Lantis Esquin

Thank you, you really got me thinking about a few things. Meanwhile I've came across someone who really builds stone houses here in Slovakia. He told me they use a system where they build an exterior wall of stone, interior wall made of bricks and they filled the space between the walls with rockwool. They measured the heating dissipation with a thermal camera and they couldn't find any. He also told me they did a house with both the exterior and interior walls made of stone with this system, so I will try to get some more information from them. They also used sandstone because of its excellent heat and humidity absorbing qualities.

My life dream always was to build a stone house. Trouble is, in my country (Slovakia), we have no tradition of building stone houses. No company will build such house, because they have no experience building with stone, so I'm just begging for an advice. I was thinking about building a stone house with double stone walls (I want to see the stone from outside as well as inside) connected with lime mortar or something that breathes. I've read that concrete is not good when building with stone because it prevents the natural evaporation or the natural process of wall "breathing". The outer wall would be made of granite and for the inner wall I was thinking sandstone. The outer wall would be stronger than the inner wall (I'm thinking 25 cm vs 15 cm). Between the walls I want to leave an empty space of some 8-10 cm. The thing is that I want to have a rocket mass heater or similar heat source near one of the walls. This heat source would be connected to a system of pipes. The main pipe outlet would serve only to get the fire started, than it would be closed and the heat would proceed through the pipes laid on the ground in the empty space between the walls, exiting the house on the other side, thus warming the house faster. This is just an idea and I would really appreciate your thoughts on this. If you have experience with stone houses or stone walls. Would this be something that would work or is it a bad idea and if so, why? Or how would you change this if you'd do it yourself. What to use? Mortar or something else? Thank you for any advice.

Hello everyone!

It has been a year since I have started looking for my piece of land to start my permaculture project and I think I have finally found it. It is located on an east slope of a mountain range (elevation just some 300 m), facing south. It is surrounded by oak trees from each side so no winds and it is large enough for me (12000 sq. m), BUT... The soil there is very very poor. It is light brown in color, roots only go some 5 cm deep, it is very alkaline (over 7,5, somewhere reaching 8!), dry and very rocky! 50% of the mass is stone, sometimes 60%. You basically cannot dig a hole using shovel, you have to use pickaxe, if you want to do it effectively (see attached picture). The area is well known for growing grapes as this is a very good area for them (dry and hot) and of course I would grow them, but I don't wish to have a monoculture of grapes.

So my question is, what would you do? Would you buy this land and try to improve the soil conditions? If so, how? I think this is what permaculture is all about, isn't it? Improving the soil? But how to best do this on such large scale? Green mulching? If so, which plants? What fruit trees or shrubs to plant? What plants with deep roots can survive such conditions? Thank you!

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