Archives for Oct,2008

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Factor e Farm Winter CEB Convergence – This Weekend

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...

An apple a day

 Last year, local fruit was a specialty item.  A hard frost killed nearly all the spring blossoms.  The only place I could find apples was at a commercial orchard.  They estimated that 90 percent of their crop had been killed by the frost....

Biodiesel

After rain and more rain, a sunny day was warmly welcomed by all. Yama (our dog)  sunbathed. The chickens ate an extra helping of weed seed. And we made biodiesel. Actually, I continued diligently on soldering, caulking, and trimming the solar panels....

CEB Proposal – Community Supported Manufacturing

We have released v0.1 of the OSE CEB Proposal, which is a summary of our product release plan for the CEB press. This helps put the entire CEB project in perspective to supporters. The abstract reads: Herein we provide a short overview of the Open Source...

Seasons

The calendar tells us there are four seasons. Our friend Bob claims there are two: crock pot and barbecue. The first fall frost came on October 15, the night after the full moon. I’ve heard that the weather is coldest at the full moon.  The cloudy...

Open Source Tooth Bar Bucket: LifeTrac Sinks Its Teeth In the Ground

Digging with the tooth bar bucket on LifeTrac was a major success. We’ve already described the open source tooth bar in a previous post. Here is the tooth-barred bucket in action. We have fixed minor problems with LifeTrac, including a frame that...

Factor E Live Summer Bonus Addition

What do you do when your family visits? We put up a silo. Here is the footage my brother Andy put together of the house tour and silo experience this summer. It’s out of line in time – but it’s the most entertaining that I’ve seen...

Lacto-fermentation

Kimchi: Lacto-fermented vegetables are not sold in my local grocery store. They are hardly sold in any grocery store. And if you do find them, they are in that obscure “healthy foods” section. What does that mean anyway? That the rest of the...

Backhoe Breaks Ground

The open source backhoe is complete. Check out the finished product as attached on our open source tractor: Field testing showed some explosive news. See for yourself: I ran over to Sweiger Shop right after, to get a larger shaft. The store was closed...

Breakthroughs: Teeth and Other

Because LifeTrac has difficulty digging clayey soil for CEB bricks – we added breakthrough teeth. Pun intended. LifeTrac is a toothless granddaddy no more. Now the digging bucket will munch the ground up like cotton candy. Field testing is forthcoming....