Slow and Steady...

Here's some of the stuff I've been working on from my current house project. I can't wait to give it a name, but that will have to come much later once I really form a relationship with it, and after I embed the tongues of my old Pumas in one of the walls (the shoes that biked me to Oregon, and cobbed with me all summer until the very end).

First, the floor plan. Notice the rocket stove near the entrance. The rocket mass heater stove is a type of stove designed by Ianto. It can be made in a weekend for under $100. There are a lot of ideas behind the concept, but one of the coziest ideas is that the pipe exiting the stove is run through big massive elements of built-in furniture (in this case the window seat, and a step below the desk), and heats up these masses. So when you're stove is running, you can sit on a heated seat, or rest your feet on a warm step as you write at your desk. These masses heat up, and then store the heat and let it off slowly over time, so your window seat will be toasty for up to 2 or 3 days after the fire is out. Some people have run the pipe through a built-in bed, and enjoyed the comforts of heated sleep.



And the elevation view(s), the original and revised together (my plans were revised after a good long phone call to Ianto and my physical experience at the site):


Here is a cardboard sketch model to show the complex shape of the roof and determine how well and where it will shed rain runoff.
This has been my staple food, raw collard green salad with nuts, sprouts, seeds, and soy sauce:


It snowed last week! It was so cold at night that the tent just wouldn't have done the trick, so gardener Margaret allowed me a warm floor in her yome (below) upon which to rest my weary body:


My little tool shed is standing up to the elements quite respectably:


The earth here is a healthy mix of clay and rock. The color is beautiful. I had to stop digging and put my grubby hands on the camera for a shot of this chipped rock... look at the primary colors in it (top middle). I wish every day that I had paid more attention in 9th grade Earth Science:


Here is what the site looks like. I almost hate to put up a photo of it, because it really makes it look like I've spent a month doing a whole heck of a lot of nothing. But it's ready now. Earth-moving and planning take a long time. The main grass that you see is called Broom Sedge. It seems like a perfect candidate to plant on the living roof, because it can survive without much topsoil. So when the roof is covered in it, not only will it really blend into its surroundings, but it will look like the house has hair, a desirable characteristic.


And to finish it off, a poster for the green roof workshop I'll be teaching in May, which will be the finishing touch on the house! (I'm also co-teaching a cob workshop the first week of May with my fellow cob cottage apprentice, Mike, in which we will hopefully get the walls up):