OK, so what is the point of having a blog if you never post to it? If I have any readers at all (which seems doubtful) then they undoubtedly are wondering the same thing.
So, just to wrap up all this discussion about land: I purchased 5.22 acres (referenced in my last blog post) in late March 2008. The surrounding woods are just stunningly beautiful. Big granite outcroppings and school bus sized boulders litter the woods. The slope of the land is generally South facing with screened views of the lake through the trees. Woods are a mix of Pine, Fir, Aspen and a few Tamarack.
County records showed that the neighbors had put in a 120 foot well that was getting better than 35 gallons per minute, so I was optimistic about getting a good well. Still, I had the property surveyed by IDEA, Inc. of Sagle, ID to verify that there would be water available. Norman's survey showed a couple good strong flows at about 180 feet of depth, noting that the water occurred in granite - so hydrofracturing the rock might be required to get good flow.
The piece that I bought had already passed the county health department "perc" test for a standard septic drain field. Of course, I'm not really planning on doing a septic system (see my posts on a composting toilet), but passing this test is the single requirement for starting construction on a dwelling in Bonner County. So, nice to already have this paperwork done!
Lastly, the location of this property was what really sold me. In total, it's only 6 miles from town! About 1.5 miles on private dirt road downhill to Hwy2 and then 4.5 miles directly into town. In addition, 4 miles along Hwy2 into town is paralleled by a paved bike path - a great commute route isolated from traffic!
In the fall, I contracted with Sweetwater Drilling to drill my well. The first 4 feet of drilling spat back rocks and dirt and went quickly. After that, the drill head hit a solid granite shelf and began slowly spewing concrete-grey rock tailings as the drill head progressed through the rock. A pile of tailings continued to accumulate as the hours passed. The drill operators would look optimistic when the grey sand coming out turned more black or more white. They explained that these color-changes indicated a change in the type of granite, which often coincides with a vein of water flowing through a crack.
We got some water at 180 feet, but not much. The flow test - using a gallon jug with a stopwatch to measure the amount of water forced out of the well by air rammed down the drill head in one minute - was showing less than a gallon per minute (1 GPM). So, we drilled deeper.
At 350 feet, we were getting closer to 2.5 GPM and the bill was getting larger as the hours ticked by! The drill rig was just about out of drill sections ("sticks") and I would have to consider whether to request another drill rig with the required materiel, or whether to "call it" and start having the drill head backed out of the ground.
At this point, Bill (the drill operator) paused and got real quiet. He asked the pump tech to go find him a properly-shaped Aspen or Alder branch. He then cleared the area of tools and shut down the diesel motors and various other compressors and pumps running the drill head. In the quiet, he grounded his leg on the well casing and focused. You could watch the branch bob up and down, up and down, as Bill focused. After about 3 minutes, the branch began to yaw side-to-side, then pause and change to up-down. Then, another minute or more of up-down passed and the branch then jumped into wild side-to-side motion. Bill stayed quiet and kept counting to himself. He kept counting to 460 and stopped, complaining that his hand and leg couldn't handle it anymore - he was getting fatigued and numb!
What did it mean? Evidently, Bill was doing a type of well-witch work that determines water depth. The branch showed water at 180 feet and then water again at 260-300 feet. After that, the rock was dry down to 460 feet when Bill gave up. We had drilled to 350 feet, and weren't likely to find water below that depth. The extra depth of my well would allow the well itself to store hundreds of gallons below the main veins of water flowing into the hole, creating a nice buffer in which to run the future well pump.
As Bill fired up the engines to begin extracting the drill head from the ground, a huge geyser of water shot out of the top of the well and pressure-cleaned the drill rig with a plume of water! Evidently, the well had been re-filling itself while the drill was stopped and had likely filled 150 feet of the column or more full of water. This water was displaced by the plunging drill head and shot right out the top!
In the end, I think I can live with 2.5 GPM and everybody tells me that I ought to expect a bit more water as the silt from drilling clears from the rock crevices and I get better flow.
Incredibly, this spring when the snow was mostly melted, water began pressure-flowing out of the bolted-on well casing cap! It seems that I will definitely have plenty of water - at plenty of pressure - during the spring and summer while the aquifer is under pressure! I'll have to consider storing this water in a cistern in the spring for firefighting and gardening.
I'll add some pictures to this post in a later update. That's it! You're all caught-up!
20080626
Renewed Search: Go West, Young Man.
After the Maker's Way deal fizzled out, winter began to settle in big time. As I noted in my post about my last visit around Thanksgiving, temps were dropping and snow flurries began for the first time that winter. In fact, my drive home from that visit was hampered by driving headwinds and occasional whiteout snow conditions.
These conditions turned into one of the biggest winters Bonner County has seen in some time. Numerous area homes and buildings collapsed due to snow loads. Area moose had a tough winter as they struggled to make their way through deep drifts and a record-setting 127 moose stumbled onto county roads, starving. Snow was so deep in December that a state of emergency was declared for the county as crews struggled to keep roads clear and many folks got a bit more intimate with "cabin fever", unable to leave their homes.
Suffice to say, not many new bare-land listings come on the market during a North Idaho winter. The listings that remain active are hard to assess and impossible to "perc" (for septic) this time of year. So, I continued to peruse the MLS listings via the CM Brewster website and occasionally sent an inquiry to Tom Renk to see what he might know about the listings in question.
I asked about an incredible value on a 10 acre parcel North of town that I learned was not wider than 100 feet at it's widest point and was a long narrow track with a railway down the center. That explains the price, eh!
I asked about another seemingly good deal on 12 acres a bit further up the road from the Maker's Way parcel I had tried to purchase and learned that the listing was held by a group of survivalists that may or may not have been likely to want me for a neighbor.
I asked and asked, but the pool was pretty small. Winter is slim pickings. I kept looking and waiting for the onset of spring.
In February, I drove back out to Sandpoint to enjoy a bit of a vacation with a purpose. I wanted to clear my head from work, enjoy some cold weather, sip some beers at Eichardts, meet with Tom at CM Brewster, and peek at a few semi-interesting listings that maybe had potential.
I took a different route into town, turning off I-90 at Spokane and following HWY-2 through Priest River and into town from the West. The scenery was, as always, absolutely stunning. I was also amazed to see a number of huge mill operations; at one mill there was an area which I'd estimate at over 20 acres in size covered with de-barked logs stacked almost 2 stories high. Got wood?
While in town, I started asking folks about any interesting places they might know of for sale. I got into a number of conversations with Doug, who bartends and serves at Eichardts. Notably, Doug has been working with his wife and friends building a house for his family built out of hybrid bricks - huge lightweight bricks cast of concrete and pulped wood fiber. He said:
As it happens, one of the listings I wanted to peek at was West of town up Carr Creek road. It was a Southebys listing for "Luxury Vacant Land" with great views marked at $55,000. The next morning, I drove out to see what the area was like.
These conditions turned into one of the biggest winters Bonner County has seen in some time. Numerous area homes and buildings collapsed due to snow loads. Area moose had a tough winter as they struggled to make their way through deep drifts and a record-setting 127 moose stumbled onto county roads, starving. Snow was so deep in December that a state of emergency was declared for the county as crews struggled to keep roads clear and many folks got a bit more intimate with "cabin fever", unable to leave their homes.
Suffice to say, not many new bare-land listings come on the market during a North Idaho winter. The listings that remain active are hard to assess and impossible to "perc" (for septic) this time of year. So, I continued to peruse the MLS listings via the CM Brewster website and occasionally sent an inquiry to Tom Renk to see what he might know about the listings in question.
I asked about an incredible value on a 10 acre parcel North of town that I learned was not wider than 100 feet at it's widest point and was a long narrow track with a railway down the center. That explains the price, eh!
I asked about another seemingly good deal on 12 acres a bit further up the road from the Maker's Way parcel I had tried to purchase and learned that the listing was held by a group of survivalists that may or may not have been likely to want me for a neighbor.
I asked and asked, but the pool was pretty small. Winter is slim pickings. I kept looking and waiting for the onset of spring.
In February, I drove back out to Sandpoint to enjoy a bit of a vacation with a purpose. I wanted to clear my head from work, enjoy some cold weather, sip some beers at Eichardts, meet with Tom at CM Brewster, and peek at a few semi-interesting listings that maybe had potential.
I took a different route into town, turning off I-90 at Spokane and following HWY-2 through Priest River and into town from the West. The scenery was, as always, absolutely stunning. I was also amazed to see a number of huge mill operations; at one mill there was an area which I'd estimate at over 20 acres in size covered with de-barked logs stacked almost 2 stories high. Got wood?
While in town, I started asking folks about any interesting places they might know of for sale. I got into a number of conversations with Doug, who bartends and serves at Eichardts. Notably, Doug has been working with his wife and friends building a house for his family built out of hybrid bricks - huge lightweight bricks cast of concrete and pulped wood fiber. He said:
Have you looked West of town? I know I've seen some realty signs on Carr Creek road for Widmer, or Windermere, or whatever... and it's a nice area. I keep seeing the signs 'cause that's where I'm building; we've got a spot up near the end of the road.
As it happens, one of the listings I wanted to peek at was West of town up Carr Creek road. It was a Southebys listing for "Luxury Vacant Land" with great views marked at $55,000. The next morning, I drove out to see what the area was like.
20080417
Learning About Buying Land
It's been awhile since I last posted anything, mostly just due to my busy schedule and general low-priority of "blogging". I'm sure you can relate...
Now that I'm back here, I had a bit of a chuckle about my posts regarding "my" new land on Maker's Way. To bring you up to speed; I was all set to close on this property. I had set contingencies - septic perc, site evaluation for well water, access to power, verified line of sight to satellite for internet - which were all met.
The property was situated with a clear line of sight to the Southern sky for internet access, Northern Lights had power less than 30 feet from the property edge, the soil drained at a proper rate for septic approval, satellite and local imaging verified that the property had a good access to water at about 175 feet of drilling depth.
So, what's the punchline, you ask?
In mid-2007 there were a handful of lawsuits regarding deeded-access insured by local title companies on simmilar parcels in Bonner County. These lawsuits put the title companies in a position where they were trying hard to limit their future liability. In the past, the title company I was working with had insured access to other parcels on the same private roadway (Maker's Way), but in the new paradigm they would not insure access as a part of my title insurance.
As the last guy on a private road, this put me in a position of potentially being blocked from accessing the land by any one of the owners whose property I would traverse between me and the county road. Awkward. I asked the seller to record deeded access or right-of-way with the neighboring owners and offered to extend the closing for as many months as this process might take. They declined. Either I could buy right now with no guarantee of access, or the deal was off.
As such, I decided to walk and see what else God might have in mind.
I thought about taking down my posts about the Maker's Way parcel. But instead, I think I'll leave them up as a part of the larger saga that will unfold as I keep looking and ultimately begin building.
Now that I'm back here, I had a bit of a chuckle about my posts regarding "my" new land on Maker's Way. To bring you up to speed; I was all set to close on this property. I had set contingencies - septic perc, site evaluation for well water, access to power, verified line of sight to satellite for internet - which were all met.
The property was situated with a clear line of sight to the Southern sky for internet access, Northern Lights had power less than 30 feet from the property edge, the soil drained at a proper rate for septic approval, satellite and local imaging verified that the property had a good access to water at about 175 feet of drilling depth.
So, what's the punchline, you ask?
In mid-2007 there were a handful of lawsuits regarding deeded-access insured by local title companies on simmilar parcels in Bonner County. These lawsuits put the title companies in a position where they were trying hard to limit their future liability. In the past, the title company I was working with had insured access to other parcels on the same private roadway (Maker's Way), but in the new paradigm they would not insure access as a part of my title insurance.
As the last guy on a private road, this put me in a position of potentially being blocked from accessing the land by any one of the owners whose property I would traverse between me and the county road. Awkward. I asked the seller to record deeded access or right-of-way with the neighboring owners and offered to extend the closing for as many months as this process might take. They declined. Either I could buy right now with no guarantee of access, or the deal was off.
As such, I decided to walk and see what else God might have in mind.
I thought about taking down my posts about the Maker's Way parcel. But instead, I think I'll leave them up as a part of the larger saga that will unfold as I keep looking and ultimately begin building.
20071209
Re-Visiting Makers Way
On Thanksgiving weekend, I piloted my trusty not-so-gutsy Toyota back to the Sandpoint area to take care of some property-purchase related details and generally hang-out and enjoy a vacation.
A partial recap of the trip will follow, but for you web-surfers you probably really just want pictures. The good news is that I got to spend a whole lot more time exploring the property and the weather was cold and co-operative. I got a pile of pictures that should give you a better idea what it actually looks like "out there". You can get a convenient peek at the slideshow below, or click here to see the full screen slide show with embedded comments and all.
A partial recap of the trip will follow, but for you web-surfers you probably really just want pictures. The good news is that I got to spend a whole lot more time exploring the property and the weather was cold and co-operative. I got a pile of pictures that should give you a better idea what it actually looks like "out there". You can get a convenient peek at the slideshow below, or click here to see the full screen slide show with embedded comments and all.
20071114
Finding My New Home
Rather than type a whole lot, I thought I'd share some video. If a picture is worth 1000 words, then these videos ought to be worth a fortune. Like, maybe a whole dollar.
The first video features commentary by me whilst driving down the initial paved section of Upper Pack River Road. Despite my misguided comments, anyone will note that if you take a left off Highway 95 (heading North), you will quite obviously be heading WEST. Just ignore me when I say I'm driving East. Basically, I would just like to show you the scenery. On clearer days, you can see Schweitzer in the distance to the left. But this was hardly a clear day...
This next short segment captures a quick shot of Pack River itself and features more UPR scenery after the pavement ends. From here, it's roughly 3 more miles to Maker's Way.
OK, so I really had no idea how to take video with my digital camera. I probably could have left the video feature on the whole way and everything would have been fine. But I had no idea how much footage my little memory stick would hold and I also didn't realize that the little gadget would keep on filming if I let go of the trigger button... So, I shot lots of little segments. This next clip starts in my new "neighborhood" as I drive the last 1/3 mile or so approaching Maker's Way.
And now (with a big smile pasted on my face), I'd like to show you my new driveway and the property itself!
As you've probably noted, the day was cloudy and rainy but not particularly dark. However, I learned an important photography lesson (at least as it relates to my camera): don't use flash in the rain. See, I took a bunch more pictures after stopping the videos but the auto-flash feature was on. The flash hit nearby raindrops and reflected back massive amounts of light, narrowing the auto-adjusting aperture. Thus, I have a bunch of pictures of what appears to be the forest at night with brightly illuminated raindrops. Ironically, the one picture that was enhanced by the flash was the following photo of deer scat near the seasonal creek ravine. Enjoy:
I took one other photo that turned out OK after hiking up past my property line (North) and into Boundary County. The Northern edge of my property follows the county line between Bonner and Boundary counties. This photo is taken facing South East from a logging road that roughly follows the Northern edge of my property. Nice views, eh?
The first video features commentary by me whilst driving down the initial paved section of Upper Pack River Road. Despite my misguided comments, anyone will note that if you take a left off Highway 95 (heading North), you will quite obviously be heading WEST. Just ignore me when I say I'm driving East. Basically, I would just like to show you the scenery. On clearer days, you can see Schweitzer in the distance to the left. But this was hardly a clear day...
This next short segment captures a quick shot of Pack River itself and features more UPR scenery after the pavement ends. From here, it's roughly 3 more miles to Maker's Way.
OK, so I really had no idea how to take video with my digital camera. I probably could have left the video feature on the whole way and everything would have been fine. But I had no idea how much footage my little memory stick would hold and I also didn't realize that the little gadget would keep on filming if I let go of the trigger button... So, I shot lots of little segments. This next clip starts in my new "neighborhood" as I drive the last 1/3 mile or so approaching Maker's Way.
And now (with a big smile pasted on my face), I'd like to show you my new driveway and the property itself!
As you've probably noted, the day was cloudy and rainy but not particularly dark. However, I learned an important photography lesson (at least as it relates to my camera): don't use flash in the rain. See, I took a bunch more pictures after stopping the videos but the auto-flash feature was on. The flash hit nearby raindrops and reflected back massive amounts of light, narrowing the auto-adjusting aperture. Thus, I have a bunch of pictures of what appears to be the forest at night with brightly illuminated raindrops. Ironically, the one picture that was enhanced by the flash was the following photo of deer scat near the seasonal creek ravine. Enjoy:
I took one other photo that turned out OK after hiking up past my property line (North) and into Boundary County. The Northern edge of my property follows the county line between Bonner and Boundary counties. This photo is taken facing South East from a logging road that roughly follows the Northern edge of my property. Nice views, eh?
20070926
Dreaming My New Home, cont.
A Green Roof. Green roofs and living roofs have taken on a bit of a buzz-word populism among televised home-improvement shows (HGTV) and the budding green-building movement overall. I'd like to draw a minor distinction between a couple "green roof" strategies that should help define what I mean by Green Roof.
Most commonly, green roofs used in commercial applications - like the roof of the new Ford factory - and green residential developments are lightweight applications using a very thin layer of soil and utilizing a manufactured drainage mat made of corrugated or dimpled plastic that provides a place for the little plants to take root. The plants must be extremely hardy and drought resistant (read: non-native) to survive the rooftop environment. These roofs provide runoff remediation (less hardscape in an urban environment), some minor passive cooling benefits to the building, return O2 to the air and are nearly maintenance free. In addition, the building roof support system need not be over-engineered or rebuilt because these thin mats are comparable in weight to more standard gravel over asphalt flat roofing materials.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are folks who build earth-bermed or underground homes. These buildings often have a soil depth of 20-24" on the roof and are blended into the surrounding landscape. That much soil presents a real professional-grade engineering challenge to support! When the soil gets wet and then it snows, think 500lbs per square foot live load. Pre-stressed concrete panels and beams or steel girders are really the only materials suitable for this application. Very expensive.
In my particular case; there are a couple things I'm trying to gain from the use of a green roof:
Insulation value. OK, so we can all agree that earth itself is not a great insulator. But it is a great thermal mass and tends to help damp out wild temperature variations even a few inches below the surface. However, to keep the house warm in the winter, a sufficient layer of insulation will need to exist between the home interior and the soil. Additionally, earth roofs retain snow cover. And snow IS a comparatively good insulator. Fluffy dry snow accounts for roughly R1 per inch. So, 18 inches of snow is an additional R18 on the roof when you need it most!
Passive cooling. Soil deep enough to retain some moisture in the summer months can act as a whole-house sized evaporative cooling system. Moderately deep soil also ought to be able to keep the attic area from overheating in the sun - imagine the cool you'd find 8" down in shaded soil on a summer day...
Aesthetic harmony. A soil covering will help keep a quiet house and (if properly built) should require absolutely no maintenance in my lifetime. Plus, it'd look really cool.
So, my ideal green roof is one with roughly 6-8" of soil supporting a growing matrix of native grasses, wildflowers and other shallow-root plants.
To support this considerable load will definitely take some planning. With responsible spans, I believe a roof substrate of 2x6 tongue-in-groove planking over frequent joists and girts ought to do the trick. On top of this plank surface will sit alternating layers of waterproofing membrane and closed-cell (doesn't absorb water) rigid insulation. Next, a gravel drainage layer allowing water leaving the soil to drain away to the edge of the home to daylight. Next a filtration layer of fiber matting to prevent the soil from homogenizing with the underlying gravel. Lastly, the actual soil layer on top of it all. In my minds eye, I picture all these materials retained on the rooftop using Trex-style decking as batten boards - this material is not prone to rot when in contact with the soil.
Most commonly, green roofs used in commercial applications - like the roof of the new Ford factory - and green residential developments are lightweight applications using a very thin layer of soil and utilizing a manufactured drainage mat made of corrugated or dimpled plastic that provides a place for the little plants to take root. The plants must be extremely hardy and drought resistant (read: non-native) to survive the rooftop environment. These roofs provide runoff remediation (less hardscape in an urban environment), some minor passive cooling benefits to the building, return O2 to the air and are nearly maintenance free. In addition, the building roof support system need not be over-engineered or rebuilt because these thin mats are comparable in weight to more standard gravel over asphalt flat roofing materials.On the opposite end of the spectrum are folks who build earth-bermed or underground homes. These buildings often have a soil depth of 20-24" on the roof and are blended into the surrounding landscape. That much soil presents a real professional-grade engineering challenge to support! When the soil gets wet and then it snows, think 500lbs per square foot live load. Pre-stressed concrete panels and beams or steel girders are really the only materials suitable for this application. Very expensive.
In my particular case; there are a couple things I'm trying to gain from the use of a green roof:
Insulation value. OK, so we can all agree that earth itself is not a great insulator. But it is a great thermal mass and tends to help damp out wild temperature variations even a few inches below the surface. However, to keep the house warm in the winter, a sufficient layer of insulation will need to exist between the home interior and the soil. Additionally, earth roofs retain snow cover. And snow IS a comparatively good insulator. Fluffy dry snow accounts for roughly R1 per inch. So, 18 inches of snow is an additional R18 on the roof when you need it most!
Passive cooling. Soil deep enough to retain some moisture in the summer months can act as a whole-house sized evaporative cooling system. Moderately deep soil also ought to be able to keep the attic area from overheating in the sun - imagine the cool you'd find 8" down in shaded soil on a summer day...
Aesthetic harmony. A soil covering will help keep a quiet house and (if properly built) should require absolutely no maintenance in my lifetime. Plus, it'd look really cool.So, my ideal green roof is one with roughly 6-8" of soil supporting a growing matrix of native grasses, wildflowers and other shallow-root plants.
To support this considerable load will definitely take some planning. With responsible spans, I believe a roof substrate of 2x6 tongue-in-groove planking over frequent joists and girts ought to do the trick. On top of this plank surface will sit alternating layers of waterproofing membrane and closed-cell (doesn't absorb water) rigid insulation. Next, a gravel drainage layer allowing water leaving the soil to drain away to the edge of the home to daylight. Next a filtration layer of fiber matting to prevent the soil from homogenizing with the underlying gravel. Lastly, the actual soil layer on top of it all. In my minds eye, I picture all these materials retained on the rooftop using Trex-style decking as batten boards - this material is not prone to rot when in contact with the soil.
20070924
Dreaming My New Home
For those of you who don't know me: I have a dream to build a moderately-sized, passive-solar, timber-framed, living-roofed, cordwood cabin home in North Idaho. In my minds eye, the combination of these unique building techniques should create a rustic-beautiful home that is at once strong, quiet, well-insulated and graced with such great thermal mass as to easily maintain an even temperature year-round with a minimum of additional energy input.
In addition to these architectural features, there are some noteworthy systems I hope to incorporate in the home, as well:
A Russian Masonry Stove. [a.k.a Finnish Heater, Masonry Heater] Basically, this is a massive (meaning heavy as well as large) fireplace that dwells in the middle of a home so as to radiate the heat stored in it's mass into the home throughout the day and night. As the flue and masonry are located inside the warmer home envelope, a positive draft is easy to get started.
Unlike a standard fireplace, the firebox burns at such a high temperature as to actually burn the exhaust gasses and nearly 100% of the fuel solids - leaving no soot or creosote and next to no ash. Firebrick and refractory masonry cement in these heaters must withstand temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees Celsius!
Additionally, the flue itself is constructed as a meandering maze of passageways and baffles that act as a heat-exchanger allowing the stone and brick mass of the fireplace to absorb the heat of the exhaust before it leaves the house. There is no need to damp-down or smolder a fire to keep heat overnight; the masonry itself will store the heat from a quickly and completely burned fire and radiate the stored energy over the course of days - not hours.
Lastly, the huge mass of this fireplace isolated in the center of a home also allows it to act inversely in the summertime: storing overnight "coolth" and acting as a temperature-swing damper. In a properly designed passive solar home the deep-reaching winter sun will warm this mass in the winter while it should remain shaded in the summertime, accentuating it's effect as a thermal capacitor.
These stoves are standout in my evaluation for their ability to use ultra low-tech solutions (mass, blast door damper, meandering flue) to burn wood more completely and more efficiently than any other type of stove while also exhausting less greenhouse gasses than even pellet stoves with the newfangled catalytic converters!
A Composting Toilet. For most Americans (and Westerners in general, I think) this is a hard concept to grapple with. We are accustomed to flushing our outgoing waste and have been trained to regard it as a disease vector. In the last 2 years, I've had the opportunity to read a book titled 'The Humanure Handbook' and experience first-hand the use of a well-managed composting toilet...
The book is enlightening because it helps to draw an accurate picture of the damage we are doing to our environment by simultaneously polluting our ever-rarer drinking water and making dangerous waste of an otherwise highly-valuable and perfectly safe fertilizer and soil-remediation component: compost.
The first-hand use of a composting toilet proved that this practice is not smelly and is also very clean. In addition, the garden vegetables I enjoyed while on retreat at this property were a testament to the value of humanure compost in growing a healthy and abundant garden.
In it's most simple form, a composting toilet can be a 5 gallon bucket used to collect your outgoing waste which is then covered with a "bio-filtration mat" of materials such as sawdust and fireplace ashes each time the bucket is used. This mat prevents flies from getting on the waste and also is incredibly effective at containing any bad smells you may fear. In addition, this material will ultimately bulk-up the compost and provide important nutrients and air space for the thermophillic bacteria in your, ah-hem... stuff, to do it's job. At regular intervals, this bucket would be emptied onto a larger compost pile with all other compost-able waste from your life: leftovers, eggshells, bones, yard waste, dead rodents, etc... and covered again with a bio-filtration mat.
The humanure book and the folks I visited both employed a three-pile strategy where a compost bin is allowed to lie fallow with no new material for a period of at least 2 years before the compost is used as a soil additive. There are a myriad of things to know about the bacteria within and safe-handling of a humanure compost system. If my notes have piqued your interest, please do read Joe Jenkins book: 'The Humanure Handbook'. The book is entertaining, somewhat revolutionary and most certainly well-researched and full of crap.
In addition to these architectural features, there are some noteworthy systems I hope to incorporate in the home, as well:
A Russian Masonry Stove. [a.k.a Finnish Heater, Masonry Heater] Basically, this is a massive (meaning heavy as well as large) fireplace that dwells in the middle of a home so as to radiate the heat stored in it's mass into the home throughout the day and night. As the flue and masonry are located inside the warmer home envelope, a positive draft is easy to get started.
Unlike a standard fireplace, the firebox burns at such a high temperature as to actually burn the exhaust gasses and nearly 100% of the fuel solids - leaving no soot or creosote and next to no ash. Firebrick and refractory masonry cement in these heaters must withstand temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees Celsius!Additionally, the flue itself is constructed as a meandering maze of passageways and baffles that act as a heat-exchanger allowing the stone and brick mass of the fireplace to absorb the heat of the exhaust before it leaves the house. There is no need to damp-down or smolder a fire to keep heat overnight; the masonry itself will store the heat from a quickly and completely burned fire and radiate the stored energy over the course of days - not hours.
Lastly, the huge mass of this fireplace isolated in the center of a home also allows it to act inversely in the summertime: storing overnight "coolth" and acting as a temperature-swing damper. In a properly designed passive solar home the deep-reaching winter sun will warm this mass in the winter while it should remain shaded in the summertime, accentuating it's effect as a thermal capacitor.
These stoves are standout in my evaluation for their ability to use ultra low-tech solutions (mass, blast door damper, meandering flue) to burn wood more completely and more efficiently than any other type of stove while also exhausting less greenhouse gasses than even pellet stoves with the newfangled catalytic converters!
A Composting Toilet. For most Americans (and Westerners in general, I think) this is a hard concept to grapple with. We are accustomed to flushing our outgoing waste and have been trained to regard it as a disease vector. In the last 2 years, I've had the opportunity to read a book titled 'The Humanure Handbook' and experience first-hand the use of a well-managed composting toilet...
The book is enlightening because it helps to draw an accurate picture of the damage we are doing to our environment by simultaneously polluting our ever-rarer drinking water and making dangerous waste of an otherwise highly-valuable and perfectly safe fertilizer and soil-remediation component: compost.The first-hand use of a composting toilet proved that this practice is not smelly and is also very clean. In addition, the garden vegetables I enjoyed while on retreat at this property were a testament to the value of humanure compost in growing a healthy and abundant garden.
In it's most simple form, a composting toilet can be a 5 gallon bucket used to collect your outgoing waste which is then covered with a "bio-filtration mat" of materials such as sawdust and fireplace ashes each time the bucket is used. This mat prevents flies from getting on the waste and also is incredibly effective at containing any bad smells you may fear. In addition, this material will ultimately bulk-up the compost and provide important nutrients and air space for the thermophillic bacteria in your, ah-hem... stuff, to do it's job. At regular intervals, this bucket would be emptied onto a larger compost pile with all other compost-able waste from your life: leftovers, eggshells, bones, yard waste, dead rodents, etc... and covered again with a bio-filtration mat.
The humanure book and the folks I visited both employed a three-pile strategy where a compost bin is allowed to lie fallow with no new material for a period of at least 2 years before the compost is used as a soil additive. There are a myriad of things to know about the bacteria within and safe-handling of a humanure compost system. If my notes have piqued your interest, please do read Joe Jenkins book: 'The Humanure Handbook'. The book is entertaining, somewhat revolutionary and most certainly well-researched and full of crap.
20070923
Joy Wants Eternity
Wow. You know when you discover some really cool new music and it isn't enough to simply listen to it yourself? You want to crank it up to share with your neighbors - 'cause you know that even if it wakes them up, they'll appreciate hearing something so good and new?Or maybe you are inspired to email your co-worker on a Sunday night 'cause you know that this will make his/her Monday morning that much better...
Well, that's how I'm feeling about Joy Wants Eternity. To make things even better, you can stream the whole new album online. Click the album cover to go to the streaming page for this band at Last.FM... Nice artwork too, eh?
20051023
Grant Gets A Kilt
Some history: About 3 months ago, my job called me to co-ordinate with the IT staff at the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle. In one of my days on-site, the resident phone-tech met me wearing a kilt! But not a wool-dyed tartan kilt, this kilt had purpose. It appeared as constructed of black codura with cargo pockets and reinforcing stitching and button/rivets throughout. Bad Ass. Embroidered on the kilt was a manufacterer logo: UtiliKilt - a perfect one word description of the un-bifurcated garment.
Its funny, but some things just command instant respect. The combined attributes of irreverance, purpose, humor, historical significance and personal confidence are just built-into the UtiliKilt. Basically, I drove away that day thinking: "Can I pull that off? Could I wear a kilt around with a straight face? Hell Yes."
And so, after three months of UtiliKilt itching, I drove down to West Seattle (where the company is based), dropped my proverbial pants and got a kilt. It's a caramel-colored 'Workmans' model kilt - basically a pleated kilt version of Carhart coveralls. About 23" long, it hangs just below my knees and has utility pockets and hammer loops enough to mount a one-man war offensive, for a short while, anyway.
Once the kilt is on it's a revalation. Breeze. Freedom of momement. Nice!
I drive off to the pub for dinner and find that wearing the kilt is a mental overhaul... watching reactions is a riot. However, I can't recall a time when I've had easier conversation with a broader range of folks than this night. The kilt is definitely an ice-breaker. Everything from "serious guy nods" and "what's up man" comments from folks I don't even know, to approaches from the opposite sex with WAAY more flirt than I'm used to. In end, I got served for free for having the cajones to wear the thing out of the house.
More of the same today (Sunday), with a handful of "nice kilt" comments thrown in for good measure. My only complaint is that all the pleats are a bit of a hassle when getting in/out of a car. They tend to get rumpled... oh well.
Its funny, but some things just command instant respect. The combined attributes of irreverance, purpose, humor, historical significance and personal confidence are just built-into the UtiliKilt. Basically, I drove away that day thinking: "Can I pull that off? Could I wear a kilt around with a straight face? Hell Yes."
And so, after three months of UtiliKilt itching, I drove down to West Seattle (where the company is based), dropped my proverbial pants and got a kilt. It's a caramel-colored 'Workmans' model kilt - basically a pleated kilt version of Carhart coveralls. About 23" long, it hangs just below my knees and has utility pockets and hammer loops enough to mount a one-man war offensive, for a short while, anyway.Once the kilt is on it's a revalation. Breeze. Freedom of momement. Nice!
I drive off to the pub for dinner and find that wearing the kilt is a mental overhaul... watching reactions is a riot. However, I can't recall a time when I've had easier conversation with a broader range of folks than this night. The kilt is definitely an ice-breaker. Everything from "serious guy nods" and "what's up man" comments from folks I don't even know, to approaches from the opposite sex with WAAY more flirt than I'm used to. In end, I got served for free for having the cajones to wear the thing out of the house.
More of the same today (Sunday), with a handful of "nice kilt" comments thrown in for good measure. My only complaint is that all the pleats are a bit of a hassle when getting in/out of a car. They tend to get rumpled... oh well.
20050907
Debit Card Katrina Relief?
First off, let me point out that I'm not jumping immediately onto the band-wagon criticizing Bush for our failure to respond to the tragedy/disaster/catastrophe that hurricane Katrina recently delivered to the Gulf Coast.
I'm no Bush fan. However, I don't think the "blame" for a poorly managed response lies directly on his shoulders, either.
Many armchair critics can plainly use 20/20 hindsight to point out that we've known for at least a decade the risks involved in a Category4 or Category5 hurricane in the region - broken levys, services shutdowns and flooding. Local and national officials also had more than 72 hours lead-time prior to landfall to act on plans that should, presumably, have already been in place. Wouldn't it be nice if the next earthquake or tsunami gave so much warning?
Bush is no hero to have so blatantly and cavalierly kept his speaking engagments and schedule intact - even to the point of resting at his TX home before returning to "work" almost 24 hours after the Hurricane. His poorly-timed comments about looking forward to rebuilding Trent Lott's house and enjoying his new patio are an outstanding example of how out-of-touch the man is.
But let's be realistic. There's only so much a President can, or should be tasked with doing in the face of a natural disater like this one. I don't see the point of his mercy missions and hand-shaking and I'm miffed at the commentary that faults him for not getting on the scene earlier.
What did go wrong? Too many folks were left in town and should have been evacuated while that was still an option. FEMA didn't react soon enough. National Guard and the military weren't on the scene fast enough. Obvious "first priorities" such as food and hydration seemed to be forgotten for 2 or 3 days. Etc... Etc... Etc...
Just when I thought I couldn't be more surprised or confused I read an article announcing that the FedGov is going to distribute $2000 debit cards to adult victims of the hurricane. Certainly, an unprecedented move. There is no question in my mind that this is one goup of victims who could use a little more cash - but to distribute prepaid debit cards seems to treat the victims like a group of cheap-ticket lottery winners.
As someone whose work experience has involved card distribution and the related logisics, I immediately question how the Fed plans on identifying the appropriate list of card recepients. Will the cards be embossed with the cardholder name? If not (and I don't see how the embossing would be possible), aren't we igniting a potential dangerous crime situation? Think there was chaos around the airlifted relief supplies such as water and food? Wait till they start handing out $2000 at a time in unmakred debit cards!
If we assume for a moment that distribution goes off without a hitch, how does this $2000 help? From all I've read, there will be no limitation on how the cards are used. Do lottery winners use thier winnings wisely? Typically, no. Of course, I hardly trust the Fed to spend the money any more constructively than the victims, so this solution probably wins out on the merit of boosting morale while not doing any worse harm.
======= 20060614 UPDATE =======
I hate to say "I told you so...", but I just had to stick an edit in this blog entry when I recently read the news that the GAO (General Accounting Office) for the US Federal Government has discovered 1.4 BILLION dollars worth of fraudulent spending which occured on the handy credit cards they distributed!
See the full Times Online article here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2225756,00.html#
I'm no Bush fan. However, I don't think the "blame" for a poorly managed response lies directly on his shoulders, either.
Many armchair critics can plainly use 20/20 hindsight to point out that we've known for at least a decade the risks involved in a Category4 or Category5 hurricane in the region - broken levys, services shutdowns and flooding. Local and national officials also had more than 72 hours lead-time prior to landfall to act on plans that should, presumably, have already been in place. Wouldn't it be nice if the next earthquake or tsunami gave so much warning?
Bush is no hero to have so blatantly and cavalierly kept his speaking engagments and schedule intact - even to the point of resting at his TX home before returning to "work" almost 24 hours after the Hurricane. His poorly-timed comments about looking forward to rebuilding Trent Lott's house and enjoying his new patio are an outstanding example of how out-of-touch the man is.
But let's be realistic. There's only so much a President can, or should be tasked with doing in the face of a natural disater like this one. I don't see the point of his mercy missions and hand-shaking and I'm miffed at the commentary that faults him for not getting on the scene earlier.
What did go wrong? Too many folks were left in town and should have been evacuated while that was still an option. FEMA didn't react soon enough. National Guard and the military weren't on the scene fast enough. Obvious "first priorities" such as food and hydration seemed to be forgotten for 2 or 3 days. Etc... Etc... Etc...
Just when I thought I couldn't be more surprised or confused I read an article announcing that the FedGov is going to distribute $2000 debit cards to adult victims of the hurricane. Certainly, an unprecedented move. There is no question in my mind that this is one goup of victims who could use a little more cash - but to distribute prepaid debit cards seems to treat the victims like a group of cheap-ticket lottery winners.
As someone whose work experience has involved card distribution and the related logisics, I immediately question how the Fed plans on identifying the appropriate list of card recepients. Will the cards be embossed with the cardholder name? If not (and I don't see how the embossing would be possible), aren't we igniting a potential dangerous crime situation? Think there was chaos around the airlifted relief supplies such as water and food? Wait till they start handing out $2000 at a time in unmakred debit cards!
If we assume for a moment that distribution goes off without a hitch, how does this $2000 help? From all I've read, there will be no limitation on how the cards are used. Do lottery winners use thier winnings wisely? Typically, no. Of course, I hardly trust the Fed to spend the money any more constructively than the victims, so this solution probably wins out on the merit of boosting morale while not doing any worse harm.
======= 20060614 UPDATE =======
I hate to say "I told you so...", but I just had to stick an edit in this blog entry when I recently read the news that the GAO (General Accounting Office) for the US Federal Government has discovered 1.4 BILLION dollars worth of fraudulent spending which occured on the handy credit cards they distributed!
"Our forensic audit and investigative work showed that improper and potentially fraudulent payments occurred mainly because FEMA did not validate the identity of the registrant, the physical location of the damaged address, and ownership and occupancy of all registrants at the time of registration," GAO officials said.
See the full Times Online article here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2225756,00.html#
In Answer To MySpace
OK, I give. Everyone I know seems to live vicariously through MySpace. But doesn't the site seem a little cheesy? In answer to all the online-dwellers who want a way to find out "What's up with Grant?" without actually talking to me, here it is:
http://grantandre.blogspot.com
I'll apply my extensive web-dev skills [read: sarcasm] to a little more personalized window-dressing as time goes on. Enjoy!
http://grantandre.blogspot.com
I'll apply my extensive web-dev skills [read: sarcasm] to a little more personalized window-dressing as time goes on. Enjoy!
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