Nom nom nom

Nom nom nom

So, yeah, mice are eating the mud shed.  Not all of it, just picking the seeds out of the chaff in the render, leaving little divots.

It's quite cute actually. They prise the seeds out individually, climb up to the window ledge, husk them and eat them.  Dear sweet little soon-to-be-ex mice.

I really should rethink that plan to make the top coat of render out of gingerbread.

Sour-dough render cracking

Meanwhile, the render has dried well.  It has cracked about as much as I was expecting.  I think I could have reduced the cracking if I'd been here when it was drying, to do another few passes with the the float when it was about the texture of plasticine and starting to crack.  But really the cracks aren't a problem.  The render is adhering well, and the next coat will fill the cracks and look prettier.

Today's rock work

We only had half a day to build, because we went shopping for a few supplies at the Wesley Hill Market near Castlemaine.  It's the most beautiful local market, with organic food stores and genuine crafts and a laid-back arty greenie vibe. Every ten metres you see someone you know, and stop and chat - typically friendly country people.

I have a few friends who sneak in at dawn to avoid seeing anyone, because once the sun is up and the coffee tent is pumping it takes three hours to buy a beetroot.

But we did get the big East Wall rock footing mortared into place. I find cement mixtures challenging, and rocks are heavy, so I don't enjoy this job.  But I enjoy having finished it, and the rocks are quite beautiful. They have all come from around the house, but not from natural areas.  I think the bloke who built the house dug them out of the ground when the house site was levelled.

Freshly mortared rock jigsaw

It's the easter break, so we have two more days to play in the mud, and glorious Autumn weather.  Crisp mornings and warm days.

No mud this week

Parsley the house-wallaby inspects the newly minted footings, back in the day.

Sadly, mudding has been put on hold for a week while non-muddy business is attended to in Melbs.

Luckily we have our friend and his family holidaying at our place in Clydie.  Before he left, I begged E to send me a photo of cracks as they form in the drying mud render, so I wouldn't miss out entirely on the experience of watching mud dry.

Oh, come on.  You're worse.  You're READING about missing out on watching mud dry.

Just like chocolate icing, only mud

South wall, first bit o render

It all worked out, those three tubs of fermenting mud.  It worked!  When I arrived the tubs of mud had risen like bread dough, and were bubbling with air.

The mud turned into render that spread onto the wall like trowelling chocolate icing onto a cake.

It wasn't even smelly.  Just a slight sweet-sour smell, that the butterflies really liked.

Butterflies like sour-dough render - also, that's an expansion joint on the left.  Fancy. (Edited to add - relax, they're not stuck, just resting and maybe having a sip of fluid. Dozens of butterflies came and went all day.)

I'm not sure the week of fermenting added any actual magic.  I think clay generally benefits from a good soak. But it went on the wall easily, stuck well, and it was a generally pleasant task that I was able to do on my own in one morning when I was at the property by bicycle.

I've made a big deal about the render in these blog posts, but it's a big deal in my head.  I've planned this and worried about it, read about it, and taken the responsibility to do it. The building will fail if it doesn't work.  So it was a relief to see that it was working. 


Where I really got excited was at this point, where the mud wall meets the rock footing, because working with irregular rock shapes was a big decision I made that I worried would backfire.  But it was good. It was easy.

Beautiful rocks

And this point:

This stuff defies gravity

This is the first I knew that I'd be able to render the top of the circle window, without the render glopping off onto the ground under its own weight.  It was really quite a moment.

South wall, nearly completed

I ran out of render mix just before the whole wall was completed.  But it looks good, yes?

I've got so used to looking at the fuzzy shaggy light earth walls with the drying wheat grass growing out of it, I'd almost forgotten that the building will have these smooth walls.

I'm not sold on the brown colour - it will dry to a lighter dusty brown.  Next year the whole building will get a thin coat of fine render, which we can colour with oxides, and maybe a coat of mud paint ('alise').