Building an Earthship in Darfield, BC

Photo gallery of a cob home being built

2010-03-11T21:36:00.000-08:00

Check out Gord and Ann Baird's Flickr slide show of the building of their cob home near Victoria, B.C. I was going to reference one of their insightful and thoughtful posts, but got sucked into the photos! Beautiful!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eco-sense/sets/72157600040396645/show/

CLUCK, CLUCK...Backyard chickens in the city!

2010-03-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

Our family has long (well for the last few years) been advocates of farm raised chickens. The health benefits of free range eggs and chickens are matched only by the satisfaction of knowing you've contributed to feeding yourself.

I'm delighted to say that backyard chickens are legal in....Vancouver! I see this morning that Calgary is trying to jump on the...farm wagon. Check out this CBC story, and if you are an urban dweller currently raising chickens (or want to), please share with us!

Humanure: An Exercise in Fecal Phobia or...Shit Happens

2010-03-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

So why is it that we can see other animals' fecal matter as a useful and desireable product (for goodness' sake, some of us even pay $6.99 for somebody to put it in a plastic bag, plaster graphics on it-MooPoo of all things!) but the thought of packaging up our own waste and putting it to good use, turns on the "gross" factor?
Conditioning is what's done it and it's mostly societal.

A sustainable house ideally should support itself. This means the traditional flushing toilets presents some problems, primarily that our shit has to go SOMEWHERE. The first solution to this in an earthship design was a blackwater wetland and this system is still being used successfully with Earthship construction. Essentially it's a catchment area that dealt with all of the nasty stuff in a way that was kind to the environment and did not require invasive septic systems that needed to be pumped occassionally, necessitating further transport of our...crap.

Then came the popular view of composting toilets, which are now used in many many federal parks in the US. We've all heard of composting toilets...visions of chunky toilets with a large tray underneath and a little fan come to mind. And earthship builders started to install these systems...

We had originally planned to use composting toilets. It did kind of irk us, though, that our toilets had to be hooked up to the septic system with an overflow pipe. I had to think this one through for a minute and figure out who the building authority (and by extension our national building code) really thought they were protecting...Would anyone, I thought, be stupid enough to use a composting toilet to the point where it would overflow? I mean, really, it's not like a person wouldn't have ample warning that it needed to be emptied!!!!

Regardless, this is just another of the weird rules in a world where common sense is a scarce commodity. And it's a weird world where we try to fit the natural order of things in a sustainable house into the constraints of an unsustainable building environment...I am constantly amazed, but as Dumbledore said to Harry, "We must not sink beneath our anguish, but soldier on!" Or something like that; I'm too lazy to look it up.

But I digress. Again.

So last summer the Canadian Family Robinson pulled in our yard with their 5th wheel. They had been giving themselves and their four children an amazing perspective on the world by travelling around North America for the better part of a year. If our friends and family think we are adventurous in our sustainable endeavors, Curt and Kim have embraced it without reservation. While Chris and I take time to really pick apart our decisions, Curt and Kim just seem to know when something is right.

They had retrofitted their 5th wheel with solar panels and a composting toilet...but not any kind of composting toilet; a humanure system. In a nutshell: a comfy toilet seat and lid on a wooden bench (closed in, of course) and a high tech waste receptacle below (5 gallon pail). Next to the toilet in a quite lovely wooden box, was a pile of fragrant pine shavings and a scoop. When I heard this (I never actually got a look at it last summer, but describe it here from our last visit with them), I must confess the "ick" factor kicked in when I was told how it all worked...

But I learned more. Monica and Nikki sent me some info on the Humanure Handbook (which you can read online for free here.) I used Robinson's humanure toilet when we visited them on their land near Duncan in November-they are still living in the 5th wheel while they are in the process of building a cob house. Later that same trip, we visited Ann and Gord Baird's cob home near Victoria and they have TWO of them. You know what? Nothing icky about it. Really. I got over myself.

And if you see pictures of the Baird's home, you will be stunned by how beautiful this sustainable house is. And it's all the more beautiful because of how it takes care of the waste in it.

It all makes sense. When the pail is comfortably full (but not too heavy), it gets emptied on to its own compost pile which runs at a whopping 120 degrees F. This kills anything iffy in the waste and allows it all to break down into what Chris terms "black gold". Then it can be used on gardens and in other growing areas. Hey, we're animals, it only makes sense to use our waste to our advantage. And the best part is that because a bucket does not have a pipe going in or out of it, it is not considered a plumbing fixture and does NOT have to be hooked up to the septic system. Cool. This has really given Chris and I something to think about.

So that's the poop on humanure. Check out the links and tell me what YOU think!

Progress on the house

2010-02-28T17:58:00.000-08:00

I have been busy this week investigating some possible work opportunities so Chris has been working a little on his own. But this weekend saw us get a fair bit done on the house. Most exciting, today (Sunday) we started plastering in our first pop cans (during the Canada/USA gold medal hockey game). I drove the kids to Dad's to watch it on TV and they gave us cell phone updates as the game progressed. Yay Canada!

But I digress. Here we go!

The bond beam form has been progressing...here is Chris bending re-bar for around the corners...

Here is what the inside of the forms looks like. It is pretty standard...much like any foundation footing; however, this will support our roof. We are using 2 runs of 10mm rebar. We made our own hangers from used lumber strapping.

As the forms were leveled gaps appeared between the wood and the tires (caused by the slight out of level of the top row of tires). We checked the top row last weekend with the transit and there was no more than 2 inches difference from the highest to lowest tire! Pretty good. However, we need to fill in the gaps we have so that when we pour concrete, it doesn't simply escape out of the bottom. When pouring a traditional footing this is pretty easy; just mash dirt up into the gap. However, when you are 8 feet in the air and the bottom of the "form" is a round tire, this becomes more problematic.

We debated about whether we would scab on old wood while we poured, but in the end we'd have to take it off and plaster in between the tires anyway. So we made the decision to plaster in the gaps on the top row right now, simply to be able to pour concrete (and hopefully not have to redo the work later).

The plaster mix is essentially a cob mixture made up of clay-soil (dirt), concrete-sand and fibre (usually chopped straw). We found and borrowed, from the library, three plaster books we'd previously read. The Earthship volumes are not heavy on detail about the plaster so we consulted mainly with The Natural Plaster Book: earth, lime and gypsum plasters for the natural home. It is excellent.

One of the most important things to do before using native materials in a plaster is to determine the levels of clay in it. Clay is essential in natural plasters as it works as a binding agent.

So we followed directions on how to determine the clay content. We filled a quart jar 1/3 full of the dirt we hoped to use as the clay-dirt. We then filled the jar to 2/3 full by adding water. Then we shook it. After 3 seconds the "gravel" settled out.

Chris marked this line and set the timer for 10 minutes. In the next 10 minutes the finer sand and silt settles. If the water is still quite cloudy, then you have clay in your soil. Wait even longer and you can determine how much clay.

This was taken after about 20 minutes. After the clay settled, we figured we had just under 25 percent. This is quite high so when we mix our plaster we will keep this in mind (especially for the finish coats where we will be avoiding cracks).

Most plasters call for chopped straw for the fibre content. The book we read mentioned sheep's wool as a good alternative! We still had two bags of wool left over from last year's 4-H shearing day. I read up on how to wash wool to get out all the lanolin.

Here are a few pictures of the wool during washing last night.

The house smelled a bit like the barn for a while!

Here we are pulling apart wool into strands so that it will evenly distribute through the plaster. Some of us are happier than others...

Today while the kids were watching the hockey game, Chris and I pulled a wheelbarrow each of clay-dirt and sand to the house next to the cement mixer. We added equal shovelfuls of both.

After we added enough water to make the mixture "soupy", we added about half a grocery bag of wool. This was a bit of an experiment as the directions gave amounts for straw, but not for wool.

After the wool is mixed in, the mixture was quite thick. Here's the first handful thrown into the space between tires and underneath the bond beam form.

And after the first can is mashed in...hey! it looks just like it does in the Garbage Warrior!!!!

Here's a few in a row...

This is only the first step. We need to let this layer dry, then wet the outside and do another layer with two more mashed pop cans. We will do these two steps for the top round of tires so we can pour cement, but eventually all of the tires have to be done. There are 762 tires in the building so far so that's a lot of plastering. Thankfully, it does go very quickly....

Being a radical environmentalist may be the most boring job in the world!

2010-02-24T11:56:00.000-08:00

Chris, who is much more well-read than I, mentioned this morning during an interview with North of 50 Magazine, that being an environmentalist, may well be the most boring job in the world. Apparently, the new movement, is to do nothing at all. By this I mean that some people have opted not to participate in a money society.

It reminded me of a story I JUST read in Permaculture Magazine out of the U.K. about Mark Boyle, who did just that. Here's a link to his story...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/mark-boyle-money

Chris and I have been quiet on the blog front recently. Last weekend we attended the Olympics and the kids hope to blog about our trip. In the meantime Chris and I have been talking a lot about the house schedule, future income generation and how we want to "spend" our "free" time. Lots to chew over, but not ready to share yet! :)

Eating out of the freezer/pantry...continued.

2010-02-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

After a month of eating out of the pantry/freezer we have finally started to see a noticeable difference in our stores…
Our chest freezer was full a month ago and is now about half empty. I went through it fairly methodically a few days ago to see what I had left:

1) 7 of our home grown chickens, various sizes (we started with 22 last May.

2) 15 packages of whole wheat English muffins (I buy these for $1 a pack at the Superstore, which puts them on sale every month or so). They are delicious in the morning with a poached fresh egg from our chickens. Very filling and packed with protein.

3) 3-4 pounds of carmelized tomatoes. I bought $40 in local Roma tomatoes last fall after a friend (D’Arcy Feller) showed me and a few other 4-H moms this really great recipe one evening when a 4-H meeting was held at his house. I don’t think I ever posted about it…I will have to do that. These tomatoes are scrumptious on fresh bread, sandwiches, etc. However, I still have a lot left!

4) 2 lbs of sundried tomatoes from our garden.

5) 6-10 package of beef stew meat.

6) 4 pork shoulder roasts

7) 2-3 packages of beef ribs

8) 2-3 pounds of frozen beans

9) 10 pounds of frozen pumpkin (Chris has faithfully frozen all pumpkins we’ve been given, but we never seem to use it; I need to find a pumpkin soup recipe)

10) 2 cans of orange juice

11) 3 chuck roasts

12) A family size serving of prepared stew.

13) 8-10 single servings of various leftovers, including macaroni beef, 18 bean soup (overflow from the inside freezer).

14) 7-8 pounds of frozen corn, bought locally from our friends, the Kempters, last fall. Yum. We will definitely use this up before next harvest!

I have been going through and using up pantry items as well, including flours, pastas and beans and various spices. In or canning shelves we are still making good use of homemade jam, applesauce, sweet pickles, salsa and apple juice.

I’m estimating that in the last month we’ve spent about $200 in groceries, mostly on fresh vegetables
and fruit.

I’m now looking for inspiration to effectively use up those items that remain in the freezer or pantry. We are not a roast family so I’ve been looking for ingenious ways to use up the meat. I’ve been cutting up the roast pork and making several meals worth of souvlaki (then making pork stock from bones; wonton soup is in my future!) We’ve been using the chuck roasts for stir fries but it’s a bit tough and Chris suggested we turn it into hamburger, which is a good idea. We eat approximately two chickens per month and each chicken gives us at least two main meals, plus several days of chicken soup.

I’m looking for a way to use the stew meat (not traditional stew, I’m getting sick of it). I’d also love a great way to use up the pumpkin, either in soup or in bread or muffins.

Why are we doing this? Well, firstly it’s incredibly satisfying to apply our frugal and environmentally aware principals to our dining table. I read a study once that showed that 20 percent of most household grocery purchases were wasted (veggies going rotten in the fridge, out of date food, etc.). I suspect it's a rare person indeed who never throws food out, regardless of whether they have a stocked pantry or freezer...
Our second reason is financial…we are trying to live frugally and mindfully and it feels very responsible to spend time making the most of what we have.

Doing this takes time and effort, something that most people feel they don’t have. I know when we were running the business full tilt there was NO way I would have been able to think about our food and how we make the most of it…

Even if you are busy, I would encourage you to look through your food storage areas and pick two items that have been there a while. Maybe a cut of meat or a type of pasta, or even frozen vegetables or fruit, that with a small amount of effort, could save you money and help make the best use of your food resources. You’d be surprised at how satisfying it is.

In the meantime, please pass along any suggestions for meals!

DIY (or with a friend) hair colour

2010-02-12T15:51:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday I headed over to Jody Schilling' house, a fellow frugalista who didn’t look too frightened when I asked her to paint my hair!

I arrived at 12:30 and our goal was to finish in two hours.

Here’s all the stuff I bought to bring back my aged locks to their former beauty.
Equipment:

1) Three plastic bowls and brushes (for the three colours I chose)
2) Developer #20
3) Three tubes of colour; Ion crème #7N,. 9N and 12N
4) A measuring cup
5) A bit of oil to prep the hair and colour
6) Foil squares (which we cut in half; they were pretty big)
7) My hair clips and hair cutting comb.
8) Rubber gloves

The directions on the colour indicated a time for each to be left on, with the lightest colour taking the longest. A logistical nightmare, actually. Anything I had heard or read about indicated that the developer that is added to the colour eventually “times” out, without having to worry about over colouring (or bleaching, since one of the colours I chose was a very light blond, for streaks). I decided not to worry too much about it. It would all come out in the wash…literally.

Jody and I have been going to the same hair salon for years now (Jody also colours her hair) so the method we were used to, was familiar to both of us.

Or so we thought. We divided my hair into three sections (two sides and the back) and Jody started by picking up about ¼” strip of my hair and weaving the comb through it, essentially leaving half behind. Once she had half in her hand we were a little perplexed as we realized we never paid attention to what Crysti did with the leftover. We knew some never made it into the foils.

Jody painted the hank of hair she had with the first colour (dark blonde) after setting the folded foil square snugly under the hank of hair and as close to the roots as possible. Jody isn’t the cursing kind, but very quickly she started to get frustrated as the foil kept slipping down as she painted. As this was an experiment and I didn’t want my new hair colorist to get frustrated, I assured her that she should just do the best she could.

After getting the foil back in place and flipping it upward out of the way, we decided that the hair that had been left behind when she weaved, should be flipped up out of the way, too. Then a clip attached so she could move on.

After an hour about a third of my head was done. Obviously practice is the key to speed! I wasn’t worried at all, still delighted that I had talked somebody into doing this for me!

Believe it or not trying to find a woman who would willingly risk another’s tresses is very difficult! There’s something sacrosanct about women’s hair…and yet, our hair stylists are just us with a lot of practice and education. The education part I wasn’t worried about…I figured I’d done my research. But the only way to get practice is to do it for the first time, once. After that, it’s all practice!

And, my hair has become awfully long and I figured if my research failed me then I’d go back to short hair again, separating myself emotionally from three years of growing it out…

Jody and I talked about the kids' school, her school (she’s finishing up an add-on year of her teaching degree to improve her salary over the long term). We yakked about family, neighbours (yakked, not gossiped!), the weird, warm winter we’re having. In the middle of my hair session Karen, Jody’s mother-in-law dropped by, as did Florence Beharrel, one of our neighbours who was out campaigning for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Florence is in her early 80s and until last March was our little community’s post mistress. Her husband, Howard, died a few months ago at the grand old age of 91.

So after three hours, we were done! I decided to let the last application have its 25 minutes to develop and sat and entertained Jody’s oldest two sons who did double takes when they arrived inside from getting off the bus. I guess the boys don’t often go with Jody to the hair salon…

When we started pulling off foils to shampoo out the gunk, the stench was unbelievable! It started to make my eyes water. It was weird because the whole time Jody was applying the colour, there was no smell at all! I had been hoping the chemical impact of this experiment was going to be minimal...

I combed out my hair and it looked great, even wet. I think Jody is a bit of a perfectionist, because she immediately noticed a small (and I mean, small) patch of grey right at my part line that she’d missed. She said I should probably fix it at some point, but I think I’m going to keep it. Sort of like when a historical building is renovated, the city sometimes puts a fancy chain around some of the old crumbling bits so that people can be reminded of what it used to look like…

I dried my hair at home to let Jody get on with her dinner and when I dried it…..it looked FABULOUS! It was amazing. I can’t express how pleased I am with it. Jody is the bomb.

The light on this picture is a bit funny...it actually doesn't look patchy...

Chris and I met her later that same night for a meeting and we admired the job she did. I confess I was so pleased I tried to convince her to try cutting my hair, too.

But she wasn’t having any of THAT. Yet.

So after months of pondering the question of whether a person can produce salon results in their own home I am pleased to say without reservation that it can be done!

Total cost of materials and colour: $60. The tubes of colour were about $7 and I still have two tubes that are half filled (the highlight colours). Each colouring job should cost me about $14 now that I have the equipment. It used to cost about $85 each time.
Now I need suggestions for my next DIY challenge…

Bond Beam Continued

2010-02-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

We are making excellent progress on the bond beam. Despite the constant rain today Chris and I placed all the log for a entire U. We are now into the fourth of five total. With the cancellaton of ski lessons tomorrow (wow, the rain sure does a number on the trails!) we hope to have another U completed. The weather has stayed above zero degrees Celsius for the last 4 or 5 days and will continue to do so until Tuesday when the overnight temperatures drop below. For us, it means we have until then to finish excavating the tires without potential freeze ups again. We thought about digging all of them at once, but until the forms are placed, it's kind of like shooting in the dark.

Things we've learned: The handy protractor tool that we own is actually idiot-proof. As long as the idiots learn to use it. It's set up so you don't have to think; unfortunately Chris and I think too much. We were using the tool and dredging up our grade 11 math while looking at the degrees we'd already cut and subtracting from 90 and 45 and trying to remember what the angles of geometric shapes add up to. I was well in Pythagorean theorem before we realized that the tool does the thinking (and no, we are not tools!). Chris finally wrested the protractor from me and decided how we should really be using it and since then our angles have been error-free.

Here is what the bond beam form looks like to date...just a few more pieces and we will be ready to tinker with rebar and spacers...if the weather stays warm, we should pour the cement before March!

Fellow Earthshippers

2010-01-31T21:48:00.001-08:00

Check out this link about a couple in Ontario who are also building an earthship. They obtained their building permit in September 2009. Their photos are under "Breaking Ground".

http://www.windchasers.ca/

Coming Soon: New Blog and Webstore!

2010-01-31T15:34:00.000-08:00

Chris and I have been working together with a friend to redesign the look of our blog and add a webstore! The new site will have a brand new address and a bright, fresh look. We'll keep this address so that when we go to the new one in a few weeks (?) we can redirect from here.

The webstore will initially feature stainless steel tifiin carriers and composting worms. With a bit of organization I may be selling homemade tiffin carrier bags and other useful fabric products in the short-term. In the long-term we will add other products that support an environmentally aware lifestyle.

DIY Hair Colouring

2010-01-30T12:42:00.001-08:00

Last Tuesday when I was in Kamloops I stopped by Sally Beauty and picked up everything I need to colour my own hair. I've been talking about doing this for some time, especially since my DIY eye brow waxing has been so successful.
I stopped at Chatters first (it was closer to one of my other errands) but they don't sell hair colouring products, presumeably because there is a salon attached to the store...
The lady at Sally Beauty spent quite a bit of time with me explaining what I needed and how the process worked. I chose the two colours that were closest to what my hair colour is now, which actually mimics the colour of my hair BEFORE the grey set in. We were getting confused about the highlight colour (a blonde) because the saleslady kept talking about it being a two part process and I don't think Crystie (the lady who, before now, has been doing my hair) has ever messed around with the blonde colour any differently. I'm goning to read the packages I've got and perhaps get the blonde colour next time I'm in.
I've enlisted a friend to help me (it's that or get Chris to do it!) and although I think she is worried about wrecking my hair, I'm pretty optimistic it will go well. And, in the end, it's just hair!

To get all the equipment, foils, and the two colours, cost me $51 taxes in. I figure there's 4-5 applications in the tubes, so as long as I don't have to creep back to Crystie for repair work, it should be a great savings.

Re: Udated Expenses

2010-01-29T09:49:00.000-08:00

Whoops! I wasn't thinking. The next expense is the concrete for the bond beam. We will either pour it ourselves (4-5 cubic yards) or have a truck come.

If we pour it ourselves, then we have the cost of the portland cement (about $13 per bag). Presumeably if we pour ourselves then we feel we have enough clean gravel/sand on site to do so (and enough friends with cement mixers!) Each yard of cement takes about 6 bags of portland cement. So we would need roughly 30 bags at $13 for $390. The question is whether we have good soil on site in sufficient quantity to undertake the pour.

If we decide to bring a truck in we have figured out that it would cost us in the neighbourhood of $800+. AND if we brought a truck in, could we unload cement on the far side of the building (the slope of the back wall is such that a truck would have to park way below the level of the bond beam). We would have to factor in gravity, or lack of it, in this case). Another factor in a decision to bring in a truck is to build the forms for the post pads in the house. Any extra concrete we've paid for needs a home...

Our next step in making this decision is to grab a pail of gravel from the best part of the pit and give it a wash to see what kind of organic material is in it.

Updated Expenses

2010-01-27T21:55:00.000-08:00

I've had a few requests to update our expenses. No update, because we haven't paid out any money since the Fall. Granted, we haven't really worked on the house until just recently, but I'm not anticipating any expenses until we get to the roof tin/rollon/living roof, etc.

We hope to take the very worst of our low grade lumber (which is a VERY hard sell) and try to recover 2x6 from it for the decking. If we can't then that will be our next expense, as we will have to buy the rough material. We are using old and recycled materials for the time being, and leftover materials from projects at our previous property...

Isn't that great?

Bond Beam started! Grade 11 math required!

2010-01-27T20:21:00.000-08:00

Over the last several days, Chris and I have been working on the bond beam. The bond beam needs to be continuous (without joins) along the top of the tire walls. All the weight of the roof will be resting on the bond beam.

Traditionally, earthship bond beams are constructed by making an 8” high wall of mortar and pop cans on each side of the tires (with 8” of space in between for the concrete bond beam). The inside of every second tire will be scooped out (about a gallon’s worth) and the bond beam will fill these holes, securing the tires to the bond beam. The bond beam also serves to fix all the interior walls in place in readiness for the roof beams.

That’s the theory.

We have enough pop cans to do the bond beam in this manner but it would leave us without many to continue on with building planter walls and interior walls ( which use the same method as the side forms of the bond beam).

We have wood. In fact, we have a lot of off-grade machined house logs that we have decided to use. The logs are mostly off grade because of skip on the round face, some wane (missing wood) and too many pin holes to have made the premium house grade of logs we used to sell.

Here’s a photo of the first few pieces in place on the ousdie wall of the kids’ room.

Once we needed to turn the corner, we had to measure the angle. We have this handy protractor tool for the job!

After measuring, we took the log up to the truss saw (cuts angles). Here's Chris setting the angle...

We took the log back to the building site only to discover our grade 11 math had failed us! We figured it out right away and redid the piece.

First we check the angle on a test piece before cutting our log.

Here's Chris putting the angle cut on our bond beam "form".

Screwing it to the adjoining piece...

Here's what it looks like so far. Now we have to excavate every second tire...which is difficult now that it is cold again. We tried. I think we will install the outside log and pin them together and wait for some above zero weather to excavate the tires. Worse case scenario if it stays too cold? Start working on the 12" round log beams. They will look beautiful throughout the house!

Overlander Ski Marathon

2010-01-24T21:47:00.000-08:00

Today was the annual Overlander Ski Marathon. It's one of the races we target each year for our kids and the club kids to participate in. It's a smaller, local race (held at Stake Lake near Kamloops) that is not part of an organized race series for the kids. However, it's attached to an adult Loppet series taking part at the same time.

Each year we take approximately 10-13 skiers plus a few coach racers and a good handful of parents. This year would have been a big year for the Barriere Outdoor Club (the North Thompson Recreation Society) except that kids were toppling like dominoes to various bugs...Katie and Helen were unable to race (Chris stayed home and further reduced our coach racer numbers). Levi Kempter (6) had an unfortunate bout of projectile vomiting last night and Lauren Tremblay (9) underwent surgery a few weeks ago and presented herself as an animated spectator who will soon be back on the race course! Jacob Peterson was also feeling under the weather! The Smiths were spending a downhill ski weekend at Sun Peaks (gone to the dark side!)

Despite our diminshed numbers the kids were awesome! Several skiers moved up into new age categories, making them the youngest skiers again in their divisions. And they still posted fabulous times! Others became the oldest in their age categories and walked away with placings.

Building a cross country ski racing team became a given several years ago when many of our club skiers were graduating from the “Jackrabbit” program. It was either implement the “Track Attack” program (racing), or send kids on their way at 10 or 11 years with no club program to keep them interested in the sport.

After two years and much training by Chris and me (to a Learn To Train Level) and the upgrading of skills by several other coaches (all graciously funded by our parent organization, The North Thompson Recreation Society) the coaches pulled together a complete ski lesson program under the new provincial standard, the SDP, including a racing component, which Chris and I have been building up ever since.

I am thrilled to say that with a great group of wonderful kids and their parents, we have nudged our way onto the racing scene, with our first BC Cup on the January 9/10 weekend in Kelowna, BC. It, like today, was FABULOUS. Loudspeakers, concessions, starting guns or gates, cow bells, race bibs, hot chocolate, and lots and lots of really good racers!

I was very impressed by the club skiers who waited so patiently for me to cross the finish line today and who cheered me on. To me this is the essence of a racing team. Racing is competition (a good thing) but it’s also patience, learning, goofiness, respect, and the ability to win and lose graciously. In another post, I’ll post some goofy pictures of an informal ski day we spent at Sun Peaks (with no snow at our own trails we went…higher to find some).

For now, in no particular order, some pictures from today’s race. Way to go everyone!

O.K., Blogger put my picture first! I placed last again in my age divison (10k-women 40-49). The last time I raced was two years ago. LAST year I had gained just a bit too much weight to feel able to do a good race, so by this year I had dropped 20 pounds and decided I was back in. I believe that if I am teaching kids to race, than I need to practice what I preach! As such, I know how to teach losing graciously! Personal goals are what matter to me and this year I shaved off a few minutes and finished the race still able to walk!

Wood Gasification and an Earthship

2010-01-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

The on-line magazine Low-Tech Magazine has a great introductory article about wood fired cars.

Quoting from the above-linked article, ... Dutch John strongly believes in wood gas generators, mainly for stationary uses such as heating, electricity generation or even the production of plastics. The Volvo is meant to demonstrate the possibilities of the technology. "Park an Italian sports car next to a wood gas car and the crowd gathers around the woodmobile. Nevertheless, wood gas cars are only for idealists and for times of crisis.

I am convinced that using wood as a heating source and potentially an energy source makes a lot of sense where I live. The forest products industry in British Columbia is huge, and we do not effectively utilize the waste wood from this industry (it is often completely wasted).

There is significant potential energy generation lost from all of that waste wood. Most proposals and projects that attempt to harness this potential energy are large-scale and designed to fit with our existing centralized power generation and distribution grid. I (as I suspect are most people building earthships) am interested in a small-scale energy system that powers my needs and possibly the neighbor's.

There are now some excellent prototypes for wood gasification available, including free plans! The typical route when considering independent energy generation typically starts with solar power. I think we also need to be thinking about other locally appropriate, low-technology solutions.

I love this stuff!

The Bond Beam

2010-01-20T20:21:00.000-08:00

Given the warm weather we have had lately (all our snow is gone and it has consistently been above 0 degrees celcius), we are planning the next stage of our building project. If the weather stays warm we hope to start building again too!

The main tire wall was finished last fall. The next step is placing a bond beam on top of this wall. This beam ties the walls and roof of the building together and increases the stability of the walls.
We have decided to pour a concrete bond beam as detailed in Volume III of the Eartship books, as opposed to using the laminated 2x12 bond beam described in volume I. We chose this route as we would prefer to minimize any wood that ultimately might be back filled. Also, the sad reality is that I am trained as an engineer; both solutions seem adequate, but concrete just leaves me feeling that much better about the situation. This decision does mean more time and cost.

The Bond Beam
Our bond beam will be 8" wide by 8" high with two continuous runs of 1/2" rebar. The beam will be anchored to the tire wall by; excavating every second tire, and driving a 3' length of 1/2" rebar into each excavation such that approximately 6" of rebar remains above the top of the tire and will be buried in the concrete poured for the beam.

The perimeter of the back tire wall of the earthship is (I simply took this from the plans):

12' + 08' + 12' + 16' + 28' + 11' + 15'+ 11' + 11' + 12' + 28' (7x4') + 18' = 182'
So, our bond beam will have an approximate length of 182'.

Figuring out the concrete required for this bond beam:

concrete in beam = 2/3' x 2/3' x 182' = 81 cubic feet = 3 cubic yards

This does not allow for the holes excavated in the tops of the tire or variations in tire heights that mean more concrete is used. So ... rough estimate of 4 cubic yards.

I figure on the following materials for the bond beam:

24 bags portland cement (4 cubic yards of concrete)
engineered fibres (how much?)
550 lineal feet 1/2" rebar (2 runs x 182' + 40 tires x 3' + min. 18" lapping = 550 ?)
hay wire (to wire the lapped rebar)
embedded fasteners in the concrete to secure the beams (not sure what these are yet)

The Bond Beam Form
A form needs to be built to hold the concrete after it is poured, until it sets up. I figure I have two options here...
Option 1: A Pop Can and Concrete Form for the Bond Beam
As outlined in Volume III many earthship builders use a pop can and concrete form instead of wood. This is done primarily (I believe) to reduce the amount of wood used in the project.
Some rough calculations ...

A pop can is basically 5" long x 2.5" in diameter.
This means each can has a volume of 3.14 x (2.5/2)^2 x 5" = 24.54 cubic inches = 0.0142 cubic ft.
A lineal foot of can wall will use at a minimum 3 cans in each horizontal course (total of 9 cans for 1 sqft of wall).
A lineal foot of the bond beam form wall will use a total of 6 cans as it is only 8" high. Ignoring these 6 cans, a lineal foot of the form wall needs 5" x 8" x12" = 480 cubic inches of concrete. Subtracting the volume of the tin cans this works out to 332.76 cubic inches of concrete or 0.00713 cubic yards of concrete per running foot of can wall for the bond beam form

So, for our 182' bond beam the form would need the following materials:

volume of concrete = 2 x 182' x 0.00713 cu.yards/' = 2.6 cubic yards
number of cans = 2 x 182' x 6 cans/' = 2184 cans
fasteners to hold rebar in place during the pour

I am guessing we have accumulated enough cans to form this beam but I will not have many left over for other walls in the building. Also, there is a material cost in portland cement to mix the concrete form.

Option 2: A Lumber Form for the Bond Beam: My rough numbers
Assuming I use lumber for my forms, I need the following materials:

fasteners to hold the two sides of the form together while concrete is poured,
fasteners to hold rebar in place during the pour,
lumber fasteners for the lumber,
lumber for the forms

Decisions
I believe I have gathered enough pop cans to consider the first option for forming the beam. However, I would probably use all the pop cans I have accumulated to date, and be left looking for more later on.

I actually have access to low grade lumber suitable for forming the beam. It makes more sense to me to use lumber for this form; the material is available to me, and I think it will be easier to finish around the roof beams down the road. The simple reality is that if I do not use the lumber for this job, it will need to be re-worked for some other use.

Using lumber will probably not save me much money, as I will require fasteners for the form which I currently do not have. I do hope that this decision will save us time and labour.

Earthship Guest Book

2010-01-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

Here is the lovely, handmade guest book that Dad and Gail made for us for Christmas. Dad selected beetle killed pine (hence the blue stain) from his basement and he and Gail crafted the wooden guest book container. It was a thoughtful gift, using materials they already had on hand. Although, Gail did admit the most expensive part was the engraving. So I'm apologizing now for not calling our home the "hut"!

Nobody's signed it yet, but we are saving the first four lines for the Fab Four: Anna & Sean, James and Josh.

Can we do it? Yes we can!

2010-01-18T22:36:00.000-08:00

O.K. so a hokey rip off of Bob the Builder. But Bob's on our side (having built an earthship on his show; sadly only in the U.K so we can't get it here). I figure Bob wouldn't mind me ripping off his chant as the introduction to our can collection post.

Earthships use pop (beer) cans as part of the building process. Cans are pressed into a form of cement for interior walls and planter walls to limit the amount of concrete used in the building.

Last year we did a rough estimate of how many cans we would need. We arrived at 10,000.

We don't drink pop and we don't drink much beer. Thankfully, many volunteers, friends and family have been regularly donating cans and we figure we now have, perhaps 2,500.

A week ago Chris and I walked to our mail box. We walked there the back way but came home along the highway, bringing back with us, about 10 cans (a 200m stretch).

The following day Chris went on his own for a walk down the highway but took a grocery bag with him. He walked 2km on one side of the highway and 2 km back along the opposite side. He got honked at, too, by our friend Dave Tremblay, who must have thought we were running out of money!

Here's Chris' haul from that walk.

The next day we drove the Upper Louis Creek Heffley road from Barriere to Sun Peaks (where we ski). After 6 km of the 30 km stretch of road, we finally started stopping. The kids thought we were cracked, but they soon got right into it (laughing and talking and spotting). Stephen and Chris would retrieve cans and the girls would laugh.

The 36 cans we picked up were all beer cans. This prompted a discussion in the car about why we weren't finding pop cans. The kids were interested to learn that even if you are a passenger, open alcohol is against the law. So the conclusion we came to is that the risk of being caught far outweighed the benefits of getting the 5 cent deposit back. Also Chris pointed out that lots of people travel that road after a day of skiing and the beverage of choice quite obviously neither Coke nor Pepsi! BTW it is overwhelmingly Bud Light!

The next day we found another 16 cans. Some we obviously missed the first time, but some were newly discarded. Chris then found some on the road to Dad and Gail's and on his last walk in the northern direction from our house, he found 110! Recently my brothers gave us big bags, too!

If anybody wants to contribute to our research, please peruse the back roads that you travel and commit to picking up cans. Then let us know what the beer of choice is in your neck of the woods. (And if you wanted to donate the cans to our building, it will guarantee a photo on this blog!)

Update on eyebrows

2010-01-18T22:02:00.000-08:00

Since embarking on a DIY (frugal) beauty program (starting with my eyebrows) I am happy to report that I am entirely satisfied with how I have eventually fine tuned my technique. My latest hair removal session was done in five minutes, with the use of the regular magnification of the mirror WHILE carrying on a conversation with Helen and Stephen about Heritage Fair. And as any Barriere Elementary School parent can attest...that can be very distracting!

Next? Hair colouring. I'm trying to find a product (salon sophisticated) that I can use (well, get a friend to use) to cover my grey. I do have somebody lined up to experiement on me but the product I'd like to use is not sold to non-hair dressers by the distributor. I'm sure I could find it somewhere else...well, I'm not sure, but my next mission is to see if I can find it somewhere else.

Anybody else have a favourite DIY hair colour system? Do share!

Home made birthday party loot bags

2010-01-17T21:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we held Helen's sleepover birthday party at Dad and Gail's house. We had been planning it for some time and five girls came with four of them sleeping over with Helen (and me).

I did not want to buy any more plastic loot bags (despite the fact that they were only a dollar for 10 at the dollar store). So Helen and I looked up a sewing pattern on the internet for easy-peasy patterned jewelry pouches Go to this link to see where we got our pattern.

We started with the protractor-type rotary cutter that I bought after Christmas with my 50% coupon at Michael's. I have circles I will be cutting regularly for a different pattern in the near future and I had been eyeing this tool for some time.

We used some fabric ends that Santa stuffed in Helen's stocking (I happen to know that Mrs. Clause picked these ends up for $1 at the Royal Inland Hospital Auxiliary Thrift store in Kamloops. :)

We cut two circles of contrasting fabric for a total of 16 circles (8 bags). We had LOTS of fabric left over.

Then I put them right side together and sewed a 1/4" seam around the circumference, leaving a few inches so that I could turn it right side out and sew up the opening. I used my quilter's foot for this as it is exactly 1/4" and has a guide. It made turning the circle very easy.

I nipped the circle a few times so that it would lay flat when I turned it right side out.

I ironed it flat...

And hand stitched it closed...

I made eight...

Once it was stitched closed I made another run of stitiching 1/4" from the edge (used the quilter's foot again). Then another on the inside of that one about 1/4" away. I had to use my regular sewing foot so I guessed for this.

Then I cut two small openings opposite each other through a single layer of fabric and put two strands of cord through. I had to read the online directions closely to figure this out.

This is what we ended up with. We filled them with a few high quality chocolates and that was that. Only pennies per bag and they are re-useable!

New laptop

2010-01-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

The Future Shop gift cards I traded for Avion points finally came in a few days ago. It's as well I had to wait a month for them; the laptop I wanted went down in price by $100. It was the last one in stock so they gave us an open box discount too. The gift cards ($550) covered all but the taxes.

I'm now spending quality time getting used to the keyboard which is a little different than the last Toshiba.

The Sears debacle...resolved

2010-01-12T16:36:00.000-08:00

Today I arrived at Sears Kamloops and explained my plight to a woman named Sherry (who was very nice). She gamely phoned the number I gave her and spoke to Eddie. Eddie then quizzed me as to my birthday, address and phone number. When he was satisfied that I was the person who could pay my account (I'm wondering why they wouldn't just let anybody pay it, if they were confused enough to do so!) he told me that Sherry could take my payment.

And we said goodbye.

Then Sherry and I looked at each other and asked at the same time, "How much do I (you) pay?" Arrghhh. Apparently she still couldn't tell me how much was owing; Eddie was supposed to tell me. After a fit of giggles, Sherry's supervisor showed up and suggested she simply call head office and ask for my balance (she said not to say anything about my saga).

After much time on hold with me resigned to being a resident of the Sears store, Sherry straightened up and motioned to me. Then she gave me the total, which I wrote down. Then paid.

I was a bit incredulous that this is what it might have taken all along but after telling Chris my story, he suggested that perhaps while Sherry was on hold, Eddie was "unlocking" my account so that Sears could access it. This made a lot of sense as I was told that only the collection agency could access it.

So thanks to Lauren, Eddie and Sherry my life in debt is over (I hope). I've made a note to check Equifax in a few months to make sure my credit rating is spanky again.

Reflections on our tire press

2010-01-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

We've been getting emailed questions about our tire press, so I thought I would attempt to recap our experiences with it.

As described in an earlier posting we built the press out of materials we had on hand. The press design is quite simple. The unit consists of:

a stubby hydraulic cylinder,
two rounded steel plates welded at either end of the cylinder,
a control valve to extend and retract the cylinder,
hydraulic hose plus fittings,
and a portable hydraulic pump that plugs into a standard 120 volt wall outlet.

The hydraulic cylinder is approximately 1' retracted length (including the attached steel plates) and extends out another 3-4" at full extension. The steel plates are 5/16" thick and were cut from steel pipe that was approximately 16 inches in diameter. The photo shows the initial plates that I used that came close to packing an entire tire in one pass. These plates were impractical ... it was too hard to place the packer in a tire, and it simply did not pack well. We settled on much smaller plates that were only about 6" wide.

As shown in the video (below this paragraph) the size of the packer is dictated by the inside diameter of the tires being filled. The packer is dropped into a previously hand packed tire that is still hollow in the middle. With the packer fully retracted, dirt is then shoveled into the tire so that when the packer cylinder is extended the new and existing dirt is packed into the tire. The packer is rotated and this process is repeated until the tire is sufficiently packed.

After the tire is sufficiently packed, the packer is removed. The tamper is then used to fill and compact the centre of the tire.
Our tamper was simply an old sprocket welded to a five foot length of steel pipe. The whole
unit weighs significantly more and has a much wider packing head (approximately 8" diameter) than a sledge hammer. It was very effective at packing the centre of the tires.
Many thanks to Mike Casey for building and lending this packer to us!

Tamping requires a person to straddle the tire and compact the dirt by pounding the tamper up and down while periodically adding dirt until the tire is filled and compacted.
Care needs to be taken to not stand on the edges of the tire being tamped initially, as you run the risk of reducing the compaction of the tire by collapsing the dirt in the rim. You also do no want to strike the side walls of the tire with the packer as this will also reduce the compaction of the tire.

Our packer was fairly small and portable. We mounted the hydraulic pump and electric motor combination on a wheel barrow so that it could be moved easily from tire to tire. We ran a 50' extension cord to an available electrical outlet. (We also ran the unit off of a 3500 watt gas generator during a power failure.) The hoses were long enough such that the packer could be used at the top of an eight foot wall with the packer at the base of the wall.
As the walls got higher the packer stayed inside the building, and we brought dirt to the tires from the outside of the building and backfilled as we went. This meant that moving the dirt was done at ground level and the operator of the packer stood on a ladder as the walls got higher. We had to extend the lever controlling the cylinder so that the person operating it could still extend and retract the ram.

I guess the important question is was it worth it? Was the packer effective? Did we save time, money or labour?

In terms of cost our packer was essentially free. I had all of the parts needed to make this unit, although I did cannibalize one piece of equipment that will have to be put back together. Also, I did all of the welding and assembly, and it went together surprisingly quickly. So, there was very little cost in building this unit. I suspect you could pay a few thousand dollars buying and scrounging the parts needed.

The packer proved to be very effective in packing the tires, it did a very consistent job of filling and compacting the rims of the tires. I can only compare the effectiveness of the packer to tires we filled with sledge hammers on our first tier and tires I have seen in finished buildings. Both methods seem equally effective at compacting dirt in a tire. One advantage of the packer is that it did not get tired, and loose oomph as the day went on. Quality control was critical regardless of the method used, and we were careful to consistently inspect finished tires.

We definitely saved a lot of hard labour using the packer. We were exhausted after a day of hand packing the tires. The hydraulic press eliminated the physically demanding effort of packing with the sledge hammer. The tamping was still done by hand (and generated lots of complaints) but was far easier than the alternative.

I also think that the packer saved us time. A crew of three was very efficient when filling tires; one to operate the packer, one to shovel dirt and one to tamp tires and supply dirt to the shoveler. I am estimating (guessing?) that we could easily have done half a row of tires a day (approximately 40) and finished the main tire wall in under a month with a dedicated crew of three to four people. It took us three months, we did not work steadily, and our crew of volunteers changed constantly. I suspect that either method can be very efficient. The bigger issue with either method is keeping people busy packing tires. A lot of time and effort goes into moving, supplying and preparing material (dirt, tires, water and cardboard). More than once we stopped working to scrounge tires, move dirt or cut cardboard!

Ultimately, at the end of the day using a hydraulic packer meant that the crew was as happy at the end of the day as at the beginning!

Waiting...

2010-01-10T22:55:00.000-08:00

I'm still working on Chris' computer while my new laptop acquisition gets lined up. This means that anybody who has been emailing to my personal email address will still have to be patient. Chris has not re-routed my email to his computer so it may seem that all queries have fallen into a cyber abyss. A few more weeks at most!