Factor E Farm Blog

William Cleaver will be joining us at Factor e Farm on May 1 for a Dedicated Project Visit. He’s coming from across the big pond – from the United Kingdom – and we are planning for a 3 month stay.

William is not a novice to creative dexterity – he’s involved in repair and demolition of industrial chimney stacks and natural draught cooling towers – at heights. See for yourself:

He has experience with various tools, welding brickwork, ropework, woodwork, and general shop.  He’s traveled the world, studied Romance languages, taught English in Chile, and is certified to teach high ropes courses. He is now showing great interest in the deeper message of post-scarcity, resilient community creation.

We discussed the following tentative plan, with both of us working in the shop and as needed:

May – Work on finishing or building Sawmill/LifeTrac II/MicroTrac II/ anciliary implements for construction – all in preparation for building.

June – begin building autonomous, zero energy housing with solar space. Experiment with CEB floors, CEB masonry stove and chimney, stabilized bricks, stabilized reject lime bricks, stabilized brick walkway and driveway, stabilized retaining walls, and others. We plan on winter food garden and sprouting in the solar space. If progress on the steam engine goes well, we’ll aim to install combined heat and power on the masonry stove.

July – continue building until comfortable accommodations for the winter are ready for several people.

We’re looking at building zero energy homes that look tentatively like this:

(Credits: Aigars Bruvelis in Blender)

Here is a CEB floor example from Abe at Vela Creations:

See more of his photos here.

Other than this, William is learning Kdenlive on Linux for movie editing, as well as and QCad for CAD work. These are staple tools now at Factor e Farm. William will begin preparing some of the technical drawings for the sawmill, so we can collaborate on making that happen over distance until his arrival.

We do want to consider bringing in additional help from the CEB general contractor, Floyd (see last blog post). We will consider hosting a CEB workshop if progress is good. If the CEB fabrication is going well – there could be resources generated to really get things moving forward, and continue to build more structures. I think now is the beginning of really settling into the land – and getting the place to look half-way presentable. We’re open to all kinds of ideas, such as the proposed CEB vault construction and others – but we’d need other people to get involved to push those projects forward. Otherwise, we’re sticking to basics and all types of experiments in the process.

William Cleaver will be joining us at Factor e Farm on May 1 for a Dedicated Project Visit. He's coming from across the big pond - from the United Kingdom - and we are planning for a 3 month stay. William is not a novice to creative dexterity - he's involved in repair and demolition ...

[14] Comments

We have demonstrated $4/sq. ft. costs for lifetime building in the last post – based on using on-site earth as a low cost building material. When our CEB machine is optimized to 3000 bricks per day, this option becomes really attractive as a viable option for global village construction.

When our sawmill comes on-line, we will eliminate more of the costs – roof truss members, roof planks, top plate, plus window and door framing lumber.

Further cost optimization is possible – without sacrificing any building performance. If we do the work in the summer, we will eliminate the need for cement mortar – and go back to earth slurry as the mortar of choice. From our experience with the present CEB addition, we conclude that if we have sufficient roof overhangs on the building, along with proper earth berming – then soil around the foundation will be dry – and will become more dry over time – such that additional moisture protection measures will not be necessary on the foundation and outside walls. Plus, we are convinced that cement-dipped CEB blocks can be used as a substitute for rock foundations – so we will also eliminate the cost of gravel. The roof can be sheathed/shingled, and soil cement may be used to fill any questionable cracks. Nonstructural, insulating CEB block can be used to reduce the insulation costs.

The new bill of materials for the ~1000 sq ft structure look like a whopping $430 total:

This is 43 cents per square foot. People, this is radical, and hints at abundance. Just by having the infrastructure consisting of a CEB press, sawmill, and LifeTrac for power and earth moving – we can produce housing at under $1/sq ft in outsourced building materials. (more…)

We have demonstrated $4/sq. ft. costs for lifetime building in the last post – based on using on-site earth as a low cost building material. When our CEB machine is optimized to 3000 bricks per day, this option becomes really attractive as a viable option for global village construction. When our sawmill comes on-line, we ...

[13] Comments

I have a lot to say about where I am, about what I’m doing, about what I’m feeling and about bricks. And no pictures to say it with. So, please be persistent and listen to what I have to say and perhaps we’ll all be the wiser for it.

After two years of homesteading, the floors of our two small huts are still laid with dusty gravel. As a result, a thin layer of dust hangs on everything. The walls are dusty, the sheets are dusty, the shelves are dusty. On exceptionally dry days, when the dust causes Marcin to sneeze and makes his eyes water, he sprinkles water on the floors, bringing temporary relief to his ailments.

The floors aren’t the only unfinished parts of the living space at Factor E Farm. Mice scurry between the abundant holes in the walls, floor and ceiling. A light sleeper can hear them scratching as they search for bedding and crumbs. The one-person kitchen houses more mice than the rest of the farm combined. They do not care that there is no heat in the kitchen. They don’t care because they love the crumbs. The crumbs that accumulate because there is no water to wash them away. The sink in the kitchen doesn’t work and the crumbs sit where they are dropped along side piles of dirty dishes, pots, and pans. (more…)

I have a lot to say about where I am, about what I'm doing, about what I'm feeling and about bricks. And no pictures to say it with. So, please be persistent and listen to what I have to say and perhaps we'll all be the wiser for it. After two years of homesteading, the ...

[16] Comments

Upon the suggestion of Reto Stauss of the nachhaltigBeobachtet blog, we have installed the ChipIn widget here for additional transparency in our crowd funding strategy. At the time of this post, we collected $1144, and still have $856 left to go in the November Funding Cycle for construction materials. We also have $1400 left to go for the 25-hp chainsaw sawmill prototype. Chip in:

Here are some pictures of our pressing situation:

See more images below: (more…)

Upon the suggestion of Reto Stauss of the nachhaltigBeobachtet blog, we have installed the ChipIn widget here for additional transparency in our crowd funding strategy. At the time of this post, we collected $1144, and still have $856 left to go in the November Funding Cycle for construction materials. We also have $1400 left ...

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We have finished laying gravel and insulation for the CEB addition foundation. It is a shallow insulated foundation, made with 2″ extruded polystyrene insulation going down 18 inches, plus 1 inch gravel as the fill. There is a drainage tube on the bottom. We excavated with the LifeTrac backhoe, which worked very well.

We also finished putting together 26 trusses, each 32 feet long. These are flat trusses for a living roof on the addition.

Meanwhile we’ve got hundreds of bricks pressed, and we’re waiting for the weather to clear up to press more. We’ll be pressing for about the next week. It’s really pushing it into the late season, and it’s raining right now. The bricks are covered – as they turn to a mudslide if they get wet. That is one of the challenges with CEB construction, we’re finding out. We’re planning on using stone sealer on the outside walls.

We have finished laying gravel and insulation for the CEB addition foundation. It is a shallow insulated foundation, made with 2" extruded polystyrene insulation going down 18 inches, plus 1 inch gravel as the fill. There is a drainage tube on the bottom. We excavated with the LifeTrac backhoe, which worked very well. We also ...

[4] Comments

Thank you to all the people that supported us for the month of October – our transition to support via crowd funding. The October funding and corresponding progress were a major success. Here is the progress report.

Overview: We are on our way to neocommercialization of the CEB press, starting with the building of a flexible, digital fabrication facility. This building addition is planned to feature CEB walls, a living roof, solar design, CEB masonry stove, sauna, and off-grid operation. The month of October was taken up primarily by field testing of the open source LifeTrac/CEB/rototiller/toothbar bucket/backhoe combination – as applied to site and earth preparation for CEB construction. We also built a number of roof trusses.

Funding: Our goal was $3125, and we collected a total of $2705 in value. The highest third-party donation was $600, and the lowest was $5. There were only 17 donations, with an average of $159. We received $240 in direct material/tool donations.

Accomplishments: This month, we completed the entire CEB construction infrastructure. The tractor, tooth-bar bucket, backhoe, and rototiller are in working order for CEB block production. We moved about 60 tons of soil, sufficient for approximately 8000 bricks. We completed several of the 25 total trusses (32 foot long) for the roof and got gravel delivered to the site.

In addition, we built one Hexayurt, received an insulated army tent on loan for a year, and published our initial CEB CSM business plan.

Tooling and inftrastructure upgrades: We received a miter saw for truss construction. We upgraded our acetylene torch setup from a 150 to a 250 lb oxygen bottle. We installed 8 of the 14 solar panels, installed the inverter, and an open source on-demand water heater for our shower. This heater is quite useful, so we documented its construction:
We purchased a larger metal grinder. We also got a stove donated for the Hexayurt, and a hot water heater that we’ll heat with stove flue gases.We also bent out the tines on the tiller, and added a 4th tine set.Funding allocation: The resource allocation is as follows. Initially, we proposed about $2300 in building materials, and $800 in stipends. We received $2725. The stipends were not paid out. Alex left. Bob went away for 2 weeks to work. This money was allocated additional building materials.

Note: items in italics were not yet purchased. The total resources needed (about $500) carry over into the November funding cycle.

Challenges: The main one was the tractor breaking at the main joint. This was fixed. Weight distribution is still poor, because the front loader sticks out too much at the front. It should be closer to the tractor body. Even with 1500 of weights on the back (dead battery banks), the back wheels almost begin to come off the ground when the front loader is filled with soil.

Commentary: The development path is full of challenges and decision forks – constant, on-the-feet problem solving is required. Nothing, outside of the general direction, goes as planned – one can plan only after experience in an experimental program like this. Demoralization for the team is a constant issue, which I address personally by regular meditation and mind-body practice. Indeed, the deeper the challenge, the deeper the solution. That’s been the history in my experience – unsolved issues linger for no more than a few days at a time, and typically they are addressed either the same day or day after.

Next month plan: We are in the thick of brick pressing and building. The month of November will be completion of the CEB CSM workshop facility – so we can begin work on the digital fabrication XYZ torch table in December.

We are also planning a sawmill prototype for November as proposed before: . The sawmill is relevant to the replication of the CEB CSM business model – where self-generated lumber allows low-cost construction of facilities. This falls under the scenario of decentralization technology-based Global Village creation.The total budget for November, described on our wiki, is $3400. So please continue your support by donating here – so we can bring a revolutionary, open source business model to life.

Thank you to all the people that supported us for the month of October - our transition to support via crowd funding. The October funding and corresponding progress were a major success. Here is the progress report. Overview: We are on our way to neocommercialization of the CEB press, starting with the building of a ...

[11] Comments

People, we are getting into major CEB construction. Today we are building trusses for the roof. It will we an workshop addition to the greenhouse, featuring living roof, CEB walls, shallow insulated foundation, masonry stove, plus sauna running off the same stove. We’ll be digging more soil and pressing bricks the next few days.

This weekend is a great time  people to come and help build. Work will include pressing bricks, and if the foundation is finished, we’ll be laying bricks.

Tell all your friends, bring them along. We need 10 or so people.

Nick Raaum is coming from LaCrosse, WI, as well, on Friday night.  If you know anyone on the way from Lacrosse to Maysville, MO- who would like to come and get a ride, let us know. Nick is planning on returning on Tuesday, in his vegetable oil-fueled Mercedes.

As far as accommodations, Nick has an insulated army tent with stove, we have one hexayurt (no heat, though), and our cordwood hut as the heated spaces. The weather for the weekend looks relatively decent – 60s in the day, 40s at night. Bring a tent

Please spread the word. I put this up at the Factor e Farm email group on Google. Please join this group for future announcements of activities on the land.

Factor e Team

People, we are getting into major CEB construction. Today we are building trusses for the roof. It will we an workshop addition to the greenhouse, featuring living roof, CEB walls, shallow insulated foundation, masonry stove, plus sauna running off the same stove. We'll be digging more soil and pressing bricks the next few days. This ...

[3] Comments

Hi, this is Travis. My cousin, Ben, and I had a last minute opportunity to visit Factor E Farm. Ben has been helping with the open source Solar Turbine project and I am trying to get the earth plaster operation started. Last month I had the fortune of working at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage on a earth plaster job. Other than that, I have no experience. This is my first attempt at plastering inside the cordword area of the main structure. You can see more complete documentation of this and several different variations at the Openfarmtech wiki.

Ingredients

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Hi, this is Travis. My cousin, Ben, and I had a last minute opportunity to visit Factor E Farm. Ben has been helping with the open source Solar Turbine project and I am trying to get the earth plaster operation started. Last month I had the fortune of working at ...

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We have not been blogging much lately, because spring is here and we’re on the land. When spring hits, the sparks start flying with action outside. We’re building Sanctuary, aka Factor e Farm.

The last week we’ve been drilling our well using a basic drilling rig from Rockmaster. On the Third Day, we hit water.

The drilling rig is called a rotary hydraulic drilling rig, which is the most common method for drilling deep wells. The drilling method is like an oversized power drill a rotating bit at the end of a pipe drills into the ground. The difference is that water is also pumped forcefully through the 1″ drill pipe down the bore hole, in order to soften the ground, cool the drill bit, and send drilling tailings up to the surface.

The video shows the water pump, the drill bit spinning, and water coming out of the bore hole. The tailings settle in a settling pond, and water is recirculated from the settling pond to the drill bit with a 50 psi, large volume pump.

Drilling a well is quite an experience. Several points are worth sharing.First, it should be pointed out that clean water is crucial for any community. We are sharing this experience in order to help the prospective builder of communities to understand what it really takes to drill a well. When we were researching small-scale, mechanical well-drilling over a year ago, we found very little useful information – so we are writing our experience with a hope that it provides at least some of the powerful insights regarding this very important topic.

(more…)

We have not been blogging much lately, because spring is here and we're on the land. When spring hits, the sparks start flying with action outside. We're building Sanctuary, aka Factor e Farm. The last week we've been drilling our well using a basic drilling rig from Rockmaster. On the Third Day, we hit water. The ...

[8] Comments

How much is a twenty-foot diameter building worth…made of earthbags? Does it increase the property value or decrease it?

When we first built our earthbag structure (locally known as the “mud hut”), the very small neighbouring town was buzzing with these questions. The local tax assessor had visited us and apparently, struck dumb with the lack of regularity, had posed the question to the local gossip line.

When every house is “made of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same” (line from a 1950′s song about mass housing construction), the assessors job is easy: Multiply the square footage by some magic number, calculate in some unique features and move on to the next house. But when every feature of a building is unique, then what?

The assessor stopped in again today and wanted to know the dimensions of the greenhouse and will want to come back to measure the earthbag building too. Measure what, I want to know. The number of bags? The length of barbed wire between each course? The number of hours that we continue to put into it? Measure how cozy it is on a cold day and how refreshing it is a warm one? Or the number of spiders, mice, and flies that have slipped in through the unfinished walls and floor? Will she measure its ability to withstand a storm or its invisibility from the road? Or will she measure the CO2 absorbed by the plants on the roof? And what about the knowledge and satisfaction gained from creating ones own space? Will she measure that? Perhaps, I should prepare for an in-depth interview.

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With the walls completed on the cordwood addition, we have begun working on the roof. We are using nearly the same method as we used on the earthbag roof:

Each beam creates the next piece in an upward spiral. Although it’s intensive work, the outcome is very satisfying, both structurally and aesthetically.

How much is a twenty-foot diameter building worth...made of earthbags? Does it increase the property value or decrease it? When we first built our earthbag structure (locally known as the "mud hut"), the very small neighbouring town was buzzing with these questions. The local tax assessor had visited us and apparently, struck dumb ...

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