Mid-winter mud-fest

Dress code: clothes you don't want any more

We were joined by some friends from Melbourne for a mid-winter mud-fest.  It was ten degrees today, and sort of damp so it should have been miserable but it was pretty fabulous instead.  

It's good to be outside in the fresh air making things, especially when you know there's a wood fire and a hot meal waiting inside.  You get warm mixing the mud in with the straw, and lifting it up into the wall.  It's also good to have company.  

Coating loose straw with a mud slurry

Window update

After all that soul-searching we decided to go with a vertical window.  It's less practical and harder to make, but TJ was willing to spend all of Saturday framing it up.  Once I saw it in place, I got the point. 

Vertical window and Grey Box tree

We tied the window into the frame of the shed by bolting the top into the top-plate, and bolting the bottom to a horizontal four-be-two attached to two studs.  This is buried in the mud, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

We drilled holes up each side of the window frame and banged bits of bamboo, as you can see below. They will act as anchors in the mud wall.

Raili (working, with hammer); Sean (mugging, with dangerous power tool)

We got nearly as much wall built today working together as TJ and I would have made in two days on our own. All the darker bits in the picture below were built today.

You may notice we re-built part of the centre panel that we made a month ago.  That day I decided on whim to see what would happen if I didn't tamp the mix down as hard.  Theoretically, the less you tamp down the mud-straw mix, the faster the wall goes up, the better the insulation (air gaps), plus I thought it might dry a bit faster if it was less dense.  It was worth a try, but it didn't work out.  The wall felt weak and fragile, and I want a nice solid wall.  We can soak the mud off the straw, use the mud again and compost the straw, so there's no waste.

By the time we knocked off work today, it was raining pretty solidly.  We got 9mm of rain over night and while we were building.  There's going to be rain or showers on five days out of the next week.  I'm starting to worry about all these damp walls drying so slowly.  Bit late for that, probably.

Rain stops play, but this place will live forever

Verity

Winter has recently included a quantity of freezing drizzly rain.  So there's been nothing to do but sit inside by the wood fire and go bush walking with awesome visiting kids who don't give a fig about cold, night falling or punctual meals.

It's going to rain on and off all week and next weekend, which is a bit depressing.  We have two completely free days and a couple of volunteers offering to come and help next weekend.  I'm worried I'll going to spend two days making them hot cocoa and feeding the fire instead of getting muddy.

For the sake of any Canadians reading this, can I say it was MINUS THREE DEGREES last weekend. You're impressed, aren't you?  That's cold enough for ice to form in the bird bath. Sure, that was at dawn and I was asleep, but still.  MINUS THREE, MAN.

Yesterday we went to a celebration for the 1000th property in Victoria to be protected forever by a Trust for Nature conservation covenant.  We are one of those thousand.  Here, have a Sugar Glider.

It's great being in a room full of people, and you don't know most of them, but you know you can walk up and talk to anyone and they'll be a kindred spirit.  Also, it was at a winery, and Lindy Lumsden brought along her pet microbat, and fed it meal-worms.

A conservation covenant is a voluntary agreement between the landholder and the state government, which creates binding alteration to the land title, and is annexed to the planning legislation.  The allowable land use is altered forever to prevent land clearing and other negative uses, and promote positive action like restoration and weed prevention.  Trust for Nature brokers the covenants and performs a number of other useful functions.

The great thing is that the present Prime Minister is getting ready to pass climate change legislation that will actually pay landholders to preserve natural areas in this way, because permanent biodiverse reserves are an efficient way to promote soil carbon and prevent dangerous climate change, so hopefully one day we will have a landscape full of reserves across the country, connecting private and public reserves.

To celebrate the 1000th covenant, Trust for Nature has done number of endearing things, including making this video (nb the animals start moving at about 1.39).

If it ever stops being cold and rainy, normal blogular service will resume.

Window options - help us decide!

TJ prepares to frame the new window

It was too rainy last weekend to play with the mud.  So we went to the Daylesford Tip Shop and bought  a piece of glass for a new window.  It cost a buck.  It needs framing, which is TJ's job, and we have to decide where to put it, which is where you come in.

Here are our options, set out in picture form, using my mad photo editing skillz.

This window will go on a part of the building we would prefer to keep dark - that's why all the windows are down the other end of the building. An internal wall will partially divide the building, creating the dark corner we want, but it will also prevent air from the other windows from circulating in that part of the building. Temperatures here can get over 45 celsius (113 fahrenheit) and often go over 40 celsius (104 F), so we need a window for ventilation. We're a bit worried that the  building is so well insulated that if it gets hot, it will stay hot unless we can get the heat out at night.

The two options for this long, thin window are: horizontal and vertical.

Horizontal, hinged at the top


Advantages: This is the easiest option to build.  We could attach the window frame to the wooden top-plate, and hang the window with hinges at the top, opening inwards.  The wall isn't so high - we'd just have to step up on something to open it.

Since the window would be tucked up under the eaves, it would be well shaded and protected from the weather, so we wouldn't need a proper window sill or flashing.

Hot air rises, so a horizontal window at that point would be the most efficient way to get rid of heat.

Disadvantages:  What's the point of a window that looks out onto the underneath of eaves?

In order to reach the window easily, we'd have to hang it on the inside edge of the 25cm thick wall.  All the other windows will be flush with the outside edge of the wall, with a lovely wide window sill on the inside.

I'm fairly certain that a wide sill made of mud in that location will become a nesting spot for swallows.  Which would prevent us opening the window, and will look messy with streaks of guano below the nest (not that I care, I love swallows).


Vertical window, hinged at the side


Advantages: A vertical window in this spot would give a perfectly framed glimpse of a lovely clump of trees, and help make up for the other east wall and north wall windows, which will look out onto the house, another run-down shed and the car park.

It would be easier to open, since it would be lower on the wall. And the top of the window would be high on the wall to help expel some hot air.  A window sill it would be the perfect spot to use an odd-shaped bit of wood our friend Lizzie B inherited recently, and wanted us to use to build something. And TJ likes the look of long vertical windows.

Disadvantages: Harder to build.  It would be exposed to the weather, so we would need to frame it up with a proper external window sill at the bottom to direct the rain away from the mud wall.  We'd need to take greater care making the frame braced and square.

The sun would come in.  In summer the sun scoots up to the north early in the day, so a narrow window won't be a very serious problem, and it wouldn't be the only thing letting in heat, but it nevertheless would add to the heat and light burden.  We'd need to create some sort of shade.

Summary / question for you


Do we value beauty or practicality in this window?