super adobe Archives - Page 3 of 5

BUILDING AN EARTH OVEN PART 1 – DRINK BEER & MAKE MUDPIES

May 7, 2012 No Comments

Well it would be as easy as the aforementioned pie if we actually sat down and read the book properly (the earth oven bible that is). Instead we took the attitude that one shouldn’t actually open to the pertinent page until a few minutes before getting started. Without fail we would discover that we didn’t have the right materials, tools or would need to let things soak or dry overnight or perhaps for a week, in light of this the only reasonable course of action remaining was to take a siesta or perhaps go fishing instead. This is perhaps not the most efficient way to get things done, but far less stressful.

We are now about 3/4 done on the oven and now that we know what to do, having more or less skimmed the relevant diagrams, I can promise you someone more prepared than us could easily knock this over in a week, with 5 out of the 7 days set aside for the oven to have some quality alone time to dry.

I encourage you to buy the book, but as a summary here are the first steps, with more to come (I promise, dear reader, that I won’t be as cavalier with my blog updates as my construction).

Eco building, Garden

THE FLEMINGTON PERMABLITZ PART 3 – FROM WATERCOLOUR TO REALITY

November 17, 2011 3 Comments

Watercolour plan of the espalier orchard and chook yard

We called an armistice with the sky while we dropped shovels for lunch. The Blitzers made use of the newly constructed garden walls to gather around while we explained the design.

The raised earthbag garden beds form our Zone 1, the part of the garden we visit everyday. We were inspired by one of our Permaculture tutors who shared his garden responsibilities with his housemates by allocating each one a plot and a plant family to look after. This was so very appealing after oh so many days last year where we were late to work trying to get everything watered and sheltered in preparation for a particularly brutally hot day. So the annual beds are divided into four for a four year crop rotation so each housemate has a little piece of land all of their own and are assured of the purity of their seed saving (no more fights over contaminated brassica seeds, haha no we really are more civilised than that). Everyone seems pretty keen to get involved, even our housemates who have never grown a lettuce before (let’s home Melbourne’s climate is kind to them, she can be cruel).

The two “ribbons” of beds are thread so there is a path around the edge for a quick sandwich harvest before work with a more direct root down the centre to the woodpile/worm farm. The bags are at two different seating heights so kids, giants and the vertically challenged alike can find a nice sheltered place to soak in the sun or have a chat. The earth oven is the highlight of Zone 1, but will have to wait until after the Blitz to roar into life, as the rain just won’t let us make the sand mould! It is sheltered from the ghastly flats next door by the big tree, which brings us to Zone 2.

Despite the shade we are trying our best to grow a Food Forest to the West to block out the overlookers with Avocados and Tagasaste. Only time will tell how successful we can be. The Orchard to the east is where we will grow crops like corn between espalier trees, and maybe even our dream of a banana. (It can be done in Melbourne!) In summer the chooks, on the border of Zone 1 and 2 will doze in the shade of the shed and in winter when it is colder they will free range through the orchard after the corn has been harvested and reinvigerate the earth. And so that is how we have tried to make each area have multiple uses: the annual garden beds/seating & entertaining area, the food forest/neighbour shade and the orchard/chicken range.

And so the Blitzers went back to work, so keen that many stayed well after wrap up time and could’nt be pried from earthbag or rendering glove until after 6. The children in particular were so full of beans that when an exhausted father asked hopefully if they were ready to go they answered a definitive “NO” and he trudged defeated to the couch for a nap. As people started drifting away the transformation truely sunk in, it had taken us weeks to build the first two beds and in only a day the Blitzers had almost finished the remaining two, plus the posts in the orchard, a wicking bed and some rendering to top it all off.

Eco building, Garden

FLEMINGTON PERMABLITZ PART 1 – RESILIENCE DESPITE THE RAIN

November 13, 2011 5 Comments

Filling earthbags at the Flemington Permablitz

My chalk lines began to wash away with the first rain shower at 9 o’clock and I felt the first tinglings of stress in my fingertips. Dylan had been anxious the last few days getting everything ready and I had been smug in my serenity, I should have known better. We sprang to erect tarps as the first Blitzers arrived and the rain was constant, the one time we couldn’t say ‘well at least it’s good for the garden’. So the day started creakingly slow, but with tarps up and people warming into their work things started running beautifully. Due to the rain only the most exuberant workers showed up and there was not one spade leaner in sight, My spirits rose exponentially to see everyone working together with such enthusiasm.

Eco building, Garden

FLOODED KITCHEN & SKIES

November 4, 2011 3 Comments

We woke at 5am to a nervous knocking at our bedroom door. Our housemate had awoken to a steady wooshing noise. The origin of the noise soon became clear as I stepped into our suddenly torrential kitchen, water and steam flowing steadily from under the bathroom door, wet feet confusing sleep dazzled brains. The hot water pipe under the sink had burst and drenched everything! After the water was turned off the damage only seemed superficial, but the most pressing danger was the water lapping against the timber stairs. (Thank goodness for stone floors!). So our day began with a 5am mopping session after which instead of starting bright and early on our final preparations for the Blitz we staggered back to bed. Our housemate Laura, disturbed by our night mopping got up early and decided to bake, so we woke at a more respectable hour to a much pleasanter sound and I might add smell or baked oat biscuits.