Raymond Geezer

[quote=Vanessa Smoak

]Have you considered Alaskan sawmills? They are compact, mobile, and set up on the tree to be milled.

https://www.granberg.com/product-category/alaskan-mill/

I don’t really have an answer to your specific situation. Is it legal and to code? How will it compact over time? Will it create ruts after rains and seasonal temperature swings?

I have access to an Alaskan mill. It works great but hard on the back. Alas it's not the tool for me

Thank you, one and all

I appreciate the cautions against creating the potential of a catastrophic mud slide. I'll keep your cautions in mind.

The ravines I want to fill in are on a very gentle slope and a deep and wide drainage ditch runs the entire width of the property on top of the ridge . . I've thought of using gabions at the lower end. The land is unusually flat in this particular spot and a good base could be made to hold the run of gabion.

If any of you found your way to permaculturegeezer.com and found an empty page, I apologize. I'm a novice at wordpress and struggling with it's learning curve. I'll master it in time. With that said: Try again for a cool photograph of the campsite. The old bus belonged to Bill Monroe's band. The text advertising the Bill Monroe Festival of 2000 is deteriorating.

I intend to produce a vlog as we build a house and homestead. We're in our very late 60s in good health with good energy. We'd like to inspire and teach others how to start where they find themselves.

geezer out

We're in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. Our topography is ridges and ravines in heavy clay soil with karst limestone. A land of caves, sinkholes and rocky soil..

The front acre was clear cut 60 years ago and was replanted in Southern Yellow Pine. We are clearing to build a homestead. Now the issue of the trees. We have about 50 big trees limbed,the brush was mostly chipped.  and the logs stacked in a haphazard fashion. We didn't have equipment to stack the logs.

Now to questions: We are thinking of filling ravines with trees and brush then dumping topsoil and bring to grade.
We have a tracked skidsteer with log grapples and a backhoe to sling soil.

Anyone ever pull this off? Any flaws in my thinking that a ravine is simply a hole in the ground made by Nature and can be huglekultured?

I know y'all are wondering why I would bury wonderfully useful fully grown SYP trees. I've tried every which way to find someone to take them. This area is full of backyard sawmills up to large commercial loggers. No one is interested.We don't have the room for a sawmill here.

Thanks, one and all.
Geezer out...

Athena is the expert that settles the issue. I knew her on the strawbale listserv in the early to mid nineties. I rest my case.

I think the plaster will crack as soon as you move the house. Also, weight is a serious concern.

It's nice to meet you, Jay. As a boomer, I have several male friends named Jay. I assumed your gender and guessed incorrectly. Thanks for making yourself known.
Raymond

Thanks again, Jay. You're a man after my own heart. It's spooky to read your words and realize I'm thinking the same things. Water management and storage are being planned now. We're fortunate to have a good aquifer and so far plenty of rainfall. Who knows when another drought will hit. I always plan for the worst and hope for the best.

We are in cave country and have at least two on the property but not very accessible and need some digging. For another time, however we have some ravines that can be readily adapted to root cellars.

Our focus is to get the cabin built and continue to improve the bus for additional living space. Once we move in a few months or less; we'll then have the room and time to develop gardens and such. Our neighbors are willing to allow us a garden on their land. We're part of a tight knit group of friends and neighbors that understand the Old Ways. Living in cooperation with our neighbors allows everyone a better life.

Thanks, Jay for your incredibly useful post. Your thoughtful reply has been fodder for the design of our first cabin.

We're in Zone 6a, cold winters and hot, humid summers. We are planning a 16'x20' single story gable roof cabin,framed with traditional dimensional lumber if we can get it. We are in an area of dense hardwood forest and lots of small sawmillers around as a back up with rough sawn lumber. Due to the changing world events, this needs to be done as quickly as possible. We have a hundred mature Southern Yellow Pine trees on the ground, limbed with brush cleared ready for a sawmill, but don't have time for that project at the moment. Gotta get out of the city.

The cabin will have a full kitchen, shower and composting toilet and will be the primary home of my wife and I while we establish a homestead and build the large house. The cabin will be stout enough to add metal roofing and siding when available. 4'x8' foam panel insulation will be used liberally.

One gable end will have a french door and windows, with additional windows and floor and roof vents to shed heat in our summers. We intend to heat with wood and use an air conditioner in the summer.

In essence, we are building a house and wrapping it in BBT because we cannot get metal, or plywood. I like your idea of using BBT on a slightly sloping roof and cover lightly with soil. We are planning to to that with other structures on this land and is one of the reasons we started thinking about BBT.

Thanks for thinking about our project. You're a good neighbor.

I have not been dissuaded from using BBT for covering a structure. Looks like we'll use frame construction and dimensional lumber, covering the exterior with 4x8 sheets of foam insulation and then covering the roof and walls with BBT.
The question of the day is: How to avoid condensation? Do we use vents of some sort. I'm out of my element here. I'm a furniture builder and handy with tools and smart enough to know I need advice.

Keep meaning to tell you wonderful folks that we're located in far South Central Indiana in a very libertarian county with no zoning or building codes. Our family has been here since 1811.