Update

These photos show the framing and the recent plumbing work, one diamond saw and a jack hammer later, still more work to do on the plumbing, but for now the show must go on and so to must the roof!.

some photos of our progress

Roof on before xmas (fingers cross)

Hi Folks,
It's been awhile since the last update and things have definitely been moving onsite since October!, we are making good progress with some dedicated carpenters working hard to keep things moving. unfortunately we had a not so dedicated plumber who put the under-slab plumbing in the wrong place - this was a most upsetting incident and something that we are dealing with, he will be back out onsite next Monday to cut the slab and shuffle the plumbing into the correct position!. with the incessant rain, the slab took 3 weeks longer than projected and cost a-bit more money than anticipated - all part of being in the building same!

Every day we get more rain, we have a lake in our backyard! not ideal baling or rendering conditions. Speaking of which I have been experimenting with different rendering mixes to determine the best combination for our wails, I have hit this jack pot with a local find of pure clay just down the road, so we plan on using this as the basis for our earthen (sand, clay, lime) render which we will slop down in three lavers inside and out!. Owner Building has proved challenging, particularly in relation to bridging the gap between traditional building practices and straw bale specific building. Because we are running with a post and beam infill though the design is pretty standard and hopefully we have done everything right!

We have submitted our Owner Builder Finance Book, which hopefully will now be processed, hopefully we should seeing some bank money soon, which we assist us to keep thin8s on track.
Overall things are moving along well and if all 8oes according to plan we should have a roof over our heads and be ready for straw baling just after XMAS.
Aj and Leesh might just have a house yet!

Let's Build!

The construction swung into action two weeks ago, just as soon as we had our beutiful big post holes dug it started dumping rain!, and didn't stop for the duration of the week, so that was a washout.

Last week we were blessed with fine weather and the crane was called in on wednesday to postion the posts in place, Concreating happened on Thursday and hey presto, we now have all of our beutiful posts in place ready to go.

Beams in a Teusday and the Slab on Wednesday, so things are finally progressing on the block and looking good.

Only just recieved the HBS package, so the finance is alittle bit behind construction at the moment, but it is anticipated that this shouldn't slow the project.

Straw Baling Mid November, so we will start getting the word out and hopefully we will have a working party to assist us with this process

We are hoping to have the house to lockup standard before the XMAS shut down period but we'll have to see how we go.

the adventure continues!

MUD PIE and BIG POSTS!

We have offically commenced the preparation of the building site.

So far this has involved hiring a local excavator (Rod Patton) to clear the top soil and to arrange to have this taken away (approx 60m2!) and Richard Playne our plumber who is a qualified green plumber and brother of Alycia's work colleague.

Richard installed a water meter and three taps onsite.

All of this has involved lot's of digging in wet clay soil and with this incessant rain it has all fairly quickly softened up, and our block is now a very muddy place to be!.

I have arranged for a fence and toilet to be delivered on Teusday, and at present the construction side of things is on hold untill we can source three 200x200 6 m posts.

These posts are massive and have to be sourced especially for the job which could take upto 1 month to arrange. These posts are a case of over engineering and will require a crane to install!.

The engineers seemed ultra paranoid about the straw bale thing and consequently have over engineered the house framming which means that we will have something that is pretty much cyclone proof!, but it also means that the build is more costly and time consuming.

If we were to do this again I would ensure that I arrange for engineers who have specically worked with straw bale houses to do the engineering as they would have a much more specific knowledge of the particular capacities and requirements of a straw bale house.

STRAW BALE WALL - A PRACTICE

Hi Folks,

Things are slowly moving forwards, tank in, driveway installed and a practice straw bale wall which will eventually be a centre wall for a shed, cold storage, conservatory, workshop or whatever else we happen to think of at the time, but for now it is a wall.

This was constructed in the following stages:

(1) Construct bottom and top boxing, (protect bales and aid in compression later)

(2) Build up a footing for bottom boxing to sit on: (Gravel and sand) to stop wall from sinking into the soft ground

(3) Lay bottom boxing and fill with crushed rock (19mm screening)

(4) Insert compression strapping under boxing: must be twice length of wall + 1 m

(5) Stack bales

(6) Compress a little

(7) Bang wall into alignment with a wide / flat bale hammer

(8) Recompress and Viola!!, a straw bale wall.

We didn't get around to rendering the wall just yet, we will discuss this in more detail later.

STRAW BALE ADVICE + TOOLS

This morning before the driveway fiasco I visited Lars (he owner built a straw bale house on the island recently and has been a great mentor) and he has just lent me a whole batch of straw bale building tools and equipment which we will use next weekend when we build a practice straw bale wall on the property.

This wall will be about 6m long by about 6ft high and will probably be a future wall for a shed, but for now it will serve well as a north facing thermal mass wall that will provide a great micro climate for growing things. This practise wall will be a project that will enable us to test out our straw bale wall raising and clay rendering skills before we have to put these skills to use for real on the house. We will stack and compress this wall as we would a house wall and it will be a great way to become comfortable with building with straw.

For this project we will require pine timber for the bottom and top plates, a length of compression strapping (this is specifically designed to take the strain in compression), crushed rock and sand for the base and bottom plate, 30 bales, a load of clay, sand and lime, a concrete mixer, bale twine, baling tools, and a assortment of tools.

Lars will be available to provide a helping hand and we will try and rope in a few mates to help us particularly with the rendering even on a small job this can be a difficult job.
I will write a future blog detailing the tools and costing for this job.

1/08/10 DRIVE WAY & Other Stuff

Today began with a rethink on how the driveway was configured. The Three times that Leesh has seen it now she has commented that it has been too high and was I sure that it was low enough in the ground.

In total denial I assured her that it was fine, but packed in loose, spongy clay and sitting so that water was running around it and not through the culvert pipe, it was never going to work, and after two weeks I finally collected the resolve to attack the job, of course like every day recently on the Island it was wet and windy. Firstly I scraped back the gravel and then had to shovel out the clay, which of course was sodden and heavy and difficult to shovel. I then removed the pipe culvert and dug out the ditch to make it deeper. After I was satisfied relined the bottom with crushed rock and then stacked in the pipe with loose gravel around the pipe, now it is sitting at about ground level and the water appears to be entering and exiting in a satisfactory manner.
After three hours of back braking labour in the pouring rain I finally had the culvert pipe reinstated and backfilled with gravel, with all the clay material removed, it appears to be much more effective. If only I had done this before.

Also worth noting I’m using a plastic culvert which is specifically designed for agricultural applications and can take the load of a tractor. This is counter to the council’s wishes for a concrete pipe. However as the concrete is much more expensive, $600.00 (additional delivery from Melbourne), much less easy to handle and is prone to becoming brittle and cracking over time. The plastic is easy to handy ½ the price and is very durable. So we’ll see how we go with the council.

We purchased 6m of pipe at $300 including delivery
Also for the job I required a 6 cubic meters of crushed rock ($60 per cubic meter) and after the driveway settles in about two or three weeks I will apply a layer of finer rock dust to compact into the drive.

The total cost of the driveway job will come to about $700.00 including about 8hrs of labour. The council will build the culvert for you for $1100 (excluding the rest of the drive) so there is a significant cost saving involved with by organising this yourself, also crushed rock driveways are a good cheap alternative to concrete. However it is thought to be diplomatic to see what the neighbours have done and aim to replicate this standard.
For the general construction job(s) we also brought a council road obstruction permit which costs $50.00 and comes into effective immediately from payment and lasts one year upon issue.
I will have to get up early to finish off the job tomorrow, joy.

Cheers AJ

House Update

It's been a while since I have contributed and lots has been happening on the house project:

here is a brief overview, I will go through each point in more detail in seperate posts, and I will endevour to register more regular posts to keep you upto date on the particulars of the construction project as it unfolds.

developments thus far:
(0) Tireless quest of OB financing and decision to go with Intellichoice
(1) Finding tradies and Obtaining constuction quotes
(1) 34,000 Litre Water Tank Installed
(2) Thermal Mass, North Facing wicking gardens installed around perimeter of tank
(3) Gravel Drive Way
(4) Building Permit issued

It's been a full on process, I will describe each development in detail in futher posts.

Aj

Sustainability Festival

Cowes Sustainability Festival was successful,

we presented a thingo on transition towns, 5 attendees, thankyou to those people!,

thankfully the stall was more of a success and it was a great day of networking and partenership building all in the name of rebuilding a carbon free future.

Good times had by all!

Southern Cross Permaculture Visit

Visited Rick and Naomi's place today,

it's always great to checkout the property and what they have achieved,

We got some great tips on wicking garden bed design, discussed the yr 9 environment center options for permaculture type development and had a mini tour of the site.

A good link was Balnaring Primary School (http://www.balnarringps.vic.edu.au/) which is a Carbon Neutral School and has won all sorts of Sustainability Awards.

Rick has identified Phillip Island as being a good target for Transition because it is a defined land area and has quite a proactive community.

Rick is going OS to Mongolia next week to work on some permaculture aid projects and then back again in August. We will be charting his progress via a blog

On his return we will follow up by arranging for him to visit the Yr 9 center to deliver a talk and to help us out with some design work on the site. He will also be able to assist us with obtaining fruit trees to stock out urban permaculture orchid.

here are some shots of his polytunnel and wicking garden bed designs.

Notice the Tomatoes, still around!

Leesh Holding a Babaco - excellent Juice!

IBIS GARDEN PROJECT

Just back from IBIS,

After a poor response to my proposal for a integrated kitchen garden I have pulled the pin on trying to integrate this and will now focus on developing permaculture elements within the backyards of the surrounding staff houses.

The two elements we'll start with is a herb spiral and a mandala / wicking garden bed design,

stay tuned for more details.

The IBIS GARDEN PROPOSAL it is in the format of a SWOT analysis which I think works well (Stengths, Weaknesses, Opportunites, Threats)

PERMABLITZ THE WORLD - AJ

IBIS Projects

Here's a slide show of some photos detailing a couple of the projects we have launched at Ibis to promote the production and growing of local organic food

Matt and I have made use of the eclectic array of bits and bobs lying around the campus (being good permaculturalists) and through a couple of permablitzes and weekend work blitzes we have managed to create a fairly decent system incorporating:

- A sizzling hot compost

- A bread Crate Worm farm (Industrial size!)

- An experimental tub compost system (doesn't work!)

- A garden raised garden bed system

We still have way too much food scraps to handle at the moment but we should be upping the ante massively on the hot composts.

We will also mix in wood chips with the scraps as we go, preventing a nitrogen overdose that

creates stench and gaseous toxic sludge which makes poo smell good!, and giving us a nicer product that we can work into larger compost systems.

Our long term view is to build a nice working herb Spiral and a mandala garden design, a couple of classic permaculture design solutions which will provide great demonstration sites for our darling school students!!!;

enjoy the slides:

Transition Phillip Island

Alycia and Nia, ran an inspirational Transition talk today at a Phillip Island Climate Change Day.

The response was very positive with four groups brainstorming strategies for how we can begin moving towards Carbon Positive Life Styles.

About 6 people signed up and they were keen to learn more which is fantastic to have new recruits on board to assist us in 'Transitioning'.

Jeff was also visiting form melbs, a permaculture friend, was up with his family for the weekend, they were given the customary tour of the mostly empty block and defiantly keen to pitch in and help out when the fun stuff begins.

All up another great day for the work of transition and permaculture in general.

Our Straw Bale House

Here are our preliminary designs for our straw bale house.

In order to maintain thermal efficiency we have gone for the 'curled cat' design.

We have a north / South block so our large windows are facing north with eaves, designed to draw in winter sun and block our summer sun, we plan have the capacity to store about 40,000 litres

of water, recycle grey water and black water using a Biolytix system for use on a fruit orchard, heat and cook using a wood combustion Rayburn stove which will also provide hot water.

New Solar innovations are coming out from RMIT next year and when this happens we plan to install a 2kw Solar system which is about enough to provide for approx 5 - 7 kw of energy for the house per day.

In this way we are planning to operate a house that produces more food, energy and water than it consumes and can largely recycle it's own waste.

Easter 'Permablitz'

Dale was up or down (depending on weather your standing upright or on your head) from Tasie

this weekend, on break from a Permaculture course run by Southern Cross Permaculture Institute.

This was awesome as I had the opportunity to pick his brains about a recent Straw Bale Course that he had just completed and that I aim to complete in July and to share some permaculture stories.

I also thought it would be a great opportunity to engage in a micro blitz on our block and setup a couple of sheet mulched garden beds. (Sheet mulching is a quick way to build garden beds; involving layers of cardboard, hay, horse poo, and compost).

In a couple of hours we had two garden beds, filled with peas, lettuce, broccoli and cabbage (a good autumn selection).

On our N - S block we should see some good rapid autumn growth through into the winter.

IBIS: Education and Food Systems

I'm working at an outdoor education camp called Ibis which is located on the Banksia Peninsula.

In my free time I'm working with a colleague to develop some food gardens around the site.
Some of our work so far has included installing a milk crate worm farm, a hot compost pile system and more recently a hot compost plastic barrel system. These waste systems are allowing us to break down massive amounts of food waste quickly, ready for garden use. (The last system took four weeks).

We have also installed a number of gardens, and looking to further extend this system.

Tonight we drove out and collected a ute of horse manure, which was instantly deployed into a new raised garden bed system.

This project is part of a broader vision to integrate food growing systems into the camp curriculum which we believe would really bolster the programe and teach these students great life skills.

OWNER BUILDING: SOME RESOURCES

I completed an Owner Building Course today and now feeling armed with much of the knowledge and know how about how to most effectively administer a building site.

I Strongly recommended that anyone interest in pursing this path do an owner builders course as there is a lot to learn about all the legalities of manging a building project.


My course was through Owner Building Solutions www.ownerbuilding.com.au.


Other useful contacts for straw bale and environmental house design and resources include:


WEB:


1. www.yourhome.gov.au: amazing gov site on environmental house design
2. www.strawbale.com.au: For great straw Bale specific building advice and services
3. www.ausbale.org: The ultimate online straw bale resource for Australia
4. www.arec.com.au: Amazing and highly recommended straw bale building courses

BOOKS:

1. Earth Garden: Natural Home Builders

2. Straw Bale Building: Plan, Design and Build with Straw: Magwood, C. & Mack, P. 2000

A NEWHAVEN ODESSEY

While we wait for our draghtsman to finish the preliminary house drawings ("early this week"),

I volunteered to hangout at the Yr 9 Environmental Center (Newhaven College, where Leesh is working).

Leesh and another work colleague are in the process of collaborating with the students to develop a permaculture design with the intention of integrating chooks, veges, food forest, native edibles, and poly tunnel into a working permaculture system.

While this is under way I'm helping out where ever I can, and this week we got into fixing the horribly abused and disused chaos of the compost area. It still needs some love but at least now we have one working bin with a nice hot compost brewing away.

Leesh will enlist some students to turn this once a week and to monitor the heat, who knows it might even make a nice science project?.

Left Bin: One hot compost!

!

A BURIAL FIT FOR A WALLABY!

On my morning walk this morning Leesh and I found a fresh road kill wallaby, a sight,

not too uncommon for the Islanders (Unfortunately)

Although saddened by this horrible sight I was also excited. I hate seeing road kill just as much as the next nature loving greenie but as a budding permacultualist, who is always on the lookout for resources a fresh wallaby presents an abundant supply of nitrogen (essential for a hot compost).

I proceeded to put my day on hold and instantly started stock piling all the essential ingredients for a hot compost system. It was a rush against time as I knew the longer I took the more the wallaby would begin to smell!.

The key with the hot compost is to heap a carefully balanced combination nitrogen and carbon into a pile, which should then 'cook' at about 70 degrees.

I already had two straw bales (carbon) ready to go so that was easy, the next scavenger hunt items were: seaweed (nitrogen), this is found at low tide about 50m from my front door,

horse poo (nitrogen) from a local farm, and fresh grass clippings (nitrogen / carbon) which I took from a vacant house lot.

Armed and ready to go I set up a stock pile on our block and then got into the action of building the hot compost. It's essential to wet the pile but we don't have water on the block so I had to 'borrow' some from our next door neighbors (weekender's).

The theory is that the pile will heat up and break down all contents including wallaby super efficiently.

In my opinion the perfect burial for a hapless wallaby!,

Cheers,

Aj

A BLANK SLATE

Our Blank Slate!

So here we are, this is my first of many entries as I attempt to chart our progress

in designing and creating a fully integrated suburban permaculture system.

This will include such elements as a solar passive straw bale house, a food forest, intensive veggie gardens, a native food trail, a greenhouse and chooks all on 600m2 of land based on Phillip Island

It is anticipated that this project will take about 2 years to get it to a point where all the elements are functioning.

This will then become a focal point for modeling and initiating other permaculture projects in the Bass Coast Shire.

This blog will be a space to share this project with as many people as possible and to hopefully enlist some helpers!.

Cheers

Aj