A couple of months ago Iulia posted on a local (our village) Facebook page that we are looking for help with the cellar construction – women only! One woman expressed her interest and finally, in the last stretch of earthwork the circumstances matured for her to join us. Speranta was with us for a few […]
Category Archives: Construction
Earthbag Cellar: Cob Bench, More Earth Finishing & Final Burial
We finally got around to converting the three stumps of wood in the retaining wall into a bench. Long pieces of wood were laid length-wise (and some anchored down with bent nails). … and then covered with cob: … on top of which another layer of cuttings was laid out (to extend the width of […]
Earthbag Cellar: Lots of Earth Finishing and … finally … an Umbrella
So (this post is already a few days too late to be written in the present tense … especially since we’ve more progress since then … but I will do so anyway) we had Razvan visit with us for 5 full days of work and we got lots done. We had already started applying finishing […]
Earthbag Cellar – Guests, Roof, Floor & Burial
Iulia asked for a few pictures of the cob process … so: first we make a dry mix (we call a lasagna) of sand and our (clay rich) soil in a wheelbarrow … dump it on to a tarp and add water while dancing it into a consistent mix: We then add straw and dance […]
Earthbag – Roof: Wood & Cob
Earthbag Cellar – 21 Belgian Scouts
Earthbag Cellar – Roof Forming
We are off to a late(r then I would have liked) start this year. This was primarily because of my allergy and a very rain season. It was also because we got stuck with the roof! Our primary plan to make a roof out of acacia vigas was deserted when we failed to source logs. […]
Our Second Second Rocket Mass Heater
We finally decided to go ahead and rebuild our second rocket stove (the one in the living room). My primary wishes were to rebuild the core (better) and to convert the relatively useless mass into a (small) bench. Iulia decided to make it a workshop and … 3 interested people showed up. During the first […]
Catalan Brick Vault
What a wonderful skill … beautiful work with a basic element and basic tools. I can imagine something like this being built over eathbag walls (though I don’t know about using it for an underground roof that may carry alot of weight … will it hold?) https://youtu.be/PB8TWMKHHMQ
(Very) Passive (Not) Solar
The only place we’ve seen sunshine for the past … oh … I don’t know … at least a week, maybe two … was on a video call with Annelieke in Portugal. And this is what the 10 day forecast looks like: This is that time of the year where the sun can be absent […]