by the job vs. by the day) have their merits. Regardless, in this case, given that you have yourself a house to build before winter, I'm glad you reconsidered your priorities. Hopefully you learned some things in the abbey project that will inform your own house building project. And you certainly seem to have pushed the abbey project forward. If it was truly Paul's #1 priority for the summer he could have thrown more ice cream at it. He had all sorts of awesome accomplishments this year, most notably, in my opinion, is the creation of Ant Village.

Also... just want to throw out there that you are working up on the 'lab'. It is a place for experimentation. If there aren't an abundance of perceived 'failures' taking place you all aren't doing it right. I really admired Paul and Jocelyn for sharing how their original Gapper program wasn't working and designing the ant village. It is inspiring to see the progress you all are making, but a good deal of the insight I gain from following this project has been from the mistakes along the way.

Please keep the wonderful videos and reflections coming.

Check out my rocket stove cores! https://rocketstovecores.com/

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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posted 8 years ago

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I wrote a sort of essay before I made the bark peeling video, it sort of goes into the subject a bit deeper. Its kinda political for the permies forums so I posted it to my Patreon.com page.

Support my videos by becoming a Patron
QR code for Bitcoin donations
www.oneheartfire.org to follow my personal permaculture adventures.
Now accepting Gappers for the Permaculture Bike Park project.

My Ant Love wish list:

Biodegradable Bar Oil for my chainsaw. I'm gonna need a lot of this for milling lumber with my chainsaw mill.

Darn Tough Socks that come with an unconditional lifetime warrantee! I go through socks like goats through a fence, these are supposed to last a lifetime or they send you a new pair! Size 12/XL please

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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posted 8 years ago

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I had a great urban foraging experience in Missoula yesterday. I was so excited I made a little video about it.

Burra Maluca

Mother Tree

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posted 8 years ago

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Jesse Grimes wrote:I wrote a sort of essay before I made the bark peeling video, it sort of goes into the subject a bit deeper. Its kinda political for the permies forums so I posted it to my Patreon.com page.

You have plenty of apples, Jesse, so you're qualified to post in the Cider Press if you want to.

How permies.com works
What is a Mother Tree ?

nancy sutton

pollinator

Posts: 938

Location: Federal Way, WA - Western Washington (Zone 8 - temperate maritime)

posted 8 years ago

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Jesse, I read your essay at Patreon (couldn't add a comment as I haven't 'signed up' yet ;).... please, please, PLEASE post this at the Cider Press thread so we can all see, comment on and discuss it. I'll be printing it off to pass around to (young and old) folks who need a (beautifully written) taste of what the young generation is facing and feeling. It was easier to be a 'hippie wannabe' in the 60' and 70's when I was young ... that's when I learned what I was a.t heart... counterculture.

Thanks, Jesse. (I hope hunting is allowed, following the example of the native people.)

It's time to get positive about negative thinking -Art Donnelly

Kerry Rodgers

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posted 8 years ago

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Jesse Grimes wrote:
However, in these times of turbulent transition it is not always easy to know which values to leave behind with our old lifestyle, and which ones will serve us in creating a better world.

I loved the video, Jesse, and found the essay very interesting also. I was pretty amazed how I (though much older) seem to be ruminating on some of the same questions that you are actively working through. Inspiring! Keep up the great work, and include us whenever you can (while not slowing your forward progress too much!).

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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posted 8 years ago

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I've got a new video for you, fresh off the presses! or rather, fresh off the super slow wifi upload train. It takes a while, but I am grateful to be sharing my experiences through this forum. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am. I have been receiving all kinds of Ant Love over the last two weeks, which I am grateful for as well. I am also reminded of the power of asking, so I have created an Ant love wish list of the things I could use out here to help move my projects forward and embedded it at the bottom of all of my posts, in my signature section. I will keep it updated as I remember more things. Enjoy the video:

One of the hardest parts about moving out to the woods to try and make a way for myself was moving away from all of my friends and loved ones. I have been lucky to have my partner Carol-Anne with me to start this journey, but now she must return to Canada before her visa expires. After driving to western Washington and dropping her off at the ferry to Vancouver Island, I took the chance to visit an old friend of mine on Whidbey Island. It was a great to see him and his family once again, but once i returned to the Ant Village I was feeling a little lonely without Carol-Anne there with me. Thankfully, I was cheered up by a magical experience with the bees here at the Lab, and by the realization that I am making new friends and loved ones here in the growing community of the Ant Village.

Gary Huntress

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posted 8 years ago

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Another great video, Jesse. You do have a knack for telling a good story!

Hans Quistorff

gardener

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posted 8 years ago

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I have 2 good peves so I am not using the cant hook that is on a makeshift handle. I could knock it off and mail it to the lab.

Hans Albert Quistorff, LMT Hans Massage Qberry Farm
magnet therapy
gmail hquistorff

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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Location: Orange County, CA

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posted 8 years ago

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Thank you Hans, that would be great! I'm sure we could make a new handle for it.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden

pollinator

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posted 8 years ago

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Hi Jesse. I want to thank you for your videos. Looking makes me feel as if I am in the Ant Village. In fact it feels like being a friend. I think you have much more friends then you realise, all over planet Earth.

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

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Sue Rine

pollinator

Posts: 344

Location: New Zealand

posted 8 years ago

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Nice one Jesse. It really is good to see what is happening when there is no chance of ever visiting Ant Village. Thanks.

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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posted 8 years ago

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I've got a new video up, and this one is an instructional video about something I have been doing quite a lot of:

One of the first steps in building a home in a woodland environment is cutting down trees, removing the limbs and bark to prepare the logs for roundwood timber framing. In this video I go over this process, and share some of the tips I have learned while peeling many trees for my first winter shelter. I am joined by Kai, a new gapper here at Wheaton Labs who is preparing logs for the first time.

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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posted 8 years ago

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A huge incentive that Paul Wheaton put up to attract people to the Ant Village was the use of his 16 ton excavator, and it obviously worked on me. This behemoth of a machine has finally made its way down to the village after receiving some repairs and digging, unsuccessfully, for water up the canyon. It is an old Hitachi machine which has obviously seen some better days, but it still has the power to rip up tree stumps and take massive chomps out of the earth.

Every pivot and joint in the thing shakes and rattles, but the power is still there and operating it for the first time was a very bumpy, jarring, and humbling experience. A little terrifying even. Evan, my neighbor, has spent quite a few hours behind the controls and watching him operate the excavator is like watching a roaring snaggle-toothed dinosaur come to live. The head and neck swing smoothly from one position to the next in one continuous motion as the battered jaws take gaping bites out of the earth and then toss rocks and dirt across a pile like a predator playing with its kill. We have taken to calling him Rex.

I have been getting to know Rex over the past 3 days, and I have learned to respect his power while also forming that unconcious connection between man and machine. You could call it muscle memory of my hands interacting with the controls, but to me it feels more like forming new pathways and connections in my mind and body until the neck and mouth of Rex become like abother apendage, an extension of my body. I've only got about 6 hours in the seat, but I am starting to find myself watching the machine move around me without me really thinking about what to do next. It is a pretty cool feeling, one that I have experience many times before while riding bikes. I can fly down a rocky trail on my mountain bike and the machine will move all around underneath me, dodging obstacles and floating off of drops without any conscious effort on my part. The bike is just another part of my body and my body takes over, it knows just what to do.

Speaking of bikes, I realized today that I am fulfilling a childhood fantasy, rather a lifelong fantasy; I am building my very own set of dirt jumps with the help of a large machine. What I normally spend a week piling up with shovels and a few friends, I am now piling up in a matter of minutes. If I want to make it bigger I just do, it is incredible! I have complete creative freedom to build whatever I envision, and the actual ability to make it happen with the machine. I can't believe how fortunate I am.

But I'm not just out here playing around in the dirt, building stuff to ride my bike on. This is a permaculture homestead, after all. What is really amazing is that I have the space to realize my vision of a permaculture bike park. While digging out a terrace to catch water and a hole for my underground home I found myself with too much dirt to move in order to get down to the right level. The solution: put that dirt into big piles and build more jumps! My plot is starting to look like a bomb went off, but I am adding a tremendous amount of texture to the landscape and increasing the edge tenfold over what used to be a near two dimensional slope. I am continuously delighted with how well the permaculture principles apply to building. Ike jumps, and how well the shape of the jumps fit into the context of a permaculture landscape. Moreso, I am relishing in the process of creating it all. I think I have found my calling. I want to build these permaculture bike parks everywhere! To share with the world the joys of riding a bike and the wonderful potential of permaculture design. If this whole experiment works, and I am pretty certain it will, I just might have the opprtunity to do that.

20150912_185542.jpg

Rufus Laggren

pollinator

Posts: 1233

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posted 8 years ago

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Ditto Gary. Right choice.

Put your own oxygen mask on first cuz those that depend on you need you functional. Not functional = no good to anybody.

Don Dufresne

Posts: 29

posted 8 years ago

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It seems to go without needing to be said that preparing yourself for winter, especially given you apparently have no living quarters, is the #1 priority. Paul should accept that, as well, and I hope he does.

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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Location: Orange County, CA

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posted 7 years ago

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Winter is approaching here in western Montana, so there is an even greater urgency to finish the projects that need to be done before the snow flies. Thankfully, a couple of volunteers came out to Wheaton Labs to help me finish my portion of the Allerton Abbey project, and with their help the downhill wall was commpleted and cobbed over. Meanwhile, I got to work on my own plot, preparing the site for some major earthworks by scraping up topsoil and building a few large hugel berms. Once the excavator made it to my plot, I made quick work of digging out a hole for my underground bath house, which will also be my shelter for this winter. Hopefully I will have time to finish it before it gets too cold to work.

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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posted 7 years ago

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In this video I give a walking tour of my one acre plot and talk about my design and plans for developing the landscape. Most of the heavy earthworks I am doing this year have to do with creating a water retention landscape, while at the same time building a full course of bicycle jumps which are integrated into the permaculture design, creating what I call the Permaculture Bike Park. I talk a lot about how this will work, as well as the different ways in which permaculture design might be manifested into reality on a landscape. My design for the plot has been shifting a changing since I came to the land, as new observations are made and new revelations come about. I am excited to share with you what my vision is at this time, and I hope you are excited to watch as I bring this vision into the landscape, while shifting, learning, and changing along the way.

Gary Huntress

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posted 7 years ago

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Thanks for the detailed tour, Jesse. It was great to get a good general overview of your vision. The amount of time spent in observation and thinking and planning is quite evident. Good work!

Jesse Grimes

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Your welcome Gary. Observation, planning, and design are all constant activities, and new changes are made almost daily. Half of those changes will likely be changed again before anything real is implemented. That is the gift of being on the land 24/7, I can be in constant observation mode and catch all the little things I hadn't noticed before. I notice something new each time I walk through my plot or around the lab, it's quite fun really. I like not having any drawn out plans because it allows the design to reveal itself over time instead of me trying to figure it all out at once. I feel like it let's me make more connections not having an idea of what everything should be before hand. It's the same way with building jumps. We almost always just build the first one or two jumps and then decide where to go from there. Once we build another line of jumps in the same area, we find all sorts of ways to connect the two lines, leading to many more options for riding through the park. For example, one bike park my friends and I built a few years ago had about 40 jumps total, in about 6 different lines. By the time the place got torn down, we had built so many connecting lines that there was over 150 ways to get from the top of the hill to the bottom. Permaculture!

Timothy Ettridge

Posts: 47

Location: Groveland, Florida

posted 7 years ago

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I'm inspired with Ant Love. How can I buy the cant hook for you?

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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Thank you Timothy, that really means a lot to me. A big part of why I am out here is to inspire others to make positive changes in their own lives. We actually just revived a cant hook through ant love, but a log carrier would complete the set and make it a lot easier for us to move big logs around. There is a link to one on amazon in the signature at the bottom of all my posts. You can send it to Paul'S mailbox:
Jesse Grimes c/o Paul Wheaton
2120 s reserve #351, missoula, MT 59801, USA

Timothy Ettridge

Posts: 47

Location: Groveland, Florida

posted 7 years ago

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Done! It should arrive Oct 6-8. Mind you, this is all about me because I want to use your jumps one day. Paul can tell you where my plot of land is (I'm a deep rooter).

Jesse Grimes

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That's awesome! I'm glad there is someone else here who likes jumps. Jumps!

Hans Quistorff

gardener

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Location: Longbranch, WA Mild wet winter dry climate change now hot summer

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Glad you received the cant hook Have fur reviving it. I hope the pictures and description help.
Here is the poster fro the tool shed.
Tool Shed Poster

If you decide to leave a tool at a job site because you are coming back tomorrow
and it stays there for more than a day because you do not get back, there is a 50% chance it will stay there for a week.

if it stays there for a week there is a 60% chance it will stay there for a month.

if it stays there for a month there is a 70% chance it will stay there for a year.

if it stays there for a year there is an 80% chance you forgot you had it and replace it.

if you replace it there is a 90 % chance the next generation will post on permies.com “I was clearing out some blackberry vines and I found this neat antique tool
here is a picture of it.It doesn't seem to be broken. I wonder why they threw in the brush patch?”

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13XgWkFon0Ff4RkfUisPxcLYBwbpDVt0hE-Mbzw94txc/edit?usp=sharing

Hans Albert Quistorff, LMT Hans Massage Qberry Farm
magnet therapy
gmail hquistorff

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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Location: Orange County, CA

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A great part of living here in the Ant Village at Paul Wheaton's place in Western Montana is all of the Love and support we recieve from the permies.com community. We are constantly receiving gifts from people all over the world who want to help us in our efforts to get the Ant Village off the ground. Recently, permies.com member Hans Quistorff sent us an old cant hook, minus the handle. A cant hook is a great tool for moving around heavy logs, and especially rolling them while you are peeling the bark. I have been doing an awful lot of this lately, so I was very excited to receive the cant hook and immediately made a quick handle for it using a small dry tree trunk from right here in the Ant Village. It still needs some improvements, but it does the job and I was able to get right back out into the woods to peel more logs for my house, this time with a handy tool to make rolling the logs much easier. Thanks Hans!

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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Location: Orange County, CA

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I've been cutting and peeling trees like mad over the last few weeks, and now I've just about got all the logs I need to build my bath house, which will also be my winter shelter this year. Mike Oehler is coming out to Wheaton labs today, so I made a sketch-up model to show him and get his feedback on my design. It is mostly based upon his design methods in the underground house book, and will have a rocket mass heater inside with a hot water system for the future bath and showers. The door is on the south wall, as well as the largest windows, and I've tried to get light in from all four directions. The east side is uphill, and there is a road directly above the building site which should help drain water away from the structure. The small room and box on the west side is an indoor pooper (yay!), the box also acts as warm storage for the filled pooper bins so they can continue composting through the winter. I'm hoping I can fit 3 bins inside the box and I fill a bin in 6 months, by the time a full bin cycles to the back of the box it will be completely or mostly composted.

The whole roof will be insulated then covered in earth as well as nearly all of the exterior surfaces, minus the windows of course. I may integrate an insulation umbrella into the design, but with winter coming soon I will be lucky if I can get it built and buried before I freeze!

Filename: bath-house-panelled.skp

Description: Here's the sketchup file for anyone interested

File size: 569 Kbytes

Download Attachment

bath-house-screenshot.JPG

bath-house-downhill-screenshot.JPG

from the downhill side, looking north east

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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While the excavator is at my plot, I decide to do a good portion of the earthworks I have planned. While digging out a large terrace which will serve as water retention as well as a site for one of my houses, I found that I had more dirt than I knew what to do with. The solution was to just dive right into my plans to turn my plot into a permaculture bike park, so I used the extra dirt to make some large bicycle jumps. It was during this process that I realized that I was fulfilling many long time dreams of mine, including finally getting to build bike jumps with the aid of equipment. It was quite an experience to spend several hours behind the controls of the old excavator, and see the vision in my mind come to life in such a dramatic way.

If you enjoy my videos and would like to support the project, please visit http://www.patreon.com/jessegrimes

Inge Leonora-den Ouden

pollinator

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Location: Meppel (Drenthe, the Netherlands)

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Hi Jesse. I like to hear you tell about your boyhood dreams, and realising them. I think that's the best thing to do. Dreams are not there just to dream. When you feel they can be realised, that's the right thing to do!
That's what I do too. Though my dreams are completely different (I never was a boy, being female

) I do what I can to realise my dreams.
I like riding my bicycle, it's my means of transportation. But when I see yoú building your 'jumps' and telling about the roof of the berm-house to start the ride ... I can see myself riding a mountain-bike there (

I'm almost 60 and live in the Netherlands. LOL)

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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Location: Orange County, CA

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I made a couple of walk through videos of the Wofati buildings here at Wheaton labs, by request of a permies member who put up a bounty for the videos. If anyone would like to see a video on something specific, feel free to post up a bounty for it here, or in the Wheaton labs forum, and I would be happy to make a video.

Gary Huntress

Posts: 94

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Thanks, again, Jesse for another fine example of your video making prowess. That was a very good explanation of how the thermal inertia concept works. Good job!

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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posted 7 years ago

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The days are growing shorter and the work of building a shelter is becoming more and more urgent. Shelby came to the Ant Village to help me with the task of felling and peeling many trees to be used in the construction of my bath house shelter, While the rest of the Ant Villagers are making good progress on their own homes. Author of the $50 and Up Underground House Book, Mike Oehler visited the Ant Village to check out our structures and offer his advice on the designs. While the other villagers had half built structures for him to see, I only had my excavation prepared, leaving me feeling a bit behind in my progress.

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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One of the biggest challenges of homesteading in a remote area is trying to keep up a cash flow without the ability to keep a steady job in a town or city. My money was running low, so once again I found myself working on Paul's projects instead of my own. Paul had some big plans for the excavator down at base camp, so after hauling tons of soil from the Lab to base camp using Paul's old dump truck, we loaded the excavator onto a trailer and trucked it down. While Evan was building some berms and a new road with the excavator, I recovered a trailer that had fallen off of the old road and collected a nice bounty. My new found wealth was short lived however, as I soon found myself with a broken down truck and in a sticky situation. With no means to travel away for the winter, I started work in earnest on a small above-ground structure.

Gary Huntress

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That's the spirit, Jesse! I was just trying to remember a time where 'Plan A' actually ever worked out ... hmmm (?)

Inge Leonora-den Ouden

pollinator

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posted 7 years ago

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good to have a Plan B!

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

Kerry Rodgers

gardener

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Oh, man, Jesse, I'm sorry to hear about the broken truck. I'm always bummed out when the tools don't work, and I have to stop working on the work to work on the tools. I guess the junkyard parts didn't fix it? What do you think is wrong with it?

Curtis Budka

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Location: Southern NH zone 5b

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If you could get access to a few snatch blocks and a long enough cordage, I would suggest gearing down your rope to put that much less strain on your truck (or just pull more weight).

There's also a cool little thing called the Lewis winch, which is a chainsaw winch attachment, but the price is actually more than the cost of most chainsaws when brand new. So maybe you can use this video for some inspiration and make your own.

And since there aren't a whole lot of places to anchor to on some areas of the lab, I figured I'll show you the ground anchor too.

Everyone should stop being so naive and close minded and just start experimenting to make a better world.

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

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Thanks Kerry. I thought it was an electrical issue, but I finally did a compression test and it looks like my piston rings are worn out. I certainly worked that little truck hard this summer, a but too hard I guess. When I purchase another tryck, I may have to sacrifice a bit of gas milage for a more powerful engine if I want to keep doin work like dragging logs. It would be really cool to convert this little truck to electric to use for short trips to base camp and the local town.

Timothy Skogen

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You might try to fix your compression with a can of PB Blaster. Remove your plugs and spray a good amount maybe 10-15 seconds into each hole then let set for at least 1/2hr. Turn it over to pump oil out of cylinders and test again. I was able to restore compression on 2 cylinders on a BMW bush buggy. One cylinder took 2 tries but both came back. I learned this trick from Mike Hamilton of Performance Automotive in Bradenton FL. Mike says rings can often carbon up and get stuck and is common on Chrysler v6 engines.

Oh, sure, you could do that. Or you could eat some pie. While reading this tiny ad:

kickstarter is live now! Low Tech Laboratory 2!

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