intentional community | Dacha Project

July 22, 2010

Art Installation of the Month: The Gates at Dacha Project

LeaLSF buildings, Cultura: art, film, writing, multi-media, DIY, multimedia, Uncategorized alternative building, building, community, construction, dacha project, DIY, footers, foundation, green nettle dacha, homestead, intentional community, photos, sustainability, the Gates at Central Park, tompkins county, upstate ny 1 Comment

The copycat art installation of the Gates serves two purposes.

The Dacha Project recreates The Gates at Central Park in an attempt to bring big city culture to the stix. You can see a visitor, Joe, enjoying the site and the magnificence.

Also we discovered that The Gates- luckily- serve a further function of marking where our footers will be dug. Thx Gates.

Also enjoy this photo of Gals Digging Footers, to prove that we don’t just make art installations but also dig footers. Thx Gals.

Gals digging footers for the addition.

-Lea LSF

July 22, 2010

Progress Report: West Side with Footers for the Addition

LeaLSF buildings, DIY, multimedia alternative building, building, community, construction, dacha project, DIY, earth-berm, finger lakes, foam, footers, foundation, homestead, intentional community, photos, recycled materials, sustainable, sustainable living, tompkins county 0 Comments

North side of the main house with footers and the start of foam for the addition.

If you check for the previous photo of the week you will see almost the same view, but some things have changed. For one the wing wall has been knocked out to make room for the addition. The berm, which is the earth piled up behind the wing wall, has been removed. The area next o the house has been leveled, and graveled. The back and side footers have been poured, and what we see Danila and Joe doing in the corner is stacking block. The pipes you see by Danila and Joe are for septic. They are currently working right by the bathroom. I will try to remember that one day when I’m brushing my teeth in that bathroom with some herby toothpaste or something else that makes brushing teeth more fun. Yey.

The foam on the ground is for insulation, and eventually the entire area will be covered with it.

The front footer has not been poured with the rest, b/c it will be poured with the slab (floor) itself to ensure extra strength. The foam on the side of the building is to insulate the wall where bermed earth used to fulfill that function.

More updates soon!

-Lea LSF

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 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]