Kevin Olson

My "cheat" when making bread from white flour (usually King Arthur bread flour) has been the no-knead approach, as advocated in the "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" books.  Stir yeast and salt into warm water, stir/fold the flour into the liquid, allow to rise loosely covered for 12 to 24 hours (temperature dependent), then refrigerate until wanted for baking.  On baking day, cut/pull off enough of the dough for each loaf, allow to stand for 1/2 hour to one hour (part of which can be during the oven's preheat cycle), then bake as usual.  Mostly, this has been loaf bread (boule, batard or 1/2 length baguette with boules in a cast iron dutch oven, batard and baguette on a pizza stone), but I have done a bit of pan bread this way, also (cinnamon raisin loaves for Christmas presents for the neighbors).  I could believe that a stronger dough would result from additional kneading, but this method has resulted in some very nice loaves, with a crispy crust and a nice crumb.

However, for freshly ground whole meal bread, this approach hasn't worked as well for me, even with long fermentation cycles - though your experience may vary from mine.  But, I am hopeful that I can, with the help of Kate Downham's new book, make a better (i.e. less brick-like!) whole meal bread this winter.

I bought the PDF of Kate's new book a few days ago, and have now read the first ~50 pages covering the basics fairly thoroughly.  I've also taken "sneak peeks" at a couple of later sections (rye and scalded flour breads, and a quick look at some gluten-free recipes).

Kate has clarified for me why so many sourdough guides differ widely in their procedures, prescriptions and proscriptions.  Simply put, there are lots of ways of making sourdough, but what will work best may vary depending on everything from the available water to the day's weather.  From her extensive experience, Kate describes how variations in temperature, timing, starter percentage, hydration, extraction percentage and much more will affect the outcome.

Most sourdough books either don't take the time to explain the subtleties, or perhaps more likely, may be written by people who lack the breadth of experience of someone like Kate.  Consequently, many books on sourdough - even from very well-regarded and esteemed sources - offer strict recipes as regards ingredients, timing and temperature, the details of which many of us would be hard-pressed to follow to the letter.  And, in my experience, even if carefully followed, may flop - edible, but not what was hoped for.

Not so Kate, who offers me the knowledge, grace and hope to try again, both with sourdough and commercially yeasted whole meal breads.  With winter now in the offing (and hence the heat of baking a welcome addition in the kitchen), I am looking forward to trying again, freshly inspired, with home ground whole meal flour.

I also plan to revisit "The Bread Builders", the "Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book", Vanessa Kimbell's book and several others on my shelf (OK, OK, in a pile next to the bed!), with eyes now informed by the help of Kate's tutelage.

As an indicator of my high regard for Kate's new book, I plan to gift paper copies to three of my relatives, all of whom are accomplished bread bakers, for Christmas this year.

David Wieland wrote:

Kevin Olson wrote: Laying the subfloor boards on the diagonal provides a stiffer floor

From the 1997 edition of Canadian Wood-Frame House Construction (p. 74):
Diagonal subflooring permits finish strip flooring to be laid either parallel to or across the joists.

Well, that makes good sense.  I wonder if that's the original reason for so doing, or if that's a convenient side effect?

Mikel Salazar wrote:Thank you Kevin for your reply.
...
Another option is to use Opus signinum in flat clay tile shape pieces, but it could be a lot of work to create them. ¿Maybe not so much work thinking in the long term? Maybe in bigger sizes...

You're welcome.  I am far from expert in these matters, especially in a permie way.  A decade or so ago, before I was properly acquainted with permies, I used expanded polystyrene and 6 mil poly sheeting to create an insulated and waterproof barrier around part of my basement, since we had "water features" every time it rained hard - old house with stone walls - and no drains.  I spent several furious evenings with a shop vac, sucking up water almost as fast as it came in, and hoping and praying for the rain to ease.  Desperate times, desperate measures.

I think the opus signinum would be a good choice, but I haven't yet experimented.  It's a form of what is now termed a geopolymer, and the lime should be self-healing of small cracks.  There are some broken bricks in a vacant lot near me, which would be prime candidates for such an experiment, but I don't know who owns them, so a bit of leg work on my part may be in order to discover at what price they might be had (hopefully free for the hauling!).  I also have a sack and a half of hydrated (steam slaked) lime, left over from when I tuck-pointed the sandstone wall of my dad's basement.  But, I have enough irons in the fire that I may not get to that experiment before snow falls.  In which case, the broken bricks will keep until spring, I'm sure.

From what I can gather, most of the AGS-like projects have used plastic sheeting or EPDM roofing membrane (or pond liner), and foam insulation.  It would be good to have a proven approach that doesn't require these plasticy materials.

You'd also mentioned a high water table.  Will you be berming the earth up around your house, somewhat of an "earth sheltered" approach, to avoid digging down near the water table?

I have a small piece of raw recreational land which also has a high water table (old beach dunes and swales, likely dating from the beginning of this interglacial, now many hundreds of meters back from the present lake shore).  I think the only reasonable way of building an Oehler or Hait greenhouse structure there would be to build on grade, then berm the sand up around and over the top of the building.  It might be possible to make a dome-like structure of a concrete like substance )perhaps opus signinum or similar) over the mass of sand, then cover the dome with sand, soil, etc.  But, I don't know if that's really practical.  I'd seen an attempt to pre-cast modular dome panels, then assemble them into a shell.  Also, a vault system which used interlocking blocks, which was quite interesting, but looked somewhat unwieldy, because the blocks had to be threaded over reinforcing rod which was about half the arc length of the vault section.  I don't think either of these really appeals to me, as interesting as they are.

I do have John Hait's monograph on creating concrete box sections, but they are proportioned and sized more-or-less like marine shipping containers.

Sorry for not being able to provide any real guidance on this.

Can you do a small scale experiment to prove out the opus signinum, before you "go for broke"?

Are you considering doing a variation of john Hait's annualized geothermal?  I'm just trying to make sure I am answering the question you are asking.

Could you bury a layer of expansive clay (e.g. bentonite) as the waterproof layer, then back fill with topsoil, or gravel or whatever, depending on your intended use, lay paving stones where needed, etc?  Roots could penetrate the clay layer, especially if trees are grown on it, but even deep rooted grasses, alfalfa, etc. might.  So, I think you'd want to be cognizant of that likelihood when planting.  But, the clay should be somewhat self-healing of minor penetrations, also.  Seasonal dryness of the subsoil at the waterproofing depth might lead to cracking, though.

Clay may not be the solution...

Ken Barston wrote:In a wall the diagonal will solve racking problems if each half of the wall is oriented 90 degrees from the other half. If all of the boards are oriented the same across the complete wall it will greatly aggravate the problem.

Oh, for sure, and it's good to keep that point in mind.  Similar to knee (and elbow) braces in timber framing, both diagonals should be present within a wall to stiffen the structure against racking.  The modern scheme is to use plywood (or, heaven forefend, OSB) as the shear diaphragm to prevent racking.

But, I am more skeptical about floors racking, in general.  Not that it couldn't happen (mud flow/lahar/snow slide or dump truck mishap or something), but racking of a floor out of square in the plan view isn't very likely under ordinary circumstances, and forces that would tend to cause racking seem most likely to involve catastrophic occurrences.  However, if the additional floor material needed, and the extra time and effort to lay it, aren't impediments, then I'd say go for it.  I don't think there's much harm (other than the foregoing, and slightly longer spans between the joists), and it might be helpful.

I'd be curious just when laying subfloor on the diagonal came into vogue.  Any older structures with wooden suspended floors that I've seen or seen documented have the floor boards laid parallel (or perpendicular) to a wall - generally perpendicular to the smallest cross section floor beams/joists, though R. J. Brown in "Timber-framed Buildings of England" does show floor boards laid between, and let into, closely spaced floor beams.  I may be able to find an illustration of this approach.  But, I'm not anywhere close to enough of an architectural historian to be able to point to when people began laying diagonal subfloor.  On edit: I've attached a PDF of a page from Brown's book, showing historic methods of suspended flooring on the other side of the water from me.

John C Daley wrote:I have never heard of diagonal boards in the sense explained here.
In Australia we do not have sub floors, what is their purpose

John -

It was typical, in US homes with a higher degree of fit and finish, to use a sub-floor as the structure over the joists, with the finished flooring material over that.  The finished flooring could be ceramic tile, laid in a mortar bed, or a more durable hardwood flooring, or (more recently) carpet, vinyl tile or snap together laminate.  Our 1890s vintage house, with additions made as late as the 1920s, has board subfloor with tongue and groove maple flooring over that, in the ground floor.  The upper storey has tongue and groove pine flooring only, as both subfloor and finished floor all in one.  Rougher structures would have had planks or log puncheons or some other sort of sturdy flooring, with the top surface more or less well finished, depending on the time and tools available, and the purposes to which the building would be put.  This is for suspended floors, of course, rather than floors built directly on the soil.

Laying the subfloor boards on the diagonal provides a stiffer floor - at least theoretically.  I would think that installing bridging between joists would actually do more.  For wall sheathing?  Sure, diagonal board sheathing would provide a structure stiffer and more resistant to wind racking than boards nailed on square to the studs, but I am less convinced that it would make a whole pile of difference for flooring.  Nevertheless, my grandfather would only lay board sheathing and subfloor on the diagonal.  He also believed in let-in bracing for stick framed walls until his dying breath, even if sheathed with plywood.

But, he was old school; his father built wooden boats from trees, and my grandfather wasn't far removed from that, even though he did paying work until the early 1980s.  I still have his claw hammer, and a portable saw vise that I believe was his, which could be clamped to a 1" thick rough sawn board, and would hold a hand saw steady on the job site, so one could give a saw a quick touch up with a triangular file at coffee or lunch break time.

I may be able to find a reference to Townsend's "Carpentry", which was my grandfather's favorite carpentry book (it went through multiple editions).  My brother has my grandfather's copy, new enough to discuss plywood, but I think I may have a PDF scan of one edition or another.

On edit: I have attached a screen grab from the 1949 edition of Gilbert Townsend's "Carpentry", showing diagonally laid board subfloor and diagonal exterior wall sheathing.  I could not see any place withing the text proper where Townsend addressed laying the subfloor on the diagonal, though he does discuss diagonal sheathing as a means of bracing the frame.  I could only spot one illustration in this 1949 edition which shows board subfloor not laid on the diagonal, though illustrations abound showing the subfloor laid on the bias, as seen here.  Curious...

On further edit:  Townsend's "Carpentry" is an interesting window into the transition from heavier timber framing to lighter (and faster) stick built construction.  He still details heavy posts for corners, with girts gained into them by mortise and tenon; shows tusk tenons for housing the ends of main beams on which dimensioned lumber joists will rest (but also shows built-up beams, made from multiple pieces of dimensioned lumber); details how to properly house beams into a masonry wall, so that, in the event of collapse of the floor, due to overload or fire, the masonry wall remains intact; etc.  Here's a link to the 1949 edition on Open Library (there was also a 1936, and a 1953 edition, at least, and maybe others):
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL16333977M/Carpentry

A while back, I'd seen some instructions for making Tarahumara (Raramuri) huaraches, using a piece of tire tread for the sole, which looked particularly good.  But, can I spot the instructions, now?  If I do find the auspicious looking instructions, I'll post the link, though instructions abound.  Not sure if DIY is really what you are looking for, in any case, but they looked both tough and repairable.  And, by definition OG ultra-marathon runner grade.

I'd like to try growing Nicotiana rustica (wild tobacco) as an ornamental and for its insecticidal properties.  But, it's not an urgently needed thing - so many projects, so little time!  Sounds like it wouldn't be too difficult.

I have seen a YT video series of a fellow who was making his own pipe tobacco blends.  He got leaves of several varieties, aged them (if I recall correctly, he sweated them in plastic bags), pressed the mixed variety of leaves in a little homemade wooden press with casing (honey?  I don't quite remember, now), and hung it up in the sun to age for (several?) weeks.  Then, he took the plug out of the press and sliced it thinly with a manual food slicer, then rubbed out his blend and smoked it in a pipe.  I am endlessly curious about how and why people do things, especially anything "unplugged" or old fashioned.  I still recall my great uncles rolling their own - Bugler in a can, as I remember - using a rolling machine with a canvas web, though one of them could roll a smoke with one hand, no machine required.  Clearly, he was a professional!  Pretty darn cool for a young guy of 9 or 10 to be allowed to hang out with the old codgers while they were smoking under a big shade tree, telling tall tales about horses they'd known in their younger days (saddle horses, rather than draft horses, though all of them had farmed with horses, so must have been acquainted with plenty of draft horses, too, and likely oxen as well).

For anyone interested in the pipe tobacco curing project, I'll see if I can track down the channel and link a video or two here.  On edit, here's likely the series I was remembering, but I don't see the press aging video, so maybe I am mistaken, or maybe it was another of his videos:
 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxC94OIiSU3mYrlAJdGF591NcyBZ3eLga

And, on further edit, this is probably the plug press and flake video I was remembering, but not from the same YT channel:

Pete Grego wrote: start with stick and a cheap arc welder which you can snap up for about $20-$50 second hand. nothing fancy.

I do have a very light duty 110 volt arc welder (maybe a Montgomery Ward?) which I picked up very used for $5 or some such, long (long) ago.  But it is such a miserable welder that I can't even bear to give it to someone - it would just be cruel and unusual punishment.  It can only be used with 1/16" diameter rods due to the low heat output, and even then it's a bear to weld with.  Preheating with a gas torch is nearly mandatory for any useful welding.  Otherwise, rods just stick.

I also did once try to weld with a pair of 12 volt deep cycle batteries in series - very sketchy, but worked better than this really crummy welder.

I guess my point is that it is possible to get too cheap (not too inexpensive, but too cheap) of a welder that will be nearly impossible to use.  I can't bring myself to throw out this welder, but it wouldn't be fair to inflict it on anyone else, either.  So it sits, condemned to the gloomy darkness of my basement, in case I reach some fevered state of desperation for a welder which barely works.

I do have an old Leece Neville heavy truck alternator (rated for 200 amps at 24 volts, if I recall correctly - a u-pull-it scrap yard find) which I may eventually turn into a portable welder.  There is a lot info online, if you poke the right corners of the interwebs, on cobbling up homemade underhood welders from alternators - whether a separate dedicated alternator, or the vehicle's stock charging alternator - since the Jeep and offroad crew like to be able to do trailside mending.  Maybe try searching for "weldernator"...  Somewhere, I have suggestions on how to build a homemade Zena (brand name) underhood welder, the key benefits of which seems to be DC welding and adjustable heat at the stinger by twiddling a potentiometer.  It has been suggested that the circuit diagram in Zena's patent may contain errors, whether intentional (to preserve trade secrets) or otherwise.  As I haven't built the circuit, either with or without the alleged errors, I have no comment on this, and I am insufficiently skilled at circuit analysis to be able to judge for myself.

But, homemade welders may not be the easiest place to start when learning to weld.  Any more than was the Montgomery Ward welder a good beginner's welder.  I believe I paid $50 for the Lincoln (though maybe it was $100 - very cheap, for the welder it is), and the fellow who sold it to me thought he'd burned maybe a dozen rods with it, and it would have been a much better first welder.  So, good deals do exist, as you said.