The most comfortable beds that I have ever slept on, were made out of
pea gravel. This gravel was gathered into piles while tearing down buildings with tar and gravel roofing. You can mould it to roughly a bed shape and then wiggle until the fit is just right.
On most occasions, this was just to make a temporary, easy chair sort of bed, while having lunch on the job. A few times, I put a sheet over the gravel and then a blanket over top, so it could be used at night. The rocks retained heat for a long time.
I suppose there are certain dangers to sleeping on top of a big commercial building, with no railing, but I'm not a sleepwalker. No need to search for the urinal.☺
If you build a pea gravel bed, may I suggest that it be framed with 2x8 lumber, on a nice ground level, brick patio that faces south.
........
Unfortunately, photos were never taken. I will post one, when I do this at the farm. There is a plan for one that will reside over the horizontal burn chamber of an in-floor
Rocket Mass Heater. Photos when ready.
A separate
thread will be created when I get the time to build it.
.........
Two of my younger brothers are not house broken. (Muddy
boots, sticky messes on every surface, yappy dogs, dope smoking, yappy girlfriends, conspiratorial chit chat, and the list goes on ...) A simple,
mattress sized shack, with an in-floor
Rocket Mass Heater covered in pea gravel, will be the guest house. Perfect comfort and low maintenance. After a rough clean up with a leaf blower, the gravel can be washed with a hose. When sealed up on a sunny day, the heat
should kill any
fleas, ticks etc that the dogs bring in. The roof will be glass. During the summer, it can work like a bread box
water heater, with the gravel becoming the thermal mass. No need to burn fuel. Nights are chilly.
Herbs may be dried in the shack, when not needed for sleeping.
.......
I need an outdoor
shower for three season use. A big rain barrel placed in the sunniest spot, would allow this little building to have another use when there are no visitors.
If a metal
water barrel could be found, it could rest directly on the horizontal burn chamber.
Thus, we would have:
1. A bread box style,
solar water heater, with
Rocket Mass Heater assist.
2. A guest house that is virtually sound proof and very easy to heat and clean.
3. A RMH assisted,
solar herb
dryer that works day and night, due to the thermal mass of the water tank and gravel bed.
.......
All of this could fit into a little shed no larger than a standard sheet of plywood.
Keep your relatives clean, comfortable and at a safe distance. Build one today. ☺
.......
An ultra small version of this building, could be made slightly smaller than a patio door glass. The glass becomes the door and roof.
A simple box with no door, about 2 1/2 feet tall, would give
enough headroom for sleeping.
Most adults could step right over a wall that height and into the bed of gravel, after the glass is raised or removed. Let the gravel bake in the sun all day, then sleep in an open air coffin.
.......
.....
...
I have Googled the idea, this way and that. There is literally no information available. Google images produced nothing. It appears that I'm alone, in thinking that a comfortable bed can be made from rock.
.......
I hereby declare myself, a world renowned expert on pea gravel beds. Possibly the only one. The same thing happened when I invented the Fishwasher Dishwasher and the wheelbarrow mounted sickle bar mower. ☺
3
