Sharon Buydens

Has anyone ever tried using glass bottles (beer bottle size, but with a closable lid that seals) filled with water, lying on their sides in tight rows, with cob or cement mortar to hold them in place, as a thermal mass heat storage for passive solar home design? (insulated underneath, of course)

I saw a picture of bottles in the floor and thought of this idea but am having trouble finding anything online to see if people have tried it.

This is wonderful information, thank you. I’m wanting to learn how to make pottery with clay from our property and fire it. Some excellent advice here.

Here is a picture of the silty clay I made from regular yard soil the other day. Humus is another matter entirely.

Casie Becker wrote:Sorry it took so long.  https://youtu.be/F-PLbGp123M. This is a PBS program the effect of reforestation on farmlands that had suffered from desertification. I would be very cautious of stripping the local forest of its healthy soils. I don't think there's any man made product that can replace it.  

I would agree with that!

Mycelium is just an example of where organic materials have been used to produce insulation. The point was, if it can be done with one type of organic substance, why not another?

Nancy Reading wrote:Cindy, I think that could be a genius moment of yours! Pity you've made it permies, that could be a patentable idea! (or is that not a problem in the US?) If you had a precious yarn (such as home spun!) you could end up with zero fabric waste and still have intricately shaped garments. Of course your loom may well be restricted in adaptability or size, but I think the concept is excellent.
If your loom is small, you may have to make an extra seam or so to make larger pieces.

Because a patent can cost tens of thousands of dollars and can take years, and sometimes requires a lawyer, I’m glad Cindy has revealed her idea here. Open Source information is similar to what this Permies forum is all about.

Another option for making money on the idea is if Cindy makes her own looms and sells them, or she could write books on how to make such looms, or teach workshops, and have her idea make money that way.

Mycelium is alive but they (permies forum covers this somewhere) let it grow and then make it inert to use it as door insulation.

Maybe the “fluffy” quality of humus can be used similarly by baking it, but I really don’t know. Might be a bad idea but maybe worth experimenting with.

Thanks for the wool links!

I’m just very interested in what can be done with humus outside of gardening… my mind is more on its clay content, I guess, but can clay be extracted from humus for use, let’s say, in cob?

I know you can make clay from regular dirt by suspension in water (as a clay slip) after pouring off the colloidal mixture from the sand and rocks that sink to the bottom of the bucket.