An Unaffordable Status Quo

In commenting on the "Nothing Here" post Danny referred to dwellings created inside circular steel grain bins. I've seen articles on such makeovers, and can see that it makes sense for some situations. I've thought for a long time that after we move back to our Trail West place, Hiromi ought to set up his pottery kiln inside a steel bin. That wouldn't be a dwelling, of course, but it would be a shelter, and it would be fireproof--not bad features for a setup with corrosion-prone parts and a target heat of over 1000 degrees.

I also agree with Danny that steel bins look right in our environment. I thought of this tonight on my way home from school when I passed a farm south of us with a family of steel bins right out by the road--Mama and Papa and four babies. I can see it already: one big bin for the kitchen/dining room/living room, a little bin attached for the laundry area and a half bath, and the other three little bins for bedroom suites. The second big bin could be self-contained guest quarters. I think getting Jack R. on board with these plans for his bins could be a challenge though. He would be likely to prefer to continue the boring practice of filling them with grain at harvest time.

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I'm told that the ancient desert temples at Karnak in Egypt were built by pouring "concrete" around and on top of great piles of sand. After the concrete was hardened, the sand was removed. That's a pretty creative way to form up concrete in an area devoid of trees. I don't know why Arkansas River sand wouldn't work the same way here. Cave cellar/tornado shelter, anyone?

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In the process of preparing the Rural Roots book for publication, I reviewed what I recalled of Amos Nisly's springhouse, and marveled again at how appropriate the setup was for the many purposes it served in a day when there was no electricity on the farm. I believe variations of this setup were present on many farms. Lillian E. wrote all about it.

A windmill pumped water into the first of three large cement vats, lined up along one wall of the springhouse. The first vat was kept very clean, and had a lid to cover it. A tin cup hung on a bent wire nearby, and anyone who needed a drink could dip the cup into the water and get a cold drink. The next vat was shallow. It was filled by overflow from the first one. Jars of milk or deep bowls of other foods in need of cooling were stored here. The third vat was very deep. Five or ten gallon cans of cream or milk could be immersed here. From this last vat, an overflow pipe or channel carried water outdoors to water the garden via trenches alongside the rows of vegetables. Some farms routed this water to the stock tank first, and then to the garden.

Such a setup would still make a great deal of sense for some of the things we do on our farm. Watering is often needed for Kansas gardens. Pumping it can consume a lot of electricity. What if, with or without a windmill, we could first run water for the garden through a produce house, where veggies would be cooled by water circulating around the tubs they're stored in? Flowers in buckets and vases would love the moist environment as well. From the produce house, the water would be routed to the garden. Saving the cost of refrigeration could be even more significant than saving the cost of pumping water.

At the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve (a National Park in eastern Kansas) a historic limestone house on the premises had a natural refrigerator that operated along the same lines. A partially earth-sheltered stone structure had a shallow trough all around the edge of the room. Water constantly ran through the trough, and cooled the foods that were set into it.

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I'm thinking that building houses and accessing healthcare have some things in common. In both cases the current prevailing practices are fast becoming unaffordable for people of modest means. The answers can't be found entirely in higher income, creative financing, careful saving, redistributing the costs over a larger population, or a windfall of an inheritance. New approaches are needed. Looking to the past, looking around at what is already available, and being willing to try things that aren't status quo approaches might all play a part in providing for some of our most basic physical needs.