Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Closed for winter

Well, winter is here. There's a heavy snowfall warning tonight. Then the deep freeze. We had such a lousy spring and a wet summer, our building season was so short. We didn't get nearly as much done on our dome home as we thought we would. Still, pretty happy with what we did get done. There is only my wife and I working on the project. Must be nice to live in warmer climates where people are just planning what to put in their winter gardens.

Not us, our plans are a little more on the staying warm to stay alive theme. Soon it will be minus forty. Our power goes out a lot here so winter survival is a very real concern. Yesterday I went to start up both our small generators to make sure they run. The diesel started but not the gas one. I think I need to do some carb work on it. I can't wait till our off-grid home is complete. Right now a lack of power means no heat, no lights, no well. Once we are heating with wood in our rocket mass heater, no power just means dark. We always have jugs of drinking water so that is never an immediate concern. A move to using the humanure system means we always have toilet facilities no matter what. We've been doing that for a year already.
  
View into the front entrance
Each full bag becomes a 175lb brick
 The front door is installed, and some windows too. The other holes for windows and doors are boarded up for winter. At least this will allow us to do some work inside two of the five domes over the winter. Its actually possible that the two larger rooms may not even end up being domes. The current thinking is that we may possibly put a roof on these. The other three smaller rooms will still definitely be domed. It's been such a busy year, we kinda flew by the seat of our pants. The deep freeze gives a chance to refocus and develop a plan we will be happy with.
Need to get 'er closed up for winter

Temporary roof coming along