Earthbags and Grid Beams.

I am going to consider a root cellar and firepit area made from earthbags.

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/projects/rootcellar.htm

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/projects/firepit.htm

Then there is Grid Beam - Erector Sets for Big Kids!

http://www.green-trust.org/wordpress/2011/11/14/grid-beam-erector-sets-for-big-kids/

http://www.gridbeamnation.com/build-it/gridleys-workshop/

http://forums.makezine.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=5260

Modular, a lot of open source, a growing community…this sounds great!  I am going to experiment with this for a deck, a garden/orchard cart/wheelbarrow and a dog house/platform.  Maybe this will become the frame of a half-buried root cellar?

Maybe just found my first grid beam based project!  Solar Hot Water: http://solarcities.blogspot.com/2008/10/solar-c3ities-solar-challenge.html

and someday after more research, a biogas digester:

http://solarcities.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-build-solar-cities-hdpe-bio.html

I am always so mad at myself when another rain falls and I am not yet ready with a rainwater collection system at home.  I guess it’s all just time and money, right?

Anywhoo, another link dump:

http://secondrain.com/2010/02/advanced-rainwater-harvesting/

http://secondrain.com/2011/01/cedar-rain-bench/

http://www.earthship.com/buildings/836

I have a couple weeks off work shortly, so I am planning a few projects, inside & out.

Inside:  wall shelves in the kitchen, designed around Mason jars (to accomodate my future canning plans).  Designs tbd, but ideas galore:

And then outside, a vertical garden planter which will also be the east wall of my mostly strawbale raised bed garden.

Lastly, a bit of a deck under the pergola.

vaguely considering the idea of moving to the woods sometime in the next 10 years.  not off-grid, I plan to be still involved in the technology business as a source of income, but capable of sustaining itself with as little of the grid as possible.  somewhere with mild winters, long growing seasons, livestock and wild game friendly, and good water supply.  Pacific Northwest has seemed to be where my thoughts have been roaming.

So anyway, as I keep circling around the idea, housing has always come up.  I am hoping to be able to have a few other people involved, not as a commune but as a corporation that runs the land.  Maybe convince my niece and her husband & baby to come (my ulterior motive there is so I have someone to take care of me when I am old).  In order to accomodate a couple of families, we need some flexible housing and there seemed to be some good stuff in the realm of shipping container building.

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/8/twelve-amazing-shipping-container-houses.html

http://inhabitat.com/stacked-shipping-containers-create-smart-green-homes-in-malaysia/

http://www.jetsongreen.com/2010/02/green-shipping-container-housing-haiti.html

Next up, learn to weld… 

Considering again the idea of using the 2x IBC totes (275 gallons each) as a filter system and reservoir for water.  Goals would be to constantly maintain at least 3/4 capacity of the total system, constantly being topped up with city water passing thru a filter system to remove sediment and chlorine.  The same system would be used in an emergency situation by manually filling a source barrel (see previous ideas for a gravity fed, multi-stage filter using barrels).  solar pump to move that thru the drip irrigation system & auto dog waterers.

I might start with a cheaper electric pump, and save up for a good solar pump, also saving the hours on that until no grid power to drive the other.

I need to sketch some ideas, off to find a bar napkin.

Some additional thoughts:

First tote will be chlorinated water, either from city source or from an emergency filter system.

[For emergency system source water, see http://www.swimforhim.net/6.html for chlorine production unit (yes, I plan to chlorinate the dirty water then purify it later to remove chlorine) and links from a few days ago about multi-stage sediment filters and solar distillers.]

Chlorinated water will be allowed to sit for 24 hr minimum, possibly with an air hose inserted, since chlorine is a gas and it seems some portion can be removed this way.  More research & data required though.

From this tote it will be pumped (by hand or solar pump) to to 55 gallon drum mounted on top of the 2nd tote.  This drum will contain 2-4 Berkey Black purifier elements, gravity feeding to the 2nd tote.  

http://www.green-trust.org/diyrainwater/Black_Berkey.pdf

From there, there will be a pump (hopefully one that activates on demand) so send the clean water around the house to the irrigation.

I am going to do half of my containers organic, using  compost/planting mix with worm leachate and such.  the other half will be using a soilless mix (bark/moss/perlite) and Foliage Pro 9-3-6 liquid fertilizer.  the pots have been sitting and drenched with water to hopefully the nitrogen levels have stabilized (I need to get a test kit!) and I can plant in the next few days.

What I really need now is to put up the electric fence around the pots using compost to keep Reilly from digging it up!

More links for future system building:

Solar Still:  http://www.thefoodguys.com/solarstill.htm

Solar Still:  http://www.solaqua.com/solstilbas.html

Solar Still:  http://homepower.com/article/?file=HP130_pg28_ATE_3

Water Heater:  http://backwoodshome.com/articles/hackleman65.html

Food Dehydrator:  http://www.motherearthnews.com/multimedia/image-gallery.aspx?id=74486&seq=6

Food Dehydrator:  http://www.rootsimple.com/2008/10/build-solar-dehydrator.html

Food Dehydrator:  http://www.geopathfinder.com/9473.html

Solar ovens:  http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooking/cooking.htm

Greenhouse:  http://www.passivesolargreenhouse.com/

I’m not yet ready to tackle LA River water, but having a way to filter large amounts of water efficiently will be useful for me, given that I am not the kind of guy who could easily say no to anyone in need and too many friends already know I am somewhat prepared in case of emergency.  My current water storage is two 275 gallon IBC totes filled with city water and sitting behind my house in the dog kennel, covered with a tarp.  I need to build a bit of a more permanent shed, with some dry storage shelves above.

As for filtration, I am dropping a few links that will help me design a system.  A few of these are all variations on the same theme, a candle or dome ceramic filter between 2 buckets or barrels.  I want to add a prefilter for larger solids that is made of cheesecloth/pond biofilter materials then segmented gravel/sand/activated charcoal stages separated by screens, and maybe even a UV stage (in case there is power available, even solar since it only runs a few mins) before the ceramic filters.  

plans/parts/sources/ideas:

http://www.stpaulmercantile.com/BucketFilter.pdf

http://www.purewaterproducts.com/

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/CAMP354-1.html

http://www.alpharubicon.com/kids/homemadeberkeydaire.htm

http://www.biosandfilter.org/biosandfilter/files/webfiles/BioSandFilter_Construction_Guidelines.pdf

http://www.buyactivatedcharcoal.com/charcoal_water_filter

http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/I38.htm

and in case I need to distill water:  http://www.coppermoonshinestills.com/index.html

I decided I could manage to fill all the pots without a big trucking shipment, and in doing this, I could experiment with a few different mixes.

Al’s 5-1-1 Mix  - 4 cu ft pine bark fine mulch, 10 gallons sphagnum peat moss, 10 gallons perlite, 4 cups dolomitic lime,

1x 20 gallon & 1x 10 gallon on the ground

1x 20 gallon & 1x 10 gallon on cement pad

Earthgro Planter Mix, 2 cu ft (similar ingredients to above but commercial bagged mix)

1x 20 gallon on ground

Kellogs Garden Soil 3 cu ft (red bag, flowers & veggies) + Harvest Supreme soil amendment (2 cu ft)

1x 20 gallon on the ground

1x 20 gallon on cement pad

Kellogs Garden Soil 3 cu ft (blue bag, trees & shrubs) + Harvest Supreme soil amendment (2 cu ft)

1x 20 gallon & 1x 10 gallon on the ground

Bark based mixes need to absorb a lot of water and I also need to test how fast or slow these drain, so I soaked them all with water and will test them with a dowel rod over the next few days.

I am still figuring out what mix to use with the 200 gallon pot for the root veg,

I also transplanted a couple tropical fruit trees into some remaining mix of Kellogs Red, peat moss and perlite.  A few more trees tomorrow when I get more mix.
Mango Plant (1 ft tall about 6 months old), Cocktail Grapefruit (2 ft tall), Pomegranate (Sweet red - 3 ft tall), Mexican Papaya (8 in tall), Asian Guava (2ft to 3 ft), Pineapple Plant (1 feet tall)