What I Found When I Tore Up My Earthen Floor: It’s Not What I Thought

I had such high ideals and hopes for my earthen floor being a badge of honor in not using any non natural materials in my house. I originally insulated it with light clay straw because I wanted to use a natural material. In my opinion, my earthen floor has ended up being the only mistake I made in my strawbale house. It has served fine, but it’s always been sinking, leading to cracks and ruts and the need for maintenance. I didn’t know why my floor was sinking, though I had my suspicions.

In this video we find out what was going on under all that cob, and we begin a series of videos showing the process of totally redoing my earthen floor. It’s a big project and it took some time, but one of the great things about cob is it’s ability to be reused. Being able to just add water to the old floor material and relay it saved an astronomical amount of time.

To see the videos I refer to in the end of this video, click the links below.

Japanology Plus on earthen plaster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10R60bMjorw

Early video on design details of my tiny house: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4rlp7DIC7M&t=831s

And check out these social media links for Hardcore Sustainable https://www.instagram.com/hardcoresustainable/ https://www.facebook.com/HardcoreSustainable/ http://hardcoresustainable.com

Fall Permaculture Bounty: Hazelnuts, Pecans, Mushrooms, Persimmons

Our ecovillage features many permaculture plantings that have been maintained over the years by many people. The village is kind of like one big permaculture project. Fall is a time when a lot of perennial fruit and nut trees produce abundantly and in this video I went around the village to see what kind of a harvest I could find. I ended up checking the hazelnuts on my warren (what we rabbits call our yards), did a trade of wine for shiitakes, picked some persimmons from the Dancing Rabbit orchard, and went outside the village to harvest some delicious hardy pecans (ours are still too small to produce fruit). A lot of times you only see the planting of permaculture projects and not so much the actual production of them. But that’s where this video is different. https://www.instagram.com/hardcoresustainable/ https://www.facebook.com/HardcoreSustainable/ http://hardcoresustainable.com

An EARTHSHIP Like None You’ve Ever Seen

Last winter I had the chance to visit an earthship like none I’d ever seen before. Earthships are living buildings that are adapted to their environment to make use of climate, water, and waste products. When people think of earthships, they usually think of the desert southwest of the US, because that’s where they originated and where many of them are built. In this video we visit an unusual version of an earthship, still off grid, still adapted to its environment, but very different from what you normally envision when you think of an earthship.

The Craziest Cob House You’ve Ever Seen

Kyle’s Cob House at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is one of the most unique natural buildings I’ve ever seen. It’s organic design incorporates a multitude of natural building techniques that will make your jaw drop. It’s earth bermed, it has stonework, a living roof, roundwood timberframing, cob, earth bags, an earthen floor, and much more. And like most buildings at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, it’s a tiny house. Although still unfinished, it inspires many who visit DR and who have seen my videos about it.

My SIMPLE OFF GRID WATER system and fixing a pressure tank problem

Off grid water systems that meet most household needs can be set up with relatively little expense. A DC pump, a solar panel, batteries, and a pressure tank are pretty much all you need to get cold water into a house or to a field for agricultural applications.

I knew something was wrong with my system because the pump would kick on every ten to twenty seconds while I was using the water. Normally it should be kicking on every few minutes of extended water use. In this video I do some troubleshooting to figure out the problem and fix it so that I can extend the life of my pump. You might have the same problem sometime with your system.

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http://hardcoresustainable.com

The BEST Lasagna Made From Homegrown Ingredients

I often see permaculture videos about people growing food, but I rarely see them actually eating the food they produce. Do they end up eating all those hazelnuts, or aronia, or veggies? My philosophy is that if I’m not going to eat it, I’m not going to spend time and space growing it. Over the years, I’ve transitioned my gardens to just the stuff I’m likely to eat, and for things like pears, I can’t help but grow lot, so I sell whatever I can’t eat.

People make lasagna all the time, but in the US they rarely make it truly from scratch from homegrown ingredients. When I make lasagna I use all the homegrown ingredients I can. The only thing I haven’t been able to grow myself is the semolina in the noodles and the olive oil. Food tastes like a whole other animal when it’s made from homegrown ingredients.