SBF #23 Rope Knot Reskilling

Sometimes its just cooler to use less embodied energy.
This is an eye splice.  It is holding a dumbwaiter that is in the root cellar and gives access to stored veggies right in the kitchen for easy access.
Typically we would find wire rope and a metal fastener for this job.  Why not consider an age old solution that is handsome, biodegradeable and so much lower in embodied energy than metal.
While most people might think that in the age of ADD no one could focus enough to actually do this splice, YouTube has some great instructional videos that your 5 yr old could probably find for you.  I'll make it easy.  http://youtu.be/3cZOn-vT0xA
We are trained to look for the gadget to buy and solve all our problems.  In this instance, reskilling around rope knots is all we need to add to our toolbox.
Oh yeah, the cost of this solution - nada.

The Natural Building Companion released

Friends and natural building colleagues of Ben, Ace McArleton and Jacob Racusin of New Frameworks Natural Building have just published their book "The Natural Building Companion" through Chelsea Green Publishing.

http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstor/item/the_natural_building_companion:paperback%20+%20dvd

Ben contributed to the effort with illustrations.  The book is 448 pages and cost about $60 for tons of info and pictures of projects around the Northeast and beyond.  Anyone interested in Natural Building should be checking out this volume.

Research Report of Strawbale Houses in VT and NY

A study of 7 strawbale homes' heat loss and airtightness in the Northeast

Primary author Jacob Racusin
with McArleton,Graham
December 12, 2011

NDB worked with New Frameworks Natural Builders, the authors of a study of the energy performance of several strawbale houses built in the past 5 years. The energy audits were performed by Building Performance Services of Waitsfield, Vt.
This study was primarily undertaken to assess the strategies for air sealing strawbales using plasters. It was also useful for understanding the overall performance of strawbale enclosures and its relation to conventional construction.  This report is important work in the development of strawbale construction for cold climates. Initial results show that strawbales can be installed to perform as well as or better than any other type of construction in terms of air tightness and creating a consistent thermal barrier.

There was also data taken on moisture content that confirmed much of what we already knew about strawbale's performance with regard to moisture.

Please contact Ben if you are interested in this report.

Solar Greenhouse Update

 

The Murphy-Daley Greenhouses are through their first winter with great results.  They are reported to have not frozen during the winter holding onto 40 degree temperatures.

Tomatoes are big on the first of May and the beds are planted.  The only issue over the winter was aphids that were apparently brought in on some plants last fall that required a cleaning out of the greenhouse to get rid of them.

Hot water tubes are installed in the growing beds awaiting a hook up to the boiler or solar hot water panels.  The water tubes for solar heat storage seem to be doing their job adding to the thermal mass to keep the greenhouse temps from dipping to low.  They do not help when the temperature rises though.  Two fans were installed in the windows to the house to keep the temperature down during sunny days.