Andrea Munroe

Damien Vallero wrote:Has anyone ever used a hopper or an industrial spray-gun to apply plaster on their bale walls?

A couple videos on youtube have shown it in action. Looks neat. Seems to work fine with clay or lime-based plasters. I'm exploring the idea of applying it to the walls of my own recently built strawbale home.

I notice hoppers for sale on alibaba.com for like, $70USD. Might this be a worthy investment? I believe I would need a generator and an air compressor to make it work. Would save a hell of a lot of time, I reckon.

What do you think?

Hi Damien! I found this old thread while searching and wanted to reach out and see how your project went. Did you end up spraying your bales with slip? I am building a strawbale house right now, and will begin plastering within the next couple of weeks. I'm trying to calculate how much clay I'll need (I have to truck it in, we bought the side of a mountain and we have lots of rock here, but no site clay!). Do you have a sense of what volume of clay or slip you used to cover what square footage? Any lessons learned or tips you could share? Thanks!

For fellow Canadians, Lee Valley is another source for these. I’ve had a set going on 7 years now.
It’s not just that they last forever, it’s that they’re about 100 times stronger than any wooden or plastic clothespin I’ve ever owned. You end up needing WAY fewer because one alone will hang a heavy pair of jeans (hang up a duvet with 2 pins with 100km/hr winds? No prob). They don’t leave dents, rust, or wet-woody-stuff on fabrics, they don’t get brittle and break, leaving shards of plastic on your land that little piece of rusty metal to throw in the garbage, they NEVER pop apart, I hang everything from clothing and bedding to bird feeders and backyard chicken things and tools with them. When the fender on my bike broke, I fixed it with one of these. They’re indispensable at my house, both inside and out!

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/home/laundry/clothes-pegs/69724-lifetime-clothespins?item=ET134

I just found this thread and wanted to say thanks for posting it, and the detail of the rack design! I had purchased some perforated baking pans and cookie cooling racks this fall with plans for a solar dehydrator for this Summer- I just got into food dehydration and LOVE it but have been running my Nesco dehydrator pretty steady, and cringe at the electricity use especially when we have a woodstove that goes 24/7 all winter. I am going to try to find someone who could make me a rack like that to sit on top of my woodstove. One question- does your food get dusty? I find that our mantle behind the woostove gets super dusty and really quickly. We have a pretty small cast iron Jotul stove, so the firebox is too small for more than a single log- the constant opening of the door to add wood is definitely contributing to the dust. I wonder if covering the rack with something (cheesecloth? window screening?) might help BUT that also makes me nervous from a fire risk perspective. Maybe the food simply wont be there long enough for this to be an issue, or maybe I'll just assume that a bit of ash is just extra minerals

Hello! I'm really excited for this, and what great timing- I recently scored a used 23qt Presto, but haven't tried it yet. I was thinking of trying with just jars of water first, so as not to waste food if it doesn't work- I've read that some glass-top stoves have some sort of feedback/sensor that can make it hard to get the canner up to pressure, in which case I might need to get a separate burner. I might also need a new seal/gasket, the one that came with it looks fine but I know they do need to be replaced from time to time. I got a 3-part weight because I'm at sea level and read that this would save me from watching (or needing to trust) the gauge.

I'm most excited to learn how to can meats, so that I can feel more prepared with our food security without having to rely on the freezer and risk loss during power outages. Though once I get a handle on the process, I also like the idea of canning ready-to-eat soups and etc, as we try to avoid canned goods due to BPA/BPS/etc (but 3 kids + homeschooling + life is super busy and convenience is a blessing!)

Pearl Sutton wrote:Welcome to Permies Andrea!
Interesting idea.
My two cents is a cold basement under a tongue and groove floor will make for a serious cold spot in the house. If you are in a hot climate, that might be neat, if you are in a cold climate, you may not like it.

Oh yes- the ceiling above the cold room/kitchen floor would be highly insulated with a vapour barrier etc, just as external walls would be. We've done it up this way in our current home and it works great- the floor of the room above our current cold room isn't any different than other areas of the home (our current home has an unheated basement, that is otherwise used for laundry and storage, and is insulated R-24 but is quite cool. We use a wood stove on the main floor 90% of the time, and the oil furnace (which is in the basement and does have a duct in the basement too) only comes on if the fire goes out because we're away for the weekend). I do think  putting a sunken/underhouse cold room via trap door would potentially be a trade-off with some heat loss in an otherwise tight and efficient home, and could potentially impart some humidity considerations- it woudn't likely be perfect.

Hi folks,

I'm planning a small passive solar home, on a slab. The home is 24ft x 32ft. We're about to submit our plans to the drafter, but I'm REALLY wanting a cold room/cellar. I built one in the north east corner of the basement in our current home, and I LOVE IT (it stays 3-6'C in the winter, and about 10' in the summer- like a huge free walk-in cooler!). I do not want a basement in the new home for a lot of reasons, and although I know I can build a outdoor cold cellar, I would really, really prefer one with kitchen access for the convenience. I'm envisioning a trap door in the kitchen floor with a steep stair set (or like a ships ladder) down into the room below.

Is it possible (and by that, I mean relatively economically feasible) to dig an 8ft x 10ft or so hole, use forms and pour concrete for the walls, and then create and poor the rest of the slab? The "ceiling" of this sunken cold room would not need have slab above it (it is on the North side of the home, wont get direct sun so doesn't need the thermal mass) but rather just joists/framing to support a plywood or tongue and groove subfloor for the kitchen above.

Has anyone done something like this? Am I being optimistic in terms of the added cost of this cold room compared to the relatively affordable option of simple slab on grade/rubble trench? Or is this a reasonable goal to pursue further?

Thanks for any thoughts/insight/experience!