dacha project | Dacha Project

April 18, 2010

Recycled Wine Bottles Add Good Churchy Feeling

LeaLSF buildings, DIY, reclaimed materials building, dacha project, DIY, finger lakes, gorges, homestead, passive light fixtures, reclaimed materials, recycled materials, reused materials for building, reused wine bottle, southern tier, wine bottle light 0 Comments

Visitors beware when you step inside the Dacha Haus you’ll see colors and glowing orbs. While not quite the illumination of the divine, all hail the awesome sun as it catches the diffused color of all-dry-now wine bottles.

Yes, after seeing many pictures on homestead blogs and in straw bale building books, we have joined a movement of people using recycled wine bottle as passive energy light fixtures.

We’re just at the beginning stages of this, but these photos are cool! For more visit my flickr Dacha Project set.

-LSF

Marina plugs up wine bottle-sized holes in the oh-no-zone layer (our insulation) with wine bottles.

Wine bottles! Cut in half, with the bottoms of each bottle tuct taped together and fitted into a wall.

April 6, 2010

Earth-bermed, passive solar Common House .vs. Snowmaggedon 2010

LeaLSF buildings, DIY, Uncategorized alternative building, building, dacha project, DIY, earth-berm, eco buidling, finger lakes, fingerlakes, gorges, green nettle dacha, homestead, intentional community, ithaca, photos, snowmaggedon, solar passive, sustainability, sustainable, sustainable living, tompkins county, windows 1 Comment

Before we forget how awesome the Dacha Haus Part One preformed in Winter ’10 here are a couple of photos of February. They are also to remind this summer’s building crew that as we build Dacha Haus Part Deux a winter in the Southern Tier is no joke, but that we got it on lock down!

-LSF

All photos by Joe Fisher.

The key to solar passive is full frontage windows facing the south. They are placed at such a height that the house gets direct sunlight in the winter and indirect sunlight in the summer. This technique works around the sun's busy but well-established and much preferred primordial travel schedule- that is low in the sky during winter and high as a pie in the summer. The placement and size of the windows optimizes for maximum comfort, while minimizing energy use.

Danila and I are in shock that the Common House is so warm (see below) when outside it is like 18 degrees F! The snowbank behind us is caused by snowmagedden falling off the hell roof and onto the front field. I'm just back from Mexico, and feeling like this is warm enuf but where's the coconut tree?

March 30, 2010

Old Barn Boards Meet Restoration

LeaLSF buildings, DIY, reclaimed materials, Uncategorized barn board, ceiling, dacha project, DIY, eco, fingerlakes, gorges, hardwood, homestead, ithaca, recycled materials, refurbishing, reuse, sanding 2 Comments

We purchased some old for-cheap barn boards from the Fingerlakes Reuse Center to throw up as the ceiling of the straw bale cottage we built. Check out what some sanding and polyurethane and/or linseed oiling can do to a board. Will post photos of completed ceiling when that happens.

-LSF

March 24, 2010

Straw Bale Hijinks

LeaLSF buildings, DIY, Uncategorized, video alternative building, bale, building, cabin, cottage, dacha project, DIY, eco-friendly, film, fingerlakes, gorges, homestead, southern tier, straw, strawbale, sustainable building, video 0 Comments

The Dacha Project presents a short by Lea LSF. Starring Joe Fisher-Price, Danilatron & Lea LSF. For more info visit. dachaproject.com.

Strawbale Hijinks- A near silent comedy about the countless opportunities to act like a monkey one can miss if they choose not to build a straw bale cottage. Critically acclaimed as the must see monkey short of this fiscal year. Sponsorships welcome.

-LSF

[vimeo 10397150]

July 23, 2009

For Ten Dollars, a Bag of Clay

LeaLSF buildings, DIY, video alternatives, bank, building, community, construction, contest, cottage, credit union, dacha project, DIY, earthen plaster, entry, finger lakes, ithaca, shack, shed, straw bale, strawbale, stucco, teaching, tompkins, top coat, truth window, video, workshop 3 Comments

Here is our video entry into the Pay It Forward Contest, held by our local Alternatives Federal Credit Union.

Alternatives gave out ten dollars to whoever wanted it, and those people were supposed to give it to someone else in the community, an organization or an individual.Then, the giver of the ten dollars is encouraged to make a video or write an essay about their recipient, and in it illustrate what they can do with it that would benefit the community. Afterwards! A committee at Alternatives picks ten or so videos they like the best, and set them loose into the public, where anyone can vote on which entry they think should get the grand prize-oh- $500.

Taking advantage of some beautiful footage our friend Shira took of us, plus friends, plastering the straw bale cottage, I put together this doo-hickey.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKYrn9NQ9O0&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_profilepage&fs=1]

June 18, 2009

The Dacha Gets Plastered

russiandollfigure buildings, Uncategorized alternative, alternatives to vinyl siding, building, cottage, dacha project, earthen plaster, finger lakes, group, homestead, lime, photos, shed, straw bale, strawbale, stucco, sustainable, tompkins county 0 Comments

Since our straw bale shed has been upgraded to the “Winter Palace,” it is time to plaster the structure and to fossilize our work for future archeological findings. We put on our clay covered uniforms and head out to work. Our main sources of power for mixing the sand, straw and clay are our hands and feet. And to prove that there really is straw under all those layers of plaster, we built a truth window.

The Truth Window

March 12, 2009

Sponsor a Fruit or Nut Tree and Reap the Harvest

LeaLSF garden dacha project, downstate, fingerlake, fruit, fundraiser, green nettle dacha, intentional community, nut, ny, plant, planting an orchard, raising money, sponsor a tree, sustainable living, tree 0 Comments

Dear Friends, Family and Patrons of the The Dacha Project’s Blog,

It is hard to believe that spring is right around the corner, especially when it is five degrees outside as we’re writing this. Still, experience tells us that grasses will bloom and the birds will come home, and that not all is lost to the ruthless ravages of winter.

How about this one is it a fruit or nut tree? I'm afraid its neither a fruit or nut. Moving Photo by Liz K, 2008

How about this one is it a fruit or nut tree? I'm afraid neither. Moving Photo by Liz K, 2008

Here, at the Dacha Project in downstate, NY there is nothing more we look forward to than the coming of the May sun. This spring, after the earth thaws, the Dacha Six will break ground on the building of a large common house. We know that we will be busy bees with the sustainable building and all, and that every last cent of our funds will go to buttoning up the building before winter comes again, but we hate to miss the earliest opportunity we have to plant an orchard of fruit and nut trees.

We’re writing you with a special request and offer: SPONSOR A FRUIT OR NUT TREE OF YOUR CHOICE FOR JUST $20 (or as much as you can contribute), AND REAP THE HARVEST….in only four to six years.

March 12, 2009

Winter Palace Pt 4- Frame by Frame

LeaLSF Uncategorized building, dacha project, DIY, finger lakes, framing, green nettle dacha, intentional community, region, stick frame, straw bale, strawbale, sustainable living, tompkins county, video 1 Comment

Filmed in September 2008, edited some time later by Lily G, and myself. Please enjoy, “Frame by Frame” the framing of our straw bale cottage. This short film is a moving after school special about some folk who engage on a journey of building a stick frame only to find themselves doing just that.

Next to come: Winter Palace Pt 5- Stacking Straw Bricks and Goofing Around, a thrilling drama showing the real life context around the building of straw bale walls.

[vimeo 3583444]