Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[glenn kangiser]

Put about 2 tablespoons in a glass of water and drink it.  You can sweeten it with Stevia...5 to ten drops or powder for a no calorie safe drink.  Also good for you, you could use hot or warm water and sweeten it with a tablespoon of raw honey.

Stevia comes in flavors also such as Cinnamon, Root Beer, Berry ... and on and on.  Amazon or Swanson Health Products online are good places to get it.

I highly recommend you do not use anything with aspartame or Splenda ... American Rat and Bug Poisons from what I have read and my own experience with it... (Migraines from Splenda, and I never get them normally).

It helps digestion and pretty well stops reflux, etc for me.

[ben2go]

Got it!Honey. 

[Windpower]

Splenda makes a great ant poison

just sprinkle a bit on the ant hill and they go away

[glenn kangiser]

Ants are scared of it... I wonder if it's even safe for our environment?  hmm

Had Mr Ed re-shod yesterday... guess I need to take a bit of time and ride him to make it worthwhile too...

The hugelkultur garden is doing well... with drip irrigation, but the amount of water used is very effective for the quantity used... eating squash and Armenian Cucumbers as well as some blueberries and tomatoes are coming on good too. 

[Antonio Carlos Machado]

 
Regards, Glenn and his wife!
Could you tell me how much days and years to plan and execute the construction undergrund beautiful? 

[glenn kangiser]

I have been working on the Underground Complex for about 11 years now, Tony.

I don't work on it all of the time.. I start and stop and start again.. then time to remodel or work on completing more of the things I did not complete in the past.  [ouch]

Many times I will learn different ways of doing things in the time I am stopped or acquire new different materials so as I advance on the project it evolves into something different.   


Who knows what will be next?... Trying to plant some tea seeds tonight and grow my own tea... that's  a new idea, eh?

[John Raabe]

I think of Glenn's work on the Underground Cabin as being in the Post-Doc phase. He has produced such a body of work that he can now mine his own projects along with developing techniques of the present and the practices of the past. Out of this comes new combinations and reinventions to be further explored.

So how do you separate the experiments from the goal focused production work? I'm not sure you can.

Fortunately Glenn has produced his theseus - which we are now reading - to let others glean inspiration and techniques to try out on their own projects.

[Antonio Carlos Machado]

 
Congratulations to you and your wife! Your design is so unique graceful and intriguing as a home that lives much life as a living being always changing and adapting. This praise is not for nothing, its virtue is that teaching my children the planning and patience, without it is harder to aim our goals! 
Many people in the forum, ask how much you spent, as if what mattered most was the budget, but that's the case as important as rewarding was what was done and what you can do!

Regards,
  Glenn and family

There will plant green tea?

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks for the comments, John.  Yes... I have a lot of the do's and don'ts and better ways down a bit now.  It has been mostly successful and none of it has been fatal or total failure. [ouch]

All of it has been more successful than I ever imagined in the first place.  I simply thought before I did it... "Oh well... if it doesn't work, I am not out much."  The thing is it did work, with varying degrees of success and a wealth of knowledge of what to do differently, what to do the same... what is successful and what is problem prone.  The least expensive, most successful floors.. the best way to keep water out of the house.

I am still here in my hole in the ground, able to live my daily life, and this place is not mortgaged. 

Tony, it is true.... this was not an experiment to find out how much I could spend to live above the lifestyle of the Jones-es, but an experiment to see if I could build something without being forced to use new corporate produced materials being force fed to us via a never ending plethora of codes, rules and regulations mostly set up and legislated by invested interests.... yes senator... I advise you to buy lots of ___________ stock as it is sure to go up when this new law comes into effect.... Thanks for ramming that through by the way... dinner at 8? We can sit around the table and laugh about the poor saps who have to pay for this stuff eh? 

[glenn kangiser]

I have been working on a rock wall at the lower side of the fish pond.  I want to plant Banana trees and use grey water to irrigate them.  I can pick it up as it exits the house then use it to irrigate the bananas and other shrubs making a nice green spot where they shouldn't be one... I hope. [ouch]




I was going for wood chips yesterday but when I got to the tree trimmers yard, they had already had them all hauled off.... bummer, so tomorrow I go for a load of Alpaca Manure... whatever is available... more chips later.....


Ohhh btw, Tony, yes, I planted 24 of the Tea Camellia seeds last night... we will see if any of them sprout.... who knows... ? 

[glenn kangiser]

Well, I got the wall pretty well finished with the exception of a few more rocks at the top of the left side to level it out a little...

I got my load of Alpaca Manure yesterday for the garden and it can also be mixed with chips and soil to use in the landscaping here.



The garden is really starting to put out more now.  The hugelkultur bed seems to be a huge success even it it is not irrigation free in our climate.  The vegetables seem to love it for the most part.



Now I need recipes for Armenian Cucumbers... Maybe Cucumber Ice Cream?.. [ouch]

[glenn kangiser]

Who'da thunk?

[Antonio Carlos Machado]

 
It sure will be a good job!
And the planting goes from strength to strength!

Glenn, you made ​​the comment video of flooding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Lbj6CtX5IOE

It was not a good thing there was only a table and a cabinet of wood, MDF and it was lost. We were not at home and was not much. As the rain was short and violent (in 30 minutes it rained 270 mm per square meter) and reached break 2 ponds for raising fish whose mud was stopping at our house the lower part of the street had to withdraw and believe it gave a total of eight trucks mud. People who live more than 50 years told us that it never happened!!
But if found a culprit in the photo was built one condominium of luxury homes that landed the lands that were lower than ours and channeled small brook.



This could not have happened by federal land cover.
But the law was disregarded and the public prosecutor filed suit in court to conduct adjustment and reach responsible for the release!
But the result was this built a gallery to rain water.




And the result was not found the culprits (one play for each other)
Here it is difficult to see many political prisoners.
Until they are processed for justice but dies on the shell it says.
A Hug Glenn and Family


Glenn you planted Chamomile tea?

[rick91351]

Glenn great looking rock wall.  Good to see your hugelkultur bed is working out well.  I sure hope we can work something in like that up here if we ever get settled in with a house.     

[glenn kangiser]

Hey Tony, glad they found the cause of the problem on the flooding.  Corruption is everywhere it seems.....Probably little justice when the developers friends are in office... same as the US, eh?  [ouch]


Rick, I finished the rock wall top today and hoping to get the greywater oasis going soon.

The hugelkultur bed is working great. I am building another one today beside the driveway just above the first one... of course the first one can be made 140 feet longer too but I want to get the smaller concentrated area going to make it easy to put drip on.  Paul Wheaton's goal was no Irrigation but I don't think that will happen.. unless it is a couple years down the road as the bed settles in, but I am very happy with the better growth qualities and small amount of irrigation as it is. 

My drip tape uses something like a liter and a half per 100 feet per hour so I can do a lot with the water I have. The wood in the mix makes it all very effective.  Veggies growing like crazy and eating blueberries too.

[rick91351]

Without a doubt you will use less  / a lot less water when you have all that organic mater holding and retaining the moisture.  Nursery operators have taken advantage of that for years heeling bare rooted trees in with real saw dust from saw mills not the dry type from planer mills and such.  But the 'real stuff' wet and heavy.  Great stuff to hold moisture and protect roots for the heat of the sun.   

I am very excited to see how well it will work for you guys.  I doubt you will escape completely irrigation but it should really reduce that amount of water required.  Up north where Paul Wheaton is with the moisture they get and the shortened growing season they might make it without irrigation. 

We put our raspberries on drip tubes but I sure wish we had more organic matter where they are.  I think they would double their out put. 

           

[glenn kangiser]

I am amazed at the amount of vegetables I am getting already.  There is much less wilting in the hot sun now that there was without it.  The flat beds I did were good too but these deep steep sloped  beds are interesting and working out quite well.

I got most of the second one done tonight using the lights of the Bobcat..... We'll touch it up in the morning I guess when I can see what needs it and where.... sure getting tired of eating dirt....

[glenn kangiser]

I have been working on the hugelkultur bed for the last few days and finally got it ready to irrigate and plant today.




I put 6 rows of drip tape along it to get it irrigated for planting. 




The first bed is doing quite well and things are growing like crazy for the most part.




Here is a shot of the Armenian Cucumber patch.




...and here are the tomatoes... almost thinking about getting ripe..... [ouch]





Here is an overview from the bottom looking up....




...and here is an overview of the old bed...




Not irrigation free but using relatively little water to grow quite a bit of stuff....

[Windpower]

Amazing !

We are just now transplanting seedling tomato plants -- it got into the low 40's last week at the farm

are those banana trees I see ?

[Antonio Carlos Machado]

 
It's good that seed you planted in the new lines and the banana trees have already given some fruit



Now pictured in the photo are small banana yet!

[ben2go]

That's a really cool way to grow stuff.Makes me regret tossing nearly 3 tons of brush a few years ago.Would you refresh my memory on your water source?I'm debating on one big cistern or rain barrels around the house when I am finished remodeling.I would need eight rain barrels if I went that route.

[glenn kangiser]

The heat from the compost allowed me to get my tomatoes in the ground about a month early and not lose any of them, Windpower.  I would say it was about 90 degrees around 2 inches under the surface. 

The trees are red banana trees because that was all I could get.  They are not supposed to have edible fruit.  I wanted Banana leaves for a Burmese recipe I have and I think the banana trees will survive the winter here though the tops may freeze off.  Usually they will come back just fine. The recipe uses 5x5" square pieces of leaves to steam food in, shaped like a little triangle after folded up.  Kind of like Mexicans using corn husk to make tamales.

Yes, Tony.  Small now but they should grow up to 6 feet or more tall soon. 

Ben, my well produces about 1 gallon per minute .... 60 gallons per hour so that is why I am doing the hugelkultur.  The more I can do with less water, the longer I can go without an alternate water source.  In some areas, 1 gallon per minute would be considered a lot of water. 

[ben2go]

  I couldn't remember if you were on a well or catching rain.I know it's illegal to catch rain in some areas without proper permission.   

[glenn kangiser]

Yup...  a well at 1 gallon per minute.  [ouch]

Catching rain... Illegal?... they'd likely have to catch me first as... I haven't heard the news.... No... I don't think the commies have got us here in the Peoples Republic Of California yet..... OK... at least not on that one.

....

Here's where I got to on the pond so far.....

[glenn kangiser]

Got some more flowers planted in this one and got the drip hoked up on it as well as some of the old stuff today.




Came a couple feet from stepping on this big guy today.....





....and people ask me why I always wear long pants and high top boots in the summertime around here....