Shelter from a storm....

One day we were outside working on the foundation and someone pulled into our driveway. The lady asked us if we wanted a storm shelter. Well, in fact we were going to put one in someday...it just wasn't going to happen yet. She said that they had lived in a trailer while building their home and had a shelter put in. Once the house was built they no longer needed the shelter. ( they built an earth contact home). So, we drove over there and took a look at it. Chris spent a few evenings digging it out of the ground with the backhoe. We called a concrete company that sets septic tanks and they were willing to move it for us if we had a place already dug out to put it in. We spent the next few nights digging out a place for it to go. Then had it moved. The cost of the new storm shelter- $280 to move it!!!  We have to dig out a bit in front of it and put in some retaining walls. We are going to use one of the grain bin doors on the front of it because it needed a new door. It will just have to wait still until it is finished...the house is higher on the list of things to get done!

This is what you use to move 12000 pounds of concrete.

It had to be held out on the boom and then spun 360 degrees.

It will have a lot more dirt around it before we are done. We have to have dirt moved in to go around the foundation of the house and this storm shelter. I will update when we get it done!

The gravel less septic system we came up with....

 When looking up the different types of septic systems, we found that the gravel less system would work out the best for the area we had in mind for the septic drain fields.

This is from  http://www.cleanearthenvironmental.net/septic-systems.html : Gravel less conventional systems overcomes some of the drawbacks of graveled systems. These drain field systems consist of a series of connected chambers that are typically 15 to 40 inches in width. Typically these chambers are manufactured of molded high-density plastic in 10' to 12' foot lengths. Some systems include pipes within the chamber, others do not. CleanEarth Environmental exclusively uses the Infiltrator chamber system as we have found this system to most effective when allowed in Florida soils. Native soil is compacted slightly around the chambers to provide stability and then filled in above the chamber. When placed into service, waste water is carried by pipe from the septic tank to the chamber run and flows directly against the soil. As in the graveled system a bio mat forms on or near the soil level and works to consume solids that pass out of the septic tank. One real advantage of the chambered system is its ability to hold much larger amounts of water. This is useful in locales where the water table can rise close to the surface and in instances when there is a temporary surge as a result of extra guests. Obviously shock loading over prolonged periods of time is going to be detrimental to the biomat as oxygen will not be available to parasites during these periods. " Of course trying to do this build on a limited budget, Chris was able to come up with his version of the same system. He decided to use plastic barrels that we purchased from a car wash for $3 a barrel. After cutting one barrel up you end up with two sections or almost 5 feet of coverage. We ended up laying out about 120 feet of perforated pipe and covering it with these barrels. The cost of the barrels were around $70 and the pipe to lay in it was around $300. The holding tank itself is a poly tank that Chris found on Craigslist for $300. We were able to dig the trenches with the backhoe attachment on the tractor but were not able to dig the hole for the tank itself. The neighbor happens to have a backhoe and is willing to dig the hole for the tank in exchange for a frame to an RV that we had. So we should have a cost of less than $700 for our septic system, as long as the neighbor shows up with his backhoe. HOW THE BARRELS WORKED...

We took the barrels and marked the hole that the pipe would go through when we cut it in half.

We then used a sawzall to cut the barrels in half and a jigsaw to cut out the area for the pipe.

Then the bottom is cut out .

The end that was cut off is then attached to the center for support.

This is what the barrels look like when they are done.

We then dug a trench with the tractor and took a lazer level to make sure it was all level and started laying out the perforated pipe.

This is the pipe at the end to join the next section. It is a solid pipe and will not have barrels over it. The trenches that we dug make a back and forth pattern with the solid sections on opposite ends each time. This is the barrel being buried. We added another to the row after this picture. The barrels overlap by about half and are screwed together to hold them in place.

 
 

Black water/grey water split plumbing

Running the plumbing for the house. There will be four full baths so there is quite a bit of plumbing to do. The four inch pipes will run the black water( water from the toliet) and it will end up in the septic system. The rest of the water, grey water, will run through the 2 inch pipe and be sent to a well that is currently not used. The grey water will be stored there and used later to water plants.

Just a closer view of how the black and grey water are split.  "graywater is household waste water from all plumbing fixtures except toilet and garbage disposal, which is blackwater. Rural homeowners with individual sewage disposal septic systems commonly divert at least their washing machine water away from the septic tank. The longer your septic tank has time to settle out solids, the better. And the less bacteria killing soaps and detergents in your septic tank, the better. Diverting graywater also reduces the load carried by your septic system leach field, greatly extending its life expectancy and effectiveness. In recent years, attention has been drawn to recycling graywater to conserve water and make better use of its fertilizer potential. Phosphate rich soaps and cleaning chemicals are considered pollutants when discharged directly into waterways, primarily because they accelerate algae growth, which in turn leads to oxygen depletion for fish and other marine life. The beauty of this 'pollutant problem' is the fact that mild household cleaning supplies are excellent sources of nutrition as liquid fertilizer for irrigation of trees, privacy hedge rows, and ornamental planterbeds." (https://www.thenaturalhome.com/greywater.html)

This shows where the grey water will be diverted out to the left of the two trees will be the holding tank for the grey water.

To get the fall needed for the black water we had to dig down quite a bit because of the distance from one side to the other.

So, after the plumbing was set and we ran pipe for the electric to go through( because the floor will be concrete), we got to move about 8 ton of 3/4 inch rock into the circle. That was far from fun but at least we had some equipment to help us out.

We have only filled one of the circles so far. Our plan is to fill them with rock and then put up the grain bins. After the grain bins are up we will fill in the other areas with rock ( about 4 inches throughout). Eventually we will get to the rebar and radiant floor tubing that will run in all of the main floor of the house, and then comes the concrete.

Phase two of the tire footing...

After leveling the ground some we started the process of building forms for the concrete that will sit on top of the buried tires. To make the stakes for the forms, my brother-in-law Cale, came up with the idea of using leftover pieces of conduit that were cut by electricians on one of the jobsites Chris was working on. The leftover 2 feet of conduit are usually thrown away. There were enough to make most of the concrete stakes. We ended up having to buy a couple of sticks of conduit from the hardware store and that cost around $30. The pieces were cut into 2 foot pieces, two holes were drilled into the conduit to be able to attach them with screws to the boards that make up the forms, and the bottom was cut at an angle to be able to hammer it into the ground easier.

In this picture you can see that the size of the concrete beam that we will pour is not exactly equal in size to the tires.

Bending the forms around the curves of the grain bin was not easy. We had to use two 1/2 in boards because there was no way to bend an 1 board around that curve. The wood came from a pile at an auction ( we paid $5 for the whole pile because some of the boards were broken or molding) it was not the best quality wood but worked just fine for what we needed. It was only going to hold concrete and then be torn off and burned.

On the straight portions we were able to use 2x8 's, that we did save to re-use on other projects later.

We were able to get two piles of these sticks of rebar (already cut to the right length even) at an auction for $25 a  stack.

We had to drive sticks of rebar into the tires before pouring the concrete. The recommendation was to put one every two feet, we put them every  foot. When able to, we drove them into the tread of the tire. We found out quickly that it is tough to do. We had to weld a piece of rebar to make a T and then sharpen the end to pierce the tread by pounding it in with a sledge hammer. We then pulled that piece out and hammered in the straight piece of rebar that stayed in. If we put the rebar T in too far into the tire, we could not pull it back out and we had to manufacture a couple more of them because of this.

There is concrete!!!

10 yards of concrete delivered by two trucks. One of the trucks got stuck and they had to call a second truck to come and pull the first one out. It cost about $1000 for all the concrete footing.

Recycling a barn

Chris was looking on Craigslist one day ( what am I saying he looks on Craigslist EVERYDAY) and ran across an add for barn wood. You paid the guy $500 and you could have all the pieces of the barn you wanted,but you had to take it down. So we found out it was a few miles from where we are and thought this was the best chance to get the barn wood we wanted and the tin. Chris' plan is to put the barn wood on the ceiling of the kitchen covering it, put old rusty tin on the living room ceiling ( it will be a vaulted ceiling and reach 16 ft at the peak). We would have loved to get some of the old beams BUT it was too dangerous at this point. The people who own the property said that once they pull it the rest of the way down they would call us to see if we could salvage some beams. We did get several old doors from inside the barn and a few from the exterior. It ended up taking us 3 trips with a loaded 16 foot trailer to haul our treasures. We were able to leave the barn looking like the following pictures in 1 day and 2 evenings of work.

Some of the exterior wood was not worth trying to save.

As a bonus they had a windmill that had fallen over a building and we got it thrown in the deal. I am SO excited about this! I have always wanted a windmill, I did grow up in Kansas after all and it should be required to have one at least once in your life.

She's a little bent but can still be used. We found a place online to order parts for old windmills. Chris has looked into using this as our wind power and is looking into was to convert it to make power for the house. One way is to change the ratio on the turning gears but Hunter and Chris also think that a PTO driven generator ( used on tractors) might be an easier way to make it work for creating usable energy. We shall see. Of course then Chris says if he can't make that work...won't it make an awesome ceiling fan! ( Not kidding he would do it too)

The pile of wood we were able to get.

This is one of the small piles of tin. We were able to get about 150 sheets total.

These are the doors. The big one is from the very top of the barn where they put hay in. The small open gates were in the barn and the other solid small doors were a Dutch style door on the outside. ( those I would like to use to make storage under the stairwell.) If we can't figure out something to do with them int he house I'm sure we can use them in our barn.
We also got a bunch of milled wood from my mom's house. She had a huge oak tree in her front yard loose every branch on it so the tree had to be cut down. Mom had a fiend with a mill and he cut it in slabs to use as the stair treads in the house. The tree measured 44 inches across so we have lots of wood from it. We had thought of making our counter tops for the kitchen out of that same wood but found out it is a pin oak and has too many tiny cracks for that purpose.

Just to mention it....Chris and some of my family members built a gazebo at our family cemetery in honor of my dad. It was made from Locust trees that were cut from my uncle's property and slabs of cedar cut locally were milled to make a bench. I just think it is really neat and we are going to repeat some of the style on the front of our house. ( Plus I just have to show you how creative Chris can be)

Tires everywhere

When we started researching tire foundations we came across many videos on youtube and various other sites. The most helpful site was http://earthship.com/Earthship-Designs/tire-building-code.html because it got more into the details that were needed to do it the right way and the codes involved.  

We dug a trench three foot deep to set the tires in. Chris laid it all out with a builders level before we started digging. Once we started, we found out that there had been an old barn on that same site that had burned and the previous owners had buried it. We had to dig out a ton of trash leftover from the old barn.

Just more pictures of the trench. We picked up tires from a friend of ours who owns a tire shop. He let us pick through his pile of tires that he had to recycle.We ended up with too many BUT we have plans for a root cellar that we will be able to use them on.

Laying out the first row of tires. There will be three rows staggered on top of one another. You have to fill them with dirt, take a sledge hammer and pound it under the lip of the tire,fill some more,pound some more...until the tire does not give under your weight. It takes way more dirt and pounding then I ever thought it would. About 15-30 minutes a tire. ( we put over 400 in the ground)

This saved our backs from all the digging anyway!!

The third row of tires. You fill in with dirt around the sides and compact it too. We did put a laser level on each row to make sure it was in line the whole time.( It still was not perfect but pretty close!)

On of our helpers, she liked to go "dig for treasure" because we kept finding stuff buried in the dirt.

The final row and filling in the gaps.

We started the tires in August and finished in November. With only two (maybe three) people working on weekends and evenings when we could. Most of the time the weather would not cooperate. It was 100 plus degrees or raining it seemed every time we wanted to work on it.