A poor video of me putting light clay wood chips in the wall

I know I need to work on my video technique, but I was also working at the time and it is hard to pay attention to both where the camera is pointed and what you are doing while slopping mud.  I just wanted to show what it is like using light clay wood chip.  From the video you can see that the clay isn't too light.  It definitely isn't cob, but we found that if we didn't have enough clay in the mix, the small wood chips wouldn't stick together very well.  The first few batches we did had about the same recipe as light clay straw, but with wood chips replacing the straw.  The results of those first batches were unsatisfactory and the walls started flaking off wood chips when they were rubbed.  With more clay in the mix, it makes it less insulative, it has  more thermal mass, and it is much stronger.

Salvaging for a new home.

Free Toilets in good condition

These doors are solid wood from the early 1900s

We are officially getting ready to build our new house in Ephraim Utah. We are going to build a Straw Bale House, which will be the subject of several posts I’m sure. Because this blog is dedicated to sustainable living (recycled glass and gardening) I have decided to add the home construction in as well. Besides, right now there is a lot more going on with the house construction than there is with either of the other two topics. This entry will be dedicated to salvaging materials for the new house.



Here in Ephraim there are a few houses slated for demolition to make way for a new shiny parking lot. We were given permission to go in one of them (hopefully in the near future the other two as well) and take out anything we want. The house had already been picked apart by some other people, but we were able to salvage 10 doors, two toilets, several light fixtures, an armoire, the electrical breaker box and a few really old window frames as well as a few other odds and ends. Over all we have probably saved a couple thousand dollars towards the new construction. Next we are going to try and pull out the old wood floor and some of the cool old moldings.



These are the original windows from the house.  We found them in the root celar



The first batch of wood floor.  We will have to pull the nails and plane each peice before we can refinish it.

Another amaizing door knob

Recycle, Reuse, Reclaim, Salvage, Upcycle: Words to Live By

Because I am pretty new to selling glass art, I have been checking out other people’s stuff online to see what they are making and how much they are selling it for. I have seen a lot of cool stuff out there, but I have come to the conclusion that people need to use a dictionary when they are describing their glass art. So in this blog entry I will attempt to define several “green” terms that are commonly misused or misunderstood. Whenever you see my description of my glass products, you will know that I follow closely the following definitions:

Recycle – Recycling is the process of reclaiming materials from used products or materials from their manufacturing and using them in the manufacturing of new products. -sustainabilitydictionary.com



"Bones"- left over edges from flattened light sconces

 When a plastic bag is recycled into a new plastic bag, it is melted down and reprocessed into a new bag.  It may not be the same color, size or other similar characteristics to the original bag. It may have even been changed into something completely different than a bag like plastic car paneling, or polar fleece. When I recycle glass it means that I take old used glass and change it into a new object. When I make stained glass out of bottles, I first cut the bottles, then fire them in my kiln, then cut them to shape and assemble them into the stained glass piece. When I make tiles, I crush the bottles into powder and then fire them into molds in the kiln. Some of my recycled glass jewelry is made by simply cutting out patterns from bottles or vases and using just that bottle or pattern in the jewelry.

Reuse – noun 2. the act or process of using again. - Dictionary.com

“Often, the most sustainable option is to reuse materials and objects already manufactured, either for their original or new purposes, rather than recycle them into other products. This decreases further energy and materials use in recreating them into a new form.“ -stainabilitydictionary.com

People will often reuse bottles or vases by gluing, cementing, or painting objects onto them. The glass objects retain their original form, but are just decorated. The bottle does not undergo any major changes or processing.



The temple was made from recycled light sconces, but the
 sky was made of salvaged glass a lady was getting rid of.

Reclaimed – verb 2. to recover (substances) in a pure or usable form from refuse, discarded articles, etc. -Dictionary.com

Reclaimed means it has already been thrown away. Objects may be reclaimed to either be recycled or reused.

Salvage - noun 2. the act of saving any goods or property in danger of damage or destruction -Dictionary.com

Salvage may or may not have been thrown away, but without intervention would otherwise be destroyed.



Bottle bottom boxes are upcycled because the new
product is deffinitly worth more than hte original bottles
they are made out of.

  Upcycle - The process of converting an industrial nutrient (material) into something of similar or greater value, in its second life. sustainabilitydictionary.com

Upcycle is a new phrase that I have seen used for items that are both recycled and reused. I believe that to be upcycled the object should be worth more after the alterations have been made.