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Better late than never! Walapini build.

jim hughes

Posts: 97

Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Well its a little late in the season. But I have enough wood for 2 winters and my house is sealed up real nice. Time to start thinking about food. I have never built a Walapini before but in our climate it will be necessary to sustain. I got a little help from a neighbor and his old ford. He's a T.V. reality star who shall remain nameless as he has had enough exposure lol. In one of the pictures we had a breakage so I dug the bird poop weld out with a grinder and welded it back up. Today I will reconfigure my welder for 220 and run it off the big genny. She worked fine for small jobs and I thought I was in the clear but soon as I turned the amps up she shut down....#mountainlife.... This morning I'll finish welding and dig the rest of the hole.
We have a little rain today and its warmer than yesterday so should be good to work in. I have to get hot on the roof or I'll have an offgrid muddy swimming pool! Have a nice day.

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Miles Flansburg

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Location: Zones 4-5 Colorado

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posted 7 years ago

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Looking good Jim. What brand of tractor is that? I haven't seen one with the roof so low, do you hit your head a lot?

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jim hughes

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Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Made some progress today. That tractor is an old ford. Came in pieces and is all kind of welded together....but it digs a fine hole. I decided, as I'm not a pro, to Just kind of let this thing tell me how it wanted to be built. So I took some ruff measurements and my wife and I set out to find some suitable logs. All of what ya see is Blow down so I guess we repurposed it :) The floor is decomposed granite and makes a fine base, so we just hand formed two of the forms and used some cabinet doors for the pole closest to the entrance. I'm thinking it will blend in with the steps when we get there. Pretty stoked with the way its coming along. most of its still undecided but at least we have an idea of the space. I think it will work out to be 200sf ish.

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jim hughes

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Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Our dog thinks we made her a half pipe!

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jim hughes

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Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Got a second wind last night so we searched the property for parts. Ask and ye shall receive! Found pretty much everything we need for our RMH. I've never built one so any suggestions are welcome. I think this will be the layout. I have just enough fire bricks for the J tube and some regular bricks for everything else. I plan on filling the mass with rocks and dirt. I have masonry mortar to bond everything together I'm pretty sure this is ill advised but if anyone has used it and it works please let me know. Thanks and have a great day!

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jim hughes

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Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Well POOP! We ended up getting about 3 inches of showstopper yesterday. It's melting fast but I have some work to do on the plumbing so we should be back in action Monday or Tuesday. Still on the search for a suitable front. I have a bunch of windows scoped out on craigslist for free but to do that I'll need to frame em all in and that will cost extra wood. I'm thinking we'll just frame it up simply and fire some plastic over it for this year. We are running short on funds so this will be a budget build. There is a place in town that sells cheep blocks so maybe I'll see how many I can fit in the CRV....We cant even afford to license the truck! LMAO. We are retired in our 40's but the struggle is real! Couldn't be happier!

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jim hughes

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Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Got out early this morning and poured the footers for the rear section. Starting to kind of look like something!

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jim hughes

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Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Hell of day today! Got the roof done on the rear section and had time to dink around with my first rocket stove.

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jim hughes

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Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Craigslist barn wood and shit laying around the property. found some sand bags at a decent price. I'm too tired to type anymore lol.

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Gilbert Fritz

pollinator

Posts: 1762

Location: Denver, CO

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posted 7 years ago

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This sort of thing is always happening to me; racing against the weather to get a big project done! Spring and summer are always too busy planting and harvesting; then the frost comes and I have time, until it snows!

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jim hughes

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Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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We are very close to finished! Just a few more holes to plug and its sealed up. Some of the things you will see are temporary as we will be making stuff more permanent next year. This should however get us growing this winter or spring. Just as I have never built a walapini or RMH, I also have never tried to grow in the winter. Can anyone recommend some good winter crops for the walapini?

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Miles Flansburg

pollinator

Posts: 4718

Location: Zones 4-5 Colorado

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Looks good Jim, Do you think you will have any problems with water coming off of the roof and eroding down into the hole? Are you gonna collect rain water or snowmelt?

I had an underground house in Wyoming but didn't have a rocket so I am looking forward to seeing what all you will grow in there. (So I really didn't grow much in the winter.) I think you might just throw in some experimental plants of all sorts and see what makes it through!

Oh and ya gotta love craigslist!

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Todd Parr

pollinator

Posts: 1793

Location: Wisconsin, zone 4

posted 7 years ago

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I love watching this project come together. Thanks for posting progress pics.

"People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do."

Ife Nourish Aziz

Posts: 2

Location: Walsenburg, CO

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posted 7 years ago

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garlic, leeks, onions, radishes, lettuce, peas, potatoes, chard, spinach, rhubarb, and other leafy greens such as bok choy and kale. <3 Awesome project and progress!!

In wellness ~~~

jim hughes

Posts: 97

Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Miles: we're not really sure just kind of wingin it. I have built in some drainage areas but the decomposed granite will be my major pain in the arse. We just wont know till spring. I have an area designated for a sump dig if necessary. It's funny all the foxholes I dug as a private and always put in a grenade sump, so It was natural to look for a spot lol. We are at an in-pass right now as we got a foot and a half of snow over night on Friday. The roof is holding nicely and RMH keeps things above freezing but we are on the fence as to if we will be using it in the winter. Looks like it is gonna be a cold one and I dont want to run out of wood on the hopes we will get a few heads of cabbage...

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Mike Haasl

steward

Posts: 15923

Location: Northern WI (zone 4)

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posted 7 years ago

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I love how you named your entry door "Dori"

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jim hughes

Posts: 97

Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Cute little door we found in the rafters. We name everything for some reason. The correlation to "peewees playhouse" is not lost...but its our thing. Ol' man jeep jenkins AKA Poobican, Browny is the snow plow, proaction jackson AKA skimadoo, Carla is the honda crv AKA redneck razor, etc. lol

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Mike Haasl

steward

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Location: Northern WI (zone 4)

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posted 7 years ago

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We do that too for some weird reason. Woodstove is named Burnie, wood hauling trailer is Cary, etc. Good to know we're not the only ones

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jim hughes

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Location: 6A

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posted 7 years ago

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Thats awesome. My wife just lol'd she said "I thought we were the only ones..."

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Todd Parr

pollinator

Posts: 1793

Location: Wisconsin, zone 4

posted 7 years ago

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You guys are awesome. My parents are right around 70 years old, and they name everything. The motorcycles, the tractor, everything. I find it hilarious. I hope it isn't contagious though

"People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do."

Joy Oasis

pollinator

Posts: 413

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posted 7 years ago

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Amazing project! Very creative. I really enjoy watching your progress.
For what to grow look up winter gardening on youtube, but basically best things to grow will be greens. There is just one little thing - you had to start growing them in August...In winter they more or less stay alive under covers, but do not do much growing. But there is also inside gardening -sprouts, which grow to "maturity" in just a few days. Also, search Chinese greenhouses, they are insulated on one (or maybe 3) sides, and they possibly grow things in winter, not only keep them alive.

Hans Quistorff

gardener

Posts: 1967

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

477

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posted 7 years ago

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Actualy what tou want to start growing is soil. start bringing in containers of the best of the topsoil you dug out and amend it with organic material and plant some cool weather seeds like lettuce and peas to get roots in there to feed the soil. I bring my containers with the peas and lettuce out when it warms up but the peppers and tomatoes stay in all summer and I still have some ripening in December.

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Emilie McVey

Posts: 121

Location: central Pennsylvania

posted 7 years ago

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I'm sorry to ask what may be a basic, obvious question, but what is a walapini?

Tomorrow's another day...

Glenn Herbert

Rocket Scientist

Posts: 4665

Location: Upstate NY, zone 5

637

posted 7 years ago

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A walipini (with an "I") is a type of semi-underground greenhouse developed in/for equatorial highland climates in South America. They have been adapted to other climates as well.

brandon gross

pollinator

Posts: 251

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Definitely going to follow this one pretty neat build

My Signature for the last few years was "just spinning wheels," but after our PDC at Pauls Place this summer I feel like we are finally catching traction. Hope to be threading some more. got a roof on our house, swales dug, and finally starting to work on our plan in more details.

Dennis Mitchell

Posts: 186

Location: 7b desert southern Idaho

posted 6 years ago

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Did you get to use it this winter. Mine is still just a hole.....4 year old hole.

Cm Dahl

Posts: 6

posted 2 years ago

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jim hughes wrote:Hell of day today! Got the roof done on the rear section and had time to dink around with my first rocket stove.

I have a question on walapinis.... I know I want one, just not sure if our property is all bedrock can we blast a hole for it and still have the geothermal effect for plants when it is done???
I do not want to spend money on blasting if it won't work long term 😢
TIA

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 2936

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1493

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posted 2 years ago

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Hi Cm,
I'm not an expert on these, but I would guess it would not work well without a lot of extra work. I have a feeling the rock would distribute the heat away from the greenhouse too quickly without a ton of insulation... which could probably be done on the topside without blasting.

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Cm Dahl

Posts: 6

posted 2 years ago

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Matt McSpadden wrote:Hi Cm,
I'm not an expert on these, but I would guess it would not work well without a lot of extra work. I have a feeling the rock would distribute the heat away from the greenhouse too quickly without a ton of insulation... which could probably be done on the topside without blasting.

Thanks a ton.... hubs was saying he thought it had to be dirt ground to get the right effect.
😢😢😢😢
We will have to do some real investigation to see if we can do what we want.
We have a little over 8 acres and want to as close to self sufficient as possible 😉

Matt McSpadden

gardener

Posts: 2936

Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

1493

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posted 2 years ago

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Hi Cm,
You are in the right place to help with that dream. There is no reason you can't have a greenhouse, but it sounds like you will need to have an above ground one. Nothing wrong with that... the walipini and the wofati greenhouse are both cool, but you can still do a lot with a simple above ground hoop house. Are the other two options more efficient? Probably. But a hoop house can be built by a couple people in a few hours for a couple hundred dollars. The other two take much more to create.

I think it is much better to have an above ground greenhouse, than to wish you could have a walapini greenhouse.

Hans Quistorff

gardener

Posts: 1967

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

477

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posted 2 years ago

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Hello CM
Super insulation can be substituted for being in ground. Here is a working example.

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