Luke Townsley

Eat, compost or burn.  I had a stack of dry cow bones from my neighbor I threw in with my biochar.

We are in Seymour, MO and are wondering the same. We just moved here from another part of the state, but found out there is an apple festival here. Apparently used to be a fairly big apple producing area with produce shipped out by rail. I'll have to poke around a bit to see what I can come up with.

I do know when I first saw AAC/aerated concrete blocks was in Belarus over 25 years ago. They were building with them like crazy and I know they get plenty of cold (around Minsk). I think it has a lot of promise for meeting concerns about mold, breatheability, and VOCs. With any type of construction, the details are important as is maintenance.

There is no perfect building material that automatically meets all needs, regardless of design considerations, and is plentiful and cheap. If there is a material or style you really want, study it, understand the strengths and limitations, design the entire structure it to meet your needs and enjoy it.

We just moved to a wooded acreage with a house in Seymour, MO. Our property is rugged with 100+ feet of elevation change. We used a good realtor, but actually found this property ourselves on the MLS sort of by accident after much, much looking.

Sooo, the devil is in the details, but the short answer is no, IMO.

Wood gives off plenty of VOCs, some species more irritating to some people than others. Coniferous species tend to be more offensive in my area. Drying and curing the wood helps.

Rot in log walls depends on species, construction, exposure, and location, but generally log walls are prone to mold. In my area, log siding seems to be the worst. So, in short, this isn't a definite no as to rot, but highly problematic for lots of folks and should be given careful consideration.

As for breatheability, if you use a finish that breathes, you do get some. Again, depends on construction, species, and finish, and to some extent location and sun exposure.

One issue with conventional style log cabins is insulation. If your site has moderate seasonal temperature swings, you might get away without insulation, but you say it is cold, and it is my understanding that the r value of a solid uninsulated log wall tends to be pretty low, again species matters, and of course, r value isn't the whole story. If you have unlimited free heat, say from wastewood, you might be ok with this.

Timber frame infilled with something else might be a better option to my way of thinking.

I agree that you will lose a lot of space, but maybe you aren't concerned about the space and just want a particular look/feel, a heat sink or a structure to moderate humidity or temperature.

Anyway, compressed earth blocks is something I really want to try and one unexpected thing I have heard mentioned is to avoid clays that expand when wet since they can cause blocks to self destruct rather quickly. In your case, it might actually not matter as much though since it would be indoors and presumably better protected from moisture.

One rammed earth company is basically doing an engineered sandstone that appears to me to contain little to no clay. I doubt that it has quite the same ability to transfer moisture and to cool without the clay, but might be very appropriate for your use case if you can figure it out.

A lot of people have found healing from excruciating pain through Dr. John Sarno's mind-body techniques (get one of his books). Typically it affects people who, by nature, are perfectionists and/or people pleasers (both fine traits, BTW) as well as people with severe trauma/abuse in their past.

I know other people will read through these things looking for ideas and I thought I would throw it out there. It helped me resolve some chronic issues in an unimaginably short timeframe. There was a 20-20 episode on it a good while back too.

Amber Foster wrote:Hi everybody! My partner in crime, Rob, and I just bought land in Douglas county Missouri. We are moving there in about 39 days to start our Permaculture homestead. Eventually we would love to start a small intentional community, but that may happen slowly and we need to get ourselves settled first. We would love to talk to/get to know locals who are into Permaculture.

Amber, have you moved, is it working out for you?

We have family in SW Missouri and may move down there at some point within the next year or two.

brian hanford wrote:has no one ever looked at the harbor freight band saw mill its what im looking at for the move to our rural property.

http://www.harborfreight.com/saw-mill-with-301cc-gas-engine-62366.html
1,999$ right now

I have a friend who just bought one. For the money, it's fairly impressive. Short track, and like most saws would benefit from a total alignement/workover/setup. My main concern is parts, and you will always need parts... Also, the track is short. He is going to buy some steel to extend the track.

I ran a lumbersmith for a while too. It is in the same price range, and ok for what it is. Very slow though.

Regarding the clover, it is a bit hard to explain, but I planted some dutch clover with some of my cover. It was a mistake for my purposes. To clarify, I'm talking mixed species perennial living mulch in a vegetable garden in Indiana around the plants and in the rows ie over everything, not just between beds or similar situations which is entirely different.

The clover I have growing is too tall, too clumped, too growthy and just not well suited for my particular purposes. Perhaps micro clover would be better. I may try it at some point.

And as with all things, I'm not suggesting it would be entirely unsuited for every situation, but for mine, it hasn't been a good fit at all so far.