dave phillips

Could you just pick the green walnuts prick them with fork then pickle them in the vinegar?

Everyone says “soak them in salt water for a week, then strain and soak for another week” to get out that substance tannins that has a strong flavour.

Tannins are traditionally moderated by aging: air seeps around the lid over its years in the cellar, and the oxidized tannins gradually bind to one another, and settle out as sediment. Typically this must be done very slowly, or the oxygen will attack flavors other than the tannin,

I tried just piercing with a fork several times then going straight into the vinegar and spices and left them for a long while, it’s a much deeper flavour.

But someone told me tannins could be poisonous or something well I have never had a bad stomach or anything.

I really can’t find any answers online why pickled walnuts always are soaked in salt water for a few weeks

I hope someone on here knows

Dustin Rhodes wrote:Sounds like an awesome project Dave; where (in general) are you building?

Tires only really make sense if you already have a lot of them lying around - it's pretty tedious to go around collecting and purchasing tons of used tires(not to mention the smell of off-gassing rubber).

if Timber is available on your site, it may be the cheaper/more sustainable option(but not necessarily easier)

Take a look at this book for more inspiration/plans on Earth Integrated Structures:
$50 Underground House by Mike Oehler

Thanks

I don't mind collecting tires for free every time I go into town, I have to go every week anyway

I have read both of mikes books

I want to make a cross between a walipini pit green house and a simple earthship

I wondered has anybody built something like this before?

We have a 2 hectare small holding and want to build an Earth bermed simple dwelling with glass front like an earth ship.

It's just for myself and the wife to stay while we visit occasionally, maybe live there permanently in the future.

I know rammed tires would be the best all round but considering other options.

We definitely want it earth bermed and low impact on the landscape.

What is the simplest easier option?

steve pailet wrote:I was out chatting buying tires at a local tire store.. talking to the owner.. I told him about earth ships.. Guess what he told me.. Not only would he give me tires but sort them and haul them to my land.. about 15 miles from his shop FREE..

Betting that if you chat with the owners of independent tire stores they will be happy to do the same thing.. It really does save them money over the recycling fees so it is a win win situation..

If you can find anyone who has their tires bailed .. it is even more efficient.. a bail holds about 100 tires.. they big.. and there will be zero pounding ... the walls will be thicker. as most of the bails are about 4 x 4 x 6 foot.. stack em three high and just berm them.. have seen them stacked way high and they just dont move.. you will need a crane service to set them like bricks which is what they are. but at a couple of tons each.. and removing them from the waste stream is a good thing

I am now interested in tires bailed, but have no information on them. Is it possible to do it yourself?

R Scott wrote:There are areas where the tire guy has to track his disposal all the way to a registered disposer, to be green you know. Well, so they don't just end up in a ditch somewhere anyway. Those places it is harder to do now.

The problem is finding enough tires THE SAME SIZE. You have to pick your tire sizes carefully. You can do a little variation if you know equivalent sizes and are careful about packing tires to level, but not much.

Are there ways around this problem? can you fill gaps with earth and such to compensate for different size tires?

So I am considering my Earthship half underground so you step down into it a couple of feet. The windows will be floor height from outside but normal height from inside.
Our plan is to dig a drainage sump at the lowest point inside, I think if I go deep enough I want a double purpose to drain and also have an emergency water source. I know if its ground water it would need filtering and then purifying but it is mainly for drainage.
I want to earth beam the top and hide the entrance and windows/skylights. The reason we want to go down a few feet is to make the entire thing low impact and almost invisible. To grow appropriate things to hide all windows/skylights and entrance but still let enough light in.
All the walls earth rammed tires, then a breathable damp proof course over the entire thing before Earth beaming.

amber marcum wrote:Well most tire places will be glad to give them to you as they have to pay to get rid of them. Yes you use gas to transport them but it is all in how you pay for your house. Do you get a loan and pay for it for 30 years? or do you pay for is a little at a time in elbow grease and gas to get the building materials to where you need them. Earthships are a lot of work but not having a house payment is wonderful. I just wish we hadnt used used windows. After 13 years they are mostly cloudy.

what do yopu mean wish you hadnt used windows? what is the other option?

I am now thinking about a flat roof with some skylights, but still earth beam the entire thing leaving holes to let light in and for the chimney

Dave Turpin wrote:It is going to get difficult when the angle of the done starts in. The base of the circle should be easy enough, but soon you are either going to be beating earth at an angle, or trying to ram earth with nothing under the tire you are ramming.

Probably a better idea would be to use tires for the main bulk then a ferrocement dome for the top? Or construct the entire thing as a ferrocement bubble and then bury it for thermal mass?

Thanks yes I can see the problem, is this why its never been done before Always seem to have a roof of some kind on top, but with earth bag construction the walls come right up to meet and that is the roof.

I imagine you can not come in that much each layer. Just come in the width of the tire wall each new layer. So that you are not ramming with nothing under it.

I realise it would not be so low impact but actually quite high because you can not come in all that much each layer. I would like to have an upstairs even if its only stading head room in the middle it could be sitting headroom around the outside. But downstairs could be lovely living area.

Dave Turpin wrote:There is really no such thing as a "hybrid" Earthship. An Earthship is an Earthship no matter what materials you use, and many of the current designs use ferrocement domes instead of joists.

Those little huts that Earthship Biotecture built in Haiti are really just a circle of tires with a ferrocement dome, but they are still Earthships, because Earthship Biotectures says they are.

Outgassing of the tires is a concern that I have heard many times. Fact is, though, you are not using brand-new tires in a tire wall. You are using end-of-life tires, so there will be no outgassing anymore, even if you didn't cover them up with 6 inches of plaster (which you would).

So a superdome made from rammed tires would still be called an earthship?