1.  Here's an idea...from 'Buildings that Learn' by Stewart Brand

A winery and refrigerated storage?    Budget plan?    Hmm...potential permitting challenges!

Stewart Brand wrote "How Buildings Learn" from the insides of a corrugated steel shipping container, the kind that you see in the Charleston Ashley River Container Dock, made of heavy gauge steel, and 8' by 8' by 40'.  One of the great things about being a member of the Works in Newark is that you have free admission at Smithsonian Member Facilities and one we ALWAYS hit when we are in New York City is the Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design.

We were fortunate, on Memorial Day, to visit the Cooper Hewitt and see another use of a shipping container, the final production mock up of "Solos - Future Shack", the winning entry by an Austrailian Designer.  Check it out HERE.  When you see the actual shelter, it looks and feels more like a high class vacation shelter.

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2.  Another idea....when is an attachment *an Attachment?'  How *thick* and *long* can be the 'thread of attachment'?  Does common sense rule anymore or is there 'reverse absurdity' to answer regulatory insanity with that the Reglator, absent common sense, must of necessity, because of his mental entrapment, always be susceptible to? 

Continue on, Dear Reader...and pity the  GENtle RegulaTOR ---------------------

Those who must enforce building code and other such regulations have a tough way to go.  For example...

The structure on the left is a garage with 1/2  of the downstairs space a crawl space.  The upper floor is supported by steel beams, formdeck and 3" of concret poured over it.  The structure below this floor line is concrete block with 'stucco stone' veneer, and wood frame sided with 4/4 board and batten poplar.

So, I ask you, "Is what you see here an 'ATTACHED' garage?" 

And if it is an 'attached' garage, is it a part of a residence?"

And if it is part of a residence, would its use be classed as 'residential'? 

And if it is 'residential' and if there is a bathroom IN it, would the regulatory agencies like the EPA or the County Health Department agree that the sanitary line from this bathroom can and should be connected to the existing sewage system for the Residence it is Part Of?

And if the local farmer can squeeze apples in his barn and make cider to sell you, does he need an EPA or a Health Department Permit to approve how you 'clean up the spill', say, when one of your cider vessels overfills and spills?  Do you need a holding tank?  For CIDER???   I say, the Yellow Jackets will make short work of cleaning it up if you walk ove to the other side of the barn and leave them be. 

Hmm...

Does Common Sense offer a way out of this mental Miasma??

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3.  Speaking of Common Sense, check THIS LINK

For the fun of it, we are going to check 'design values' for flow rates of sewage from several building types.  Look at the chart by scrolling in the PDF that comes up of EPA's 'green book,' page 31 and 32.   Scroll down and find the category 'winery' or absent that, what matches its 'wastewater design value' for on site sewage system design capacity...

Is a winery a 'Food Service Operation', *even* if you are only Tasting and providing squares of precut, catered and packaged crackers, cut cheese and bread? Is a winery a 'Factory', either With or Without Showers?

Is a winery a 'retail store'?   Even if it only 'retails' what it itself 'finishes' via an agricultural method that 'method' of agriculture being the controlled 'herding' of Yeast Cells in a vessel so that they will Grow, Eat, Mature and Die in ordet transform the 'host overgrown pasturage', or what we may creatively call, 'The Must', into a beautifully mown pasture field? 

OR...

Is a winery a 'Home in a Subdivision'?  If it IS this, how is it every home in every subdivision is going to consume 400 gallons in peak use?  And how is the local sewage authoritiy to PLAN and PAY for GROSS OVERCAPACITY?  Won't poor towns and townships go sewerless? 

So, HOW DOES EPA figure wastewater design capacity for ON SITE sewage systems for wineries?

Are ALL wineries the same?  As regards wastewater?

Thought questions...

Inform me when you get answers that make sense...

Take names...

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