ultimate green house, more gardens

ULTIMATE GREEN HOUSE

this is the ultimate cave house that we saw this summer
on our trip to utah colorado arizona new mexico
the inside temperature stays at a constant temperature
usually in the 60s

in a recent trip to arkansas i visited a cave house or
earth house that was being built on the side of a hill
overlooking a large pasture and small creek or in some
places they would call it a small river

its was built in a beautiful location
that even though its just a few feet off the road
about as far as from my barn here at the country n
to my house
its is not visible from the road
it looks like pasture on a bluff overlooking this beautiful landscape

i had met the builder owner and his wife there in the past to see
if i had recommendation about building it
the only thing i had to say was im jealous

the house is built into the hill
has a concrete slab placed
its roof is made of industrial strength metal braces and are
covered with industrial strength metal roofing
which is covered with dirt and again looks like a pasture
its strong enough that they can drive a tractor over it without
any problems

the inside temperature was upper 50s low 60s despite 30s or 40s
outside and that is with out any heat on the inside

the homeowners were not home so i didnt take pictures without
their permission
hopefully on a future trip ill be able to do that and ill  post them

the exposed walls are made of cement blocks with the holes cemented
with a thick layer of insulation over them with an outside wall of
rough cypress (which doesnt rot) and seasons well without treatment

(i have a cypress swing that has been outside for 30 years and still is
not rotting)

there is a large overhang like you would see in a cave which will be
their front porch

the plan is also to add solar panels for electricity and to collect rainwater
at least for gardening and the yard and landscape

man am i ever jealous but proud of the couple for the amount of
work theyve done to make this happen and happen correctly

the ultimate green house

MORE GARDENS

one of the first squarefoot gardens we put in was this one for
one of my wifes shes friend who had bought  their first home
they have grown veggies in here for 4 years

she saw my blog on the composter and was asking about it
so i made her one and put in place in the middle of her garden

i filled it with my country n compost and then the natural gardeners
barnyard compost
she will add greens from her kitchen grass clippings leaves etc to keep it filled
the materials will compost down and will provide nutrition to her veggies

here are my 300+ 1015 onions planted in my new anthill garden or
hugelkultur garden in which i dug down 20 inches removed all the soil
added a layer of cardboard a layer of newspapers a layer of tree limbs and
tree trunks a layer of my country n compost a layer of leaves a layer of soil
then repeated the newpaper compost leaves soil layering until i filled the
soil back up

i have now the hugelkultur or anthill garden bed that will hold moisture well
in this dry climate and is loaded with nutrition

i topped this off with a 3 inch layer of the natural gardeners barnyard compost

i should get a good crop of onions
if all make and since they are all organic i should get 300 x $1.50 = $400
worth of onions to eat here at the country n

sure cant wait until i plant my tomatoes into my hugelkultur garden

here is my garlic i planted this fall
they are growing well so far
hopefully i will have a good crop as i
have planted close to 100 garlics this year
all organic so far
this bed is not done in the hugelkultur method yet but
when i dig the garlic this summer i will change this bed
to this method also

i love being green and organic

the organicgreen doctor

the ruins

THE RUINS
today we got to tour old ruins with our own knowledgeable
tour guide db (the 20+ year old friend who owns the ranch
where we stayed)

he not only knew a lot about the ruins and their history but he
also had the respect for them that people need to have when
they visit these historical sites

most of these sites were a few miles from the ranch
we were able to access them by truck and hiking
we spent several hours looking at these sites
jack and the ogd looking at the cave houses



















these anaszi indians (ancestoral pueblo people)
lived along the canyons of this area
with some dwellings in the cliffs
sometimes in the mid 1000s they disappeared
where did they go
some think drought drove them away
maybe invading nomadic indians
they are not sure
some think they are the ancestors of the pueblo indians

at the end of the day after visitng these ruins and listening to db
we have a good grasp of the history of these indians and a
respect for their society

thanks db

we topped it off with a tour of a nearby museum that had intact
pottery and other findings from years of collections
the museum tour was much more meaningful after doing
the canyon tour with db

on the day we were leaving there was a cattle drive where a neighbor
was moving his cattle to another grazing area and had to come
through the ranch
felt like we were back in time watching the cowboys herd those
cattle down the road

(notice how blue the sky is there)

db plans to build a house in one of the caves above
his ranch house

a nearby neighbor has built his own house in the cave on his ranch
its the ultimate green house
solar panels
well insulated by rock on all sides except the front which is
south facing-gets solar warming in the winter
an almost constant temperature is present from the cave effect
the water source is from a well that is only 30+ feet deep

yep the ultimate green house
those anasazi indians taught us something didnt they

the organicgreen doctor