DUGOUTS AND SOD HOUSES-HOW TO BUILD THEM.
Excerpted from the July, 1911 issue of Hunter-Trapper-Trader magazine
I got wise with them in the old days on the prairies of Iowa and Minnesota, by seeing the first settlers of land make them. The first one I ever saw was made by a trapper on the upper Sioux River when I was freighting in that country in the late seventies.
In the first place you must select the place which should be a dry sandy knoll and the south side of it. The tools required will be just a common old pick and shovel, also ax. You can make it larger or smaller according to the number of people, but for two men one 12×13 feet will do, If you do not have too much duffle and stuff. Having selected your place, drift into the bank 12 feet by IS feet wide and cut the bank or sides a little sloping instead of straight up and down, and throw the dirt out in front on the downhill side. Now build up in front log house fashion, or with sod and leaves, two openings for windows and one for a door. In the sod or logs, you can line the walls with rosin paper If you can get it, if not, with poles and grass, or they will do very well if not lined at all.
Now for the roof; and this is very Important. Cut long straight poles and lay them across lengthways, having a piece four inches in diameter lying across the center of the roof to strengthen the roof in the center. You need not bother about pitch of the roof, although a little would not hurt. Now lay on your poles straight and close, then lay on your prairie or slough grass eight inches deep. Now a layer of sod and another layer of grass and last another layer of sod well fitted together, then a layer of dirt.
Some of the old timers used to lay an eight-inch log through the center on top of the first layer of poles and grass, and then lay poles and sod, leaving the center log serve as a pitch for the roof. If such a roof leaks I have never seen it, and I have seen them stand some very hard rains. Now dig a trench V-shaped on the uphill side to turn any water that would run down the hill onto your roof, and you have got a very good home.
Now for the fireplace: In the back part dig out a square hole back 24 inches deep and 30 inches wide by 24 high, more or less, to suit circumstances. Now dig out a hole in the back end, say one foot back, and dig one from the outside to meet it. This is the chimney and you can line It with clay and grass mixed, and build’ a chimney high enough for a draft outside of sticks and clay mixed with grass.
Now for the roof of your fireplace: For this you must have (or the dirt will keep falling down) a large flat stone, if you can get it, if not, you will have to arch it with clay and sand, and this is quite a job. You will have to make your arch of wood first, then plaster on your clay six Inches deep. Now fill the fireplace with dry wood good and full and touch her off and let the whole thing burn out, arch and all. You will find this will burn your clay arch hard enough to stand fire and hold the roof up, or you can pack In a piece of heavy sheet Iron for the roof of the fireplace. You do not need a large fireplace, for a dugout is easily warmed with a little wood. By sloping the sides and back of the fireplace and not making them straight they will usually stand; if not, line with clay and burn as above. You can find either the stone or clay on most any stream or lake; the stone in the woods stream and clay in the prairie river. Look along the banks and you will find where a seam of clay creeps out on most all of our rivers. The Red River of the North has splendid blue clay.
If you want a sod house on the prairie cut the sod with a sharp spade or ax. Lay the walls two feet thick at the bottom tapering to one foot at the top. Make them six feet six inches high and leave openings for windows on the southeast side, also for door and build the roof as for the dugout. If you want to be high toned and are building a permanent home, build a frame of drop siding, then build your sod house on the outside of it and paper the inside with newspapers. It is the best house ever, and will stand fire from the outside, and in olden times it would stand bullets as well. You can pound down the earth for a floor and make it as hard as you want so you can sweep it or you can lay a board floor.
I knew a family that settled on some land in Minnesota, who got well off and high toned with the natural rise of price of land. They built a frame dwelling, lathed and plastered, etc., with all the trimmings. The second year saw them back in the old sod house after it was repaired. They said the frame was unbearable, cold in the winter, hot in the summer—the sod house for them
I knew a stage station which in the time of the stage express across the plains stood an Indian siege of two days and nights and came out winner (it was a sod stable). The Indians could not set it on fire or get a bullet through it. When the soldiers got there they found the boys all O. K., three of them, only a little short of water. Nowadays they want all modern improvements, hot and cold baths, steam heat plumbing, etc. Bah! Do you see as healthy and hardy people now? Spindling, weak kids and sickly looking men and women. These kinds of people were not raised in the old sod shacks. We had no “white plague” in the old log or sod shacks. I have often wondered why the dugouts and sod houses were not used more by the H. B. Company trappers. From what I can learn it was always the log house for the whites and the bark tepee for the reds. It seems to me that they overlooked a bit in this matter, or perhaps the country was so barren that there was no sod on it. I would like to hear from Martin Hunter on this subject. There is only one secret in building a dugout. Select a dry spot . I lived in one that old “Happy Jack” built, the last part of the winter of 1893, and five years after I was in this locality again, I could not resist the temptation to take a look into my former home, and, believe me, two hours’ work and a few nails would have put her in first class shape for another winter. They are not quite so light as a log house, but they are many times warmer in winter, do not chill so quickly after the fire has died out, and very little fuel keeps them warm.
A. F. Wallace.
Thanks to Surviving the Times for republishing this article
Tesla Solar Roof
On Wednesday, Tesla opened up orders for its long-anticipated solar roof. On average, the Tesla solar roof price $21.85 per square foot, which is less than the cost of a normal roof, even without the energy savings.
The cost of a Tesla solar roof ultimately depends on how much energy you need and the percentage of active solar tiles on the roof itself. To help people determine that, Tesla also dropped a solar roof calculator with the release so people can estimate exactly the cost and how much money the roof will save them over time when they order. The solar roofs will be able to be installed in the United States this summer, and should ultimately pay for themselves, which Tesla points out makes them significantly more affordable than regular roofs. Along with that, the solar roof is stronger and lighter than a typical roof, which Elon Musk demonstrated on Instagram.
And although Elon Musk joked that he wasn’t going to make the warranty for the tiles infinity, it turns out that he changed his mind. “We offer the best warranty in the industry—the lifetime of your house, or infinity, whichever comes first,” a Tesla rep tells Inverse.
The Tesla solar roof is made of tempered glass, which makes them three times stronger than things like slate or asphalt tiles, according to Tesla. They are also half as heavy as other roofing methods. On an entire roof, the tiles will be a mix of non-active and active solar tiles. And while Consumer Reports found that a solar roof needs to be $24.50 per square foot to compete with other kinds of roofs, the Tesla solar roof comes in at $21.85 with 35 percent of the roof being active solar.
Determining the cost of a solar roof take into account how much of the roof can be active solar tile, and how much will just be the non-active glass tiles. A glass tile, without the solar elements costs $11 per square foot, and the solar tiles themselves are $42 per square foot. For most houses, Tesla says only about 40 percent of the roof will be active solar, but the percentage of active tiles depends on how much energy a household needs.
Click to read the full article;
U.S. electricity generation by energy source
What is U.S. electricity generation by energy source?
In 2016, about 4.08 trillion kilowatthours (kWh) of electricity1 were generated at utility-scale facilities in the United States.2 About 65% of this electricity generation was from fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other gases), about 20% was from nuclear energy, and about 15% was from renewable energy sources. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that an additional 19 billion kWh (or about 0.02 trillion kWh) of electricity generation was from small-scale solar photovoltaic systems in 2016.3
Major energy sources and percent shares of U.S. electricity generation at utility-scale facilities in 20161
- Natural gas = 33.8%
- Coal = 30.4%
- Nuclear = 19.7%
- Renewables (total) = 14.9%
- Hydropower = 6.5%
- Wind = 5.6%
- Biomass = 1.5%
- Solar = 0.9%
- Geothermal = 0.4%
- Petroleum = 0.6%
- Other gases = 0.3%
- Other nonrenewable sources = 0.3%
- Pumped storage hydroelectricity = -0.2%4
Cost of Electricity in the United States
"the world needs about 30 trillion kWhrs of electricity per year to eradicate global poverty and war, twice what we produce now. But what is this going to cost society? In the long-run? What are the actual costs to produce energy - not the fixed price, not the financing, not the tax breaks and subsidies, or the mandates, not all of the artificial add-ons that we demand in order to make someone rich or to fit into our economic model. These other costs are what go into calculating levelized costs, lossely defined as a break-even point for investors, utilities and consumers. Levelized costs are critical for short-term economic planning and financing, but society needs to know the actual total life-cycle costs so we can plan beyond our captive 4-year intervals. Otherwise, short-term profits will drive us down the fossil-fuel path by default and we will have no hope of breaking this costly cycle."
"By life-cycle costs, I mean the total costs of building, operating, maintaining, fueling and decommissioning a thermal power plant, a solar array, a wind farm or hydroelectric dam over its life, that is, 15 years for a wind turbine, 40 years for a fossil fuel plant, 60 years for a nuclear plant, or 80 years for a large hydroelectric dam. Dividing those total costs by the amount of energy actually produced, not theoretically possible or installed capacity but actually produced, gives a life-cycle cost in ¢/kWhr. How we finance this cost is a totally different issue, one at which we generally fail as a society."
"To calculate these costs, each source must be normalized to the capacity factor and the life span and a specific total energy production, such as 0.5 trillion kWhrs. Although it is cheap to build a gas-fired plant, the fuel costs become more important as time goes on, even with the present gas surge. While it is expensive to build a nuclear plant, the fuel costs are low and the capacity factor high, so the longer it operates the cheaper it becomes. Similarly for wind and solar, expensive to build but no fuel means the longer they are operating the cheaper they become. On the other hand, the longer fossil fuel plants operate the more expensive they become because it is all about the fuel."
"If readers are interested, it will take a few posts to go over the details of calculating these costs for each of the primary energy sources of coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind, solar and hydro, but the results are: 4.1 ¢/kWhr for coal, 5.2 ¢/kWhr for natural gas, 3.5 ¢/kWhr for nuclear, 4.3 ¢/kWhr for wind, 7.7 ¢/kWhr for solar, and 3.3 ¢/kWhr for hydro."
"These costs are for the entire life-span of the units, after running them to death. These costs are separate from investments, taxation, subsidies, loan structure, and other costs that are associated more with pricing and financing than with what the actual costs are to produce that energy."
_______
4.1 ¢/kWhr for coal5.2 ¢/kWhr for natural gas
3.5 ¢/kWhr for nuclear
4.3 ¢/kWhr for wind
7.7 ¢/kWhr for solar
3.3 ¢/kWhr for hydro
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/06/15/the-naked-cost-of-energy-stripping-away-financing-and-subsidies/#37ddcfea5b88
Sarasota Sustainable Development Plan
This Plan was developed by the Sarasota Sister Cities Association. It is a work in progress - please click here if you wish to propose changes or ask questions, or send an email to craighullinger@gmail.com. You are also welcome to use and adapt this plan for your community.
Sustainable "Green" Economic Development combines environmental improvement and traditional economic development into one discipline. It is possible that traditional economic development can be employed to increase employment while improving our environment. Economic Development and “Green” Development can be synergistic, improving our overall quality of life.
Sustainable Development is defined by the United Nations as "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”(1). Sustainable development begins at home and is supported by effective domestic policies and international partnerships. Self-governing people prepared to participate in an open world marketplace are the very foundation of sustainable development" (2).
Traditional Economic Development
Economic development is the increase in the amount of people in a nation's population with sustained growth from a simple, low-income economy to a modern, high-income economy. Its scope includes the process and policies by which a nation improves the economic, political, and social well-being of its people (3). The University of Iowa's Center for International Finance and Development states that: "'Economic development' or 'development' is a term that economists, politicians, and others have used frequently in the 20th century.
The concept, however, has been in existence in the West for centuries. Modernization, Westernization, and especially Industrialization are other terms people have used when discussing economic development. Although no one is sure when the concept originated, most people agree that development is closely bound up with the evolution of capitalism and the demise of feudalism (4).The Canadian Center for Community Renewal defines “Community Economic Development as the process by which local people build organizations and partnerships that interconnect profitable business with other interests and values - for example, skills and education, health, housing, and the environment. In CED a lot more people get involved, describing how the community should change. A lot more organizations look for ways to make their actions and investments reinforce the wishes and intentions of the whole community. Business becomes a means to accumulate wealth and to make the local way of life more creative, inclusive, and sustainable - now and 20 or 30 years from now.”
Sustainable Economic Development
KISS (Keep it Sweet and Simple). A simple rule set and acronym is:
KEEP
Keep the businesses and jobs that you have
Expand the businesses you have
Enhance your community to attract new businesses
Protect and continuously improve the environment
• Local demographics
• Quality of life
• Public infrastructure
• Business assistance
• Real estate
• Taxes, fees, regulations
• Market the community to targeted business industries
Both successful economic development and continuing improvement to the environment are a hallmark of a quality community. Some people still think that economic development is chasing smokestacks and that economic development hurts the environment. But that view is outdated. Working intelligently, business and government can expand the economy and retain and attract quality jobs while enhancing and improving the environment.
Sustainable Economic Development Strategy
The Vision
Our communities will provide quality jobs at good wages while improving our environment.
Mission Statement
We are committed to providing an environment in which our natural resources, our people, and our economy are balanced. We will not compromise the future by focusing solely on the needs of today. We aspire to make our communities regional leaders who develop, promotes, and improves the quality of our community through sustainable practices.
Smart Growth, New Urbanism, and Mixed Use Development
Sustainable Economic Development is consistent with the principles of Smart Growth, New Urbanism, and Mixed Use Development. Growth presents a tremendous opportunity for progress and change. Communities around the country are looking for methods to optimize development and to amend zoning rules that make it difficult to place workplaces, homes, and services closer together. Citizens are faced with economic pressures and seek ways to save on car and gas use and on commuting time.
To address these challenges we must make a commitment to sustainable land use planning, often called "smart growth." Taking steps such as preserving open space, providing a variety of transportation choices, encouraging compact building designs and creating walk able communities will help the city choose smart growth strategies that encourage social, cultural and physical activity. Smart growth is a way to offer more choices to citizens in terms of deciding where to live, how to get around, and will protect the environment while stimulating economic growth. Mixed use development and new urbanism emphasize reducing travel times between work and home. This is certainly consistent with sustainable development.
Sustainable Economic Development operates within a social and economic context. Smart growth also strongly supports the revitalization and/or redevelopment of established and emerging urban neighborhoods. It promotes neighborhood-centric activity centers that employ a smart growth development template that integrates a mix of uses, multi-modal circulation options, public spaces and other elements.
Environmental sustainability is a part of this operation and is best achieved when integrated with other components. A sustainable economic development organization seeks to participate within its community, integrate economic development with environmental protection, and minimize the impacts of development on the community. Through seeking balance, an organization will take into account the needs of future generations.
With financial difficulties and environmental concerns facing the global and national economy, we will place a high priority on sustainable economic development, energy efficiency, and responsible growth management.
Conclusion
Sustainable Economic Development will be the standard for future economic development and “green” environmental improvement efforts. We can and will improve our environment while providing jobs and tax base for our community.
Sustainable Economic Development will be the standard for future economic development and “green” environmental improvement efforts. We can and will improve our environment while providing jobs and tax base for our community.
Recommended Improvements
The following are our recommended improvements to "Green" our communities that we will pursue that while working to retain and expand our businesses and jobs:
· We will retain our existing businesses and jobs
· We will help our existing businesses expand
· We will attract new businesses
· Energy efficiency in all businesses is encouraged
· Developers are encouraged to create green buildings
· Mixed use development will be emphasized
· Historic buildings will be adaptively reused
· Walk ability of the city will be encouraged
· Incentives will be employed to support improvements
· Energy efficient buildings will be required
· Sedimentation and erosion controls will be enforced
· The ecology of waters edge areas will be enhanced
· Bike trails and racks will be emphasized
· Transit will be improved
· Trees and natural landscaping will be planted
· Renewable energy sources will be sought
· Recycling will be supported
· Air and water quality will be improved
· We will ensure a just and fair society
· We will seek to provide jobs for all of our citizens
We will follow the principles below:
Promote efficient buildings
Use recycled material in buildings
Recycle building material waste
Encourage rain harvesting and irrigation
Use passive solar orientation of buildings
Encourage solar and wind energy systems
Employ green roofs
Support the use of natural landscaping
Improve municipal staff knowledge of “green” techniques
Support quality construction for long lived buildings
Encourage mixed use development
Support walk to work programs
Encourage development that supports transit
Support efforts to redevelop older communities
Permit Live / Work Space development
Support natural open space and parks
Use open surface natural drainage where feasible
Design wetlands, drainage ways and retention into parks
Support the local production of “green” technology equipment
Incorporate bikeways and pedestrian path
Minimize pavement widths & cost & material
Update codes to encourage “green” development
Encourage geothermal energy
Require street trees
Sustainable Land Use Planning
Economic Development Links
scgov.net/EconomicDevelopment
scgov.net/sustainability
edcsarasotacounty.com
sarasota.ifas.ufl.edu/Sustain/susfloridians.shtml
References
Green Cities
Get Your City to Go Green
Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities. As the urban population grows and the effects of climate change worsen, our cities have to adapt. It’s time for us to invest in efficiency and renewable energy, rebuild our cities, towns, municipalities and states. Cities need to accelerate their transition to a cleaner, healthier, and more economically viable future through improvements in efficiency, investments in renewable technology, and regulation reform.
Countries That Have Placed Economic Sanctions on Russia
Green indicates countries that have invoked economic sanctions against Russia (in blue) for their invasion and occupation of eastern Ukraine, support for Assad in Syria, and/or hacking and interfering in elections. All the advanced democratic countries have participated.
When foreign governments do outrageous things you have these options:
- Do nothing
- Do nothing but talk tough
- Work with allies to establish sanctions to try get them to stop what they are doing.
- Go to war
Options 1, 2, and 4 are not very good. So 3 is best.
The Russian military intervention in Ukraine, which began in late February 2014, prompted a number of governments to apply sanctions against individuals, businesses and officials from Russia and Ukraine. Sanctions were approved by the United States, the European Union (EU) and other countries and international organisations. Russia has responded with sanctions against a number of countries, including a total ban on food imports from the EU, United States, Norway, Canada and Australia.
The sanctions contributed to the collapse of the Russian ruble and the Russian financial crisis (2014–present).[1] They also caused economic damage to a number of EU countries, with the total losses estimated at €100 billion.[2]
According to Ukrainian officials,[a] the sanctions forced Russia to change its approach towards Ukraine and undermined the Russian military advances in the region.[3][4] Representatives of these countries say that they will lift sanctions against Russia only after Moscow fulfils the Minsk II agreements.[5][6][7]
And 98 elected US Senators thought it was best to take away the power of the President to unilaterally to lift sanctions.
Violence in Chicago
Homicides are up substantially this year in Chicago. Very sad. There were over 100 shot and 15 killed over the 4th of July weekend.
No homicides so far this year in my far southwest side neighborhoods Mount Greenwood and Beverly, shown in light blue. Two in Morgan Park where my father lives. Twenty in Roseland which used to be our commercial center and where President Obama worked as a community organizer. Thirty three in Englewood, which was our transit hub - the end of the line for our south side transit trains.
I rode with a police officer friend of mine one night in Englewood, then and now a high crime neighborhood. The gang crime task force was targeting Englewood, trying to reduce crime and homicide. There was a Marine Colonel riding with us - not from Chicago and he did not know where the calls were originating. I of course knew. It sounded like a combat zone - women being raped, shots fired in the alley, people being beaten with ball bats on the Elevated train, man killed in alley.
We did not discuss the locations and I would guess that the non native Marine may have thought the calls were from the entire city. They were not, they were just Englewood calls, just a few blocks from where we were driving.
When I was 10 a friend and I would go downtown every Saturday, taking two buses and the Elevated train from Englewood. A fun adventure. My friend was going to art classes at the Art Institute, while I would roam around downtown. One time for some reason I came home alone at night. Ended up at the wrong stop at a very frightening place.
Map and Murder Number Source: heyjackass.com
Historic Pullman, Chicago
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Pullman, Chicago - Wikipedia
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Pullman, one of Chicago's 77 defined community areas, is a neighborhood located on the city's South Side. Twelve miles from the Chicago Loop, Pullman isHistoric Pullman Foundation - Pullman Historic District, Chicago, Illinois
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Organization focuses on preservation and restoration activities within the community. Features events and program calendars, location map, and foundation ...Historic Pullman Foundation
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Visiting Pullman | Tours. Pullman is not a museum locked in time, but an active, vibrant neighborhood that allows you to walk back into history . Self-Guided ...The Pullman State Historic Site : The Town of Pullman
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The concept of a company town like Pullman was not new or even unique; .... when the city of Chicago annexed Pullman; however, many of the old names were ...Pullman | Chicago Neighborhoods | Choose Chicago
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There were 1.1 Violent crimes per 1,000 people in Pullman in the past 30 days ... Pullman ranks 28 (tied) among Chicago's 77 community areas for Violent crime ...Pullman National Monument (U.S. National Park Service)
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Pullman National Monument tells the story of American opportunity. Diverse people ... Learn more about the rich history of the Pullman site. ... Chicago, IL 60628 ...In the news
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History Files - The Pullman Era - Chicago History Museum
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Aerial view of Pullman, IL, George Pullman's company town, featuring the Arcade building and Greenstone Church. (CHS G1988.0426 Box 2). In Chicago, the ...Buy a Lot in Roseland of Pullman For One Dollar Chicago to sell 306 ...
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Sep 12, 2015 - Buy a Lot in Roseland of Pullman For One Dollar Chicago to sell 306 more lots for $1 Own city land for $1 with Large Lots program. Sept. 11, 2015. (WGN-TV) ...More photos of Pullman, neighborhood in Chicago, at
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