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As you (old stackers) may know I am building a small house for my homestead place. Yes, is a big project that goes slow because I am building it myself without machinery and professional tools. For those that don't know the story here you can read about it https://darthcoincitadel.substack.com
But now with this post, I only want to show you some latest updates and an example of how I literally stack sats with this house.
Earthbags - bought with sats (direct payment to provider) Beers - bought with sats (direct payment to provider)
Each beer can is recycled into... a protection wall. If I already paid those beers with sats, it means that each can can represent 1 sat (is just an example not sure if is literally 1 sat) that is stacked now into a wall.
Each earthbag also can represent 21 sats, stacked into a wall.
Stacking also means spending wisely your sats, only when is really needed. Yes, I am a "beer man", every day drinking beer. So I thought it would be a real waste of sats if I throw away those beer cans. And also I realized (after some tests) that the wall built with cans is very efficient and strong protection level for the earthbags wall.
Yes, this is not finalized wall, it will come another fine cover (plaster) for that "cans wall" and then painted.
Here is latest update: I started to fix in place the first beams for the roof.
Using a simple technique to combine their weight and also pushing each others to form a natural force. Some will say that doesn't even need nails/screws, but I will put some just for the sake of having them.
On top of these beams will come the wooden plates from some pallets, then a rubber insulator carpet and then a small rocks level, then dirt and grass level. Yes, will be a GREEN roof with grass and flowers, as a very good insulator for cold and hot and water.
This is only the half of the house and only the first house that I am building. More will come later, once this small one is ready.
Is hard damn work, because I am alone, into the wilderness, far from any car accessible road and all necessary must be carried on my backpack.
So... stackers, this summer you will not see me too much online on SN. I am really busy and I hope will have a very fruitful building season if the weather is favorable. Will keep you posted here on SN and at the end of season on my dedicated substack with more details: https://darthcoincitadel.substack.com
amazing what one can do with nothing but beers, the internet, and a few sats;
if only DarthCoin had a donkey, there wud also be a brick watchtower, maybe a cathedral;
(My Lunch Break reference)
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If those ancestors could build cathedrals with some donkeys, why Darthcoin can't build a simple house with his own hands and back?
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How I was carrying the big logs, alone... for quite some distance because is not easy to find a good straight logs and the right diameter.
A 4-5m log of 15-20cm diameter is fucking heavy, especially for a single man!
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So, will we know it’s you, if there’s an obituary about a man living in a house made of beer cans in the middle of the woods?
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Definitely once is finished the whole homestead, you will read more about in the news, even that I want to keep it more private for the moment. I do not like people around and "to be famous". I just want to live in peace, alone.
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It sounds like you're trying to build a real life Hobbiton.
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Yes indeed. Is my whole plan.
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Isn’t that house a bit too warm for a region I imagine gets pretty hot in the summer? What are you thinking of doing for temperature control—assuming you’re not going with AC or something like that?
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You don't think it's sufficiently underground for the earth to absorb the heat?
21 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT 28 May
Those earth bags look like they could fall. Why didn't you cross them over each other like bricks?
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Are fixed with a metal rod plunged in the middle of all from top to bottom, that is also fixed to the 4 vertical posts. Also the weight of the beams on top are pressing a lot downward and will never let them move. Is rock solid.
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I was waiting for this year's first update! I hope the weather cooperates.
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I am surprised that now in may - june (as usual) is not raining so much. So I take advantage of it and do as much as I can now.
I need to finish ASAP this roof, at least in a more advanced form that could be used to sleep inside. Right now I have to sleep outside in a hammock and is not so well. But it is what it is, I suffer until is ready.
Once the roof is ready, I can do easily more things. Hopefully end of June the roof will be 100% finished and covered. Then July - oct I can focus on the 2nd part (the front part of the house).
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You definitely need a roof. Letting the sun shine directly on the beer cans should be a crime 🤣 (cans are probably still better than the glass bottles though)
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is the choice to build with sandbags because of lack of ability to get mortar and bricks or for some other reason?
i'll follow a long, I like seeing stuff like this
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  1. Main reason is that I want to use what I have on-site: dirt, rocks, wood. Our ancestors built houses like that for centuries. I even see around on those mountains cabins and terracing levels and paths built with rocks and dirt. Amazing hard work they've done hundreds of years ago and that work is still in place !
  2. Yes, is hard to bring mortar and bricks there. The shortest trails through forest until a near forestall road (really bad and hard accessible road) is around 1km on a steep rocky trail. I barely carried some materials (wooden plates from pallets and some chairs and tables, mattresses etc). No way I will carry construction materials like bricks ! LOL I have plenty of rocks that I could use them. fuck bricks. When you start building a house, you must adapt to the environment not to what youtube video you watch.
  3. Sandbags are very good as isolation level and on-site material. Also the place I choose to build the house was a small hill, that I dug up the dirt and rocks (see the 3 episodes described on substack) and the only best way was to use earthbags for the walls.
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Interesting! This reminds me of this post (#922070) I saw in ~Construction_and_Engineering.
Do you fill the cans with something?
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Yes, I refill them with dirt. LOL one day was really funny. Was quite hot day and just sit in the shadow and refilling the cans in the afternoon. Drinking beers and refilling the cans in the same time 😂😂😂😂 quite funny moment testing to see if I can refill the can before I drink another one.
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For better durability, you need to peel the bark off those logs.
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I know. I let them be there now to not get too much sun exposure, until will cover them with a special resin for protection. This is not finished work.
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Ok, for a self sustaining life I hope you plan to grow barley and build a brewery.
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Beer is the thing I cannot produce there and I have to buy it. The local water is not proper for beer fermentation and also not a good place to grow beer ingredients to be sustainable. And I do not want to drink piss beer.
And I like to pay for my beers with sats.
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That was a joke of course. If your citadel is not far from a supermarket and you like spending sats, why to grow anything at all?
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Is not so close to a shop. It is deep into a high mountains valley. Maybe someday with a drone I could receive a "beer order" 😂😂😂
Growing your own food is another story. That way I do not have to depend on any supermarket to eat my own food whenever I want. For what I need as food, I have plenty of garden place, But for growing beer stuff you need special conditions. And buying the ingredients also is not ok. Water is the most important thing for beer, if you want a good beer. And my water is good to drink but not good to make beer.
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What if, in your old age, you become too debilitated to to go the mountain peaks to retrieve your seed phrases? Will it become a donation to the rest of the world?
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5 sats \ 1 reply \ @anon 28 May
Wow well done so far.
I must say the rooftop garden bed causes me a little anxiety from a waterproofing and weight point.
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weight point - there are 7 strong beams distributing the charge very well, tested by my own weight. Also will not be too much rocks and dirt on top, just let's say max 30-40cm thickness waterproof - as I said, it will have a rubber mat keeping the water out. I've saw it used on another cabin with very good results.
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I’m going to ask a question that I assume you won’t be able to answer, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. I’m thinking about taking similar steps in the future—getting an off-grid place for myself. Considering your whole background of valuing sovereignty and rejecting the state, how did the acquisition of that place go? Did you buy directly from the owner? Did you pay the documentation fees? Do you pay property taxes (we have that in my country)? I know each territory has its own laws, and theoretically, land in your possession shouldn’t be part of the state anymore, but we know the state mafia doesn’t care about that and can use violence to take it from you.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car 6h
This is very impressive Darth, and has come a long way in 2 years. The foundation looks way smoother then I remember? Is that just from walking on it?
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Amazing!
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I think you could gather all the cans and then sell them for their aluminum material and with that Fiat change again and recover some Sats after having drunk the beers.
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this is fucking awesome. keep it up, you'll be missed this summer
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you are too good with constructions
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Will you let us enter your hobbit hole once you complete it? :) We would like to post a review or two and spend a day there :)
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What do you plan for inside walls? Are you worried about humidity?
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Switch beer to water and stack what you save on it ;-)
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Nope, will never leave beer. Telling to a beer man to let the beer... is blasphemy ! And all my remaining sats after I finish this homestead, will be spent on beers. For the rest of my life.
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