Winter is officially here. We had freezing rain all through the night, topped off with about 6 inches of snow this morning. Fortunately we did finish the plaster, complete our temporary roof, put in a couple of windows for light and boarded up the others, and stuffed grain bags full of grass underneath the roof for a bit of insulation from the driving winds. It may not be entirely warm inside (though we intend to fire up the wood burning stove some time soon to try it out) but it’ll be dry.
With colder weather here, we’ll switch our efforts to work inside of the structure as well as finishing plans for next year. It should be interesting, having enough time to plan… This year was kind of a “well, we have about 10 hours to get ‘er done before the rain hits again so let’s move” deal. Given that it’s also our first earthbag structure of this size, it made for some challenging days.
Topping our list of things to do inside the building are: place the rocket mass heater and make the necessary adjustments prior to making it a permanent structure, frame the greenhouse/sunspace, frame the kitchen cabinets, and figure out the plumbing layout. Bear in mind that our plan was to build a house for under $5,000. That goal is still intact- thanks to scavenging, reuse of on-hand materials, and a whole lotta ingenuity- but it definitely adds a degree of difficulty to the project. But the sense of accomplishment… whew! I’m of the mind that there’s nothing we can’t do. Really.
You two must have spines made of iron.
If I recall, each bag weighs 175 pounds?
Are you kidding me?
How in the hell do you even pick them up?
Next question; how do you support them enough to make an arched doorway? Nicely done, by the way.
And, making a domed roof out of them?!!
I also wonder what you will do for firewood out on the prairie.
-40?
Even the Polar Bears look for a warm spot.
I gotta give you an E for effort but I also think ya might be a bit “TOUCHED”, as my granny used to say.
Either way, good luck and God bless.
I have only recently found this place but I stop in to see what you have been up to. The Mass rocket stove is an excellent idea.
I’ll bookmark this place and stop by to see whether you have frozen to death or killed one another.
Like I said, good luck and God bless, you go where few have gone before.
For a reason.
D’oh! I answered my own question on the arches.
Read the rest of the posts, dummy!
Ah, you don’t pick them up- you fill them in place. And you pray like hell that you don’t have to try to move it once you drop it into place. You’re right- not a lot of firewood on the prairie. That’s why we like the rocket stoves and mass heaters- they take very little wood, much less than traditional wood stoves or worse- a fireplace. We have lots of branches from the shelter belts on the property and we collect old pallets and wood that people throw out. There’s quite a bit stock piled now, including a dozen or so telephone poles we’re not quite sure what to do with. I’m actually looking forward to being able to control our heat. Right now when we drop power, there’s no heat and not a thing we can do about it. And I’m not worried about us killing each other, unless the permaculture and hunting efforts fail altogether and we get REALLY hungry. Even then I’m not too worried- I usually have the bigger appetite so I’m guessing I’d be the one to survive. 🙂
Brandee
I love (!!!) seeing your progress. Can’t wait to see the next round of photos and completions. It’s only 50 something degrees F here and I’m running the space heater nearby. Feeling a little guilty…
Stay snug ‘n’ warm!
Hi Brandee,
I just recently found your blog and am really excited to see you guys doing this in Alberta… but I am wondering a few things. Are there building codes that you have to follow or do those only apply if you want to be on the grid? How far out from town are you guys doing this? Are you living in a trailer or something in the mean time? Did you buy some land outright or are you paying on it? Email me if you want. My husband and I want to do this kind of thing in SK in a couple of years, and are really happy to see someone pioneering!
Mary
Is it just the 2 of you building….is all your sand nearby….how long to build a meter sqaure and can we have a pic of your rocket stove….
Mary, I don’t think building codes are connected to whether you’re on or off grid but on your location. I could be wrong… We own our property and there is a (traditional) house on it, which is where we’re living while we build. We’re about 40 minutes from the closest “town”, which is really small.
Dino, Yes- it’s just been the 2 of us. The gravel reject that we use comes from a nearby pit. We lay between 20 and 25 bags a day, so I’d estimate that a meter squared would take about 3 hours. If you’re meaning the rocket mass heater that we’re building inside of the house, that hasn’t been built yet. We’ve been focused on the structure itself and are just now beginning work on the indoors. There is, however, an earlier blog of ours which shows a few examples of rocket stoves, water heater and a mass heater. https://canadiandirtbags.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/rocket-stoves-mass-heaters-a-pictorial/
Hey, I love reading your blog/website. We are from Alaska and built our cabin in absolutely horrific conditions. -20 during the day (winter hit early that year of course) We lived in our tent, insulated with old sleeping bags, with our camp tarped in. Our dogs slept under the covers to keep us and them (smart doggies) from freezing to death. I might suggest using Kerosene lanterns to raise the heat in your house, depending on how snug it is, it couldn’t hurt. We used candles (tealights…very dangerous, we did have one fire inside the tent) and on warmer nights (-20! lol.) it raised the temp. inside the tent to a balmy, and I mean balmy 0 (Farenheit). Nonetheless a signifigant rise in temp. Love the rocket mass heater! We are in Pennsylvania now but planning to homestead again soon…it was the happiest time of our lives! We have pictures of all of us wading through our usually flooded driveway watching the Salmon spawn! But we smiled a lot! later….
Wow! I admire your tenacity! We’ve been living in a traditional house on the property while we build so haven’t had to face near the same experience, just the occasional power outage… So, you’re staying in Pennsylvania now- is that where you’re planning to build? What’s the climate like there?