Memphis Democrat
May 19, 2008

Tony here. April showers have indeed broken and May is being respectably floral with our wild columbine joining the many cultivated flowers already in bloom.

The Milkweed Mercantile got a roof this week thanks to Roger Fox and his crew. We were quite impressed with how quick they were able to get the roofing metal up with the help of a left that got them up to the roof level 20 foot up. Kurt and Alline are thrilled with the progress, with windows getting installed and strawbales on the way soon.

Our ping pong table came out of storage and has been the centerpiece of our courtyard these last couple of days. The kids swarmed over this "new" toy with varying degrees of skill, but enthusiasm all around.

When folks are planning to build a building and are looking for community advice and input we often hold a "building salon" where folks with building experience come and share their thoughts and knowledge. Matt and Jeff are looking at building domes out of "earthbags", a system where plastic feed sacks are filled with earth or gravel and are stacked to form the walls, and in this case roof, of a building.

Their plan is to dig down 4 feet and then build a series of connected round domes. The earthbags form a self supporting arch and require no other structural support. They would then cover the dome in soil and plant it as a "living roof". The system has been used worldwide and is a great low tech, low impact technique for building.

Much of the conversation focused on water proofing. As anyone around here knows, at some points in the year it is wet, wet, wet and our soil is clay, clay, clay. Clay can be a great water proofer but its unclear whether that will be enough to keep an earthbag roof from leaking. If not they may need a plastic membrane but they hope to avoid that. They plan to have a french drain to deal with ground water infiltration.

Another water issue for such a home is our summer humidity. When the warm moist outside air enters a building cooled only by the earth it can get overly humid inside and cause mold problems (think of how caves feel moist). Some of our homes have required dehumidifiers in the summer to control this issue and its likely an earthbag dome would have a similar need.

We had two work exchangers show up this week to help with building projects. Adam arrived from southern Illinois (near St Louis) to help Brian with the cob building he is building. Peter joined us from Truman State in Kirksville to spend a month or so with us helping Liat convert the school bus into an earth-bermed living space.

Sara from St Louis came up for another visit for a few days. She works there on an urban gardening project but still makes time to visit us out here in the country. She has jumped right in to help on the various building projects and her help is much appreciated.

Rachel left for a visit to the bay area in California. She will also be meeting with the board of the non-profit she works with to discuss fundraising and will be up in Napa Valley for a week at the non-profit's outdoor camp for fourth and fifth graders.

Tamar has been up in Memphis a bit lately. On Saturday mornings she is teaching a yoga class at the Scotland Country Rec-plex and this Sunday she attended a recital in Memphis for her fiddle students. I'm told the student's all performed well to the delight of their families, friends, and, of course, teacher.

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