Willow Aelfwine

Rob Clinch wrote:I love the idea of a grey water system but I wonder what happens in winter in Canada? The reed bed would die down, water going outside would freeze and eventually back up the plumbing. What do others up North do? Is it simply a matter of only using the system in warm months? Do you bypass to a sewage system the rest of the year or have a large tank in the basement to save the grey water for warmer weather?

I’m very interested in adding a system but if I could only use it half the year I’m not sure if it’s worth it. I’d love to hear others solutions.

Also in Canada do we spell it gray water?🤪

Hi Rob...I see you are in NB. We live in NB as well and this is our fist winter living at the camp and working out the challenges of graywater in the winter. First off, we are hooked into the grid and have water from our well pumped to our kitchen sink (YAY). We have no hot water tank, so no hot water, only cold. But we have a stove to heat water....so no biggie. We humanure compost our waste, so no water usage there. No bath or shower or laundry...so the only graywater we have is from the kitchen sink. Sounds easy, eh? And it was until a month ago with that first arctic plunge and the graywater pipe FROM our kitchen sink froze. The previous owners ran the exit pipe under the camp, so the line is not buried. We banked the exit point with spruce boughs in hopes that it would be enough to keep the line open...but nope. So I wash in a bowl and toss the water. We want to re-do the kitchen sink drainage this coming summer and I am looking for cold weather drainage ideas with the idea of keeping it simple. The kicker in all this is that we live, basically, on rock. We live right beside an old quarry and there is very little topsoil on top of the rock underneath us....so burying any line of drainage line is going to be a challenge.

So, how are you doing so far this winter.....it's been colder than normal!!! Any ideas (from anyone!!) about draining water in arctic cold would be appreciated

rocket stove

oh...wait....knit raschel bags!!! In Ontario but still... http://www.nnz.ca/knitted-net-bags-raschel-6.html ....far better than burlap.

Well...you'd think that finding sandbags, empty sandbags, would be easy here is the wet, sometimes flooding, Maritimes...right? Nope. The best that I can find locally is burlap at the Coop in Sussex, NB.

So my question is as follows: Anyone done a successful sandbag home using burlap?

Thanks

Willow

Totally interested in any earthbag home building workshop. I'm in Keirsteadville, NB (about 40 minutes north of Saint John).

Any large tree roots under your cob house will damage and/or destroy your foundation and your foundation is the one of the most important elements of a cob house (the other being the roof....good boots and a good hat make for a happy house). It's best to take out the trees first.

A good source of info is:
Becky Bee... http://www.weblife.org/cob/pdf/cob_builders_handbook.pdf
The Cob Cottage... http://www.cobcottage.com/who (I've studied under Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley)

Dayton Coburn wrote:I live about 2.5 hours from there, what would you like to know?

Oh how plans do change in the blink of an eye!

My son-in-law just accepted a job in Rothesay, New Brunswick, so the family is moving to that neck of the woods. We have found a wee parcel of land and am awaiting the financial issues to be resolved (hopefully soon) and then, onward!

Should everything fall into place, I am wondering a few things about the general soil type of the Saint John area....gotta have good clay for the cobbing. I may not cob as much as I anticipated since I am tinkering with the idea of sand bag and papercrete to build my house (the kids will have the house that comes with the property but I am building my own). I want to sculpt inside and have a rocket stove for heating which I will make with cob. Of course, will still have to build a cob oven or 5 for the bread making But I've been reading lots about papercrete and am eager to give it a try.

I am also curious how open to alternative building ideas the building codes are in New Brunswick.

peter mukunda wrote:Personally, I'd try to broaden discussion to include politics, religion, etc, cuz everything relates to everything else, just like in Nature.

I've read what you've written and find myself agreeing to much of it...but in the end, I come here to learn as much as I can about permaculture. I save my political and religion discussion for other forums or my facebook.

That being said....Paul, you are doing one heck of a crazy job herding the cats

Thanks
Willow

*meow*

You might find closer mentors, buddies and/or neighbours in this section of the forum.... https://permies.com/forums/f-33/southern-usa

Cob is great for sustainable building but there are a few other techniques out there that have piqued my interest....one is superadobe (sandbag and barbed wire http://calearth.org/building-designs/what-is-superadobe.html ) and I'm going to give that a try this summer in our new place.