Matthew Andrews Log

Thursday, August 4th, 2016

For future reference:

Julie Matthaei Professor of Economics, Wellesley College http://www.wellesley.edu/economics/faculty/matthaeij Boardmember, U.S. Solidarity Economy Network https://ussolidarityeconomy.wordpress.com/ Co-Coordinator, Boston Area Solidarity Economy Network (BASEN) http://ba-sen.tumblr.com/ Cornerstone Cohousing http://www.cornerstonecohousing.org/ "The Time for a New Economics is at Hand" http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/the-time-for-a-new-economics-is-at-hand.html

Sunday, July 17, 2016

I visited Factor e Farm in the Spring of 2014 to help build the second compressed earth brick tiny home on site. After that I worked the rest of the summer and well into the winter for a mason in Vermont. In the early months of 2015 I took a series of classes at Yestermorrow, a small design/build school in Vermont. I almost completed their certificate program in Sustainable Building and Design. I still need to complete a practicum project, which I haven't decided on yet. My work toward that certificate has been on hold however because while I was at Yestermorrow I took a class on how to run a design/build business with Adam Cohen (http://passivscience.com/our-experts/adam-cohen/). While I was there I met John Savilonis and Brian Butler who run a general contracting company in Boston (http://www.goodenergyconstruction.com/) that builds high performance homes. I moved back to the Boston area to work with them. At first I was a laborer doing everything from digging, to pouring concrete, to framing and finishing carpentry. In March of 2016 I moved into the office to do data entry and that expanded into full time work in accounting. I have become proficient in Quickbooks for Contractors and have a much better understand of how the business works.

Although I love building green houses, the economic model does not break from traditional practices. Our projects are only accessible to the rich. Our clients are either wealthy people building million dollar dream homes, or investors looking to sell or rent housing for a profit. Seeking to maximize profits has meant a shift away from Deep Energy Retrofits of existing homes, toward demolition and (almost) new construction. Much of the work involves communicating with architects and engineers to ensure the building design is clear and meets code standards. A project manager coordinates sub-contractors to do specialized jobs while a foreman reads the plans and directs laborers. The foreman may earn a wage as much as three times greater than the laborer. We use extremely expensive heavy machinery at times and there is always an urgency to increase the pace of work. Learning how to build all the aspects of a house correctly and quickly is an endless process that is extremely valuable to the business. New best practices for green building are forcing even experienced designers and builders to re-learn how to do things.

I am excited to see that Open Source Ecology is continuing to pursue revolutionizing the construction industry. So many important issues converge around residential construction. In order to participate in society as free citizens I believe working people need the security of owning their own homes, free from the burden of debt or precarious conditions of renting. Energy efficient homes are less costly to maintain and reduce our impact on the climate. Finally, I believe the open source methodology of building breaks down the divisions of skilled labor and makes more cooperative labor relation possible.

Although I am happy with my current employment, I would like to follow OSE's work and network with people who may want to start a cooperative construction company using open source technologies and designs. I believe that if we can prove it is economically viable, we could revolutionize the construction industry, create affordable housing, provide better jobs to workers, and bring the environmental impact of this industry down to acceptable levels. I am continuing to seek out people in this industry who share these goals and want to experiment with ways to do things better.

Sun. March 22, 2015

Email from: sk@radixcenter.org

Hi Matt,

It's hard to say whether it's an economically viable model, I don't know of too many aquaponic operations that are actually making a profit. My recommendation would be to start small and grow incrementally. There are a lot of hidden factors with aquaponics beyond the technical components, such as actually finding a market for fish...The plants are likely far more lucrative. Watercress is my personal favorite.

The best book I could recommend is "aquaponic gardening" by Sylvia Bernstein. Best of luck!

Scott

Thurs. March 12, 2015

Email sent To: sk@radixcenter.org, keith@prospectrock.org

Hi Scott, Keith,

I hope you're well?

I just wanted to follow up on some of the material we covered in the Urban Regeneration class last month. I'm volunteering with a group called Open Source Ecology (opensourceecology.org) which is working to make designs for tools and systems freely available. They've already built and documented some construction equipment and a tiny house. Now they want to start an aquaponic greenhouse.

Their goal, roughly outlined, is "to develop a replicable enterprise model for an 800 square foot aquaponics greenhouse for a family of four, scalable to a production system that achieves $1/sf/week production value." I'm curious if you think this is a reasonable goal, and what their major considerations should be for a project this size? I took good notes from class to get them started, but I was wondering if there are other resources I could guide them to?

They are based in Missouri, but their goal is to create a design that would be replicable other places.

Thanks!

~Matt

Sat. February 7, 2015

Notes on aquaponics from Urban Regeneration class at Yestermorrow in Waitsfield, Vermont with Scott Kellogg and Keith Morris

February 7, 2015

Aquaponics: waste from fish used by plants - can increase carrying capacity up to one to two fish per gallon, but this raises risks; the system becomes less resilient - rely on cold resilient, low-tropic, mostly bottom feeders: catfish, carp, bullhead, goldfish - Tilapia is not cold tolerant, they are from Africa! 20 x 60 structure Feed to product (meat?) ratio for fish is 2:1, Chickens 5:1, cows 10:1 Aquatic plants have the advantage of living in a (nearly) zero-gravity environment. Thus more productive than land plants. NOAA predicts total collapse of fish stocks by mid-century Ammonia is a by-product, can be toxic. Convert to plants rather than filter out. Snails treat fish waste, become fish food Watercress, spicy aquatic veggie, don't need to buy seeds Lose up to 100 g/wk from evaporation, otherwise closed loop

[Illustrated in my notes] Table top with watercress on a bed of gravel, over a rubber liner. A (gravity) tap runs water into the fish tank. Rocky gravel at bottom of fish tank (round is better for fish, and more sturdy, but footprint is less efficient). Pipe from bottom to waterline taps out into a smaller tank just for snails. A pump then runs water back into the table of watercress.

Depressing the greenhouse into the ground is good for thermal regulation (reduces extreme temperature swings).

HDPE - High Density Poly Ethelene, non-chlorinated plastic PVC - has chlorine - toxic when burned.

"Aquaponic Gardening" by Silvia Bernstein

Water Hyacinth - invasive species, good for purifying water, too cold to survive cold in wild in North Duck weed harvest for compost, grows dense

[Illustrated in my notes] Flood and drain system A small tank (10gal?) sits above the fish tank. A pump at the bottom bring water into the bottom of the small tank. A second pipe bring water from the top (preventing overflow) back into the fish tank. When pump runs it cycles dirty water through gravel. Biological filter. When off, water drains back. Pump is on a timing switch, 15 minutes every hour or two Good for watercress, red lettuce

***Start on a small scale to find balance first. Don't risk your money going big right away***

Tues. April 22, 2014

We used boards across pallets to stack the top courses. It was too high to see the mason string from the inside so someone would stand on a ladder outside to help line up the bricks. In the shop we continued to work on the carpentry and bring up the components for assembly. I helped role the ends of the two support beams with sill seal and carry the roof rafters up from the shop. I also helped to lift and connect parts of the roof, which required getting on a ladder to hammer nails. The measurements of the top course were particularly important to ensure the loft and roof boards would fit.

In the evening we watched Garbage Warrior, a documentary about Michael Reynolds, who is an architect that built an Earth Ship community north of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The story follows his experiments with alternative building materials, self-sufficiency, and his efforts to get the state legislature to allow him to experiment outside traditional building codes. It also showed him visiting India, Mexico, and New Orleans to help people build homes after natural disasters.

Afterward, Marcin visited the Hab Lab and gave a power point presentation about the mission of OSE. He spoke about extreme learning and a desire to find autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Google and Apple spend more money on defending patents than research and development. Being Open Source doesn't protect us from corporations that might want to adopt our ideas into their products, but open source goals are non-commercial so it's unlikely they will be able to make use of it.

Mon. April 21, 2014

Monday the weather report threatened rain, so we left tarps over the house until about 5:30pm.

I helped make breakfast this morning. Last night I got a ride to Wal-Mart in James' truck. Michael and I picked up 6” tortillas, two 20 oz. cans re-fried beans, 18 eggs, salsa and shredded cheese. In total we made 22 eggs, over easy from about 7:30 to 8:30am. In a second pan we warmed up the re-fried beans and in a third the tortillas. Assembly was just cheese on the egg, on beans, on the tortilla.

Since we couldn't work on the house, Chris told us the plan would be to divide in two groups, and either rest or work in the shop on carpentry until the rain forecast had passed. I went to the Factor e Farm around noon and learned how to cut the roof beams from a template. We used a hand held wheel saw for most of it, but needed a hand saw to finish a clean cut in one spot where we were just cutting out a notch. I also cut out ten rafters with the table saw that were 14.5” from a 2”10” board. Chris showed me how to measure and mark the board using customary techniques.

The sky nearly looked clear and I thought we should return to the house, but it was a good thing we didn't because rain did come for a short time around 4:30pm. Once we went to the house, we finished the top four courses (levels of bricks). We also made some adjustments to the window and door frames to makes sure they remained plum (level) and flush with bricks. Adjustments were made by hammering the brace so we didn't have to strike the wood that would become part of the house.

The best way to organize the work was to have one person stay at the wall and line up the bricks, while another person sluries the brick and passes it up. Bricks placed on the wall didn't save much time or effort because they had to be passed down to be dipped in the slury anyway. Also, it's easier with more work space to place each brick and slide it into the space.

We were constantly in need of more half bricks to keep seams from lining up and finish a row snugly. To make them, the Liberator had to be operated manually. I observed the process carefully, but didn't try it myself. The compressor is lowered, the drawer is drawn out, the compressor is raised, and the drawer is slid back in. The operator looks for a mark on the drawer and listens to the engine work. After compression, the arm is reversed slightly to relieve pressure so the drawer can slide.

I helped put sill seal on the two support beams with a staple gun. Lifted on top of the wall, they were at a hight that was almost my full extension. Once the wood floor is installed however, they will seem maybe 4 inches lower. Two more courses brought the walls up to the height of the support beams.

During the morning, the pregnant stray black cat jumped into Josh's sleeping bag and had her litter of kittens! Over the course of the morning she had 7 kittens. I'm amazed they all fit inside her. We're letting her stay there for at least a couple days, until the kittens start to try walking. They are just nursing now, but they will need kitten food.

Sat. April 19, 2014

Today I went up to the house site and learned about the components of a good CEB. James explained how we could mix the on-site dirt with clay to make a strong brick. Add concrete or hydrated lime. James was operating the brick press Liberator, which took a bit of skill to calibrate. We had an electrical code problem, and James had to play around with the wires and switch the circuit box. Rather than spend time mixing the clay and soil, we just made bricks with soil. We loaded the hopper with buckets filled by shovels. The bricks came out solid enough to drop without cracking. I hope we have enough dirt for the entire project! It's hard to judge since the volume of the dirt is so compressed in the process. What was the point of buying clay-soil if we're not going to use it?

Mixed Slury. Again, just with soil because we will get better bonding by using the same composition as the bricks themselves.

Cut boards for the floors. 16" spaces between boards is standard. Used a miter (table top wheel) saw.

Helped lift grate on top of the other Liberator by the shop. Heavy! It took four people. There was a lot of debate about how it should actually fit because nobody was around to show us how it was supposed to fit. I was a little nervous about catching my fingers as we put it down.

Andrew gave us a guide to using trovebox and Dozuki. Later Andrew also showed me the code for the Liberator's code box, which is written in "processing" language.

Naomi and I went for a beer run. I also got a slice of veggie pizza at the gas station, which was good because there weren't enough veggie subs from Subway. They were gone by the time we got back. People were very excited to have some beer while we hung out and chatted.

It would be nice to have had an Igloo for water and sun block at the work site. I got very thirsty and the back of my neck burned.

We had great conversations. Participants are skeptical of the old economy to provide for working people or preserve the environment. Open Source production seems like a practical way to balance sustain ourselves and others.

Fri. April 18, 2014

I got picked up at the airport by Gavin. It was amazingly convenient! His GPS didn't know exactly where the FeF address was, but we made it without any wrong turns. Chris was in the car with us and he was here before, so he recognized it when we got here.

It's great to have some international participants (Australia, Wales) and an ex-pat living in Belize. But aside from Chris Chou, everyone here is white and when we walked in Katerina, was the only woman (I didn't know she was Marcin's wife) among about twenty people, and she was the only one working in the kitchen. I offered to help, but most of the work was done. She was just watching the pots and stiring to make sure the soup didn't burn. I hope OSE is having conversations about recruiting diverse participants and sharing labor equitably. This was just my first impression.

Katerina said she would live in the microhouse once it's finished. I didn't know that. I still have a lot of basic questions that I hope will be answered soon.

We had a tour while waiting for dinner. We got to see the first building that went up. Marcin said they were so labor intensive that it convinced him of the need for machines like the brick press. We saw the building site for the micro-house. One of the units was already finished. It had a kitchen, sofa, and loft. It already looked very complete and comfortable! Outside the front door, there is a 14'x14' foundation that will be a covered patio, then another 14'x14' foundation opposite that, which is where we will be working.

After a round of introductions, Chris Reinhart gave us a quick introduction to the project and how the documentation would work. He has more details in a power point presentation that he's saving for tomorrow. Everyone seemed excited to socialize. I went outside and sat around a fire with some folks. It's a little cold out, but nice by the fire. It was a clear night and the stars were amazing! We even saw a shooting star! :)

Tues. April 15, 2014

I just logged in to test this wiki page. I'm looking forward to visiting FeF and helping to build a MicroHouse!