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In arctic conditions, build a house out of stacked straw bales, wetting out the bales as you go. Produces a sturdy straw-reinforced ice home.
Wet out the outside for moose resistance, while leaving the inside dry for insulation.
Pykrete
http://www.amasci.c...mateur/pykrete.html
Use it to build aircraft carriers too. [waugsqueke, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
The Straw Bale House
http://www.ceresboo...traw_bale_house.htm
See also other links at the bottom, including: Beauty of Straw Bale Homes [Tiger Lily, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
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Annotation:
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Use sawdust instead of straw, and you have Pykrete. (link) |
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Once there were three pigs. |
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Along came a wolf to the pig whose house that was made out of straw. "Little pig little pig, let me in!" |
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The little pig ran out through the back door to go to the pig whose house was made of wood. Both decided that they shouldn't stick around for too long, so they decided to impose a little upon a distant cousin, the Wart Hog. |
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"Little pig little pig let me in!" The Wart Hog obliged and open the door, and when the wolf saw the face of that ferocious Wart Hog, we'll he just turned right around, and ran away never to be seen again. |
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Use logs instead of Pykrete and you have...logs. |
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Where are ya gonna get straw from in the Arctic? |
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What's wrong with ice blocks? |
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[pluterday], I've seen some beautiful homes made with actual bales of dried hay. The bales got framed in as with conventional frame housing, then stucco-ed. |
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There is something hypnotically utopian about them. |
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Anyway, The non-permanency of the structures you propose, combined with their cost which is next to nothing, could make an ideal intermediate solution for indigent housing during winter months in regions where shelter is critical to survival. |
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Your idea would also be just plain fun for making affordable forts and castles in your own backyard for sacking over and over again. <g> |
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[squeak], I've actually been to the arctic and sub-arctic regions of North America. You'd be surprised what they can grow there, like standard "Red Delicious" apple trees, even corn! |
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[waugsqueke], I wonder if it's necessary, still, to de-ice Pykrete planes before flights? |
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[Tiger Lily] Really? Well I never. |
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[squeak], I'm not sure what exactly you find surprising. I've added a link to Straw Bale Homes you can check out if you like. |
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[TL] Suprised that *they* can grow red delicious apple trees in the arctic. Do you mean in hothouses or outside? |
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It's true, squeak, the trees are grown outside, not in any kind of hothouse or artificially induced environment.
This is a fairly recent "discovery" though, if you can call it that. A man took to his own experimentation, successfully grew common fruit bearing apple cultivars, though they don't reach the extra large size that can be achieved elsewhere. Eventually his reputation got around and now university funded research and is being done on this and other surprising agricultural newbies to the arctic region. |
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TL! I’m glad to see you’re still around. I built the straw home just for you. Do you like it in here, not to cold is it? How about I start a nice roaring fire? <pulls a bale to the center of the room, pours on a bit of accelerator, and whoomp> Ah, very nice, oops. < frantically swatting at a wall that is now ablaze> Just a secondary fire, nothing to be worried about. <coughs> Kinda smoky, yeah, but it’s ok, it’ll clear up. Do you like the window the moose made? It’s a great view of the tundra. <looks out the moose hole towards the bleak horizon> I wish those wolves would go away, pacing out there like that. They don’t eat pigs, do they? |
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Gee, pluterday, I don't know what to say. I'm flattered, I think. You must be thinking I'm an indigent or something? Heh, I probably will be after I get my laptop repaired...
Thank you, pluterday. |
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//Wet out the outside for moose resistance, while leaving the inside dry for insulation.// |
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With the outer face of the straw bale frozen with ice and the inner face warm and dry, a region of the interior of the straw bale will be warmer than freezing, and wet. This will cause the straw bale to rot. |
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The rotted out interior of the bale will not contribute to the strength of the wall, resulting in the wall eventually collapsing, perhaps before damage is noticeable through the plaster on the inside. Perhaps after. |
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In either case, the result of this method of construction would be catastrophic failure, in any climate, unless the inside of the building was also below the freezing point. |
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“Did you hear about the Inuits?” Charlene asked me, studying the paper.
“No, what?” I said.
“All dead.”
“No kidding?” I said, getting this funny feeling in my stomach.
“Yeah, catastrophic failure. The government made them live in straw igloos, and they all collapsed last week. The walls rotted out.”
“And they were buried in straw....smothered?”
“Just a couple, the rest were trampled by moose.”
I quickly changed the subject to something more pleasant, seeing as how I’d convinced the Department of Interior that straw igloos were the smart way to go. Well, four hundred dead—I really had egg on my face this time.
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Hey, somebody has to pay the price of progress. |
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What about using drinking straws? They don't rot. |
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Well, assuming these are temporary, dwellings made to last through the winter season like an igloo, I don't think rotting straw would be much of a problem, Though I'm not sure if there is a whole lot of benifit over a traditional igloo made of snow blocks, by the way not ice. Snow is a really good insulator Probably as good if not better than hay. I suppose a straw bale igloo might take less skill to build than a regular igloo. |
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You could use lawn bales. (Baled lawn, not sod). |
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