Never seen your channel before and I’m not a sappy person but I had to comment that you’re such a joy to watch. I really felt who you are when you laughed at the photocopier in the kitchen scenario. Best wishes to you both. Thanks for the update as I’m also more curious about how these types of builds hold up.
A new subscriber here. It makes me happy to see other people doing what they need to do to make them happy and fulfilled. Thank you for sharing your transition...we need more of that.
So glad you updated us, happy for your transformation! I would love to see your progress on your dream house! I build my tumbler for SLC from your videos. I haven't put it to use yet, I'm hoping to soon. It is so encouraging to see the great condition of the exterior.
I’m a follower of Christ in the Bible Belt. I’m a complete outcast since I oppose war , violence and all the things that my king opposes,especially hypocrites. So, I know what “being different” is about. Most days I have to ask myself “ Would you rather be you or them ? “. I don’t think a person can be happy unless they are themselves . So, I’m glad that you decided what you are and then became it. I hope it makes you happy. The fact that it angers “them” is just an unintended bonus. They’d be angry anyway. The house Is wonderful and I hope to construct one myself some day.
Kelly, you are beautiful! Thanks for being brave and open about your transition. I hope Audrey feels better soon. Thanks for showing how your straw bale house has held up over the years.
Sweet brave lady I think people should be whatever they feel they are. I hope you and yours stay well, happy and safe. The comments here have given me hope that not everyone in the world is heartless.
You are so talented. Amazing skills. You said you would not build another one and prefer "slc," but I don't know what that is. Please advise. And thank you so much for sharing. Much appreciated.
Thanks Mike. We don't have issues with insects or rodents LOL. Lime in the stucco and good parging right to the foundation ensures that. We did have a salamander get loose in our house - but we have a couple of awesome kidlets to thank for that one! I should note that over time as things have settled, whenever we see movement around the window or door frames, we are quick to reseal with flexible caulking so that probably helps as well.
Yeah I don’t care what people do! The only thing I care about is what you bring to the community. I’m sure you’ll run across haters but I’m not one! Good luck in being the best you that you can be! 🥰
First,,,,, Awesome transformation, blew me away, I salute you for not only the bravery to follow your heart but for the dedication to the lifestyle (off grid/natural build) you have chosen, more power to you! Truly I’ll try not to make this too long. I’m on the high plains of southern Wyoming, I’ve guessed that you are in Canada, I think in many ways we share the same type of climate. I watched the first video of yours a half dozen years ago, my intent at that time was a 600 sq ft, log frame/straw bale library. I think but I’m not entirely sure that I have to give you credit for introducing me to SLC, like you I lost some bales to weather and age and was also becoming apprehensive about the amount of material that was going to be required to cover effectively and cosmetically the organicness of the bales,,, viola SLC. BTW, totally off grid, I have several buildings, each with its own solar system and purpose, shop, warehouse, bar/bistro and then the library. A huge difference being that I don’t really have to live there, my true love has a beautiful home in town so I really don’t require the capacity or amount of power that you do for a full time residence. Anyway I digress, it has taken me about five years to get to this point, which is- the log structure is complete, the roof is solid (metal), the doors and windows are all in, all of the framing has been done with rough cut 2” x 10”, the floor is 6” of cob with PEX embedded (this has taken 3 summers and 12 yrds of cob basically hand mixed and manually thrown, yes I’m patching tons of cracks but I love that floor in all of its organic beauty), I temporally skinned the whole exterior in OSB. This winter I completed the interior in T&G and barn wood, it looks very nice. So, if you can visualize, with the 2” x 10” framing for all the apertures and the logs at 10’ I have all of these individual cells that I will pack with SLC and am now in the process of figuring out my stucco strategy. This is what led me back to your videos, , ,references and real advice in this type of construction are scarce even on UA-cam. Sorry for the book but I wanted to thank you for sharing your experience and I thought some context was in order to express my gratitude properly. Thank you and yes I totally used your design for my SLC tumbler which has patiently waited two years for me to finish that floor. ✌️n 💕
i used to have chronic fatigue too, if i over exerted myself i'd be bed ridden for days, and i had ibs at the same time causing all sorts of bad bathroom experiences. i figured out i was just intolerant to all plants and i had no idea because i was eating plants on the daily. while i was keto to help lose weight i found out about the carnivore diet and how it can help you figure out what your allergic to, or had problems with.. i had no idea is was basically all plants. I've been carnivore about 3.5 years now and i did some bio hacking protocols to up my good bacteria and introduce the strands of bacteria that kill and eat c. diff. and h. pilory. eventually my allergies to plants started to go away. I'm even able to have dairy again which I've been abusing. so, now what comes out the other end is small but normal. and my chronic fatigue is fully gone, i seem to have tons of energy especially the fattier the meat i eat is, the more energy i seem to have. it might be worth a try. good luck with whatever choice you both make.
Yes, we looked at rocket stoves when we initially built and also have a friend intending on building one. I'm a big fan of them for outdoor - not too keen on having something that gets to that high of temperature firing inside out house. I thought about building one outdoors and then using a heat exchanger and glycol lines to bring the heat in, but never persued it further.
Thank you ♥️ 🥰 Currently our battery bank is a set of AGMs that we bought 2nd hand from someone who bought them from the oil/gas industry - changing them out of their backup systems after 2 years of use. They are almost depleted for our use now so we are just looking at replacing them with sets of LiFePo4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries. Same charge and discharge curves but double the charge cycles over their life span.
@@Naturally-Kelly nice! Ya, I recently got my first piece this year in northern m n. I've been slowly building my system up piece by piece and currently have two 300ah batteries, I plan on getting two more at some point. O really like knowing what other people are rocking so I gain a little prospective, cuz even though I've been doing this for like ten months now, I'm still new hahaha I'm currently living in a bus a friend gave to me this last summer and I'm building into a house/RV but me and my partner are expecting our first child in augest, so I'm going to start building a house in the next couple of years, preferably straw bale. Watching you and your families videos have given me and my partner a little piece of mind as we go down this path of renewable living.
@@Selnavi That's wonderful. Something that we learned about buying new batteries is to buy a bank each year. Our original batteries we purchased new in 2007. We bought another bank the next year and then another bank the following year. Each bank was $650 x 4. It works well to spread you costs and build your system...but you shouldn't mix old and new batteries as a rule. We pushed that rule to do it over 3 years and we still got 10+ years out of them. The bank we are using now, we paid $10/used battery (40 total) and got 4 years out of them. When we recycle them, we'll still get $10 each for the core so I can honestly say they don't owe us anything LOL. Wishing you all the best ♥️
(To the lady on the bed in the video) I'm not sure if this has already been talked about as I'm a third of the way through the video but you mentioned that CFS/ME was present. I have the condition (mildly) and I am looking into a self build. I would have help from others if I decided on it but I would like to know if you have specific advice for self building as a disabled person as part of my research into the project. So far the advice has included generic things (e.g. pacing) but some interesting things I was told is to use a weighted dumb waiter to lift heaver things and to choose types of lyme whitewash or other things that could be done in stages or broken into parts. Does this sound feasable to you? For clarification my location is UK, my budget is £100,000 to £200,000 and I would have the help of my mother and four of my younger siblings (though they are all under 18 as of writing this, I am 26) and they would be living with me so the build would be quite large. I will be watching other videos to get more research, especially as I have just started on the idea. So far your Wife's Video is interesting and informative.
We wish you all the best of luck with your build. It sounds like you are thinking things through from a good place but we strongly suggest removing yourself from the physical side of the build. I know it not what you want to hear, but from our experience and 10 years of living with ME/CFS it can turn from a mild case to a severe case in a second. Recovery from fatigue is the issue and there are countless people with this chronic condition that know the exact day they pushed a little too hard and never came back. The other issue to watch for is products being used. It doesn't matter what it is - paint/lime/cement/straw... immune responses with ME/CFS are high and sensitivity to any and all "contaminates" is a real thing. Those contaminates could be just everyday products you are using to build with. Our advice is to plan, oversee, love the project - but from the sidelines. ME/CFS can go into remission for a time...but it can also become life changing to the point that you need 24 hr care...and all it can take is trying to do something a little more than your body is able to withstand. I started feeling the serious effects of ME/CFS in the middle of our build...and have progressively lost mobility and stamina since.
@@Naturally-Kelly Thank you for replying. I suspected that was the case. I may be able to to use the advice you've given to convince my relations that most of the physical side is not my forte (something I've been trying to do for a while). At the moment they've said that they will not help unless I 'pull my weight' despite the fact that I'm already in charge of finding a location, looking at total costs, making a floor plan e.t.c... (I'm steadily regretting asking them and I'm thinking of changing my mind on their presence). Only Mum and the children have been understanding. Thankfully I have time to plan and the money will be mine only so I get final say. In a way you have actually very much said what I wanted to hear! And all information like this is good for planning. Thank you.
Hey Brad, Nope. Saskatchewan. Ideal angle for here is about 40 degrees. Our one set is at 35 degrees and our other array is 80 degrees. I worked for a solar company and we did a lot of experimenting with angles and Directions. Honestly, snow cover in the winter and dust in the summer is more of an issue than angle sometimes. Our 35 array puts out its best in summer (but I have to constantly clear frost and snow off them in the winter. Our 80 degree array on the roof still does decent in the summer when we get lots of Sun, but really produces best in the winter months with that angle, plus zero maintenance for frost and snow.
I've been thinking more and more about straw bale building. I wonder if there is any settling or subtle shifting of the straw itself after all this time or did I just miss where she said it?
Hey, Thank you for the really good question - if done right, there is no settling. In both our styles (SLC and Straw Bale) Because we chose to parge both the inside and outside with cement and lime based coatings, you basically have cement bonding to the straw which keeps the settling to nil. I didn't address that in the vid because I never even thought of it so definitely a good question. The one issue we have seen though is shrinkage of the wood members that we left exposed. We have found 1/4" gaps between the wood and the parging. In summer they are tight but open up in the dry winters. To deal with that we found regular latex caulking wasn't sufficient for the seasonal movement so we used an elastomeric caulking usually used for gutters with much more stretch that fixed the issue.
@@Naturally-Kelly Thats awesome and thank you for replying :D if I get the chance to build my dream home ill def hit up your vids and pick your brain again. Take care
I will note that I think you've done pretty good with your transition. This is the first video I've watched from your channel and I wouldn't have thought "she's definitely a transwoman" if you hadn't said anything. Especially where you waited into so far into adulthood, I'm pretty impressed.
Your transition is great so as an update video :).Are you at some another soc.media where I can text you to get some exact light clay straw advices,as I plan to do some work?
Thank you ❤️ We have a ton of vids on us building SLC. Leaving comments on these be vids is probably the best as then it allows others to get their questions answered too.
Absolutely. Our propane bill (which looks after our cooking stove, hot water heater, clothes dryer and house heating) is typically about $1300/yr. When we lived in the city in a 1970's bungalow, our gas bill was typically over $2000/yr and covered just our heating and hot water. Our clothes dryer and stove were both additional and we're electric. The 1st few years we found some areas that we failed to seal off well (around doors, our wood shed addition), but once we looked after those - no regrets.
We are uninsured, but our neighbors took out a mortgage to build theirs which requires insurance. I don't know the name of the company who insured them, but it went like this...They hired an engineer who signed off on their blueprints certifying that the building was structurally sound which allowed them to get a mortgage. With both an approved mortgage and certified engineered blueprints, they had no issues picking up insurance. Their house design was post and beam with straw bale infill. Hope this info helps.
Hey thanks for the comment. Your interaction boosts my videos getting out to more people. If you want actual studies for reference, Google "CMHC straw bale study" for science based. If you want our real life experience after 10 years building and living in one - ya found it. You might not care about gender issues, and that's fine - but for 2000 people who have followed me for 10 years here - there are a few that might have some questions seeing me before and after and realizing they are still watching the same person. Cheers!
Riverstone Studios / Riverstone Naturals - Organic Skincare I get that but these days it's just normal. Not a huge deal. If people don't like it they can move on. But I respect your thoughts and stress. Maybe a different title or two different videos. For people looking for the Constitution knowledge.
Straw-Light-Clay. TBH I'm not even sure. We have two teen boys who game all hours of the night. We have four computers in the house, and charge cords plugged in everywhere. At any given moment we have I'm minimum draw of 300 watts when everyone is in bed. During the day, we typically see a draw of about 800 or 900 watts going out. I think that equates out to between 4 and 10 amps draw on our 24V battery banks. We don't do without. In addition to the computers and chargers, we have at least 3 motion night lights, a freezer, refrigerator, and our kids have a lava lamp, LED string lights and all of us have bedroom fans running in the summer. We always said we wouldn't live by candlelight...so we just kept building up our system till we didn't need to. I can probably tell you what every appliance uses for watts, but we no longer count each drop of electricity that leaves our house. (We did those 1st few years though)
I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I figure that you'd want feedback. I don't care that you're trans. I am really here to find out how you like your house and any other relevant details. There's so much content around trans issues and stuff. I won't tell you what to do or not do. If you really feel compelled to publicly talk about your transition or whatever, go for it. I'm really here for the house building stuff. I'm not personally super interested in more transgender content. Not because I don't care, but because I've already been exposed to an abundance of the issue and I have so many other things to figure out in my life. My best friend has gender dysphoria (although she never felt like she should do anything to her body about it---- which is her own journey), so it's close to home. But we're very focused on figuring out our homestead, so I'd be more interested in returning to your channel with content geared more around that kind of stuff.
Totally Salem ♥️ We have people following us for the last decade since we first started building in an open field. I've purposely stayed out of the limelight while transitioning, but with that aside, it's time to finish up the build on our dream house. We're finishing up some of the outer work and two of the maim rooms this summer so I hope to get a few videos from that to post. I wish you well and THANK YOU for being here for the content. That's what it should be about. Cheers, - K
Hi Shanna, SLC is short for Straw/Light Clay. Please check our page, we have lots of vids on mixing it. Extremely versatile and much cheaper and easier than straw bale (IMO)
This house is awesome, thank you for sharing.
Thank you ♥️
wonderful update
Never seen your channel before and I’m not a sappy person but I had to comment that you’re such a joy to watch. I really felt who you are when you laughed at the photocopier in the kitchen scenario. Best wishes to you both. Thanks for the update as I’m also more curious about how these types of builds hold up.
Thank you so much! :)
Cpngrats on your transition. Sorry to hear of your wife's health issues. Thank you for the update!
Thank you ❤️
A new subscriber here. It makes me happy to see other people doing what they need to do to make them happy and fulfilled. Thank you for sharing your transition...we need more of that.
Thank you ❤️
You should write a book because you've answered quite a few really good questions. I would buy it!
So glad you updated us, happy for your transformation! I would love to see your progress on your dream house! I build my tumbler for SLC from your videos. I haven't put it to use yet, I'm hoping to soon. It is so encouraging to see the great condition of the exterior.
Thank you Jenne, I'm looking forward to posting more this spring.
I’m a follower of Christ in the Bible Belt. I’m a complete outcast since I oppose war , violence and all the things that my king opposes,especially hypocrites. So, I know what “being different” is about. Most days I have to ask myself “ Would you rather be you or them ? “. I don’t think a person can be happy unless they are themselves . So, I’m glad that you decided what you are and then became it. I hope it makes you happy. The fact that it angers “them” is just an unintended bonus. They’d be angry anyway. The house Is wonderful and I hope to construct one myself some day.
Thank you so much for such kind words and I wish you all the best in your days as well as if you do build your own home.
Your comment seems pretty contentious for someone who opposes war and violence. Maybe you should check the plank in your own eye ;)
@@sitcomchristian6886 thanks. I’ll give it a look over
@@sitcomchristian6886 I got a 💕 from the intended person so I don’t get “contentious” out of the comment. Christ contends against evil as well
Kelly, you are beautiful! Thanks for being brave and open about your transition. I hope Audrey feels better soon. Thanks for showing how your straw bale house has held up over the years.
Thank you so much 🥰
I cam here to see more of the straw bale. Haven't even made it 3 minutes into the video, but congratulations!
🥰 Thank you James
Congrats! You have such a sweet, mom-vibe. I hope Audrey finds some answers soon! Your house is really cool.
Thank you ❤️ We are hopeful that this year will hold some answers with her health.
This was the first video I watched. .. we’ll done you :-)
Thank you for all your videos. You are beautiful, generous and authentic people
Thank you for kind words. ♥️♥️♥️
New watcher. I went back to see what you were talking about. All i can say is WOW sister! You are you!!! Congratulations!
Thank you so much ♥️
Thanx for the update. I don't know how I missed when this video dropped.
Thank you Karl ❤️
Sweet brave lady I think people should be whatever they feel they are. I hope you and yours stay well, happy and safe. The comments here have given me hope that not everyone in the world is heartless.
Beautiful straw bale house and I love your doors
Thank you ♥️
You are so talented. Amazing skills. You said you would not build another one and prefer "slc," but I don't know what that is. Please advise. And thank you so much for sharing. Much appreciated.
Thank you ♥️ SLC is Straw Light Clay - it's German in origin and similar to cob except reversed ratios of straw to clay
Not that it matters, but I would have never guessed. So brave of you to put yourself out there like that! Keep going
The last couple minutes is what I was wondering. lol thanks. Ive also heard straw bale house owners say insects and rodents have moved in..
Thanks Mike. We don't have issues with insects or rodents LOL. Lime in the stucco and good parging right to the foundation ensures that. We did have a salamander get loose in our house - but we have a couple of awesome kidlets to thank for that one!
I should note that over time as things have settled, whenever we see movement around the window or door frames, we are quick to reseal with flexible caulking so that probably helps as well.
Yeah I don’t care what people do! The only thing I care about is what you bring to the community. I’m sure you’ll run across haters but I’m not one! Good luck in being the best you that you can be! 🥰
♥️ Thank you
Excellent 👌
Thank you Ralph
First,,,,, Awesome transformation, blew me away, I salute you for not only the bravery to follow your heart but for the dedication to the lifestyle (off grid/natural build) you have chosen, more power to you! Truly
I’ll try not to make this too long. I’m on the high plains of southern Wyoming, I’ve guessed that you are in Canada, I think in many ways we share the same type of climate. I watched the first video of yours a half dozen years ago, my intent at that time was a 600 sq ft, log frame/straw bale library. I think but I’m not entirely sure that I have to give you credit for introducing me to SLC, like you I lost some bales to weather and age and was also becoming apprehensive about the amount of material that was going to be required to cover effectively and cosmetically the organicness of the bales,,, viola SLC. BTW, totally off grid, I have several buildings, each with its own solar system and purpose, shop, warehouse, bar/bistro and then the library. A huge difference being that I don’t really have to live there, my true love has a beautiful home in town so I really don’t require the capacity or amount of power that you do for a full time residence. Anyway I digress, it has taken me about five years to get to this point, which is- the log structure is complete, the roof is solid (metal), the doors and windows are all in, all of the framing has been done with rough cut 2” x 10”, the floor is 6” of cob with PEX embedded (this has taken 3 summers and 12 yrds of cob basically hand mixed and manually thrown, yes I’m patching tons of cracks but I love that floor in all of its organic beauty), I temporally skinned the whole exterior in OSB. This winter I completed the interior in T&G and barn wood, it looks very nice. So, if you can visualize, with the 2” x 10” framing for all the apertures and the logs at 10’ I have all of these individual cells that I will pack with SLC and am now in the process of figuring out my stucco strategy. This is what led me back to your videos, , ,references and real advice in this type of construction are scarce even on UA-cam. Sorry for the book but I wanted to thank you for sharing your experience and I thought some context was in order to express my gratitude properly. Thank you and yes I totally used your design for my SLC tumbler which has patiently waited two years for me to finish that floor. ✌️n 💕
Good for you on all fronts!!!
Thank you Denise ☺️
i used to have chronic fatigue too, if i over exerted myself i'd be bed ridden for days, and i had ibs at the same time causing all sorts of bad bathroom experiences. i figured out i was just intolerant to all plants and i had no idea because i was eating plants on the daily. while i was keto to help lose weight i found out about the carnivore diet and how it can help you figure out what your allergic to, or had problems with.. i had no idea is was basically all plants. I've been carnivore about 3.5 years now and i did some bio hacking protocols to up my good bacteria and introduce the strands of bacteria that kill and eat c. diff. and h. pilory. eventually my allergies to plants started to go away. I'm even able to have dairy again which I've been abusing. so, now what comes out the other end is small but normal. and my chronic fatigue is fully gone, i seem to have tons of energy especially the fattier the meat i eat is, the more energy i seem to have. it might be worth a try. good luck with whatever choice you both make.
Best of wishes to you. I will still watch your videos :)
Thank you ❤️
In reference to chopping wood have you looked at a rocket stove.
Yes, we looked at rocket stoves when we initially built and also have a friend intending on building one. I'm a big fan of them for outdoor - not too keen on having something that gets to that high of temperature firing inside out house. I thought about building one outdoors and then using a heat exchanger and glycol lines to bring the heat in, but never persued it further.
Congrats on your transition! Also, what kind of batteries do you use for your power system? If you don't mind me asking.
Thank you ♥️ 🥰 Currently our battery bank is a set of AGMs that we bought 2nd hand from someone who bought them from the oil/gas industry - changing them out of their backup systems after 2 years of use.
They are almost depleted for our use now so we are just looking at replacing them with sets of LiFePo4 (Lithium Iron Phosphate) batteries. Same charge and discharge curves but double the charge cycles over their life span.
@@Naturally-Kelly nice! Ya, I recently got my first piece this year in northern m n. I've been slowly building my system up piece by piece and currently have two 300ah batteries, I plan on getting two more at some point. O really like knowing what other people are rocking so I gain a little prospective, cuz even though I've been doing this for like ten months now, I'm still new hahaha I'm currently living in a bus a friend gave to me this last summer and I'm building into a house/RV but me and my partner are expecting our first child in augest, so I'm going to start building a house in the next couple of years, preferably straw bale. Watching you and your families videos have given me and my partner a little piece of mind as we go down this path of renewable living.
@@Selnavi That's wonderful. Something that we learned about buying new batteries is to buy a bank each year. Our original batteries we purchased new in 2007. We bought another bank the next year and then another bank the following year. Each bank was $650 x 4. It works well to spread you costs and build your system...but you shouldn't mix old and new batteries as a rule. We pushed that rule to do it over 3 years and we still got 10+ years out of them.
The bank we are using now, we paid $10/used battery (40 total) and got 4 years out of them. When we recycle them, we'll still get $10 each for the core so I can honestly say they don't owe us anything LOL. Wishing you all the best ♥️
(To the lady on the bed in the video) I'm not sure if this has already been talked about as I'm a third of the way through the video but you mentioned that CFS/ME was present. I have the condition (mildly) and I am looking into a self build. I would have help from others if I decided on it but I would like to know if you have specific advice for self building as a disabled person as part of my research into the project. So far the advice has included generic things (e.g. pacing) but some interesting things I was told is to use a weighted dumb waiter to lift heaver things and to choose types of lyme whitewash or other things that could be done in stages or broken into parts. Does this sound feasable to you?
For clarification my location is UK, my budget is £100,000 to £200,000 and I would have the help of my mother and four of my younger siblings (though they are all under 18 as of writing this, I am 26) and they would be living with me so the build would be quite large.
I will be watching other videos to get more research, especially as I have just started on the idea. So far your Wife's Video is interesting and informative.
We wish you all the best of luck with your build. It sounds like you are thinking things through from a good place but we strongly suggest removing yourself from the physical side of the build. I know it not what you want to hear, but from our experience and 10 years of living with ME/CFS it can turn from a mild case to a severe case in a second. Recovery from fatigue is the issue and there are countless people with this chronic condition that know the exact day they pushed a little too hard and never came back. The other issue to watch for is products being used. It doesn't matter what it is - paint/lime/cement/straw... immune responses with ME/CFS are high and sensitivity to any and all "contaminates" is a real thing. Those contaminates could be just everyday products you are using to build with. Our advice is to plan, oversee, love the project - but from the sidelines. ME/CFS can go into remission for a time...but it can also become life changing to the point that you need 24 hr care...and all it can take is trying to do something a little more than your body is able to withstand. I started feeling the serious effects of ME/CFS in the middle of our build...and have progressively lost mobility and stamina since.
@@Naturally-Kelly Thank you for replying. I suspected that was the case. I may be able to to use the advice you've given to convince my relations that most of the physical side is not my forte (something I've been trying to do for a while). At the moment they've said that they will not help unless I 'pull my weight' despite the fact that I'm already in charge of finding a location, looking at total costs, making a floor plan e.t.c... (I'm steadily regretting asking them and I'm thinking of changing my mind on their presence). Only Mum and the children have been understanding. Thankfully I have time to plan and the money will be mine only so I get final say. In a way you have actually very much said what I wanted to hear! And all information like this is good for planning. Thank you.
Are you in Alaska? Pitch of solar panels is a given away.
Hey Brad, Nope. Saskatchewan. Ideal angle for here is about 40 degrees. Our one set is at 35 degrees and our other array is 80 degrees.
I worked for a solar company and we did a lot of experimenting with angles and Directions. Honestly, snow cover in the winter and dust in the summer is more of an issue than angle sometimes. Our 35 array puts out its best in summer (but I have to constantly clear frost and snow off them in the winter. Our 80 degree array on the roof still does decent in the summer when we get lots of Sun, but really produces best in the winter months with that angle, plus zero maintenance for frost and snow.
I've been thinking more and more about straw bale building. I wonder if there is any settling or subtle shifting of the straw itself after all this time or did I just miss where she said it?
Hey, Thank you for the really good question - if done right, there is no settling. In both our styles (SLC and Straw Bale) Because we chose to parge both the inside and outside with cement and lime based coatings, you basically have cement bonding to the straw which keeps the settling to nil. I didn't address that in the vid because I never even thought of it so definitely a good question.
The one issue we have seen though is shrinkage of the wood members that we left exposed. We have found 1/4" gaps between the wood and the parging. In summer they are tight but open up in the dry winters. To deal with that we found regular latex caulking wasn't sufficient for the seasonal movement so we used an elastomeric caulking usually used for gutters with much more stretch that fixed the issue.
@@Naturally-Kelly Thats awesome and thank you for replying :D if I get the chance to build my dream home ill def hit up your vids and pick your brain again. Take care
@@Naturally-Kelly I have to make a list of these great questions and answers because that was a keeper!
I will note that I think you've done pretty good with your transition. This is the first video I've watched from your channel and I wouldn't have thought "she's definitely a transwoman" if you hadn't said anything. Especially where you waited into so far into adulthood, I'm pretty impressed.
Thank you Salem ♥️
Your transition is great so as an update video :).Are you at some another soc.media where I can text you to get some exact light clay straw advices,as I plan to do some work?
Thank you ❤️ We have a ton of vids on us building SLC. Leaving comments on these be vids is probably the best as then it allows others to get their questions answered too.
What is SLC?
SLC stands for Straw light clay. I have several videos on how we built with it on our Channel
Did you save on heating your house.
Absolutely. Our propane bill (which looks after our cooking stove, hot water heater, clothes dryer and house heating) is typically about $1300/yr. When we lived in the city in a 1970's bungalow, our gas bill was typically over $2000/yr and covered just our heating and hot water. Our clothes dryer and stove were both additional and we're electric.
The 1st few years we found some areas that we failed to seal off well (around doors, our wood shed addition), but once we looked after those - no regrets.
Thanks
I'm under contract to purchase a straw bale house. However, I'm having problems finding a home insurance company. May I ask who insures your house(s)?
We are uninsured, but our neighbors took out a mortgage to build theirs which requires insurance. I don't know the name of the company who insured them, but it went like this...They hired an engineer who signed off on their blueprints certifying that the building was structurally sound which allowed them to get a mortgage. With both an approved mortgage and certified engineered blueprints, they had no issues picking up insurance. Their house design was post and beam with straw bale infill. Hope this info helps.
@@Naturally-Kelly Thank you.
I want reference on how straw bales to stand up to 10 years I don’t care what gender issues you have.
Hey thanks for the comment. Your interaction boosts my videos getting out to more people. If you want actual studies for reference, Google "CMHC straw bale study" for science based. If you want our real life experience after 10 years building and living in one - ya found it. You might not care about gender issues, and that's fine - but for 2000 people who have followed me for 10 years here - there are a few that might have some questions seeing me before and after and realizing they are still watching the same person. Cheers!
Riverstone Studios / Riverstone Naturals - Organic Skincare I get that but these days it's just normal. Not a huge deal. If people don't like it they can move on. But I respect your thoughts and stress. Maybe a different title or two different videos. For people looking for the Constitution knowledge.
@ Forgive me, 18:24, what’s “slc?” By the way, how many “always on” appliances do you have running on your off grid system?
Straw-Light-Clay.
TBH I'm not even sure. We have two teen boys who game all hours of the night. We have four computers in the house, and charge cords plugged in everywhere. At any given moment we have I'm minimum draw of 300 watts when everyone is in bed. During the day, we typically see a draw of about 800 or 900 watts going out. I think that equates out to between 4 and 10 amps draw on our 24V battery banks.
We don't do without. In addition to the computers and chargers, we have at least 3 motion night lights, a freezer, refrigerator, and our kids have a lava lamp, LED string lights and all of us have bedroom fans running in the summer. We always said we wouldn't live by candlelight...so we just kept building up our system till we didn't need to. I can probably tell you what every appliance uses for watts, but we no longer count each drop of electricity that leaves our house. (We did those 1st few years though)
@@Naturally-Kelly - thanks
Nice hon.
I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I figure that you'd want feedback. I don't care that you're trans. I am really here to find out how you like your house and any other relevant details. There's so much content around trans issues and stuff. I won't tell you what to do or not do. If you really feel compelled to publicly talk about your transition or whatever, go for it. I'm really here for the house building stuff. I'm not personally super interested in more transgender content. Not because I don't care, but because I've already been exposed to an abundance of the issue and I have so many other things to figure out in my life. My best friend has gender dysphoria (although she never felt like she should do anything to her body about it---- which is her own journey), so it's close to home. But we're very focused on figuring out our homestead, so I'd be more interested in returning to your channel with content geared more around that kind of stuff.
Ditto.
Totally Salem ♥️ We have people following us for the last decade since we first started building in an open field. I've purposely stayed out of the limelight while transitioning, but with that aside, it's time to finish up the build on our dream house. We're finishing up some of the outer work and two of the maim rooms this summer so I hope to get a few videos from that to post.
I wish you well and THANK YOU for being here for the content. That's what it should be about. Cheers, - K
No, straw bail Is not for me. Thanks A lot.
What is SLC?
Hi Shanna, SLC is short for Straw/Light Clay. Please check our page, we have lots of vids on mixing it. Extremely versatile and much cheaper and easier than straw bale (IMO)