A Blog Post about a Bog, and Other Stuff

We had some very strong winds during February. So strong that the umbrella that was keeping the rain out of the compost loo blew down. The whole structure was very flimsy. I had made it as a temporary thing three years ago. So I decided to build one out of cob. I told myself I could do it in a week.

So I dug out a flat space and took down a few barrow loads of big rocks and some small ones and began to fiddle. Not bad for day one.

Day two had me trying to mix the cob on the hillside. I was going crazy with annoyance. It is very hard working at a slant.

So I demolished the old one, leaving me with the perfect place to work.

It goes quite quickly. I used beer bottles to keep the vertical levels and as infill.

It has been taking much longer than a week to do as I got ill, and I also have other things to do, but I have been counting the days that I've been working on the bog. Here is day four -

Day five

I've got as far as day six. I went to bed in the afternoon and spent 24 hours there.

I am using lots of bottles by now as we have lots and it means less clay. It was quite strange to hear the wind whistling over the bottle necks. I have started to plaster around the bottom using the mud left over from each mix which is left on the plastic. It is lovely and smooth.

So that is as far as I've got. Tomorrow will see me at it again.  The weather has improved one hundred percent so it will be much more enjoyable (not that I don't enjoy it anyway!).

The studio is looking good, and the garden flourishing.

Now we are waiting for Laura and Nuno to have their third baby, due the beginning of April. Rob has made a lovely rocking cradle which will hold the Moses basket. (Photo later)

Fiddling with fire

These dear donkeys sunbathing

We've been having really cold wet and windy weather during February. I have been working on improving the fireplace in the studio, after having wwoofers smoke themselves to death and then the walls went yellow... :(

So I knocked most of it down and with 'The  Forgotten Art of Building a Good Fireplace' open on the right pages, tried to make sense of diagrams and figures (not my strong point, numbers...) and rebuild it using the same earth, just made wet again but with a larger open bit and a larger smoke box. I love doing stuff like this. Even more fun is the finishing bits. I used just earth sieved and sand, no straw, as it makes a smoother finish.

It still smoked!

I have decided that the main problem is the size of the chimney. It is 140cm diameter and should be much more.

Any way the long and the short of it is that I have put in the old cast iron stove we used to have up in the shack. Guess what? No smoke!!! Yes.

Good bye Old Smokey

Well I was so proud of my fireplace in the studio. I refused to believe that it smoked. It was perfect. But it only seemed to work for me.

Two wwoofers later, I have decided to dismantle it and rebuild it being much more conscious of measurements.

It is a very hard thing to do, taking apart something that you love. But, like knitting, if you quickly unravel it then the fun can begin all over again. And the mud is all re-usable! I have the chimney soaking in a bucket and the rest will be remoulded into the outside bits where it's all right to use straw.

I think I will take it down to the ground and start at zero. Wish me luck!

Gloomy Days But Good Intentions

 Finally, some photos. Very little sun these last few weeks so everything looks a little dreary. The green paintwork on the studio looks nice.
Barbora has been wwoofing and we painted the outside using a mixture of liquid clay and cal (lime) - equal amounts of similar textured slurry). It went on well and dried quickly into a protective shell. And it's a nice colour.

Billy's house is coming along well, too. The walls in the main room are nearly complete. The plaster is made from the earth from the floor and fine sand. It feels lovely and looks like chocolate!

I have nearly completed the extension exterior walls. It has been very wet so not a huge amount of work has been done. I have been making bottle niches in the bathroom and am longing to get plastering as that really transforms the lumpy mud into proper walls!

 A bit of plastering on the outside, just because I couldn't resist seeing how it will look.

This little carpet is made from six cotton tee shirts and a skirt. (Things to do while it's raining!) The photo is rather dreary due to bad light, but the carpet actually looks quite nice.

The Swallows Are Returning!

January is always a hard month. It shouldn't be. Really, I love clouds and rain and a wee bit of a blow in the sky. But somehow it still manages to get me crawling into a gloomy place. Not for long though! Winter in this part of the world is short. Already the swallows are returning and the days feel a bit longer and the sun is up a bit higher.

The hillside is covered in yellow flowers. Oxalis, which is a bit of a pest. A non-native invasive species. But the bees love it. We have been strimming it a bit as it smothers the new grass which is also coming up. All the fields around us are green and velvety. The rosemary is in flower and the bees love that, too.

My camera is still out of order and I still don't know how to put photos from the smart phone to the computer so you will have to imagine or perhaps I can dig out some from last year!

The building project is going very slowly. We had a volunteer who helped me build up the last exterior wall and put in the window in the bathroom. What a difference it is to have someone else to do half the work. We were speeding along, despite the wet weather. (We could work indoors.)

Ok, there must be a reason for no photos this time. I couldn't even put in an old one...

But imagine, I have been painting the doors and windows of the studio a lovely pale green and am thinking of plastering or lime washing the walls a good colour to go with it.  And I have made a work surface and a shelf next to the gas cooker outside, using stones and cob. I used some sand since I have some nearby. It is the first time I have added sand to a cob mix! It feels different. goes very hard.

The shack, our house, smells very strongly of mushrooms as I am trying to dry some field mushrooms we found.

A new painting is in my head. I hope to get it out in the next month.

December Update

That cardboard box!

Dancing and dressing up

With Granny!

A month has passed and I haven't written here. What have I been doing?
Since the big downpour in October the ground has been soft and damp which is perfect for digging, so I tackled some of the narrow steep terraces. I dug them over and put horse manure and straw over them then wrapped them in weed barrier, ready to plant in later. That felt good, but now I need to get more manure.

I have been slowly adding to the walls in the mud house in the village. Cob takes a long time to dry in the winter, especially since the extension is on the non sunny side of the house (in the winter it gets a little morning sun and then it's over). But that's alright as it gives me time to think about the whole place.

Blue bottle niches in the bathroom

Interior wall between bathroom and bedroom

Outside

 

 

 

 

The vegetable garden is now looking green and full of slugs eating lettuce, chard and cabbage.... I must take down a bag of salt and make a bucket for killing them... sorry but I have to. And quite a lot of caterpillars too. I have to keep checking and smearing them to death.

The vegetable garden

Cactus flower in studio

Spinning mohair

It's like spinning clouds

November News

After the deluge - a weekend of heavy, continuous rain, the clouds dispersed and it has been sunny every day. The rain was enough to give the land a real boost and now there is grass on the studio roof, along with some Hottentot fig and other plants that survived the intense summer.

I have been putting wood around the bottom of the roof, from the end of the beams, to try and fold up the plastic to make a gutter and encourage the water to drain to the back of the house. Drips are really damaging to cob, and there was one or two landing on the 'kitchenette'. I have also started to put up cane to make the porch but haven't done much. I need to think about it some more.

There is a cat that wanders around and I don't know who thinks they are the owner. I used to consider it an enemy and shoo it away until one day I changed my mind. It might as well hang out around here and catch rodents. It sleeps on Bonnie's cushion outside during the night. Sometimes I hear it padding about on the roof. Bonnie tolerates it.

Everywhere is green and the sun keeps it warm during the days. The fig trees are losing their leaves slowly. You hear them crunkling down. I have dug over a couple of beds and planted some garlic. (Bulbs that I found in a bed, left from the summer harvest, all sprouting and keen.) The goat shit has done wonders for the soil. There are still aubergines and lots of French beans. Cabbages are coming up, and Swiss chard.

The fields around us are being ploughed and sown with winter wheat and barley. When I walk the dog, if I see a big stone newly brought to the surface I carry it to the side of the road. It's always good to have a stash of stones.

The work on Billy's house is slow. Cob takes a long time to dry in November, especially since the extension is at the back of the house, in shadow at this time of year. But the orange trees are FULL of fruit, all nearly ripe. I have been having fun making bottle niches along the bathroom wall using the vinho verde blue bottles. It's beginning to look cute!  And the solar hot water is being installed. Progress!