[Cob] Pond-RootCellar - A low impact impact home

[Yun Que]

   Cat here!

   I can tell you what I have seen in the hills of WV. So all I say must
   be modified to the climate, the land, and what you are thinking about
   storing.

   The cold storages that I saw on the farms including my own were dug in
   3 sides into a hill. They were either carved out stone or built from
   stone hand cut sand stone blocks. Most of the block back walls were
   bowed in depending on age.

   The 20 freeze line is how far the surface water seeps down into the
   ground in WV. Beyond that it's dry and won't freeze. This means that
   some form of drain needs to be put in to shunt the water around and
   away from your walls. At my place it was a hand dug open drain. It
   needed to be cleaned and maintained to work, but I suppose it beats
   calling Roto-Rooter.

   My back wall had moved quite a bit and was threatening to fall in but
   the few years I used it were great! It was about 75-100 years old and
   i got to use the stone in a raised garden. It stayed a steady 52
   degrees. It was about 12' deep x 8' across 8' high. It had a small
   mesh vent on the north side and it also had a milk trough. The leakage
   of moisture that came in at gaps in the stone drizzled down the wall
   and went into a small trough at the back that ran down both sides to
   exit at the front of the building. Their were two holes for milk cans
   to be set into the cold water. I did see one milk house that had a
   natural spring continually running. It was only for milk storage.
   Pretty classy set up!

   I was told by the last remaining son that they cut ice from the pond
   to keep the milk cold and make ice cream. The big chunks kept frozen
   all winter.

   The top of the storage was not insulated except for what ever the
   nesting critters had brought in over the years but they had built a
   wood frame building over top that they used to make brooms in the
   winter. They had a small chimney that served a small cast iron stove
   fed with left over broom corn and it didn't seem to bother the storage
   much.

   Their were 12 in the family at a farm that had been in operation  at
   least 4 generations. How to store things is just as important as
   where. I found out that apples give way to moisture and potatoes too
   so they have to be well bedded in straw. Even so they don't go the
   whole winter. Thats what the canned stuff is for.

   I learned more from visiting my neighbors cold storages than picking
   up a book on the subject. Just had to take home allot of pretty scary
   stuff covered in spider webs and dust to get the information.

   Hope this helps a little on thinking yours thru.

   for the good of all C.
       ______________________________________________________________

     From: Joseph Puentes <makas at nc.rr.com>
     To: coblist at deatech.com
     Subject: [Cob] Pond-RootCellar - A low impact impact home
     Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:21:42 -0500
     MIME-Version: 1.0
     Received: from vogon.deatech.com ([69.59.212.73]) by
     bay0-mc5-f14.bay0.hotmail.com with Microsoft
     SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.2668); Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:34:07 -0700
     Received: from localhost([127.0.0.1] helo=vogon.deatech.com
     ident=list)by vogon.deatech.com with esmtp (Exim
     4.63)(envelope-from <coblist-bounces at deatech.com>)id
     1IBdX1-00076a-VH; Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:27:32 -0700
     Received: from ms-smtp-01.southeast.rr.com ([24.25.9.100])by
     vogon.deatech.com with esmtp (Exim 4.63)(envelope-from
     <makas at nc.rr.com>) id 1IBdWs-00076R-UBfor coblist at deatech.com; Thu,
     19 Jul 2007 14:27:27 -0700
     Received: from [127.0.0.1] (cpe-066-057-051-240.nc.res.rr.com
     [66.57.51.240])by ms-smtp-01.southeast.rr.com (8.13.6/8.13.6) with
     ESMTP idl6JKLVvR008670; Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:21:33 -0400 (EDT)
     >
     >
     >Wow this looks great. I'm thinking of using cob on my Pond. .
     .well it was going to be a pond and since then I've kind of decided
     to use the hole as a root cellar. So now I'm thinking to put a roof
     on this hole and then cob up the dirt walls. I was thinking that
     "somehow" I could lay some boards to cover the hole and then put a
     layer of straw bales on these boards and then the final roof over
     the top of the straw bales. I could then cob the underside of the
     bales and and a fully finished root cellar.
     >
     >Am I pie in the sky dreaming here? Anyone have any thoughts? Want
     to see some pictures of the hole in the ground?
     >
     >joseph
     >
     >====================
     >
     >Joseph Puentes
     >http://H2Opodcast.com (Environment Podcast)
     >http://H2Opodcast.blogspot.com/ (Blog for above)
     >http://NuestraFamiliaUnida.com (Latin American History Podcast)
     >
     >------------------------------------------------------
     >Message: 1
     >Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:33:10 -0400
     >From: Deborah Terreson <foodandart at comcast.net>
     >Subject: Re: [Cob] A low impact impact home
     >To: coblist at deatech.com
     >Message-ID: <4978484d3a2a6d2bdc6dd4da92061da8 at comcast.net>
     >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
     >
     >Be still my beating heart!
     >
     >A hobbit house!
     >
     >Thank you Peter, for sharing this. :)
     >
     >Deb.
     >
     >
     >On Jul 18, 2007, at 10:30 AM, Peter Kaulback wrote:
     >
     >
     > > > My wife passed this on to me,
     http://www.simondale.net/house/index.htm
     > > > about a young family who have built their home with little
     experience
     > > > or
     > > > financial means (hmmm sort of like cobbing here in southern
     Ontario
     > > > except no money and little experience).
     > > >
     > > > A pleasing design which makes me think of using cob walls in
     an earth
     > > > storage room dug into the side of a hill on our property.
     > > >
     > > > Peter Kaulback
     > >
     >
     >
     >_______________________________________________
     >Coblist mailing list
     >Coblist at deatech.com
     >http://www.deatech.com/mailman/listinfo/coblist
     _________________________________________________________________

   [1]More photos, more messages, more storageget 2GB with Windows Live
   Hotmail.

References

   1. http://g.msn.com/8HMBENUS/2755??PS=47575