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Finally an update
I’ve been promising new pics for quite a few weeks, just been so busy.
Had a major snow storm before Xmas before I got the roof done. The walls washed out since half the building roof drains on this addition and the roof became a priority.
I had never worked with sheet metal before and tried to keep the cuts in the single digits. I don’t think I was successful and seemed to be bleeding constantly. So I hope I don’t have to do this again any time soon.
Fortunately I still have LOTS of fabric and I had the elastomeric. While it was VERY cold at night (low 20s), it was sunny during the day and actually got quite warm up there.
One time I was COLD inside and went up on the roof and I stretched out in the sun right next to the wall and it was like taking a warm bath. NICE!
In January it warmed up and I’m almost done with the mud coat. This pic is probably from mid Jan.
So that’s where I’ve been stuck for at least a week. Had a little rain, this time only very minor wall damage where the water hits the ground. Forgot to lean a board against the wall.
Since it’s been freezing, I haven’t been able to make bricks and it’s been too cold and windy to do mud work even in the afternoon.
You can see the black plastic bottle, I have several bottles that I fill in the evening so I have WARM water the next afternoon for mud. I found that the plastic only lasts a few weeks outside, have to ask neighbors to save up bottles for me.
Hopefully it’ll warm up again soon. I’ve had little tomato seedlings on the window sills for weeks. Thought the mice or chipmunks would eat them, but I suppose they don’t know they’re there. One time a bunch of tomato seedlings froze, but a few survived. I got tired of carrying them inside every night.
Today I planted some more green onion seeds. I’m ready for spring.
Sure hope I’ll get the last wall done soon. Still have to do a lot of work inside too. Mud coat and then put in the insulation. It’ll probably be summer then.
I bought “fresh” lime probably 6 weeks ago for the outside lime coat, right before we got all that bad weather.
Building update: getting there SLOWLY
I got both windows (commercial glass doors) installed.
The guy who sold the doors to me helped load them in my truck. They still had the metal frames and it took me a while to figure out how to remove the frame. Sliding them out of the truck was pretty easy, getting them to the addition was hard. Mostly pushing while trying not to lose balance.
I unloaded the first door and leaned it against a shelf. The next morning I found it on the ground, the wind had blown it over. I couldn’t believe that it didn’t break! Very strong glass. But it’s also amazing to see how it bends.
Getting the glass in the frame was the most difficult part and that blue plastic chair played a crucial role. That it didn’t break was a miracle. I leaned the glass against the window sill, then lifted it up and somehow got the chair under it. The hardest part was then lifting it up.
I still have to finish framing the 2nd window and I have to wash it. It seriously impairs my view from the kitchen.
And that post by the 2nd window got rid of the sag, it’s looking a lot better now.
The satellite dish has to go too, on a slow day I’ll take that off.
I’m actually almost to the top on the right side, over the window I’ll put double insulation and old OSB.
At the bottom is the drain in case of some flood inside. Wish I’d thought about putting it in the foundation.
I’ll add a 2nd coat of mud and then I’d like to try lime for the finish coat so it’s waterproof. I’d like to color the lime so it looks like the dirt, still have to research to see whether/how I can do that. Need to find my “natural plaster” book too.
I also forgot to add a pipe for the temporary washer drain. I’ll have a real sewer hookup, but until I know exactly what goes where, I’ll just use that blue water barrel outside and run the washer drain through the wall.
Since my longest drill bit was WAY too short to get through the wall, I finally used 2 ft. rebar. It felt like running a jackhammer, but did a wonderful job.
Amazingly, there are NO cracks from the drilling.
Here’s my wonderwasher. For some reason I had two, the other one just finally had the handle break. This one is a different model and isn’t going to last long.
I bought them when I was camping full-time and used them off and on when I didn’t have a washer to use, as right now. Washing jeans and towels is hard, so I’m hoping to have my washing machine hooked up again soon.
My brick making system.
The 10″ straight shovel fits perfect in the forms. I try to make 5 bricks every day and that’s a VERY full wheelbarrow. Usually I mix more mud for the 5th brick, since I need more to work on the wall anyway.
The next day I take the forms off, the following day I carefully lift the bricks up and move them out of the way so I have the space to make more bricks. After 3 to 4 days I can currently use them.
And that saw works great to score bricks to break them to size.
I was hoping to be done by Thanksgiving and that obviously won’t happen. It usually freezes Thanksgiving and the weather turns crappy. I may have to use OSB to temporarily close off that small west wall.
I wish I had another door to put there. Am considering ordering another double hung window. Really need the light for the plants and ventilation in summer.
And, I need some plexiglass for the roof. That’s expensive and I’ll have to check my notes on that.
So far I did everything myself except for the foundation, did that with my nephew. But now I really need help to push the wind generator up on TOP of the roof. I still have the wires going through the kitchen (former garage) to the batteries.
Hopefully I can get someone soon to spend a few hours MOVING heavy stuff around, got to prepare a list.
And I’ll need a backhoe for a few hours for some serious grading and dirt moving on the other side. Am going to have a little dry wash along the sides of my property and driveway instead of having the driveway wash out every time it rains.
But before I can get a backhoe over, I need to move all that heavy crap out of the way and move a bunch of old lumber and palettes.
FUN FUN!
I’d rather make bricks.
Tulsi (holy basil) can slow down aging?
The Morning Drink that Can Slow Down Your Aging Process
Research has shown that this drink, which is used more frequently than coffee in India, contains many antioxidants that can slow the aging process!
On that page are a news video and many interesting comments. Last summer, my basil was a complete failure. It didn’t grow well and had no aroma whatsoever. Lavender, mint, oregano and rosemary did ok.
There are so many varieties of basil, I’ll order some seeds for “holy” basil and see how that does next year.
Here’s a lot more info on Tulsi tea:
Mini nuclear plants — order now!
Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes
£13m shed-size reactors will be delivered by lorry
Other companies are known to be designing micro-reactors. Toshiba has been testing 200KW reactors measuring roughly six metres by two metres. Designed to fuel smaller numbers of homes for longer, they could power a single building for up to 40 years.
Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.
The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.
The US government has licensed the technology to Hyperion, a New Mexico-based company which said last week that it has taken its first firm orders and plans to start mass production within five years. ‘Our goal is to generate electricity for 10 cents a watt anywhere in the world,’ said John Deal, chief executive of Hyperion. ‘They will cost approximately $25m [£13m] each. For a community with 10,000 households, that is a very affordable $250 per home.’
Deal claims to have more than 100 firm orders, largely from the oil and electricity industries, but says the company is also targeting developing countries and isolated communities. ‘It’s leapfrog technology,’ he said.
The company plans to set up three factories to produce 4,000 plants between 2013 and 2023. ‘We already have a pipeline for 100 reactors, and we are taking our time to tool up to mass-produce this reactor.’
The first confirmed order came from TES, a Czech infrastructure company specialising in water plants and power plants. ‘They ordered six units and optioned a further 12. We are very sure of their capability to purchase,’ said Deal. The first one, he said, would be installed in Romania. ‘We now have a six-year waiting list. We are in talks with developers in the Cayman Islands, Panama and the Bahamas.’
The reactors, only a few metres in diameter, will be delivered on the back of a lorry to be buried underground. They must be refuelled every 7 to 10 years. Because the reactor is based on a 50-year-old design that has proved safe for students to use, few countries are expected to object to plants on their territory. An application to build the plants will be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission next year.
‘You could never have a Chernobyl-type event – there are no moving parts,’ said Deal. ‘You would need nation-state resources in order to enrich our uranium. Temperature-wise it’s too hot to handle. It would be like stealing a barbecue with your bare hands.’
Unbelievable.
Where’s the paragraph that explains what they’ll do with the nuclear waste?
Construction update
I’ve been so busy with all kinds of other stuff, gave up on getting done before winter. But then we had wonderful weather in October and it’s still sunny and warm during the day. So I’m hopeful again. Just have to get all the bricks made. Once it’s cold and cloudy, they’ll take forever to dry and I can only make 5 per day.
I can’t believe all that crap laying around. I haven’t used the dog house in 7 years. But I bet I need it as soon as I throw it away. Wish I knew someone who could use it. I should ask Butch, maybe he’d like it since he’s often outside at night in the cold.
You can see all the bricks I’ve made, at least two rows. I couldn’t use them yet since I just finished the roof today. And I noticed that the horno bricks were 10″ long, so I made a bunch of those little bricks. They’re perfect to finish up the wall next to the window.
Today I set the 2 x 12 for the first sliding glass door window. Decided to put it in horizontal. I won’t put bricks on top since they’re too heavy, so I’ll double up R-19 insulation. Hopefully I can get the glass this weekend. Am not quite sure yet how to frame it. Should have bought some 2 x 4s.
I’m happy to report that the door closes well. It was hard to install, since it was used and the frame was a bit warped. But for $20 it’s a good steel door. Can’t wait to paint it, I’ll definitely go for the Mexican look. Something bright and colorful.
The window opens and closes well! I’m very glad I didn’t break it during installation. I’ll have to move the ladder to finish the wall. Fortunately I’m almost done with the roof now, just have to get a few sheets OSB to double up since that’s the access to the solar panels and the cooler will be on the addition roof, and who knows what else. Want to get that wall finished ASAP, the interior of the window is wood I don’t want it to get wet.
And there’s Butch, lounging on the OSB while I didn’t get around to cut it for the roof.
Wish me luck getting the glass and installing it without breaking it … And with lots of luck, I’ll get done by Thanksgiving.
The only proven cause of breast cancer is radiation
I’m the oldest living woman in my bloodline and all women going back to WW2 died in their 40s or early 50s. My mother and her cousin died from breast cancer.
So I read the article below with great interest. I’ve previously heard that mammograms often cause cancer and my grandparents’ health deteriorated rapidly after a high voltage power line was routed directly over their cabin.
I’m a long way from being a health freak, but I rarely use my cell phone anymore, don’t have a cordless phone (worse than cell phones) and try to eat mostly organic food.
The Biggest Breast Cancer Risk Factor That No One Is Talking About
By Lucinda Marshall, AlterNet. Posted October 23, 2008.
While the media sound alarms about breast cancer’s links to lifestyle choices and genetics, a much more likely risk factor is going undiscussed.
During October, women are bombarded with media telling us what we can do to stop breast cancer. Article after article after television human interest segment informs us about personal risk factors such as smoking and being overweight (although 70 percent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have none of these factors) and about genetic risks (which only account for 10 percent of breast cancers.) We are bombarded with stories about the importance of getting mammograms and other tests. Then there are the survivor stories (usually about women much younger, whiter and cover-girl prettier than the average breast cancer survivor) that pull at our heartstrings. But there is very little mention of environmental factors such as auto exhaust, and chemicals like parabens and phthalates that we are exposed to every day.
The most deafening silence, however, is about radiation, which is a 100 percent known cause of cancer. We are exposed to radiation in a variety of ways, through X-rays, CT scans and mammograms, but also by living near a nuclear power plant or having been exposed to weaponry that uses depleted uranium.
Leuren Moret is geoscientist who has been working for a number of years to raise awareness about the dangers of radiation, an issue she became concerned about after hearing Native American women who live near areas where nuclear weapons have been tested talk about cancer and other health problems they are experiencing and by a visit to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan. In this interview, she talks about what we know about the relationship between radiation and breast cancer.
… [extensive interview worth reading]
Baking bread without an oven and staying warm
The horno is too big to fire up just for me and solar baking works only when the sun shines.
Since it got so cold all of sudden (32 degrees at 4 am last night), cooking is the most efficient way to stay warm at night. I don’t have an oven, just brought the bbq back in the kitchen. It has a burner and that’s what I’ve been using to cook for the last year since I moved into my unfinished house.
So I just searched the web for stove top baking and I found articles on flat bread and steaming bread in coffee cans inside a big pot.
I’ll have to try that. Have to find some coffee cans since I don’t buy coffee in cans.
I’m dying for some authentic German farmers’ bread and actually got the starter sourdough in the fridge, that’s working out pretty good. But it never looks or tastes like the German bread. Lately it got cloudy or so windy, my aliminum foil covered posterboard solar cooker wants to fly away. I’ll build a more permanent solar cooker once the addition is done on the south side.
In the meantime, I’ll try the flat bread:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/1980-01-01/Simple-Bread.aspx
I just built a large desk for the bedroom by the window with the view of the cliffs. But it’s cold at night, in the NE corner. I’m going to create a work area in the kitchen. It’s on the South side and surrounded by garage and living area. It’s a LOT warmer in here and since I use a notebook, I can easily move around. I put up a light with two LED bulbs and that’s perfect for computing.
This is pretty cool, a huge improvement since last winter, when the kitchen was part of the garage until I finally built a wall to at least make it a little warmer. And now “almost” all the living area is sheetrocked and insulated.
Finally back to making adobe bricks and building
It was one of those few PERFECT days today after wind, clouds and rain since Friday.
Blue sky with no cloud anywhere, a slight breeze, warm but not hot – absolutely PERFECT.
I finally started on the first wall for my little 5 x 24 addition that’s the test for my greenhouse addition. Unfortunately, I’m only 10 ft from the property line and I have a 5 ft setback.
I’ve been very happy with how well the horno held up since last year even without finish coat, so now it’s time to test my bricks in a building. Today I’ve used about half the bricks I made in spring for the first three rows.
It’s so cool to be out there and CREATE something out of the dirt on your property.
This is the South wall of my gargage/house and the primary purpose of this addition is to make it warmer in winter and cooler in summer and to function as a laundry room, storage and hopefully as a little greenhouse this winter. Got several grapefruit and lime trees to keep warm too.
Even though only half the addition is framed, I was finally able to get up on the roof. My nephew did all the solar work on the roof last summer. I had somehow hurt my leg and I was certain I would fall trying to get over the parapet.
Now I can just go up on the addition and it’s easy to do the next 4 feet. I raised the solar panels last week as the sun is quite low now and I finished the elastomeric roofing over the boards for the solar panels. You can see the rope I used to pull up buckets with tools and materials.
As you can see, my washer isn’t usable right now. I got out the “wonder washer” from my camping days a few weeks ago when I started framing and the washer turned into a table. Also, I haven’t finished the plumbing yet and my setup with the grey water drum isn’t working so well since I moved the drum out.
When my nephew was here in summer we built the block foundation and it’s a bit odd to have the bricks wider than the foundation. For the greenhouse, the top of the foundation will be 10″ like the bricks. I framed the addition to hold a solar water tank and the swamp cooler and the adobe bricks are just “fill” to retain heat.
I bought sliding glass doors from a neighbor last year and I already got a used entry door and have a leftover window from the house. To install the glass, I’ll definitely need help. I recently measured and the glass is 90″ high and I got 90.5″, a close fit.
Those will be partial bricks, since I ran out of breakage already.
The corn grew from bird food and I’m surprised the rabbits aren’t eating it. Maybe it’s GM corn, checked the bag but it didn’t say what was in it. It also isn’t producing any corn, but hummingbirds and some other small birds like it.
I just started to grade the area around the corn. 2 years ago I had a ditch dug for the ground wire and a lot of the dirt/rock washed down. This is the most efficient operation I’ve had going yet. Take the dirt that has to be moved anyway and make it into bricks 20 ft away. Very convenient.
I screen the dirt/rocks through 3/4″ hardware cloth and then screen the dirt again for the small rocks that I can throw right on the ground. They’re perfect to keep the shoes clean when it rains. The large rocks go down to the horno as fill and the bright white color of the caliche looks nice.
Been “mining” clay from the abundant caliche on my lot and I add it to the adobe mix. Did have to buy straw, but everything else is right here.
I’m sure glad I have many ladders. When you don’t have human help, ladders go a long way. I still have to frame the 2nd half of the addition, but it should go a lot faster now that I know what I’m doing. I hope.
And I hope we’ll have a few more perfect days like today before winter.
No health insurance? Get a basic test
This is not a paid advertisement, more of a reminder to myself. It also doesn’t have anything to do with alternative energy, but it’s related to being independent and proactive.
A few years ago a client told me about www.DirectLabs.com and since I didn’t have health insurance, I thought it might be a good idea to get checked out. I had no idea that you could just order your own tests and at a fairly reasonable price. Back then the basic test was only $69. Fortunately, I was ok, but it’s nice to see problem areas, which supplements one should take, etc.
Subsequently I got the Blue Cross / Blue Shields insurance with a $5k annual deductible. Started at $159 and 2 years later I was at $226. I just cancelled, got no money to blow. Wasted about $4k. SHOULD have gotten a couple of these tests instead and bought more solar panels.
Obviously, a test won’t cure cancer, but the idea is to detect deficiencies or excessive toxins BEFORE you have a major problem.
Next time I got some extra $$$, I’ll go for one of those Direct Labs tests again. Every health insurance should at least cover an annual basic test. But of course they don’t want that, the longer they don’t have to pay, the better.
