Ben Taylor

Sorry to be a bit of a necromancer. I've been noodling around with the idea of MSE walls. Maybe 2+ feet of mechanically stabilized earth with shoring on at least the interior. Maybe incorporate Mike Oehler's psp system. What you suggested strikes me as a scaled up version of my thoughts. A concern you were having was the potential danger of side-load from the dirt settling. I believe layering in some sort of fabric would contribute quite a lot to preventing excessive slumping. I hope to be back in my hometown next year to make a shed using this idea in order to test it.

charley price wrote:I would be careful with your use of this system.
The “mechanical stabilization” resolves   lateral sheer forces into vertical forces that don’t push the sand in your wall apart.
The earth surrounding your house has not been mechanically stabilized so it will push inward on your walls. Your walls will have very little resistance to this lateral force and will cave in.

Your correct, Charley. The idea bouncing around in my head has evolved into an above-ground structure with either very thick vertical walls filled with MSE and facades inside and out. Or MSE sloped up against the wall. Though, the sloped option seems to be a dubious prospect due to rain run-off perhaps damaging it over time. The enclosed wall seems more likely to stay dry and easier to be built to whatever code might apply.
If things go well, I'll be moving back home next year and will be able to build a shed using this idea as a proof of concept.
I suspect the wall would need to be probably two feet thick to provide notable insulation/thermal mass akin to an earth bag system. But that's based on an uneducated guess.

Joshua Bertram wrote: (I haven't read a book in over 30 years!)

Honestly, ever since I started listening to audiobooks 10 years ago, I have not read a book with my eyes either. Aside from "The $50 dollar and up underground house book" I found when cleaning a closet back at home.
Addressing the concern about the latitude given to those complex systems. It would certainly make sense for them to come with basic safety parameters baked in. But, that in and of itself is a sticky situation. It would have to come down to the regulations imposed upon the development and the moral concerns of those said developers. On the other hand, I could not abide the enslavement of a sapient mind simply as an assistant or companion. That would be awful.

Hugo Morvan wrote: Big monocultures kill the biidiversity.

Yes, indeed. It would certainly be foolish to perpetuate a monoculture. The local logging industry is already trying to ramp up production that way. But it would likely be beneficial to get a few fast growing pines to cool the area down a bit. Don't want the slower growing varieties to get struck down in infancy.  At least for the ones that can't handle it as seedlings.

Konstantinos Karoubas wrote:Hey Ben,
Good luck with your project.
No to conifers...but yes to everything else.
Start putting seeds down...as many as you can each day...now is the time.

Why no to conifers? The landscape here is dominated by them. Would the needles have a suppressive effect on the less aggressive leafy trees? I do know cedar tends to be mildly poisonous to other plants. In the mountains around here I see birch and whatnot scattered amongst the native pines. They generally do rather well where they get established. I like a well-placed ponderosa.

Michael Helmersson wrote:

Ben Taylor wrote:There's a very informative video here,

Thanks for posting that video. It opens up a new world of possibilities for me to accomplish things that I thought may not be possible.

No problem. I hope something interesting comes of it. I was thinking a good assessment of the possibilities is to make a tightly layered wall segment. See how thin of a facing you can get away with, since it's mostly there to prevent erosion. Though I'm not convinced it is worth doing before the surface.

Cute fluff balls.

Dude, you need to check out this fantastic novel trilogy by C. J. Cherryh, Cyteen. Featuring a powerful, long-lived woman raising a clone of herself in a manner that follows the developmental patterns of her own thoroughly recorded upbringing in an attempt to create a copy of herself. It more or less explores your thoughts on the potential of AI systems through another character without actually using computer algorithms. It's more like, how much of a person is what makes them who they are. Or how complex does a system need to be in order to be considered a person? I think you'd quite enjoy it.

But actually addressing your topic, it is already beginning. Though, the developing AI algorithms are sort of brute forcing the realism. It is not currently tenable to create sapient system. An intricately responsive "companion" is a different story. I am certain that if it is not already be developed, it will not be long. The moral implications in regards to the impact it may have on society may be dubious. But you can't deny the usefulness and neato-factor of a virtual assistant/friend that becomes more realistic and tailored the more you feed it info on yourself. Personally, I don't want anything to do with that sort of tech until the enormous processing power that that would certainly require could be reasonably hosted privately. That sort of training info far too intensely personal to be trusted to some profit or power-seeking organization. Even more so with far more notable people than my boring self.

I got sucked into this thread and feel like thus idea of a mostly hands-off food forest would be ideal for our property. Thirty years ago, before my parents bought the property in Boundary county ID, the land was clearcut. Ever since it's been dry every summer. That gets exacerbated by the extremely sandy ground we have. I would love to turn a majority of it into a moderately wild food forest. We already have a reliable plum tree and apple tree. Plus a developing cherry tree.

Would it be prudent to start by getting native conifer seedlings from the forest service? They could be scattered sparsely before planting seeds for fruiting bushes and trees. Then plant shade liking natives such as Oregon grape (which we have in the dark areas already) after a few years. Right now the area is dominated by grass.

These are some images of the land. Early spring and late summer.

Anne Miller wrote:If your Mom drops her price an investors possibly will grab the property to make a profit.

Eh. She wants to be choosy about who buys it. Make sure they'll be good neighbors