Mark Brunnr

I recently combined frozen cauliflower, frozen brussel sprouts, diced carrots, and cubed potatoes together and at 4 minutes on high pressure they came out great. Mine states a minimum of 3 cups water, and there was plenty of water left after cooking. But storing the extra servings with the water was a mistake, it was really mushy the following day. Next time I'll be adding chickpeas or lentils (or both) to the mix on the bottom, so they can soak up the water and result in firmer leftovers. Just used a generic combo spice mix I had and it worked well flavor-wise.

Mike Haasl wrote:
Hey Mark, if you have three years, why not cut the trees this coming winter (when the sap is down), peel them and get them off the ground to dry for a summer or two?  Then they'll be lighter and, I think, less likely to rot when put into the ground.

I also forgot about the option of girdling the trees I want to use, either the spring or fall prior to use so they'd get 6-12 months standing to dry out, without being on the ground or quite so obvious.

*****

Sorry Gerald no I don't, boulders that size are serious business, anything man-made downhill of something that size is toast if it rolls. It would be easier to build to the side and avoid it in my opinion, but I'm no geologist or engineer!

Kirsten Dirksen has many videos where a house is very small and low impact. I always wonder how many "so low of an impact the building codes don't allow them" houses there are too. For example the video below is certainly super low impact, and you could pretty much walk on the roof and not know it was there if it didn't have the walking path in the front. But as soon as the Department of Making You Sad finds out it's toast, so the cautious person isn't posting videos advertising it. I'm a fan of the green roof also providing shelter from the roving eye of Google Maps- used to be that Cob Cottage Company in Coquille Oregon was only visible due to the greenhouse, but now several of the newer buildings are missing that green roof and they stick out when you zoom in. I'm not sure what kind of vegetation I'll try growing on my future green roof, probably some combination of perennial groundcover and flowering plants for bee food, which doesn't require real deep roots. Tap roots and waterproof membranes don't mix! It's annoying to think that a person would have to "throw away" money to build the minimum permitted by code setup including concrete foundation and septic, and still have to hide "accessory buildings" from view to live in a space you enjoy without it costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.


Being Paul-tall myself, I don't see this being an option no matter the shape of my knees, but more power to him! I think an Oehler-Wofati house would be great, so long as you build where there's no codes to be turned in by the neighbors!

Handsome Stranger you say?


Back in the day I found the movie hilarious!

You can even increase the number of holes so that it's around 50% of the total surface, and then put porous fabric inside and fill that to encourage the air pruning. Usually the roots will increase and you end up with a really robust root system.

HeartWater farm in southern Utah has/had (not sure if they are still going) 2 greenhouses made from geodesic domes. They definitely worked well, they had vents which auto opened based on temps using a wax inside a cylinder, so no electronics to break but it was still automatic. One vent at the top where a whole panel would lift and I think a pair of panels at the base as well. I'm not sure how old they were when I visited but they were in good shape. I'm also not sure of the material used for the panels, it wasn't glass. If you are ever near Bryce Canyon their farm is maybe 30 minutes from there and they were looking for someone to take over the 20 acres since their kids weren't interested.

That’s a good idea for at least a year in advance. I live about 22 hours away going the speed limit though and it’s open property. I’m hesitant to do that and the next year find the logs were taken but maybe that’s highly unlikely. Lots of hunting in the area and a 350 acre lot adjoining mine owned by a lumber company though.

He mentions liking to dig but just a couple hours per day and it took quite some time for the original smaller space. I plan to rent a small excavator to dig out my area (less than 3 years till retirement!) as it’ll be say 500 square feet and 4 feet down in a pretty flat space is around 74 yards of soil to move, not including the additional patio. Full of stone from what I’ve found, so renting the tool for a week will let me dig all that out plus put a drain trench around it all for the PAHS umbrella.

In theory, I could also use the excavator to lift the logs as well, as they will be full of water in the spring and too heavy to move by hand, even after sitting a couple months after cutting. Or if I can drag them chained to a truck then I could lift on end using a block and tackle. Plenty of hard labor, so trading money for time or in this case overcoming physical demand that one person can’t handle.

At least with an Oehler design (unless I'm remembering wrong) and with a lot of earthen/cob floors, a plastic vapor barrier is put on the floor so radon would be rather limited. A wofati is built on/above grade so there's no accumulation. Being totally air tight for extended periods is pretty uncommon as well.

The bricks will absorb that radiant heat from the barrel, and could still get hot enough to slowly "cook" the wood in the wall, over time this makes the wood burn temp drop. Erica and Ernie's RMH Builder's Guide book suggests a piece of metal (I think) that stands off the wall by 2 inches (I think) so you get the insulation layer of air between metal and wall which can rise and keep the wall itself from being subjected to baking.