Eco Building: Fun with Straw-Clay Infill

Feeling like we accomplished the task of building our shop with a Gravel Bag Foundation and Timber Frame Construction, next we needed to provide some sort of insulation. We researched straw-clay building and found that it provides both insulation and thermal mass, plus it's totally natural and we could get everything we needed locally.

Straw-clay building has been used by Europeans for centuries with lots of success. Usually, straw-clay is completed by using forms between upright studs and the forms are packed with a straw-clay mixture. The forms are removed and the walls are left to dry before putting a protective coat on, such as natural plaster, which also lets the walls continue to "breathe" - very important in straw-clay construction, as this will prevent mold from forming and destroying the walls.

Our system was basically the same, however, we already had the "shell" of our shop completed with board and batten construction. We decided to try straw-clay infill where we used form boards between our upright studs on the inside wall and filled with straw-clay mixture. Normally, both walls would be exposed after removing the forms, but we just had the one inside wall exposed. We live in a semi-arid place with very low humidity. I definitely wouldn't recommend trying this in a wet, humid area.

Our Straw-Clay Recipe:

You will need:

• Lots of good Straw (not old or moldy)
• Lots of Clay
• Water
• Buckets (we used 5 gallon buckets)
• Wheel barrel or cement mixer to mix your clay and water.
• Tarp for mixing everything together on.
• Wire - We fastened wire in various places with screws from one stud to another - just to provide additional wall strength. 

Recipe:

Mix 2 buckets water and 1 bucket clay in wheel barrel or cement mixer to create a clay slurry. 

Pour over 3 buckets packed straw. 

“Fluff” the slurry and straw together to produce a light mixture, not too heavy. We mixed the straw and clay slurry together by hand.

Pack into your form boards which should already be in place.

Wait for about 1/2 an hour, remove form boards and let your walls dry.

This can be a time-consuming task, but friends can really help the process go quicker…and it can be a lot of fun working together. The smiles in the picture are genuine. It was truly a fun experience and I think everyone enjoyed it. The beers afterward were a bonus too!

Here, we're mixing the straw with the clay-slurry.  

Next, packing the straw-clay mixture into our walls between the walls and form boards. It's a dirty job, but someones gotta do it!

We spent about 8 hours on this particular day and we got about half of our shop walls (18' x 18') completed.

We waited about an hour before removing the form boards and viola!  - beautiful, natural walls that provide insulation plus some thermal mass. We waited about 2 months, to ensure the straw clay was completely cured, before protecting our walls with natural plaster.

Up Next: Natural Plaster

Exploration in Fermentation: Sauer Kraut

Since our fermented pickles turned out so amazing, we decided to ferment our own Sauer Kraut too. The process of fermenting is just as simple for Sauer Kraut as it is for pickles - just a few ingredients, a small amount of time, and zero energy spent. Plus, you get all the same benefits, such as those awesome probiotic enzymes helping to strengthen your immune system and improve your digestive tract.

Fermented Sauer Kraut Recipe: 

You will need a crock or food grade bucket, a plate that fits snuggly inside the crock, a weight such as a boiled rock or a clean jar filled with water or something that will help keep your plate submerged below the brine, and a towel to cover.

We use small, used crock pots (4 - 8 quarts) that can be removed from the heating unit - you can pick them up cheap at thrift stores. This recipe should make about 2 - 3 quarts of fermented Sauer Kraut.

Gather the Ingredients:

• 2.5 lbs of Cabbage ( 1 meduim - large sized)
• 2 Carrots
• 1 Head of Garlic
• 1 Medium Sized Onion
• Sea Salt  - 1.5 Tablespoons

Make Your Sauer Kraut:

Chop cabbage (we use the antique food processor shown below, but you can use a grater or just a knife will work too), dice onions and garlic, and grate carrots. Toss everything together in a large bowl, mixing in the sea salt as well.

Place the Sauer Kraut mixture in your crock and use your fist to squish down the cabbage mixture.

Place the plate over the mixture and the weight on top of the plate. 

Cover your crock with the towel.

Check after one day. The salt should help create a brine. If your plate is not covered with brine, add more salt water (about 1 teaspoon to 1 cup of water). It's very important that you keep your plate covered with brine.

Check everyday to make sure there is enough brine and if any "scum" forms, which it probably will, just remove as much as you can.Wash your plate and weight and return them to the crock. 

Heat will affect the fermentation process, so your Sauer Kraut will ferment quicker in the summer than in the winter. We start sampling ours after one week, and once it gets to the point where we really enjoy the flavor, we transfer it to a quart or gallon jar and move it to the fridge to slow down the fermenation process. We start the process all over again in a couple of weeks so we always have fresh, healthy Sauer Kraut on hand!

If you liked this recipe, try making Fermented Pickles too!

Eco-Building on the Cheap: Foundation & Framing

We wanted to build a shop to do projects, plus we needed a place for our Balance of Systems (BOS) for our off-grid equipment. Other than our chicken coup, this was our first building attempt together. We wanted it to be functional but didn't have a huge amount of cash to spend on it. We also wanted to use local products as much as possible and started with a gravel bag foundation. The gravel came from our friend's gravel pit...the sandbags, unfortunately, had to be obtained through an online store.

Gravel Bag Foundation...

• Filled sandbags with gravel to about 3/4 full, tamped, then used pieces of wire sewn through the top of each bag to hold together.
• First tier of bags were laid flat on the leveled ground, butted up against each other (end to end) to form our 18 x 18 shop foundation.
• Two strips of barbed wire were afixed on top of the first level of bags around the entire perimeter. This is supposed to help hold the next level of bags in place.
• Second tier of bags were laid on top of the first tier, over the barbed wire and staggered from the first level so that the seams were offset between the two layers. 
• Covered the entire bag configuration with chicken wire and used fence staples to secure to the bags.
• Used cement in various places on top of the bags to help level the bag foundation in preparation for the sill.
• Foundation was cobbed (2 coats) and a thick cement coat was added to complete the gravel bag foundation after we finished framing the shop.

Now, normally with a bag foundation you would also have made a gravel trench that went below the frostline with your bag founation on top. This would prevent damage to your foundation and structure if the ground heaved during extreme temperature changes. We chose not to do this, only because much of our earth here already contains a fair amount of gravel and rock. Hopefully, it won't be an issue for us!

Framing the Shop...

• Obtained wood locally from a small family business.
• Created a sill with 2 x 8's and drove 3/8" rebar, 3 feet long through the sill into the bag foundation to secure the sill to the foundation.
• Used 6 x 6's for corners and doors & doubled up 2 x 6's for posts on about 4.5' centers. 
• Used 2 x 4's for horizontal support and tying the posts together.
• Researched high wind load roofs and, from recommendations, decided to build gabled roof ends which are supposed to be excellent in hurricane prone locations.
• Constructed an 11/12 roof pitch - about 42 degrees - ideal conditions for our latitude for winter sun conditions if we decide to add solar electric or solar hot water later.
• Built rafters on 2' centers and used hurricane straps as extra security. 
• Bought used metal for roofing, also obtained locally.  
• Designed the overhang on the south side to keep out summer sun and let the winter sun in. This allows us to take advantage of the low sun from mid-Oct to mid-April and helps heat the interior of the shop.
• Used Board and Batten system: 1 x 6s placed and secured vertically from top horizontal beam to bottom (sill); 1 x 3s placed and secured vertically over the gaps between the 2 x 6s. I love the look and feel of it!

Shop in it's "almost complete" form. Total spent: about $2000

Up Next: The Fun Part...

Straw Clay Infill (for insulation & thermal mass).

Programming Your "Favs" in Your Magnum ME-ARC

Marc describes the process of saving your most frequently viewed information to your Magnum ME-ARC so you can access this information more quickly. Learn how to easily view items such as State of Charge, Amp hours in & out, and AC load Amps of your RE system.

Exploration in Fermentation: Pickles

I've never liked pickles. Even the ones I've canned for Marc have always been merely "okay". Then I tried fermenting pickles and...holy cow! They were good...no, not just good. They were flavorful, zesty and delicious! I actually craved them! Now they are the only pickles I process.

Fermenting pickles was my first attempt at the fermentation process. In my research, I learned allot about the benefits of fermentation:

• Fermenting pickles is so much easier and takes less energy to process than canning.
• Eating fermented food can help support digestive health and enhance the immune system as it contains live lactic-acid producing bacteria.
• Having this bacteria in your gut can help you absorb more nutrients from the foods you eat.
• Making your own healthy, fermented pickles is less expensive than buying them in the store.
• Good for your taste buds too!!!

Fermented Pickle Recipe:

The original recipe I referred to when making my own pickles was the one found on the Wild Fermentation website. I modified the recipe a bit.

The only items you need to ferment pickles are a crock or food-grade bucket, a plate that will fit snugly into the crock, a (clean) weight to keep the plate down under the brine, and a towel to cover the crock.

Gather your Ingredients:

• About 4 lbs of pickling cucumbers. I like mine fairly small - they just taste better to me.
• 3/8 cup sea salt
• Fresh flowering dill heads -  I like dill and put in as much as I have on hand. Usually about 5 heads or so, but you can adjust to your own taste.
• Garlic - I put in 3 - 4 heads of garlic
• A couple of grape leaves (optional). This is suppose to help the pickles stay crisp. I've also used horseradish and raspberry leaves with the same results.
• Peppers - 4 to 5. I've used whatever peppers I have on hand in my garden, both sweet and hot peppers and a combination of both, with success.  

Make your Pickles:

• Place dill, garlic, grape leaves, and peppers in the bottom of a clean crock.
• Place cucumbers, cleaned and blossoms removed, in the crock.
• Mix sea salt with 1/2 gallon of water and completely dissolve to make brine.
• Pour brine over the cucumbers.
• Place the clean plate over the cucumbers and weight it down with a boiled rock or jug filled with water. The plate should be under the brine at all times. If there is not enough, add more brine with a ratio of just under 1 tablespoon of salt to 1 cup water.
• Cover with towel or cloth.
• Check the crock each day. Mold will form - just try to skim off as much as you can. The mold is natural and your pickles are safely fermenting underneath in the brine so don't worry too much. Rinse your plate and weight before returning to the crock.
• Check your pickles after a few days and taste to see if they are done. You can continue to let them ferment for up to 4 weeks. Putting them in the refrigerator will slow down the fermentation process.

Temperature will affect the fermenation process so just be attentive to your pickles and check on them every day until you are happy with the taste. If I use one of my small crocks, I just move it directly to the refrigerator once I know they are to my liking.

I never thought making fermented pickles could be so easy and taste sooooo good! 

Up Next: Fermenting Sauer Kraut

Homemade Garden Tunnels

If you’re a gardener you’ve most certainly heard of a garden tunnel to extend your growing season. They can protect your young plants from frost and insect invasion. Here’s a twist on how we made our own garden tunnels.

When Marc was a young boy growing up on his family farm in Kentucky, his Dad would cut small sections of fencing and formed circles around plants so he could train them as they grew. After getting back into gardening later in life, Marc wanted to do the same, but couldn’t find the right kind of fencing. He bought some remesh (concrete reinforment – looks similar to a fence). In trying to mimic his dad, he bent the remesh into a half circle but when the cage landed on the ground in tunnel fashion (as in the picture below) he thought he’d go with it.

Uses:

• Use them with row cover to extend your growing season.
• Create a small greenhouse by covering with a clear plastic.
• Use them as cages to help support your plants as they grow. 

This really works great with tomato plants. Once they are hardened off, I plant young seedlings in the ground and use a cage over the bed with row cover to protect them. I've used rocks, dirt, wood, and sand bags to hold the row cover down, but just recently have been using clothes pins to fasten the fabric to the cages. It seems to work pretty well. You can also put the cages end to end if you have long beds to create one long continuous tunnel. I keep the cages on throughout the entire growing season. When we’re all clear of frost for the season, I take off the row cover and just let the plants grow up through the cages. It also works well with any vining plant like squash or cucumbers. 

Making the Cages:

• It's a good idea to have two people - one to hold the remesh and the other to do the cutting.
• Use small bolt cutters to cut the remesh.
• Buy or salvage 5' remesh- it's cheaper if you buy it by the roll (you can purchase a 5' by 50' roll of remesh at Menards for around $50 - this will make 10 cages). 
• Cut the remesh in 5' sections, making sure your cut is made down the middle of the squares so that you have sharp ends to anchor your cage into the ground. (As shown in the picture on the right).
• Make sure the remesh is bent in a half circle so it will fit over your bed. These cages should fit over a 3' wide bed, but are adjustable, so that you have a little room to play.

We've found these cages have been quite sturdy for us, even in our extreme environment (high winds and heavy snow).  One thing to look out for is unsmooth edges on the remesh. This can cause the row cover to tear in high winds. We have had this happen and have used a file or angle grinder to smooth out any rough edges on the remesh. It seems to have helped. 

The garden is always evolving and we try to make improvements whenever possible, but we feel we've found the garden tunnel that works best for us. It's relatively inexpensive, sturdy, versatile and will last a long time.

Watering and Cleaning your Off-Grid Batteries

Whether you are living off-grid or have a grid-tied battery back up system, it is important to maintain your batteries. Marc explains how to water and clean your batteries and why this is important for optimum life of your battery bank. For more information on battery types, selection and tips, visit our online store http://www.offgridsolutions.us/battery-facts/

Our Off-Grid REvolution

Our dream all along has been to be independent from the utility, to be as self-sufficient as possible and live in balance with Mother Nature. So here it is; our humble story of how we finally began our off-grid life. The term "off-grid" can mean so many different things, but for the purposes of this article, I am referring to the creation of our own energy.

Whether you are off-grid or grid-connected, it is a good idea to know what your electrical consumption is. Our average before installing solar was around 225 kWh (kilowatt hours) per month. A kilowatt hour is a unit of energy. Your electrical company bills you based on how much energy you use, and therefore, how much money you owe them, unless of course, you are off-grid.

We live a pretty simple life. We heat with wood and cook most meals with either propane (in the summer) or wood (in the winter). Yes, we have a few acres of land, but by no means do we have extra money to throw away on trivial things.

Setup of our first four panels

So, where did we start? We didn’t have the cash for a major purchase of an entire off-grid package upfront. So, we decided to take baby steps. Our first purchase was the solar modules. With solar panel prices dropping dramatically in the past few years, we were able to find six 200 watt panels for 1.00 per watt…$200 per panel. Batteries were the next major purchase. We bought 8 Trojan (T-105) batteries which cost us $900 in early 2012.  We had a nice used wooden box which Marc, with a few modifications (like Styrofoam insulation) turned into a battery box. A few months later we were able to purchase a Midnite Solar Classic 250 charge controller ($800).

Inverter, Panel and Charge Controller

The final “big” purchase was an inverter/charger. We decided to go with a Magnum PAE4448, a 48 volt inverter, and purchased that at the end of 2012 for $1900.00. Finally, we had all our major components out of the way and were able to begin to piece them together. We mounted our solar panels (4 to start) on Zilla rack and made our own pedestal out of old lumber we had on hand. We are able to move them around if needed. Nothing fancy, but it works. It did flip over once in a big gust of wind (with no broken panels), but we had not had it anchored down as we do now and since then it has held up to 60+ mile per hour winds, not to mention the golf-ball sized hail that came along with it.  Not bad, huh?

Homemade Solar Cooker

We did the trenching, laid conduit and pulled wire ourselves. Marc made the final connections and finally we were at a place where we could be off-grid or connected to the grid with a flip of a switch. With only four 200 watt  panels (800 total watts) we could completely be off-grid during sunny days. We could run most of our appliances, our refrigerator, freezer, lights, computer, TV, and pump some water. We could not, however, run all of these things and run our swamp cooler as well. We also did not have enough power to heat our water. So we had to be inventive, doing most of our activities when it was sunny, switching off our swamp cooler when we had to use an appliance that drew too many amps, or turning down the fridge/freezer. It’s kind of fun trying to live with what Nature throws our way. I also learned how to cook with a homemade (cheap!) solar cooker. On a really sunny day it can get up to 200 – 250 degrees…great for rice, baked potatoes, soups and stews. More on that later.

Final Array with six modules

Last summer we added another two panels. So six solar panels later our average kW usage is around 100 per month. We are able to be off-grid most days and a majority of nights too, as long as we turn our refrigerator and freezer to “low”. We still don’t create enough juice to heat water, though. Heating water is definitely our biggest energy draw on the homestead. Eventually, we will be working on a solar hot water set up and, once we have our “homebrew” turbine up, heating water shouldn’t be an issue...on most days anyway.

So while it has taken us a couple of years to get this far, we are still not totally off-the-grid...but there's nothing wrong with baby steps!

Gardening in the Pine Ridge

There's something about gardening that feels so...natural. A garden is so peaceful yet so dynamic and packed with life. What other activities can bring to fruition an abundance of healthy, delicious food, fun exercise, and a chance to connect with the Earth?  

We live in a Zone 4 area that is quickly becoming a Zone 5. We're trying to be conscious about the changing weather and which variety of plants will best suit our environment in the coming years.

We roto-tilled our garden the very first year and have not tilled since (10 years). We put a lot of work into the garden that year, creating raised beds on our slightly sloping south-facing hill. We’ve found this has worked amazingly as a kind of terraced garden. In the winter, all the snow accumulates between the beds, keeping them moist. We designed the garden so that it had five sections with beds of semi-equal proportions, and the next year added one more section. We also have a portion of the garden set aside for herbs. We’ve found this is adequate for our needs. The sections were intended to help with crop rotation and move within the garden each year. They are listed in order of succession in the garden:

Section 1 - Squash, Melons and Cucumbers

• Includes Butternut, Buttercup, and Acorn Squash, Cantaloupe, and Pickling Cucumbers.
• Long growing season.
• High watering needs.
• Heavy feeders - likes plenty of compost.

Section 2 - Greens/Broccoli/Cabbage/Carrots/Parsnips/Celery

• Greens include Arugula, Kale, Chard, Mustard, Lettuce, Asian greens...the list is a long one.
• Short growing season - make succession plantings of greens and carrots or start a fall garden mid summer with turnips/radishes/beets, etc.
• Heavy watering needs.
• Moderate feeders - needs a good helping of compost.

Section 3 - Tomatoes/Sweet Peppers

• Long growing season.
• High watering needs.
• Heavy feeder - likes plenty of compost.
• Can inter plant companion plants such as carrots in between tomato plants.

Section 4 - Onions/Garlic/Shallots

• Plant in October - November.
• Low watering needs.
• Moderate feeders - needs a good helping of compost.
• Harvested in late July - early August.
• Plant a small Basil crop after harvesting - we've found it germinates and grows quickly at this time. 

Section 5 - Potatoes and Hot Peppers

• Direct plant Potatoes in March-April.
• Hot Peppers planted later in the season.  I usually have some quick growing green planted in this section until I'm ready to plant the hot pepper plants.
• Moderate watering needs.
• Plant beets/radishes or turnips after harvesting potatoes.

Section 6 - Cover Crop

• Grown in one "dormant" section each year and turned under to provide some nitrogen and organic matter.
• Short growing season.
• Low watering needs.
• We use the Summer Soil Builder Mix by Peaceful Valley of cow peas and buckwheat.

Section 7 - Herbs and More

• Variety of herbs grown including mints, yarrow, oregano, thyme, marjoram.
• Strawberries - we have had our strawberries growing in the same section for 5 years and last year made a new "home", dug up some plants and relocated to a new spot.
• Horseradish - last year was our first crop of horseradish and it did exceptionally well. I planted the roots in a small section of the garden where a compost pile had previously been. 
• Marshmallow - Planted for the first time last year - not sure it will grow well here.

We built our raised beds so they were 3 feet wide, and put down drip irrigation, setting it up so that each section could be watered separately, according to the needs of the plants. This works particularly good, since each section has different watering needs.

In the beginning we planted many different varieties of each crop and found which variety suited us and our environment the best. Take for example the squash. We have planted Acorns, Buttercups, Butternuts, and fancy flat-topped pan squash. While we really enjoy Butternuts, they just don’t seem to grow as prolifically for us as Buttercups. We’ve have volunteer Buttercup plants growing directly from our compost pile maturing into the most beautiful plant and loaded with squash. So it’s kind of a no-brainer that that is the squash we should focus on and I will begin saving the seeds next year. Our goal is to do this with each main vegetable in our garden…narrow our varieties down to the 2 best growers/producers and save seeds from those plants.

Good Reads

DIY Solar Projects - How to Put the Sun to Work in Your Home by Eric Smith is an awesome book for Homesteaders wanting to learn more about solar. It covers basic information including economics of going solar, sizing a system, components, assembly, and wiring. The book then delves into Do-It-Yourself plans for Solar Hot Water systems, Solar Ovens, Solar Hot Air Collectors and Solar Stills. It has excellent pictures and step-by-step directions that are easy to follow. Start with something inexpensive and easy, like a solar oven or solar still. You'll be surprised how easy it can be to complete your own solar projects for your homestead.

 The New Seed Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel is a longtime favorite of mine. It's the gardening book I refer to most often. It is packed with information on germinating seeds, transplanting and direct seeding, insects and pests, and, of course, how to save your seeds. The author covers collecting seeds for specific plants, including how to judge parent plants, selecting the best seeds, and processing them for storage. This is only a small glimpse into the 385 page hardback book. I feel it is really a complete gardening book and recommend it to fellow Homesteaders.