February 14, 2016
The time has come to stop making cement stabilized compressed earth blocks (CEB) and mortar them into a wall and a building. We needed 2000 blocks to begin and the nice weather this spring has allowed us to make that many.
This gives you an idea of what 2000 CEB blocks...
November 18, 2015
We all have a framework with which we interpret events in our lives and around the world. Any significant event must be given meaning, and we do this by fitting it into a pattern that makes sense to us. What we rarely question is how we got the pattern recognition syst...
November 3, 2015
We had figured out the new soil and cement mixtures. We had poured the slab with a stem wall, and so it was back to making blocks.
I turned the key to get hydraulic flow and the beast just lurched and groaned. I jumped the battery…more groaning. It was a 10 year old...
October 29, 2015
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How a builder imagines the block wall will go together must be clear from the start. You can have blueprints but nothing can take the place of visualization. Here we took some of the discarded test blocks and placed them as they were imagined on t...
October 25, 2015
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I wanted to make sure that the stem wall (that hopefully all CEB block walls will be built on) was unified with the slab. You need a 3.5inch high wall above the slab floor exactly the width of the CEB block wall to prevent any floodwater (ei...
October 15, 2015
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Once the pour gets under way, you need three people to get it placed quickly since it will get hot in the truck after a time. Two people push and pull the 2x4 screed board while the third feeds it to be sure the surface is level and the body...
October 12, 2015
CEB foundation and wall sketch
The sketch above of the entry door for our energy building shows you the basic design of the foundation slab, the piers under each corner and door posts with “toothed” blocks that will be encased in reinforced concrete around the door fra...
September 26, 2015
We were extremely happy to have cracked the code for mixing cement and silt for CEB block making. However, the line between too much water and not enough required so much shoveling and inspecting in the pile that, once we proved it could be done, we gave up on the old,...
September 25, 2015
My ancient Babylonian 36 volt direct solar to D/C water pump from Dankoff solar days finally died. I’ve used it for more than 15 years, day in day out. I still may try to resurrect it because to replace it new now costs over $1500. Cheaper to convert to A/c.
In this he...
August 22, 2015
In 24 years of living on this place, we have not experienced such intense heat as has oppressed us and our animals and birds this month. We’ve had a break now, but a week ago nothing could move far or even eat in the inferno! The climate change deniers still have their...

WHAT ARE WE ABOUT?
“Daniel Schellenberg, is a champion of applying lessons learned from the poor about sustainable living. Having spent many years in Kenya, he now resides with his family on a beautiful homestead in East Texas. Their ‘Propagelle Project’ is an attempt to find a way of living which is most mindful of the generations to come. Daniel’s blog is well worth reading for its insights from a person who approaches the situation of the poor and the environment with a balanced, informed, and passionate advocacy.”
- from the Hope International Blog
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February 14, 2016
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