Solar Living Institute

Saturday morning, we went over to the Solar Living Institute, and helped guide a group of students through the process of building a solar car from a kit, and got a tour of the place ourselves. Brian, the other intern here at Salt Hollow had been an intern at the Solar Living Institute just before coming here, so he helped the students learn a bit about natural building as well. It was great to get a primer on the kinds of building projects that we'll hopefully get a chance to do this summer. We have discussed building a wall and bench out of cob. Cob is a combination of clay, sand, and straw, and is a nice solid building material. We even got to see the shower house that they build a few years ago out of cob (see pictures). The one big drawback to cob is that you have to keep it out of the water, otherwise it can erode over time. Brian is really excited about hybrid adobe, which you apply like a skin on the cob structures, and makes them waterproof. (Hybrid adobe is a combination of cement and clay.)

First Garden Day, Aquaponics, and Sourdough Success

Lots of fun work done today. Fixed up the potting shelter and moved some compost from our friend Jean's sheep. Spread on a few beds and double dug the compost in. Meanwhile, Michaela and Jini worked to process the Yucan roots into pickled versions of themselves, as well as packing some whole and dirty in a bucket with newspaper so they will keep while we take our time eating the pickled ones.
They also prepped the pumpkin for our vegan pumpkin chocolate pie for Valentines day. We're having quite the soiree tomorrow, and desert just may be the most important part.

Afterward, we zipped off to Ukiah High School to get a tour of their Aquaponics project. They have three rows of tanks, one big one on the bottom, and two staggered, smaller tanks suspended above that. Water flows constantly between the three levels. The fish live in the bottom, and provide most of the nutrients by eating the plant waste, and the plants use the nutrients from the water to grow amazing vegetables. The plants are susoended in a fliating foam with cocao mulch, and their roots soak up nutrients in the water they share with prawns in the upper tanks, and Steelhead or Bass in the lower tank. The solid waste settles in a catchment basin, and goes to the bio-digester, which catches the methane gas from the break-down. The gas powers a water heater that pumps warm water underneath the tanks to keep them warm in winter. Then, the digested sludge is finally fed to worms.

We could have been beat after a day like that, but we came home to delicious Gluten-free pasta, and my first crack at GF Sourdough. It was soo good. I missed real bread, but I think we made something that is close enough to actually call bread. I have another batch in the oven, and another one on the rise. Toast! How I've missed you!