Brie Lynn wrote:Hey, how are things going with all this? It looks like this workshop idea never took off. Any plans to pick it back up?
Andy Ze wrote:We're having a pretty good year. Lots of okra and figs. Highly recommend those to anybody else in Central TX who has clay-ish soil.
Here's a look at our compost bucket. I don't think it's big enough for worms. What's going on with all these grubs?
Raymond Liljeros wrote:
Today I live in a concrete house with hugh windows and bays east west,
the opposite of what you and everyone recommends
However the west wall is shaded by big oak trees and the eat has a veranda so
the sun does not hit the inner walls.
Raymond Liljeros wrote:
The funny thing is that when I read about all these very ecological houses on the net,
during a heat swell, they talk about 79°F.
This is what I have in my home today with 100°F outside this week.
So it seems to me that we cannot do much naturally to improve the temperatures
when the night stays around 70-74°F.
Raymond Liljeros wrote:
From what I understand, the real heavy beautiful cob is only good for areas
where the night temperatures drop substantially. I also did a rammed earth
workshop but althogh quite easy technically, it is heavy work.
Raymond Liljeros wrote:
I wonder if I should make my futur houses walls of slipclay and woodchips
20 inches thick to give it the best ? or would that not really do anything agains
the summer heat ?
Raymond Liljeros wrote:
So you are right from what I also read about your recommendations for est/west,
openings to the south for the winter however, I am not so keen on large overhead
protections because you loose the light into the house during the in between seasons.
I would rather come up with some temporary shading structures for the only 3 months
of the summer here, mid-june to mid-september, and then let all the sun into the house.
The large overhead protections will interfere with sun striking into the house in late
april-may and late september-october.
Raymond Liljeros wrote:
Another idea I have is to install for best light inside the house during the off season,
big west and east windows and also big roof windows, VELUX and construct during
the hot season some custom made "double insulation"
to put on top of these windows and roof VELUX because the standard outside VELUX
shade is not efficient enough and also very expensive.
Raymond Liljeros wrote:
And you are right, the only natural cooling possibility that we have is the
underground but the land is flat where I will build so I think that this is not an option,
otherwise it must be a great option to put parts of the house underground.
The canadien or provencial well would be another possibility
but it is rather complicated to maintain, and I wonder about humidity coming up
into the house from such a well as this installation gets older,
Raymond Liljeros wrote:
Thank you so much for your input, this is a great forum.
Vickie Moore wrote:I’ve had a 5 gallon bucket that had fish remains in water to make a slurry to put on my plants. I forgot about being there, I got sick. It has been sealed for two years. I’m afraid to open the bucket. What will I find when I open it?