<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Yes, and I'll be doing that, too, but planting anything that will get large enough to provide shade is going to take a long time to actually get large enough to do the job. We've just lived here 2 years and I've been doing some planting, but wasn't sure where I wanted to put my large trees yet. There was NOTHING here for shading the house when we moved here. Our last home had huge, huge pecan trees all around it--it really made a difference. <div><br></div><div>I'm taking a permaculture class right now (and I have a nursery business that sells edible landscaping plants). I wanted to have some sort of plan in mind before I started planting too much because I knew I needed to do some earth-scaping (berms, etc.) and soil improvement before I started planting. There are some things that will grow fairly quickly (figs, for example) and will provide some fairly fast shade against some walls that need it. I'm going to start on some planting this fall.</div><div><br></div><div>Believe it or not, this house has a BLACK asphalt roof. Ugh--who would do that in Oklahoma???? We are going to replace the roof, but are building a small addition in the next year or two and plan to replace it all at once at that time (since the roof is in good shape right now). We have added a lot of insulation to the attic (R60) and have noticed a BIG difference. However, the *walls* of the house are just standard 4" walls with fiberglass batts. </div><div><br></div><div>Bob Waldrop, who posts here, is in Oklahoma City and he added insulation to the inside of his house (which I've toured) and that's our long-term plan as well, but honestly it's quite a ways down the priority list right now. We have a ground source heat pump and our electric bill isn't too terribly high (and we heat some with wood, too), so cost-wise other things are taking priority--including new windows (2 are broken; others have broken seals with moisture inside), insulating around windows & doors, and the new roof, and even the landscaping due to my business here. We're also adding a sunspace to the front of the house (existing porch) to capture heat in the winter.<br><div><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Leslie Moyer</div><div><a href="mailto:unschooler@lrec.org">unschooler@lrec.org</a></div><div><a href="http://www.ShadyGroveNaturalFarm.com">www.ShadyGroveNaturalFarm.com</a></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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<br><div><div>On Aug 11, 2011, at 4:37 PM, natural building wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Would planting trees / bushes to provide shading offer some relief in the summer?<div><br></div><div>Regards,<br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Papyrus; color: rgb(255, 160, 18); "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Papyrus; color: rgb(99, 10, 255); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px; ">Steve Satow</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Papyrus; color: rgb(99, 10, 255); "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Papyrus; color: rgb(99, 10, 255); "><a href="http://www.naturalbuildingsite.net/">www.naturalbuildingsite.net</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Papyrus; color: rgb(99, 10, 255); "><a href="mailto:naturalbuilding@shaw.ca">naturalbuilding@shaw.ca</a></div></div></div></div></span></div></span></div></span></span>
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<br><div><div>On 2011-08-11, at 2:28 PM, Leslie Moyer wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>Termites, too, I reply to myself.... :-) It's not the aesthetics I'm after (though that would be okay--most. boring. house. ever.), it's relief from this incessant heat-gain. There are some other things I can do, so I guess I need to do them first. During the time we were designing a new home (different place from where we live now), we were designing an earth-bermed home and I am so convinced of their benefits in my climate. I was just longing for that solution, I guess, to this godawful heat (which did finally break yesterday, thankfully).<br><br>Leslie Moyer<br><a href="mailto:unschooler@lrec.org">unschooler@lrec.org</a><br><a href="http://www.ShadyGroveNaturalFarm.com">www.ShadyGroveNaturalFarm.com</a><br></div></blockquote></div><br></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>Greenbuilding mailing list<br>to Send a Message to the list, use the email address<br><a href="mailto:Greenbuilding@bioenergylists.org">Greenbuilding@bioenergylists.org</a><br><br>to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page<br>http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org</blockquote></div><br></div></div></body></html>