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.