Strawbale House

As you can see from the photos the roof is going on at a rapid rate due to the powerhouse known as Andrew (the roofer). On Wednesday, March 10, 2010 the straw bales will arrive from Nanango. On Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 of March, we will have a wall raising working bee. So any that are interested please leave a comment and contact details and we will get back to you with the details. We are providing food and beverages. Camping is available on site for the working bee weekend. There is a camp shower and toilet availble as well. Roger and Nick will be supervising, keeping both us and the walls in line. Great opportunity to get some hands-on experience, get the feel of a straw bale house and have questions answered. Hope to see you there. Rosalba

Cooee wood oil and cleaner

I found an Australian certified organic paint that doesn’t cost the earth. The straw bale walls will be rendered up to the pitching beams (far left). So Roger suggested I oil/paint them now as it would be easier than later. So at the Green Paint shop in West End, I found Cooee wood stains. Since the new window (couldn’t find a second hand one that size)  in the lounge is made of cedar, I decided to go cedar all the way. Really easy to apply with a sponge and all washes up in soapy water. I’ll need to re-apply it ever 1 -2 years depending on how much sun it gets, but no sanding involved. Just clean off the dust and reapply – easy.

Sustainable Cleaning Products

I just joined www.1millionwomen.com.au for action on climate change. In the “stories” section was a women promoting Enjo. I’ve seen this product (attended 2 parties) and I’m not saying they don’t work (large cleaning surface area is the principle), it’s just that they are made from petrochemicals, do not biodegrade, made in Austria (Europe) (think of the fuel miles, folks) and they cost a fortune! Last time I attended they wanted $40 AU for a washing mitt, $40 for a jar of chalk and $28.50 for a bottle of diluted citric acid. Hey, I understand people want to make a profit but wow talk about being taken to the cleaners! And of course they had a mitt for every room in the house. It’s sold by party plan so the pressure is on to buy something cause you friend who invited you wants the $150 mop! Fortunately I have resisted and have come up with my own solution that costs very little, works splendidly and you can do it yourself:

I recycle old towels for dish/cleaning cloths. I cut out double hand size squares/rectangles and sew up two sides and bingo a cleaning mitten!  I get around 10 out of a towel – you know around the edge where the towel gets worn the least. Also because of the pile they have a greater surface area and are better cleaners than cloths with no pile. You can throw them in the wash to clean them and when they end their productive life they’ll biodegrade in the worm farm or as a small weed matt around seedlings. Brown vinegar in the toilet cleans all stains and if left overnight even gets rid of the nastiest stains. Citric acid derived from citrus (around $1.50 at the supermarket) sprinkled lightly around taps gets rid of soap build up and makes them shiny. Also good on mould. I have found a tissue (sticks better than  a rag) soaked in lemon juice on those difficult corners in the shower, left overnight will lift mould and bleach the grout white again. Ground chalk (calcium carbonate) mixed with a bit of soap does as good a job as those creme cleaners and safe to use on stainless steel. I made a dusting mitten from leftover fake fur I had used to make toys when the kids were little – works a treat. Mirrors – squirt bottle with vinegar and water, wipe with a shamie followed by crumpled up newspaper or handtowel – shiny!

So you can see the cleaning aisle in the supermarket is somewhere I just don’t go.

We are trying to keep our impact on the environment as low as possible, so we are constantly on the lookout for second hand items. Ebay has been great for the doors, windows, pavers (heaps) and some timber.

Some items I thought we were stuck with buying new i.e. the spa. Fortunately for us, one of my acupuncture clients turned out to be the owner of the Reno Barn in Tarragindi. So Mark and I, plans in hand, investigated the place one Monday afternoon.

Wow, what a treasure house! Beautiful stained glass from old pubs and demolished government buildings, kitchens, lighting, fireplaces, furniture, windows and  doors (sizes on them), timber (already denailed) plus some really cute memorabilia is on display, all neatly stacked and catalogued. Nuccia was awesome in helping us find what we needed: recycled cypress pine (didn’t know you could get it), hardwood posts, spa with working motor, laundry tubs, toilet suites, and best of all windows with stained glass for the servery.

e’d been looking for months for the servery windows on Ebay and they were always the wrong size or they were sold before we could put a bid in. So we were delighted with the find. Plus they delivered – hooray! Nuccia is still keeping an eye out for any more recycled cypress for us.

So I can highly recommend the Reno Barn – www.therenobarn.com at 526 Tarragindi Road, Salisbury QLD 4107 (Evans Road End)
Phone Number: (07) 3274 5663 (Yep, shameless plug but they deserve it, just check out the pics)

Rosalba and I have recently purchased a wood stove, a Crown No 7. When we got it, it had a few cracks which we got our neighbour, Pancho, to fix for us. We have now installed the stove in our shed temporarily, until the house is finished.

We have now had the stove for about a month and have used it at least once a week. It is a slower way of cocking, but every meal Rosalba has cooked on the wood stove so far has turned out great. The first meal was an omelette for breakfast, which turned out just awesome. I actually believe that that omelette was the best omelette I have ever had.

Best omelette ever, cooked on a woodstove

Rosalba and I have recently been interviewed by a very nice lady that writes for The Ottawa Herald. The interview has now been published and I’ll re-create it here linking to the article at The Ottawa Herald would not be very productive. The Ottawa Herald seems to remove articles from their public website after 4 – 6 weeks.

Following are the questions and our answers for the interview.

1.  Tell us a bit about yourselves.

I am in my early fortys working in the web hosting industry and I like long walks on the beach… well, ok the beach bit is not true
I’ve grown up in Switzerland which would explain my insatiable appetite for good chocolate, I was basically raised on chocolate. I have worked in one to the large Swiss banks as a programmer. During that time I went for day trips on my motor bike throughout the Swiss Alpes in summer. I never really enjoyed the snow in winter so I looked for another place to live and decided that sunny Queensland in Australia would be nice and moved to Brisbane in 1995 where I have met my lovely wife, Rosalba.
Rosalba was in IT when we met, but decided to apply her analytical skills to a far more worthy cause – people’s health. She has been a practitioner of Chinese medicine now for over 10 years.

2.  What stirred your interest in organic farming and products?

From my teenage years on I could never understand how the whole world could be running on continual growth. To me that never made sense as all our resources are finite. Also over the last few years Rosalba and I have purchased most of our fruit and vegetable at an Organic produce stall at the local market. Doing so, we have  both experienced the difference in taste of organic produce as opposed to mass market produce. To me buying organic means that we are actually paying much closer to the real cost to produce something, as organically grown fruit and vegetable takes into account the preservation of the soil
and environment. Contrast that with mass produced fruit and vegetable where the producers are sucking the land dry and then use synthetic fertilizer to keep their plants growing.
The other thing I started to understand is that most organic producers are actually people that care not only about the environment but also about their workers, which I believe means fairer working conditions. So by buying organic I feel that I also support the fair trade idea to
a degree.

3.  What are some of the challenges you will face in this venture?

Well, one of the first challenges is that we need to establish our fruit trees which is not made any easier by not actually living on the land yet where we intend to have our organic farm. We have already planted about 12 fruit trees and 12 chestnut trees. our goal is to have about 60 chestnut trees and maybe another 20-30 fruit tress of other varieties. One of the major challenges I see looming within the next 5 years is the arrival of peak oil which may make it a lot more
difficult to get diesel for our tractor to do any of the heavier work that always needs doing on a farm.
Other than that, our main challenge right now is lack of time. We generally manage about one weekend per month on our farm which is not quite enough.

4.  What are growing conditions like in your area?

Growing conditions are quite favourable. Our soil is fairly deficient in minerals and trace elements, which is normal for mostly anywhere in Australia. Luckily where we are we are getting good rain falls most of the time and most days it gets up to 20 degrees C at least (in winter). We do have some frosts in winter which is great for chestnut trees as they need a frost to flower and set fruit. On the other hand we haven’t been able to keep Mango trees alive yet. The two mango trees we have planted have both died due to frost bite.

5.  If you had unlimited funds and acreage, what would you do with it?

Combine a huge wind farm for electricity production with more organic farming. We already have committed half of our property to a local conservation program called “Land for Wildlife” which I would like to further contribute to as well.

I hope you have enjoyed this interview and have learnt a little bit more about us.

Solar Girl from the “Solar Energy – Green Lifestyle for You” blog has given our blog an award. Wow, how special is that!

Thank you very much Solar Girl.

These are the rules for “I Love Your Blog” award:

1). Add the logo of the award to your blog.
2). Link back to the person who gave you the award.
3). Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4). Add those links to your blog.
5). Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

And these are the 7 blogs I’m passing this award to:

Snoskred – Life in the Country
soho-life.com
Lightening Online
GrubbyGumboots
Forced Green
Blue Turtle
Good 2 Be Green

I changed a desk lamp I already had to use LEDs instead of the CFL tube. I mainly did that because I wanted to do something “crafty” and because I like LEDs and how their light comes with almost no heat.

Of course the LEDs also use less power than the original CFL did. The CFL was using 9W while LEDs now are only using 2.4W and still giving comparable light output.

Anyone interested on what I used and how I did it, have a look at my Instructable where I detailed all the steps. To read the step by step account go to: http://www.instructables.com/id/Retro_Fit_a_Desk_Lamp_with_LEDs/

Just a quick message to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I reckon 2009 will be a most interesting year for all.

On the house front: Our house plans have gone to a certifier and we hope that early in the new year we will get approval to start building our new home.

Kin on the Aussie Bloggers Forum was so kind to organise a Secret Santa for forum participants.

Yesterday my secret Santa present arrived and it is an absolute hoot. The bits I received were pretty cool (see image on the right), but the message, which I share with you below, made me laugh and chuckle all the way to the end.

“Buying for a man, who is in on “office” swap, is HARD! So I asked my husband “What do all men want in their office?” He told me …

1. Something topless. (check √)
2. Something to keep track of all those numbers offered to him at the christmas party. (little black book – check √)
3. Something to keep his tip protected. (whatever that means???!) (liquid paper – check √)
4. The opportunity for something ’sticky’ (notes – check √)
5. Something to label home made movies with, so they are not distributed around the office. (DVD marker – check √)
6. A supply of plastics, scented + glow in the dark. ( check √ – I hope small is ok?
7. Office Bullsh!t … (will reindeer sh!t do?) – √ check

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are not easily offended, if so … I apologogise now , if not, enjoy

Not so secret Santa
(I am a string red vegetable – can you guess?)”

Well, now I have to work out what a “string red vegetable is”. Can you guys help me please and leave me a comment with your guess who my secret santa is.

Last weekend Rosalba and I attended a Strawbale Building Workshop in Yandina. This workshop was part sponsored by our Architect WD Architects. Other supporters included Rockcote, Wildlife Warriors, and the Sunshine Coast Regional Council.

Our tutors where Lance Kairl, and Chris and Colin Newton.

Lance is South Australia’s most experienced straw bale builder with 11 years of experience building strawbale homes.

Chris’ experience is in all sorts of earthen clay and lime renders to finish of a strawbale home. Chris’ husband Colin is a structural engineer.

The workshop was held over a long weekend from Saturday to Monday and was packed full with information and great hands on experience.

During the workshop we built a load bearing strawbale wall of a tea house for the Yandina Community Permaculture Gardens.

We had quite a bit of fun stacking the bales on the first day and found out pretty quick that it is a bit harder than stacking Lego blocks as you can see in the picture in the right. We ended up disassembling and re-building this corner 2 times until we were happy with the result.

The main lesson to be learned on this corner was that you should not try and cut corners by trying to kick and shove bales into a tight spot if the bale is to big. You should actually make the bale smaller by the appropriate amount.

On the second day we made cob out of “waste” straw and clay. We used this cob to patch any gaps or holes in the strawbale walls before we applied any of the render.

When making cob it is important not to make the mixture to wet and heavy as otherwise the cob just falls of the wall instead of sticking to the wall. Also, for larger patches, cob should be applied in thinner layers and let dry a bit before applying further layers.

On the third and last day we applied the first coat of render onto the strawbale wall. The render on a strawbale wall is normally applied in three coats with a finished thickness of between 35mm to 50mm.

Unfortunately three days was not long enough to finish the wall and apply the second and third coat of render as each coat needs to dry and cure for a few days before applying the next coat.

The result of our three day workshop can be seen in the picture on the right.

Both Rosalba and I have had a really good time during this workshop. The tutors were very knowledgeable and open and all participants in the workshop were a pleasure to work with. Rosalba and I have made some great connections during the workshop and we are both keen and eager to get some more experience.

For people in the south-east corner of QLD, Chris and Colin Newton intend to have a workshop at the beginning of January 2009 to finish their own home built with straw bales. So if you are interested in the process of building a strawbale home contact Chris to confirm dates and availability.

A side benefit for us of attending this workshop is that we have met many people that are interested in building homes as a community and many are willing to help each other out building each others strawbale structures.