Sam Becze

Thanks so much for the video, it was very encouraging to see! Did you have to file for permits and submit drawings before building?

Thanks Judith!

Hi all!

My wife and I are seriously considering moving to Northern Indiana to live closer to our families. We have always dreamed of building our own cob house and living as sustainable as we can. However, the property we are considering does not have very much clay in the soil. It is all gravel! So we are changing plans and letting the land dictate what it wants. Strawbales are numerous from the surrounding farms. And we have plenty of timber. So i'm thinking a round timber frame house with strawbale walls and field stone (also abundant) foundation/stem walls with an earthen floor.

I'm wondering if anyone has had any success with this kind of structure in the Midwest and what kind of advice would you give to us? Also does anyone know of a good use for gravel in building? I would love to do something with it if we can. Thanks and I can't wait to hear your opinions!

Peace,
Sam

Hi all!

We are a young couple (24), with baby on the way, from Indiana and Texas originally. We have been working on an urban farm in Metro Detroit for the last year and are looking to get out of the city. We have lots of gardening and small scale vegetable production experience. I grew up on a small homestead in IN and have some livestock and construction experience. I also have completed my PDC. We are very eager to learn what it takes to be more self sufficient from living off the land and would love to one day have place to start a homestead of our own. We are both very hard working and responsible.

We are looking for employment preferably, it doesn't have to be much. And secondly we are seeking to learn about self-sufficiency and responsible land use. If you are looking for help, or know of someone who is, please contact me. I will gladly provide you with more details. Thanks!


Peace,
Sam

Allan Ewan wrote:I'm assuming you have a two bin rm system.

Sorry, I am quite new to this process. So i'm not sure what you mean by "rm"? I do like the idea of stacking bins though. I was previously thinking of some sort of flow through bin, but I was having trouble figuring out how to get the finished compost out without emptying the whole thing. But the stacking idea would eliminate that problem. All you would have to do is add a new bin with fresh bedding when the one on the bottom got full. I wonder about the timing though. Do you know approximately how long it would take the worms to migrate from one bin to the next?

Hi all.

I want to set up some indoor worm composting bins for my food scraps and other food waste that I get from restaurants. My problem is that I can't really come up with a good, efficient way to harvest a lot of castings. I'm looking for something that minimizes sorting by hand and sifting, since I have an almost unlimited resource for food scraps and thus potentially a lot of worm bins. What methods have you guys used and what do you think works the best?

At the farmers market today I was told that wheat grass was a dynamic accumulator. Can anyone verify that? And if it is then should you be careful about not growing it in degenerated soils?

I was thinking about using rain water from a gutter to power a ram pump. I don't need to pump the water very far. The fall is about 12' and the area of the roof is 15-40'. Would this be enough water to operate a ram if the gutter just emptied into a pipe instead of a downspout?