Strawbale House

Kat Gawlik (www.forgreenies.com) not only made plenty of pictures at our rendering workshop but has also made a very professional video as can be seen below:

Thank you Kat for your professional coverage of our rendering workshop.

Awesome community-minded people turned up to do the workshop. The picture below shows the Saturday group. Some of these also came for Sunday’s session and some new people turned up on Sunday as well. Nick gave a great  teaching session about clay and the formulas required for the different coats and then it was hands on. We even had a professional photographer, Kat Gawlik (www.forgreenies.com), come and video Saturday’s session. Even Kat  got in on the rendering on the Sunday. A lot was achieved, 1st and 2nd coats to all of the rooms in just these two days. Well done and thank you so much.

Our house will have a lime render outside and a clay render inside. We have been busy filling the gaps between bales and between the window frames and the bales with cob. The process is a slurry coat which is just clay and water like a thick shake applied to the straw bale. This can be done with a render pump which will arrive soon. So in the meantime we have been applying it by hand. Making those mud pies as a child has come in handy.

slurry coat

The cob coat is 3 clay, 3 sand and 2 large buckets of finely cut straw. Water can be 2 – 3 buckets depending on how much the straw and clay absorb.  Again this cob mix is being applied by hand around the windows and doors. In the picture below I have started to fill around the windows. I managed a 50mm thickness before stopping since I ran out of cob. Nick says if it starts to fall away then leave it to dry before continuing. Nick has completed several window edges already by hand- beautifully curved. Above the top plate more straw biscuits have been placed and cobbed over to create a creature free barrier and to add extra weight to compress the bales further. This is left to settle for a few days and then  the gripples are tighted once more.

If you are interested in learning these skills for your project, then we are having a Render Working Bee on the Saturday May 1, 2010 and Sunday May 2, 2010. Nick and Roger will be there again imparting their wisdom. We’ll cater the food and if you wish to camp in the house overnight you are most welcome. No smoking inside the house please. If you wish to come for only one day that’s ok too. Please contact us for further details.

House at end of working bee.

The straw bale wall raising weekend was an unqualified success. All the bales, except for the last row, were in place at the end of the weekend. Our bedroom wall was one exception with the determined Andy smacking in the last row on Saturday afternoon (video to come).  Perry and Dave were also determined in getting the ‘return wall’ finished on Sunday and left their mark.

Jan (Perry’s partner) and Gary (a most determined and skilful handyman) and his wife, Joy worked with me on the kitchen and pantry walls. Thanks also to Tim and his lovely wife, Kate who are hopefully getting their straw bale house happening soon. Thanks to George, Andy, Yucca and  Marie and friend who came on Saturday. On Sunday I’d like to thank Pascal and Pascal for their help and their discussion on solar cookers which they have imported for sale. Anyone interested in buying one see http://pgoux.free.fr/ParabolicSolarCooker.htm

Talking about cooking, the workers could not have had the energy to continue if it were not for the cooking of my friends Lindel and Col. Also in this area thanks to Alex, Nicholas and Melinda for being go-fors. Great work guys!

some of our helpers

Thank you also to our building team, Nick , Roger and Andrew who gave up

their weekend to impart their valuable knowledge of strawbale building and supervise the weekend. Mark will embed some videos of the weekend in future posts. For those that are impatient check out:

http://www.metacafe.com/channels/msb17/

If I have left anyone out my sincerest apologies and please let me know so I can include you in the next post. Rosalba

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