Trev has a new appendage to his name, it now goes, Poor Trev.
It's a fine thing to be able to say no-pvc, strawbale, no concrete - make all the rules and then bugger off into the garden and leave him to it. Not strictly 100% true, but close enough. Still, he's hard at it, and now with all the strawbales up, tensioned and true, he's charged up for more progress.
Trev's trimmed two sides with the whippersnipper and with lots of stuffing around figuring out how best to do it, we've bought a simple metal backpack sprayer, filled it with clay slip - which is thin clay slurry about the consistency of paint, and Trev kills his left arm pumping it up and spraying.
There's been a lot of web searching and phone calls to make. We've finally found pvc-free electrical cables - at 4 to 5 times the price of normal wiring. (anyone know of a cheaper source?) - pvc free plumbing is still being fine tuned with our ideas changing so often we're hard pressed to keep each others latest decision. Often touting completely different ones to different people. The windows, - to make them or to have them made, that is the question. Time and money being incredibly difficult as we don't have much of either. Still, we only have a $13,000 mortgage so far. Though this is expected to blow out soon with electricity, plumbing and windows being major expenses.
I'll add a whole heap of photos of the appreciating-everything-Trev-does, kind. Some stage soon I'll add what's going on in the garden, which is starting to look bloody marvellous if I do say so myself.
10 comments:
It looks marvellous! Congratulations on getting this far and good luck with the rest of the building.
Wow - Now it looks like you are getting somewhere :)
viv in nz
What a great effort by both of you. Love the mud spray on the bales. You should be moving in soon :-)
Gav
Your place is beautiful, love the trees and green everywhere!
Straw houses and building with straw is very intreging to me. I'll be checking in to see your progress. Thanks for the great pictures.
Keep up the good work
Kelle
I can't believe how busy you've been. I've been reading your blog since the beginning, but now it really looks like it is all coming together.
My only request - more photos! Please! :-)
Wow - it looks fantastic and it must be so satisfying to see it all coming together now. Re the chook fencing - we have given up on the floppy fencing as the possums were using it as a springboard I think. We are now in the process of wiring up about 10 - 12 feet and putting netting across the top with no gaps and plenty of blisters, scrapes and cuts and aching arms doing it. We haven't figured out how to make a gate properly either so will have to do some googling. I hope this all works but some cheerful soul told us the possums will probably just tear a hole in the netting anyway - have now been looking at a bit of solar electric fencing to go around just to make sure. At least everything is getting a chance to grow now with all the rain and we might even get to eat some raspberries this year instead of being left with the broken stumps.
You're a temperate gardener too Denise? The rain has been great, but great to see a break in the clouds and some of that lovely blue stuff. We're lucky enough not to have had an issue with possums yet. Touching wood! Best of luck with the raspberries!
Oh, Trev is no longer saying the house will be finished this time next year (and never removes any months from the equation), he's now saying 'before next winter!'
Oh it looks so nice! I love it! And you guys have really stuck to your guns which gets harder and harder when you're building the place you WANT to move into. Good on ya!
re Chook fencing. We fenced in our tiny garden and let the hens run free. However!!! This morning I saw that my ONLY pumpkin that I had carefully unhooked from the chicken wire and put inside the garden has been pecked to bits THROUGH the chicken wire. ARgggghh! Good thing I love the little savages.
Hi Linda,
Yes temperate gardener too - over the river from you between Dodges Ferry and Forcett. Blue sky at last! The cheeky green parrots have worked out how to lift bits of the netting up and still get in to the chooks' food in the orchard so will have to go around this weekend and make doubly sure it is all impossible to get in to. At least you are at the stage with your house that you can stand inside and dream of what it will look like next Winter.
Cheers
Denise
Linda, you guys are just up there....I loved your book, and now hang off your blog like a mad thing. Your house is beautiful. You guys rock! And I like Caleb's blog too!
Cheers
Jenny
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