Lawren Richards

Everything I read about cotton says it is *not* cool in summer because it doesn't release moisture fast enough. Linen does. Lightweight wool is also a great summer fabric.

We need to re-think the efficiency of evaporative cooling; I had a friend swear he would never use AC then go on to tell me how he sprayed down the roof of his house. If we're concerned about resources, heat pumps are absolutely primo for both heating and cooling. Evaporative cooling is not.

Clay (as in clay paint, clay walls, clay floors, etc) naturally regulates humidity and makes a house feel cooler/drier in summer and warmer/moister in winter by ~10c in my experience.

Lambsquarters! Without a doubt the easiest, best-tasting, and completely inadvertent plant in my garden. I'm racing to dry a bunch for winter before it bolts.

"Wet humidity" is zero problem for either clay or lime plaster. Rain, on the other hand, is. As others have noted, overhangs are critical. My SB in the BC Interior is clay, and vulnerable to rain but protected from vertical rain with 4' overhangs and from horizontal rains with landscaping. (It's also passive solar so the overhangs are built for the latitude.)

The suggestion of Larson trusses is good, but you might get better insulative continuity from something like lime-based hempcrete or papercrete which can be made very lightweight with perlite (so no need for weight-bearing foundation).  Breathability would be a consideration but if the inside is painted I'm not sure I'd worry too much-- permeability requirements depend on whether  you have more heating hours or cooling hours.  If more heating hours, paint's impermeability is good. If more cooling hours, it's not.

You have a lot of questions but not enough info posted to answer them adequately. The one answer I can say unequivocally is don't use SB without plastering it-- it is definitely neither fire resistant nor rat resistant without plaster.

I know this is an old post but want to mention that I would advise never deliberately using a plant that is invasive in your part of the world, and I think in the PNW chicory is invasive; at least it is the the BC Interior. I think mine came in a "butterfly meadow mix" and has literally taken over my acreage. The only thing positive about it is that it knocked out most of the knapweed.

It's my understanding that worms like partially composted inputs-- they eat the microbes more than the food, at least the raw stuff, think?  Also they like low temperatures; below room temp. While I throw a little kitchen stuff to the worms-- they LOVE cooked squash-- I top up the worm bin with 6-month-old chipped up yard waste, and I keep the bin in the basement.

Another reason a wheelie bin might not be the best device is that compost worms generally live in only the top few inches.

They also like very moist/ wet environments.

Hope this helps. I'm not an expert but have had worm bins for several years.

J Watt wrote:Water and fuel seems to be the most problematic for many. [quote=]

I’ve lived on rainwater 20 years; even with just 600ft2 of roof my 2 square totes in the basement fill up with a couple days of rain, then I divert to a couple of exterior totes for summer watering needs. I’m in the BC Interior with temps +/-10d of freezing, so I get water in winter although I can go without collecting Dec-Apr and still not run out.

I use a course & fine sediment filter on house water, and an additional charcoal filter for drinking water.

Wrote a longer post and lost it ‘cause I wasn’t logged in, but in short: what’s so great about sunchokes? Mine were knobby, small, tasteless, and died off in a season or two. Why do sunchokes instead of, say, potatoes?

Still thinking about this.... how about stapling something grippy like open-weave burlap to scrap plywood pieces of the appropriate size, dampen with water, then apply a 1/8" coat of 50/50 lime/sand (fine sand, or ground glass)?  I believe you can mix the lime & sand prior but just keep it covered with water, and make it the right consistency in the beginning-- don't try to mix water in later.  Dip it out of the bucket just like you'd dip pickles out of a jar-- ignore the liquid at the top.

That would be easy to set up ahead of time, and no plaster of paris at all.

Highly recommend buying an EV, and as small a one as you can get. (Car dealers love to upsize more than McDonald’s!) Bought my Chevy Bolt last year, have driven it long distances & through a Canadian winter. Different handling but boy am I glad to not be tied to the gas companies anymore. Sometimes I charge at home, where it’s free (I’m off grid); mostly in town. Eventually I’ll charge at home most of the year but I’ve got to get a few more panels first— I only have 3.

Suggest you need fibre in the mix to help the finished product flex a bit without cracking. A really strong, smooth method would be to soak straw for a few days (or weeks) until it ferments and add a bit of that, or even just use the water from it as the water then contains long-chain polysaccharides that strengthen the plaster. A lesser but more accessible fibre is toilet paper.  (I don’t know how to mix the tp but I’m sure you can find it online; it’s a common additive for finish plaster.) Both method should yield smooth but less crack-prone results— with the caveat that I have just read this, not actually done it with lime. However I did do fermented straw with clay for my house and verify it’s smoothness & strength.