Grey T. Klein

Congratulations on your success, and thank you for your efforts! The natural bounty there is apparent in the photographs. Best of luck on securing more wild habitats!

Greetings, Paul!
After perusing your website, I feel a strong resonance with your vision for a community and your land-rooted quality of life. If I read correctly, I ought to schedule a first time visit before roving out toward Coweeta Gap. I'd be delighted to make a stop on my way from PA to GA, come April.
Also, carving spoons is fun!

Greetings, Susan.
Going off of the info you provided here, I'd like to learn more about your family member and the living situation he's offering. I'll send you a PM with a couple of questions and my email.

BRK #90

A cold snap this week has us set to work indoors as much as we can.

BRK #89

As the daylight hours shrink, trading routine tasks for random diversions is a welcome change. While our shifts in the usual schedule are done with some advance planning, it's still just as fun to switch things up. So far, we've had afternoons of spoon carving, lighting, decorating and box making.

Hans Quistorff wrote:
My observation is that it has to form quick crust then it must steem free..

The iron wasn't hot enough for that first one, and it seemed to crisp a little too fast on the last one. Getting the right amount of heat, oil and time cooking is a balancing act.

BRK #88

Lotsa foody bits on Thanksgiving! I attempted waffles on the cast iron and found it has a steep learning curve. Vegan stuffing was my main dish and strawberry rhubarb pie was my desert. Everyone's cooking was amazing, as was how well we shared the kitchen.

Coydon Wallham wrote:
I've never heard of mixing pebbles and cob before this.

What Mark said! To add, I think that the two materials work well in tandem. Heat conducts through cob and causes convection through the gaps in the pea gravel. Important note: the bottom of the box is a fine metal mesh, raised a couple of inches and supported by wood. This allows circulation of air through the mass!

BRK #87

Sawmill running and junkpole harvesting today

BRK #86

Coydon Wallham wrote:
So, what happens when that one needs to be broken down and worked on? Is this being considered the final iteration? The cob looks a bit more permanent than previous versions...

Hey, bro! The effert put forth on this iteration was mostly to get something that just works. That's to say, no experiments, just proven RMH design. Our hope is that there is no further work done on this system for a long time. Nevertheless, cob can be broken down with water (good if it's dried up in a bucket) or with a hammer and masonry chisel. If we needed to get this mass out of the way for whatever reason, it would be simple and relatively easy to suck out the pebbles with the shop vac and chunk off the cob core and carry it out in pieces.

Alexandra Malecki wrote:beautiful work, Grey!!

also nice job on the youtube vids =)

Thank you, Alex! I enjoyed finishing this build, and I'll make sure the vids keep coming

BRK #85

The Red Cabin now has a fully functional rocket mass heater, and it is quite a handsome one to boot.

BRK #84

This just in: making cob goes way faster using a machine to mix it. We've been using it regularly for the pump house build and finishing up some rocket mass heaters.