Dean Howard

John C Daley wrote:What is that product?

Hemp herd is the fibrous inner core of the hemp stalk, broken into bits.  It has amazing insulative properties for building homes and has the highest R-value of any building insulation known to man.  It is also used for animal bedding, garden mulch, etc.  Look up Hempcrete and be amazed as you take it all in.  Much like strawbale construction in many respects.  It can be made into blocks for stacking thick walls, panels for insulation, is used as a free forming light-weight material for walls, infill of walls, sound proofing, it has breathability when coated with natural lime plasters and paint, it is fireproof, light weight, grown in most states, and is the byproduct of hemp raised for fiber, rope, textiles, oils, edible seeds, and more.  Hemp is the  is becoming legal in most states, though thoroughly regulated.  Enjoy.

ARIZONA... Anyone finding Hemp Hurd is plentiful, buy you can't seem to find any???  
Sourcing it from other states seems expensive.  
What experiences are you having try to use this abundant, cheap, wonderful rescource?

Sounds like a "ram pump" is what you need.  If you have good enough flow in your stream, it will pump water uphill just fine, no electricity needed.  I saw one on homestead rescue where they pumped uphill with only stream power.

I'm in the White Mountains of AZ at nearly 7K feet.  The first two years not much was happening... This year I added fishing worms, and as many leaves as I could find.  I had hundreds of worms born into a nice rich evironment.  They love the leaves.  It's natures manure.  And, horse manure is magic, too.

I would be "in love" with doing a narrated (or voice overtype) film as opposed to the often "hard to cobble" version with sound varying all over the place, sometimes clicky, windy, noisy, etc.  It gives you plenty of opportunity for getting your best thoughts, ideas, tibits shared with the video as the backdrop, and reeeealy steps up the quality of the movie.

I did surround the hoop house with a 2.5 foot high band of 1/4" galvanized mesh and a hipboard.  Most insects stayed out with this visual barrier, but a finer mesh would work even better.  The fabric mesh on top was a little for wind, a lot for sun, and worked great in hail.  Good luck down there!

Bestt Westernn, who would like to remain anonymoose has on two occasions allowed bed bugs to give my wife red welts... in two locations.  Since they have a nice jaccuzi, and a TV for the SuperBowl... sometimes we can't seem to stay away.  We always take DE to any hotel from now on.  Then there's roaches, scorpions, crickets, grasshoppers, japanese beetles, anything with an exoskeleton... maybe lice?... and parasites.

While the book is full of freakishly fantastic information, I still have not read it due to the small size of the print.  I would like you to consider a normal sized print of this great intro to our marvelous Permies world.  It would be well worth the money and I'd even give copies away.  Knobby Tires

Please capitalize Mike in the fourth paragraph, second sentence.  

I would love to create, contribute to, learn from an RMH database.  First, cudos to all who have spent countless hours doing video, writing book, and giving seminars.  You've done heros work.
There are probably 10 years, or more, of experiments, designs, and methods, all pointing toward an efficient, easy design, yet no one person, or group of people, have created a go-to database of materials, mixes, criteria, limitations, dimensions and component parts (ie; heater cores, heat risers, ceramic "Lego"-type fire brick, or building blocks that work every time... and the 10,000 hours of knowledge available to wade through gets exhausting... I think to the point of many of us not feeling comfortable experimenting on our own.

There are numerous contributors, expert and novice alike, yet no great way to have it all in front of you, in well defined terms.   For example, the occasional refractory cement expert contributes unbelievable knowledge, but those references are soooo hard to find again.  Some have made headway in having refractory ceramic heat risers made in small quantitiy buys... yet I spend hours looking for that reference, or looking for the feedback, for example.  I'd like to see us get to a point where several of us take on building generic parts that can be purchased (or made), and not have to re-invent the wheel hundreds of times over.  These parts can be offered to the public for sale in a common forum, or even an ever growing catalog that is available on a forum, as well as providing info on "best mixes" of ceramic, perlite, cement, clay, cob, with a simple rating system for all the things that make, or break a project, ie; longevity, cracking, melting/heat resistance, thermal stability, availability, cost, ease of use.

How to get this idea evolved and rolling... I don't know, but if we get our heads together... who knows?  There are many experts out there, and I'm not the one to compare the experts.   I would start by listing the 5, or 10 best methods of efficient wood heating for instance (kacheloffen, masonry, RMH, batch, dragons, etc.), then try to simply rate them with efficiency, cost to make or buy, pros, cons, and continue breaking them down to component level parts, both homemade and purchased.  

I could go on, but you can see how "off-the-shelf" parts or "comparisons of methods" would greatly ramp up the success of this great RMH idea that is a pillar of Off-Grid and Sustainable Living.  

Jo Average