mud & musings

Natural Building Colloquium East 2011

2011-06-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

From my Peaceweaver family:

"From natural building to permaculture techniques to water and energy conservation...from alternative fuels to sourcing your food locally...this event is important for everyone who is concerned about how their lifestyle impacts our Earth.

Join us for the 2011 NBC - July 26-30 at Thunder Mountain!
This year's Natural Building Colloquium East: Building with Spirit will take place July 26-30, 2011 at Thunder Mountain Peace Sanctuary in Bath, NY.

The NBC is a fantastic opportunity to learn hands on natural building techniques from talented instructors from all over the country.

Workshops will focus on cob, strawbale, earthen plasters, timber framing and more. Come join us for a spirit filled event in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of NY.

Fee: $350 includes all workshops, camping, bathroom & shower facilities, and vegan meals. ($150 deposit due with registration. $200 balance due by July 8th.)

Please email the PeaceWeavers at pw@peaceweavers.com or call us at 607-776-4060 to sign up or for more info."

My photos from the 2010 colloquium are above.

Earthen plaster workshop

2011-06-20T11:30:00.001-07:00

Come join us for a weekend of fun and mud in Caledon East just north of Toronto this summer, as we apply earthen wall finishes to a timberframe/straw bale workshop. Topics covered will include sourcing and processing of ingredients, and their mixing and application, with an emphasis on hands-on learning. Tools and materials are provided. Please bring good work clothes and boots and rain gear and prepare for all to get muddy. Fee includes instruction, camping space, and meals. Kids are welcome! There is no separate child care, so please plan to keep an eye on your young 'uns. Contact me at muddygeorgie@gmail.com for more information and to register.

Workshop details:

Location: Caledon East
Date: Saturday, July 16 to Sunday, July 17, 2011, 9:00am to 5pm each day
- Plan on arrival for Friday night to allow for a quick start Saturday morning
Meals: Provided Saturday and Sunday
Accommodations: Camping (BYOTent and sleeping supplies)
Facilities: Indoor Washroom and Shower
Other activities:
- Saturday night: Communal meal, fire
- Sunday morning: Morning stretch
Cost: $200/participant
Accompanying Children: $20
*Discount of $50 per additional participant*

Photo by David Eisenberg

Feasibility study online

2011-06-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

Over the winter, City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation hired Spaces by Rohan, Inc. to complete a composting toilet feasibility study for city parks. The completed study is available here for download. In case you have forgotten the details, you can read background about the project here.

Compost toilet feasibility study public consultations

2010-10-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

Click on the picture to enlarge the image

The project to build a community-created earthen building and composting toilet facility in Dufferin Grove Park has been on ice since we completed the earthbag foundation in 2006. The City has recently contracted local architect Rohan Walters, along with me, some engineers and other professionals, with CELOS giving guidance, to go through the design and approvals process for the biotoilet project.

Next week, there will be information about the feasibility study and design proposals posted at the park in the rink house, the playground, and by the toilet foundation (aka Gossip Rock). Come to the meeting and make your voice heard; whether you are for or against, we want to hear what you think. In case you have forgotten the details, you can read background about the project here.

Timberframing

2010-09-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

When I first learned about cobbing, I thought, "Aha, I'll never need to face my fear of wood or measuring again! I'll just cob it until it's right." However, I have found my lack of knowledge and proficiency in this area to be more and more limiting as time goes on. I first faced up to my fear this summer by building a solar chimney dehydrator.

With that under my belt, I was lucky enough to get the chance to return to the Thunder Mountain Retreat Sanctuary, this time to attend a timberframing workshop. Led by Sarah Highland, assisted by Liz Johndrow, and hosted by the PeaceWeavers, this was a week of intense learning, hysterical fun, and blossoming friendships. Sarah's gentle and precise teaching helped all of us (six women and two men or so) gain an appreciation for the wood and a beginning understanding of timberframing. I learned how to see increments of 1/16 of an inch, and how to split a knife line with a (very sharp) saw. Seeing how Sarah ran the workshop, and how PeaceWeavers ran their lives with us in their midst, I am ever more grateful for my natural building family and all they have to teach me.

Yet more plastering in Washington

2010-09-27T17:39:00.001-07:00

I say Washington, but it's really Maryland. This was my third trip down, and this time Eric and I did some lime plastering over earthen base coats, on the back side of the strawbale studio he's been building there for the last couple years.

We used Red Top Gauging Plaster to speed up the lime set, along with some Set Retarder to slow down the set up of the Red Top. This gave us about half an hour of working time before the material became too firm to spread. I'd never worked with these additives before, but the lime seemed well behaved in their company. Cactus juice and rice flour paste rounded out the mix, making the plaster smooth and creamy.

You can read more about this place on Eric's blog, and also in some of my other blog entries below.

Straw/clay toilet wall

2010-09-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

Before going full steam ahead on my plan to build a straw/clay partition wall in our house, I thought it prudent to practice somewhere less obtrusive first. Our bucket toilet is due for some renovations, to fix the rather visually permeable partition wall, and to re-do the toilet to make for a more comfortable sit.

Sophie and Kat pulled apart the old set up, and we amended the wall frame to work for straw/clay. Once the rather arduous prep work was finally done (lumber's in the barn, tools are in the house, hammer's nowhere to be found), it took only a few moments to stuff the wall cavity. I learned that, for a wall this thin (4"), I'll want to compact the straw more firmly than I did, and will also be more generous with the slip. I had a fair bit it re-packing and patching to do where things didn't hold together to my liking.

Slip and base coat plaster went on smoothly, though the plaster shrunk more than I figured it might. For the back side of the wall, I added piles of chopped straw; thought it might offer my sometimes squishy wall a bit more support. We'll see. Finish coat is next, and I'm thinking of using some clay that I picked up in Maryland; it's pink as pink can be.

My plaster recipe was:

Sand (32, 56 & 74 mesh) 2, 3 and 1 parts respectively
Clay (EPK) 4 parts
Soaked paper 3 parts
Casien 0.125 parts
Chopped straw less on one side, more on the other

I've been reading Carol Crews' new plaster book, Clay Culture, and I'm finding it to be an excellent resource, full of history, recipes and encouragement. Any questions I had during this process were quickly answered by flipping through her book. I highly recommend it.

NBCNY 2010

2010-08-07T18:53:00.000-07:00

I usually hedge my bets when committing to do something; "I will try to make it" or "I plan to be there", never guaranteeing outright that something won't come up (you parents out there know that something unexpected always does). When it comes to the PeaceWeaver's Natural Building Colloquium however, I am more categorical: "I will see you there, definitely". It has become an important tradition for me, supporting both my practice in building and my practice in being human.

The week starts with an opening ceremony where we all come together and the sacred fire is lit. Supper and evening presentations follow, with lots of conversating whenever possible. Mornings begin with a gong (!) at 5:45a, a sunrise ceremony, and a hearty breakfast. Then we all disburse to get involved in the various projects, stopping for lunch, the occasional nap or presentation (sometimes nap and presentation) and 5 o'clock swim (the pond is longer when you are in the middle of it than what it looks like when you are on shore). A kick-ass vegan supper is followed by more presentations, with a fire circle afterwards for those who can stay awake.

As usual, there was a whole pile of projects to get involved in.

Sauna
Last year, the straw bale sauna was erected down by the main building. With a tarp-covered roof held up by a gorgeous and complex timberframe, it was just crying out to be completed. The single coat of lime plaster that coated the exterior had not fared well over the winter, so the first task was to knock about half of it off to expose the bales, leaving that which was stable enough to remain. Clay slip was applied to the bales, and then a couple coats of earthen plaster, bolstered with Ed Raduozo's shredded government documents, went on over top. The Thunder Mountain crew will likely finish it off with a finish coat of lime before the weather turns. Jim Luckner oversaw the whole operation.

Inside, Deanne Bednar led a crew of enthusiastic plasterers in laying on two coats of tawney earthen finish plaster over a base coat of lime. Ready for benches and a fire in the stove!

Eric Hempstead and Jim Luckner devised a clever canopy to shade the roof, and then installed battens over the roof substrate. Then crews went to work installing white pine shingles, getting the whole roof done by the colloquium's end. In spite of my intense fear of working with wood, I did succeed in spending a whole entire day nailing shingles onto the roof (and sneezing), and I ended up having a blast. Thanks, John, for your patient teaching.

Ceremonial building
Frank Meyer and David Eisenberg were among those leading the charge to spruce up the plaster on the ceremonial building. Flaky lime plaster was scraped off and new cement stucco applied and coloured. The building's exterior wall plaster also got a face lift in parts, covering over the mottled green exterior with a smooth and sophisticated plaster/fresco combination. Can't wait to try that at home.

Inside, Steve Paisley and Kevin Connors went to work, cutting out a hole in the strawbale wall to make room for a Rumford fireplace. Now at last the building will have a heat source and be usable year round.

Birdhouses and tree people
Ed Raduozo mixed up his sumptuous clay plaster which owes much of its richness to the high paper content: shredded government documents procured from the US patent office. Wattle and daub birdhouses and tree people ensued, much to the delight of children and adults alike.

Ger making
Kylie Baker, fresh off the plane from Mongolia, spent the week leading up to the NBC, and the entire week of the colloquium engaged in building a "ger" (the Mongolian word for "yurt"). She made it all, from the lattice walls and rafters, to the door frame and the smoke hole. Dedicated helpers kept the ger going and it was finished in time to raffle it off on the colloquium's last day. At the same time as she was constructing the frame, Kylie was also leading felting workshops and managed to create several large pieces of felt that will form the door of the ger when they're stitched together.

Timberframe barn
Sarah Highland designed another treat for NBC-goers: a timberframe barn. I spent a couple sessions using Sarah's ancient drills and chisels to form mortises in a post. At the end of the week, we had a barn raising, installing two of the five bents that will make up the form of the barn. This work requires many hands and lots of focus, and Sarah led the raising with clear instructions, calm demeanour and a sense of humour.

Sessions
In addition to all that work, we enjoyed a number of sessions and conversations including:

The high art and subtle science of scrounging: Jim Jutzak
Zero energy housing in Buffalo: Kevin Connors and Dave Lanfear
Green Maps: Deanne Bednar
Process-oriented worksites: Erin Condo
Codes update: David Eisenberg
Building and travelling: Sarah Highland
Desperately searching for gers in Mongolia: Kylie Baker
Music and open mike: Frank Meyer

I am so grateful to the PeaceWeavers for creating this space that I where I can be every summer, and to my family for supporting me in having this time away.

Bronx Zoo

2010-05-25T14:30:00.001-07:00

I recently came across this video about The Bronx Zoo's composting toilet facility. As you can see by the video, the opportunities to educate around water use, sanitation and sustainability and are immense. If only Toronto would follow suit and get behind (no pun intended) the earthen building/composting toilet project at Dufferin Grove Park, it could benefit from the kind of extensive publicity and goodwill that New York City generates at its facility. I have hope that Toronto will see its way clear to taking advantage of this opportunity in its own back yard.

Dufferin Grove Park

2010-02-18T16:29:00.000-08:00

In 2008, I wrote a piece about an exceptional project I was involved in about five years ago that involved kids, dirt, and and the approval and support of Toronto's (then named) Parks and Recreation Department. I wrote:

"That all of this could happen was the result of a fruitful partnership between the City of Toronto Recreation staff and me, the project organizer. The recreation staff took this to be part of their mandate to provide free, drop-in activities. They expanded the boundaries of "recreation" to include activities that draw in many more newcomers, across cultural lines. That made the park so much livelier, and this drop-in activity resulted in a permanent, useful and much-loved addition to the park.

Forming a project around these principles requires something very important from the organizers/administrators: trust. They need trust that people are able to decide for themselves what is best for them, trust that people can be counted on to do good work, trust that people will come and take advantage of an opportunity presented to them.

A program free of coercion is one that truly honours the participants, and one that will reap benefits well beyond the original expectations of the organizers. Do we have the enough trust in each other to offer this of ourselves and our city?"

Parks, Forestry and Recreation (PFR) is currently in the process of making sure that something this creative and inclusive never happens again. By shuffling Recreation supervisor Tino DeCastro and many other supervisors to new jobs and away from the communities within which they have worked, sometimes for decades, PFR is effectively severing the connection that allowed the kind of collaboration between people and parks that made the cob wall project possible.

You can read my original post here, and you can read more about the current PFR situation here. If you'd like to add your voice to the chorus of those concerned about these developments, click on that second link for more information.

Rumford fireplace visit

2010-02-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

I am fascinated by the concept of a Rumford fireplace; an open hearth that sends more heat into the room than it loses to combustion air, and one that charges the thermal mass around it to store and release heat radiantly (and conductively, depending on the design) long after the fire is out. I have built an outdoor Rumford, and have helped with another outdoor model and an indoor proof-of-concept retrofit, but I have not yet had the pleasure of enjoying a fire in a full-blown masonry fireplace of this type.

Last weekend, my family and I had the chance to visit some folks not far from where we live who have a Rumford fireplace in their off-grid strawbale home. They lit it up for us and, wow, it was a revelation. The room, already comfortably warm on that chilly night, became instantly cozy, with a handsome and robust fire blazing in the hearth. The fire hugged the back of the fireplace, and smoke was whisked up the chimney without straying from the amazingly shallow firebox.

In the paper

2010-01-25T09:41:00.000-08:00

Photo by Bill Henry

Reporter Bill Henry came by the other day to interview my family about our new "low impact" lifestyle. The resulting article was published today in the Owen Sound Sun Times. Can it be that my arms are really that long?

NBCO 2009 Highlights 2

2009-11-18T13:32:00.000-08:00

Wood brigade from Georgie Donais on Vimeo.

A few more highlights:

Open Space: Colloquium means "to talk together", and we natural builders had a lot to talk about. To make sure everyone got a chance during the afternoon sessions to have the conversations they were craving, James applied a process called Open Space. Anyone who had a topic they wanted to cover/presentation to make/question to ask, wrote it down on paper and posted it on a board. Then we were all invited to come read the postings, and put a dot beside the events that we wanted to attend. Then, all events were arranged by venue according to the number of dots; lot of dots meant a bigger venue, fewer meant a more intimate space. I've never seen a process work so smoothly or include everyone so readily. Very impressive.

The Law of Two Feet: Directly related to Open Space, this law states that, if you are no longer getting out of a presentation/lecture/conversation that which you would like, then it is your prerogative to (respectfully) remove yourself – with your two feet – and take yourself where you would rather be. No insult implied nor inferred. This reminder to take responsibility for our own fulfillment at the colloquium made sure that attendees were enjoying themselves, finding challenges that were appropriate and interesting to them, and avoided a whole load of potential bellyaching by participants that wished for something different than what they were getting but imagined they were obligated to stick it out.

Silks: I struck up a friendship with a couple of attendees who also study aerial silks, and they were only too happy to join me in silking most afternoons. They've been taking classes for much longer than I and so had much to teach me. I had a couple of moves for them too, but mostly they just kicked my butt. Four years older than my own kids, and also unschooled, they were a blast to hang around with and learn from.

Conversations: At one point, organizer and natural builder James asked us, "How many people's most memorable conversations here at the colloquium so far have involved just one or two people?" Many of us raised our hands. Indeed, casual conversation during unprogrammed time is where much of the down-and-dirty sharing of information happens. It's also a chance to connect in with old friends who, like me, have been attending these events for years and count on moments like these to maintain those friendships.

NBCO 2009 Highlights

2009-11-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

Music at Camp Latgawa from Georgie Donais on Vimeo.

A few of the many highlights of NBCO 2009:

Fleming College: I never get to see Chris Magwood and Jen Feigen except in the far reaches of the US, even though they are practically neighbours (well, at least spiritually; I think it would be a five hour drive from where I am to where they are, but at least we're in the same province). They presented on the Sustainable Building Program that they run out of Fleming College at or around Peterborough, Ontario. They have so far built something like five public buildings using every natural building technique I have ever heard of and even inventing several while they're at it. Their website is well worth a look, and you can also check out the pictures I took of the building they created in 2008, the Madoc Performing Arts Centre.

Natural building tip: Looking for a place to relieve yourself on your natural building job site? Consider designating one of those straw bales as the "pee bale". Apparently, it will never smell no matter how much it's peed on. Just make sure that its purpose is clearly indicated; you wouldn't want that particular bale making it into the wall.

Authentic living: In front of the fire in the mess hall, Bill Copperthwaite fielded questions about woodworking techniques, yurt-building and simple living. He also had plenty to say about education and, though he was not familiar with some of the terms that we unschoolers/life learners use, he was plenty familiar with the concepts. He also spoke about the evolution of his carving style, going from mallet and chisel to, eventually, a crooked knife with a toggle on it. And he demonstrated his technique throughout the talk, getting pretty far into creating a bowl by the end of the afternoon.

Code writing in Portland: There are a couple of kick-ass things going on in Portland in relation to building codes and natural building. Joshua Klyber presented on an organization called Recode that is working with the city of Portland to to help it support building practices that are sustainable but not necessarily, at the moment, legal. He is also a member of a city committee called the Alternative Technique Advisory Committee which "reviews sustainable technologies against building code requirements, to help applicants utilize innovative products and construction methods", which includes natural building.

Earthen floors: Sukita Crimmel talked about her experiences as a professional earthen floor installer. Her gorgeous work has been featured in both residential and commercial applications and range in size from a couple hundred square feet, to a couple thousand. Sukita shared with us images of her many successes as well as one or two learning experiences, including a floor where grains in the straw sprouted to such an extent that the room looked like a spring field planted to wheat. That one was a do-over.

The Elegant Collapse: The subtitle to Rob Boleman's presentation was "toward a complete bottom-to-top restructuring of human civilization". These types of presentations can be so depressing, but Rob gave us lots of hope amid the assertion that there isn't much time left for us to carry on the way we are. And then I hopped in a truck to take me to the plane that dropped me off by my car which I drove the rest of the way home. No cognitive dissonance there.

Facing code officials in Oakland, CA: Massey Burke shared with us her adventures in renovating an old stick frame home using natural building methods, and how she is working with code officials to make it happen. Seems like it's a combination of friendly persistence and obvious competence on the part of Massey and her friends, combined with some genuine curiosity on the part of the attending officials. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that her group is also building a collection of little nat-bild sleeping pods in the backyard at the time; not strictly code- and zoning-sanctioned.

Building a strawbale accessory dwelling in Portland, OR: Oh, the things you can do in Portland. Lydia Doleman and her crew have been building a small strawbale home in behind another house adjacent to hers in her Foster/Powell neighbourhood. Conforming to the look of the main house, the accessory dwelling is designed in the same Arts & Crafts style, and is sided instead of plastered. It is a full-on strawbale building, with earthen interior plaster, earthen floors, straw/clay dividing walls, recycled wood ceilings, and whatever other alternative building technique they could squeeze into this little place. Code officials come and go, finding very little to comment on, showing mostly curiosity and an interest in helping get this project done. As in the California project mentioned above, there is a little building referred to as a "napping facility" in Lydia's backyard that could attract unwanted official attention but, magically, does not.

Contrast these experiences with the ongoing tug of war in Toronto over granny suites as evidenced in this piece written by Rohan Walters, a Toronto architect who is doing his part in moving our city towards a more sustainable and more humane future.

NBCO 2009

2009-11-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

I was very pleased to be able to attend the natural building colloquium held outside of Medford, Oregon this fall. A peer-only gathering, it was attended by working professionals in the field of natural building who congregated to share information and new developments in the field, as well as to give and get support to and from colleagues who have become old friends over the years.

Camp Latgawa hosted this gathering, having also been the site of several colloquiums in previous years and boasting the earthen building projects to show for it. Our hosts, Eva and Greg, welcomed us to the camp with open arms and delicious meals, and in return we were to do some new building and fix up some previous projects that required maintenance. However, outside of the three hours a day set aside for building, our main task was to talk to each other and most days were spent discussing, strategizing, laughing, conversating and even, occasionally, crying.

I'll talk about the highlights later, but meanwhile, here are descriptions of the various projects as pictured above.

SITE 1: Rumford fireplace
We were to create an outdoor fireplace and sitting area in a clearing near the river. This project was led by Ianto Evans, Linda Smiley and Leslie Jackson. After thoroughly examining all the possibilities for fireplace placement, we got to work on the fireplace, creating it out of old bricks, river rocks and cob. The fireplace will eventually have a removable cap over it to protect it between uses. Project status: completed, except for the cap.

SITE 2: Children's play area
The task here was to remove the children's sandbox (used only by cats), fix up the bench, repair the roof and re-do the pole shelter-thingy. Legions of people worked on this one, but I think the leads were Joshua Klyber, Massey Burke, Sukita Crimmel and Tony Novelli, among others (corrections welcome). Status: dragon bench removed, other bench repaired and replastered, roof fixed. Still to do: wattle infill on the pole shelter-thingy.

SITE 3: Rumford insert for dining hall fireplace
Kiko Denzer noted the inefficiency of the the deep and wide fireplace in the dining hall, and took on the task to create a proof-of-concept Rumford insert. Using forms, window screen, gypsum and earthen plaster, he created a fire-resistant form which he assembled inside the fireplace and then plastered. The value of his work became clear immediately as the fire crackled merrily in front of the new fireback, radiating substantial amounts of heat into the room for probably the first time ever.

SITE 4: Bamboo roof
Darrel De Boer headed up the creation of a bamboo roof intended to shelter the Rumford fireplace. In the end, the roof was, although beautiful, entirely too large for the purpose, so it will find a home at House Alive instead. Status: Deconstructed and on its way to its new home.

SITE 5: Traffic re-directing
Camp Latgawa is a car-free space, so visitors park their vehicles at the entrance and bring their stuff in using convenient little carts. Greg and Eva wanted this set up to be made even more apparent to people driving in, and wanted them to be clearly directed to the parking lot. The crew made changes to the road itself with a clever combination of big rocks and hempcrete, and added a big yellow arrow to direct traffic. It also shored a spot of crumbling road with a rock retaining wall. Status: Looks like it's done.

More plastering in Washington, DC

2009-10-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pics from Washington. In these, Eric and I are concentrating on plastering the interior lathe wall on the west side, and giving the other plastered walls another coat of clay paint. Eric had been experimenting with the paint, finding it interesting but having a hard time getting it on without joints appearing. Once it's painted on, it seems as though the window to work it in is quite small, and it was tricky to achieve with just one person. Adding another person (me) meant that we could get all the steps done in a timely manner, resulting in a luminous finish of depth and shine. Little bits of mica added another level of shimmer.

For the the lathe wall, Eric mounted screed strips at regular intervals, and then we used them as our guides for the plaster. I put the plaster on as absolutely flat as I could imagine, and then rubbed a leveling board across the plaster, resting it on the screed guides on either side. I found that what I thought was flat, and what was flat, were two very different things. We opened up the surface of the plaster with a wood float afterwards so that it would dry more quickly; adding cellulose to a mix, no matter how little, seems to substantially change the feel of the plaster (smoother, creamier) but also makes it quite a bit slower drying. A finish plaster will go over this layer when it dries, and then I think that cabinets will cover most of it.

As we worked, I could really feel the energetic transition of the studio from a worksite to a being-in space. I can imagine the bench seats, deep enough to snuggle up on and have a nap in the winter sunshine; I can imagine art on the walls and beautiful objects and candles in the niches. It's going to be a place that nurtures and supports creativity, of that I'm sure.

Saw mill

2009-10-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

Wood Mizer from Georgie Donais on Vimeo.

Even though I was a little scared of the thing, Eric insisted I give the Wood Mizer portable saw mill a try. Sam gamely showed me the ropes, and Eric was kind enough to catch it all on video. What an elegant and efficient machine.

Spoons

2009-10-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

When I was in Maryland, Eric gave me a gift: a spoon he had made from the wood of a sycamore tree from Sam & Kappy's back yard. Here are some images of others he has made; I am struck by the beauty of their shape and their shine.

Oven reno completed

2009-09-28T11:58:00.000-07:00

I'll post process pictures here when I get them, but meanwhile, here are some images of the finished wall. Jenny did a fantastic job! And the sweet little commemorative mosaic of the fireplace melts my heart.

Plaster day at NEO

2009-09-21T17:55:00.000-07:00

Plaster day finally arrived at Niagara Escarpment Organics this last Saturday. Farmer Ryan had chopped up some straw with the chain saw, we had sufficient clay screened, and we now understood that organic spelt flour does not a good wheat paste make.

The day dawned bright and sunny, with a dead battery. Once Alan showed me the intricacies of boosting a car, I was on my way, a bag of Five Roses flour under my arm. Several interested volunteers showed up and we got going on the plastering and the roof decking. My big old drill didn't enjoy mixing such a thick and straw-rich mix, quitting several times. We pulled out the wheel barrow and mixed by hand too, which turned out to be just as quick, and probably more efficient.

By the end of the day, the interior of the cabin was almost completely plastered! We'll be back over the fall to finish off the interior and exterior basecoat plaster, and then we'll scheme over the winter about finishing plaster options. I'm already excited to get on that.

Chinking with straw/clay

2009-09-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

I got out my old whole hog drill and made up some quality clay slip using some of the clay I'd screened earlier. It mixed up very nicely and quickly, so I think the screened clay subsoil is going to work just fine, in spite of my wish that I had screened the clay a little finer.

I tossed the slip with some straw, and spent the afternoon chinking. In some places, the straw/clay had shrunk away from the tops of the roof rafter, and in others there were gaps where the material hadn't been completely tamped down as intended. It was cold in the shade, so every once and a while, I'd pop out into the sunshine and and screen some clay. I'm kinda getting to like that job.

Meanwhile, Ryan continued on the stone work, while Farmer Ryan prepared wood for decking the roof. I expect we'll be ready to plaster by the time Saturday comes!

Working on the bunky

2009-09-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today we got lots of work done on the bunkhouse at Niagara Escarpment Organics, in preparation for Plaster Saturday this weekend. I spent a chunk of the day putting tar paper and onion bag strips on the wall to bridge the wood and straw/clay so that the plaster has a consistent and toothy surface to grab onto. Then I got a chance to build my first screen ever; how I've mostly managed to avoid screening materials in the five years that I've been involved in natural building is a mystery to be sure. Nonetheless, I think this screen works pretty well at separating the finer clay (and attendant aggregate) from the big clumps and chunks. It's got a 1/8" screen on it, which is still pretty course, but I think the clay will be plenty useable.

Ryan and friends worked hard on the stone stemwall, making substantial progress today. All the stones came from the farm, and were handpicked by farmers and interns over the last couple of weeks. I am amazed by the beauty of the rockwork; I would say that it is well worth the effort.

Our test patches are crackier than I'd expected, so we will amend our mix to include a more diverse range of sand particles, and we'll also plan to include wheat paste.

More NBCNY photos

2009-09-13T13:33:00.002-07:00

I left the New York colloquium a couple days after it finished (I stuck around to get some more plastering in), but others stayed on for the next week and finished off the walls of the retreat cabin. The plaster work looks absolutely stunning, as you can see in the pictures. Thanks, Eric, for sharing your photos with me.

Working on a straw/clay bunkhouse

2009-09-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

Ryan Horning and I are co-leading the plastering of a lovely little timberframe and straw/clay bunk house at my local CSA. Niagara Escarpment Organics is farmed by Ryan and Laura and a whole pile of hard-working interns. Earlier this summer, the straw/clay portion of the building was completed, and it's now dry enough to plaster.

We started by pulling together a list of possible materials we might need, and then crossing them off as we found them, or their analogue, somewhere around the farm. Note to self: do a walk around the site before sending people to the store, in order to avoid sending them back to return stuff that you already had but didn't know about.

Today we assessed clay and straw and began processing, and we also got some test patches done. Next we'll prepare for door and window detailing, and get the roof on, as well as the stone veneer around the foundation. I'm looking forward to learning more about these aspects of building!

Invading Washington, DC

2009-09-08T14:17:00.000-07:00

I was invited (or I may have invited myself, I can't quite remember) to visit Eric Hempstead, where he is working at building a strawbale studio in a family's backyard. He was just about at the stage of putting on the finish plaster, and I decided to go down to help him with it.

That idea was enticing enough, but when I heard that I'd also get a chance to experience the Eco-House, I couldn't resist. The Eco-House was a project of Builders Without Borders, whose members organized, designed and created a tiny, perfect strawbale structure on the grounds of the Botanic Gardens in Washington, DC, last summer. It stood right through the fall and winter, and was present for the inauguration of President Barak Obama earlier this year. It was then picked up by crane (another story, see more about that here) and delivered by flatbed to Sam and Kappy's place, outside of DC and south of Bowie, Maryland. Eric was building a companion structure to the Eco-House, and the Eco-House had become his pied à terre while he was there working. You can watch a video about the Eco-House here, which tells the story about the building and who built it, including an exciting sub-plot involving emergency preparedness and torrential downpours.

So, back to the strawbale studio. Eric began working on it last winter, and I breezed in after all the heavy lifting had been done. The studio was ready for its interior finish plaster, and Eric had almost all the materials needed already on site, including processed native clays and screened sand. We made an expedition to the countryside where we harvested some prickly pear cactus (emphasis on "prickly"), then brought them back, chopped them up and let them sit in water overnight to create an incredibly viscous liquid that would help with binding. The next day, we made up a batch of wheat paste, burning it in an attempt to make it "slightly translucent". That didn't seem to bother the dog, who ate the rest of the paste while we weren't looking. I also pounded up chunks of mica – Eric and our mutual friend Sarah Halley had found them during a walk in Philadelphia – into little sparkly flecks that would give the finish plaster sheen and depth.

For fibre, Eric has been experimenting with using blow-in cellulose. It's recycled, natural-ish, treated with natural fire and bug retardants, and very easy to procure. We soaked some in water, but for later batches used a pear juice/wheat paste combo to keep the liquid to a manageable level. The plaster whipped up smooth and creamy, and was a pleasure to apply. We spent the rest of the week applying plaster, hard troweling it, fixing mistakes, and watching the colour change from a deep browny red to a very light pink. Unlike some of the other plasters I've done, this one does not seem to be dusting at all, thanks probably to the pear juice and wheat paste. The nichos took a tremendous amount of time to get looking smooth and integrated with the rest of the wall, but they look so cool that it was well worth it to do. Tools included flexible trowels, both plastic and metal; sponges; and plastic container lids.

I learned tons about possible mix ingredients, and got lots more practice in applying and finessing plaster. And I got almost as much practice driving, as the trip entailed fourteen hours in the car on the way down, and sixteen on the way back. Next time, if I time it right, I may be able to make it in ten. As long as Samantha the GPS and I stop squabbling.

Clarification: I named this post "Invading Washington", because originally the whole fam damily was going to come on the trip, and the kids were excited to encounter all the extraterrestrial aliens that, as we know, populate Washington, since that is where they always seem to land in the movies. And movies don't lie.

Fireplace renovations

2009-08-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

As earlier reported, the cob wall in Dufferin Grove Park was scheduled for renovation this summer. Over a couple days in August, Jenny and I pulled apart and reassembled the urbanite foundation to fit the new shape, and then took the old cob, added fresh straw, and returned it to the wall, with the help – as always – of many volunteers.

Jenny has since been cleaning up the shape of the wall, adding overhangs, and plastering. I'm hoping the warm fall weather holds!

NBCNY 2009

2009-08-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

I spent another fabulous week in New York state this summer, attending the sixth annual Natural Building & Living Colloquium. This year I took the plunge and tried timberframing, which scares the bejesus out of me, what with its required accuracy and all. I have never attended a gentler, sweeter worksite than that presided over by Sarah Highland. My pathological fear of measuring pulled me away from the site eventually, but I'm feeling pretty pleased that I finally allowed myself to get introduced to timberframing. Thank you, Sarah.

The rest of the week found me working on the retreat cabin: making plaster test patches, learning how to use the hammer mill, pushing sodden horse poop through a screen (oh, wait, that was Eric, not me), prepping walls, and plastering. For the interior finish plaster, we used marble dust instead of sand; a smoother, more yummy plaster I have never worked with.

Other projects included:

A round strawbale/cob sauna, on the spot most recently occupied by a strawbale dome;
Taking another shot at building a green roof on the steep rake of the ceremonial building;
Cladding the guest cabin with century-0ld wooden siding reclaimed from a house in Buffalo;
Adding colourful plasters to the turtle oven and the kids' playhouse;
Wattle and daub birdhouses;
Lots of interesting workshops and talks;
Naps, music, and fire-tending.

There was so much rain throughout the week that when the last day dawned bright and sunny, we decided to work on that day too. After a productive morning, the entire group went for a dip in the lake, then we made our way to the arbour for the closing ceremony.

About a dozen of us stuck around to help wrap up projects and start cleaning up. As fun as the week had been, this was even more fulfilling, as we really got to concentrate on getting stuff done, as well as taking advantage of the extra time to play more music, take more naps, and eat more food. And visit.

Oven tear-down

2009-07-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

Built in 2004 as a how-the-heck-do-you-build-with-cob project, this oven was used for cooking, but never very much. The logistics of finding and storing wood in the cramped environs of the city (being careful to keep it away from the neighbouring fence, less we be accused of hastening the fence's demise), and of planning a roster of food to make good use of the eight hours or so of hot oven, were often overwhelming, so we usually opted for the peace and ease of our indoor oven.

We did have a couple of great parties with pizzas and pies hot from the oven, and I have fond memories of sitting mesmerized in front of the fire, watching the flames swoop across the top of the interior and flick tongues of fire right up the chimney.

My mom and I broke apart the oven in June of 2009, with extra help from a friend. I then took most of the resulting soil, dragged it down two steps, through a gate (don't let the gate bang on John's house!), and around to the front, and used it to create a sheet mulch garden at our neighbour's house. It took me most of three days to move all that material by bucket and dolly; a pile still remains. It is astonishing to me that I moved much of the clay and some of the foundation stones for the project using my bicycle and bike trailer. No wonder the oven took four months to build.

Women at work

2009-07-16T03:46:00.000-07:00

The cob wall at Dufferin Grove Park is entering its fourth summer. Each year, we (me at first, and now mostly staff) assess the wall's condition in the spring, making plans to repair damage caused by weather and vandalism. This year, it was decided that repairs to the fireplace portion of the wall were proving too onerous to be sustainable. It has now been deconstructed, and in its place will go a continuation of the wall on either side.

Only in PDX

2009-05-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent me this picture of a poster he saw up on a bulletin board; someone looking for their errant backyard chicken. Imagine that poor creature, out wandering the streets of Portland, Oregon, trying desperately to get home but, I imagine, not having the best sense of direction. The odds are stacked against it, I'm afraid.

Cob, chickens & community

2009-04-07T18:35:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a talk as part of the Dufferin Grove Speakers' Series about my visit to the fine city of Portland last year. I was there to attend the Village Building Convergence, now in its ninth year. You can read more about it and see my pictures here. Generally, I was struck by how many things were allowed there: small cob buildings, benches, community gardens... It seemed like every backyard had its own resident chickens. Coming from Toronto, where I routinely chafe against the yoke of regulation, I found myself asking, "Is this really allowed? What about liability concerns?" I am afraid I came off as a bit of a prude.

International Strawbale Conference Proceedings

2009-03-05T06:04:00.000-08:00

The good folks over at the Ontario Straw Bale Building Coalition are making available the proceedings of the International Straw Bale Building Conference, held in Lakefield, Ontario in 2006. So far they've posted an audio link to the Welcome and Keynote Address, by Matts Mhyrman and Judy Knox, two pioneers in the strawbale building revival in the United States. It is well worth a listen (skip over the first eight minutes or so of introductions, if you are in a hurry).

The OSBBC also has a list of some of the upcoming natural building opportunities taking place in Ontario, running down the left side of their web site.

home renos

2008-11-06T03:42:00.000-08:00

Like most people's houses in the old part of Toronto, ours is about ninety years old. Plaster is failing, trim is coated with layers of flaking lead paint, the roof has leaked, and the legacy of questionable updates abounds. Renovating this place has so far meant stripping back layers of interventions to reveal the original materials, which so far seem to be more interesting than anything added subsequently.

After seven years of contemplation, we were finally ready for action this spring. Our basement neighbours moved out, and in went a set of stairs to the lower level. Reorganization freed up an upstairs bedroom, and gave me a place to start earthen plastering.

But first, baseboards. Stripping the trim in that room to reveal the delicate and shapely curves of century old wood has been rewarding, though time consuming. The product that I am using, SoyGel ("made from 100% US-grown soybeans"), apparently binds with the lead in the paint, enabling me to scrape it off without launching the toxin into the house's atmosphere. Apparently.

Sophie and Alan crowbarred off the layers of tile and subfloors to reveal a rustic but beautiful subfloor that we've decided we will refinish and retain as the final flooring surface.

Once the trim in that room is completely stripped, I'll plaster the remaining walls, we'll finish the floors, and (as Sophie says) "Wa-la!".

Plastering

2008-11-04T05:38:00.001-08:00

I've been teaching myself how to earthen plaster, and have been applying this finish over drywall in parts of our house. Here I am in our former-basement-apartment-kitchen-soon-to-be-laundry-room, standing in front of newly finished plaster. Although I'm not particularly good at it, wielding that beautiful Japanese trowel feels like something I was made to do. I'm going to do more.

Cob oven process pics

2008-10-17T20:54:00.000-07:00

Came across these pictures of our 2004 backyard oven build. It was a transformative experience, leading to, among other things, me figuring out how to drive a car again.

Research trip

2008-09-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

We headed off in the middle of June, with our (new to us) PT Cruiser and our trusty 20 year old Combi-Camp, on a driving adventure of grand proportions. Our first stop was Deanne Bednar's, near Oxford, Michigan. Deanne is a cobber, thatcher, illustrator, singer, and all-round delightful human being. She gave us the tour of her amazing space: gardens, natural buildings of various sorts, foundation and posts for a children's playhouse, and the famous strawbale cottage. Its beauty took Alan's breath away. And we sang and played together; bliss.

On our way through the outskirts of Detroit, we stopped at the Strawbale Children's Playhouse that Deanne had been involved in the creation of. It's built on park land with the full support and backing of the Detroit parks department. It is an apparently well-loved addition to an already popular green space.

Next we drove a couple of days south and west, crossing the swollen Mississippi after a few detours, and made our way to Red Earth Farms. Friends Mark and Allyson are homesteading on some property in north east Missouri, a stone's throw away from Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and Sandhill Farm, two other intentional communities. Mark and Allyson welcomed us into their space, and showed us some of the amazing work they've done so far: composting toilet (Sophia had the honour of inaugurating the structure), wind turbine, barn foundation, permaculture garden. Another night of singing and playing, this time by the fire.

The next day, it was off to town for freshly made doughnuts, and then a tour of both DR and Sandhill. I've been receiving DR newsletters for a couple of years, so to give that information some context was enlightening indeed.

A couple more days driving took us to Custer, Wisconsin, where we attended the Mid-West Renewable Energy Fair, and met up with my friend Pete Fust, of Black Range Lodge in Kingston, New Mexico. He was at the fair with his book-selling operation, so we spent some time chatting, and playing music around the fire, of course. The fair was interesting, the food was great, but the best was the incredible diversity of lefty bumper stickers.

We arrived in Saskatchewan tired, sore, and more than a little fed up with hotdogs and chips. While there, I had the good fortune to be able to check out a local house that had been built with passive solar in mind, about twenty years ago. In the pictures, you can see that the reflective curtain is no longer functional, hanging at an odd angle and partially obscuring the sun. I never got the chance to chat with the owners to see what they like/don't like about the house, and whether they can feel the difference in winter warmth, having a home that faces the sun.

After a three-week stay in the geometric province, we hit the road again, this time stopping in Winnipeg to meet with Kris, Tim and Stephanie at the University of Manitoba. Kris' engineering firm has been involved with the permitting of cob buildings in British Columbia, and were interested to hear about the earthen work we have done in Toronto.

Then it was off to home, where I stopped only briefly before heading off to New York state (description below). Ah, the life.

Natural Building Colloquium New York State 2008

2008-08-11T09:20:00.001-07:00

This is my second year attending the colloquium. I will continue going each year until there's no more oil to get me there. And then maybe I'll ride a horse. Or something.

I followed Laura Bartels around like a little puppy while she shared her vast plastering knowledge with us. Working mostly on the guest cabin, I earthen plastered over lathe, did second coat plaster over first coat, and did a very strawy exterior plaster over which cladding will be installed. I also paid close attention while Joshua Klyber led us through the basics of clay- and lime-based paints. I think I'm ready to get plastering at my own house, if I can find a proper source of sand here in the big city.

Highlights of the trip included:

Blowing a tire on the trailer and learning how to replace it with my new friend Kylie
The lighting of the sacred fire that burned for the week
Sunrise ceremonies and drumming circles
The strawbale/sod surround muffling the noise of the generator (thank you, Frank)
Spending lots of time making and applying plaster, and watching how it changed the look and feel of the guest cabin
Ed Raduazo's bamboo basket playhouse for kids
Watching Sarah Highland gently and expertly guide participants into the heretofore rarified world of timberframing
Checking out the ceremonial building and watching it get a new green roof
Walking around the Peaceweaver farm, marvelling at the land and the things growing on it
How the dragon oven was replaced, first with a boob, and then with a sea turtle, through the whimsical talents of Sunray Kelly
The creation of a strawbale spiral structure, meant to house a solar shower
Singing with Deanne Bednar, whose excellent harmonies belie her expertise as thatcher, cobber and illustrator
Watching Joe Jenkins and his son Orion lead attendees in transforming the roof of the oven into a slate masterpiece
Meeting and working with people of such generosity and curiosity, spending time with friends new and old
Singing with Frank, especially contributing harmonies to his signature tune "I like to pee outside"
Knitting, dancing, wrestling, eating, exploring hug technology, swimming in the pond, singing singing singing
Playing guitar while Janice played banjo and Kevin played more guitar
Participating in the timberframe raising
A double-ended hug circle; innovation!

I consider this event to be an essential part of my year, in how it enhances my knowledge and experience, how it nurtures my optimism, and how it reliably connects me to people of like mind and understanding. And how it allows me to not cook for an entire week.

Portland Building Convergence 8

2008-06-11T05:04:00.000-07:00

I spent an amazing, inspiring, confusing, overwhelming and exciting twelve days in Portland recently, attending the Village Building Convergence, put on by Portland City Repair. I have so much to say about it, but for now would like to simply quote one of my friends that I met there, Joel Catchlove, who summed up so succinctly his experience at VBC8.

"The Convergence is one of the key annual events coordinated by City Repair, a grassroots community group dedicated to building community through natural building, permaculture, and repairing the dehumanising impacts of our urban design. One of the icons of their work is "Intersection Repair", where local communities claim an intersection as a public square, painting the road with bright and vibrant images that represent the uniqueness of their neighbourhood, and in some cases, build accompanying structures around the intersection - for example, seating, information boards for community news and events, 24hr self-service tea stations, book exchanges or free boxes. What's exciting is that a number of studies have now confirmed the astonishing impact of these repairs: at places where the community has banded together to repair their neighbourhoods, crime drops, conflicts are resolved, property ownership stabilises, gentrification is halted; and the annual repainting and maintenance of the intersection - now a public piazza - becomes a ritual for renewing and strengthening the neighbourhood itself. As a result, the concept has spread throughout Portland and North America.

So it's against this backdrop that the Village Building Convergence happens, attracting participants from across North America (and with us, Australia) to work on community projects around the city, participate in workshops (on everything from permaculture to mycology (mushrooms) to appropriate technology like rocket stoves or greywater) and listen to a bunch of fine speakers, followed by exhausting amounts of square-dancing and music.

Throughout the week we worked on a number of projects, including participating in the annual repainting of an intersection in the form of a giant sunflower, and helping with the building of a sauna (out of cob) sculpted as a giant raven's head. As part of City Repair's ethic of building community, many of their structures of built out of cob (essentially clay, sand and a little straw). Cob is a wonderful thing: it's easy to learn how to make and use (and therefore accessible to everyone from kids to grandparents - it's rare that you find a building site where chickens and babies are roaming free), it's completely non-toxic and it can be sculpted to the limits of your imagination.

Among the highlights of the Convergence were: Starhawk, who discussed earth-based spirituality with characteristic wit and wisdom and then led the entire convergence in a mass spiral dance; Art Ludwig, on living simply and the nature of water; and Nulla Walla, who led an amazing workshop combining improvisational dance with permaculture (some of her writings are available online at bcollective.org). The Convergence has left us both hugely inspired and eager to bring what we've learned back home to share in Adelaide.

Portland is a great town - it's famous of course for its flourishing bike culture, but it is also characterised by a strong permaculture movement and flourishing community spirit: characterised both by the work of City Repair and also by the amount of front yards and "nature strips" planted out with vegetables. It is also bursting with farmers' markets, boasts the best public transport system in the US (which, to be honest, is probably about the same as Adelaide), and is consistently rated America's "greenest" city, in fact, it's the only city in the US where car use is actually declining. All this with a population about the same as Adelaide. While there we stayed with a great household, the owner of the house being one of the founders of "Depave" another organisation linked to City Repair and dedicated to encouraging and supporting people to pull up their concrete yards and plant vegetables."

It's gotta be free

2008-01-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

Cob Courtyard Wall, Dufferin Grove Park

The time: summer 2005;
The concept: create an earthen sculpture in a downtown Toronto park that would serve as a gathering place and summer kitchen;
The method: offer free, ongoing, no sign-up fee, no commitment, earthen building workshops to volunteers all summer long, providing training to the participants and helpers for the structure;
The partners: Toronto's department of recreation, me, and a group of core volunteers.

"Come get muddy" was the cry, an invitation to any and all who wanted to try their hand at earthen building. And people did. They wandered by, asked "What's this all about?", and we said, "Come try it out and see!"

Shoes and socks came off, and feet jumped into the mud, mixing sand, straw, clay and water together to form a building material known as "cob". Then they picked up the mud, slapped it on the wall, and started sculpting.

Some stayed for a few minutes, a couple hours, contributing a little bit of labour and getting to play in the mud. Others were so beguiled by the project that they came back daily or for the whole summer. Many took on leadership roles, leading different aspects of creation, like cupboards, arched windows, the fireplace.

By summer's end, approximately 500 people worked on the creation of the cob wall in Dufferin Grove Park. By any measure, the project was a resounding success. First of all, it was completed on time and on a shoestring budget.

The measure by which it was most successful though, is in the quantity of attendees, and in the quality of their connection to the project and to their fellow attendees. This, in my opinion, was directly attributable to the following aspects of the program:

Free: no sign-up fee means participating without having to prioritize attending this vs buying food or clothes or having spending money. Free means not having to identify yourself as someone who cannot afford to attend. Free equalizes the playing field;

Drop-in: no commitment to attendance means showing up when you really want to be there, ready to learn and contribute. People who are forced to attend because they signed up are not enjoyable to be around and do not contribute positively to the project. Not having to give your name allows the participation of people who need anonymity in order to stay safe;
Ongoing: knowing that a program is on offer for a period of time allows potential attendees to "get there when they get there"; it allows for life to intervene without compromising their chance to be involved;
Creative input: whoever was there that day had a hand in making creative decisions about the sculpture, and then they were able to make their ideas reality right then and there.

These measures allowed people who would normally shy away from community classes or projects to participate to their satisfaction in this one. There were moms with babies in slings, newly arrived immigrants, refugees, people who did not speak English, retirees who live around the corner, dads, kids on a break from the playground, people from across town, and men transitioning into civilian life after serving time, and their attendance can be directly attributed to these four aspects of the project.

That all of this could happen was the result of a fruitful partnership between the City of Toronto Recreation staff and me, the project organizer. The recreation staff took this to be part of their mandate to provide free, drop-in activities. They expanded the boundaries of "recreation" to include activities that draw in many more newcomers, across cultural lines. That made the park so much livelier, and this drop-in activity resulted in a permanent, useful and much-loved addition to the park.

Forming a project around these principles requires something very important from the organizers/administrators: trust. They need trust that people are able to decide for themselves what is best for them, trust that people can be counted on to do good work, trust that people will come and take advantage of an opportunity presented to them.

A program free of coercion is one that truly honours the participants, and one that will reap benefits well beyond the original expectations of the organizers. Do we have the enough trust in each other to offer this of ourselves and our city?

To see more pictures of community participation at the Cob in the Park website, click here.

Sourcing materials

2008-01-20T09:03:00.000-08:00

Doing the final fabrication of something can give a person the impression that they are making something locally. However, assembling materials from China, Turkey or some other far-flung location here in Toronto hardly makes it local, if I think about it.

At the City of Craft fair late last year, I saw astonishing wools that had been hand-processed and dyed, and in some cases, sheared by women from outside the city, not too far away. Even though I had not even started knitting, I was so beguiled by some of these yarns that I returned to their tables again and again, not having the confidence to actually buy, but knowing that I was looking at something of quality and worth.

Now that I'm knitting, I am looking for local yarns to make my creations with. Any tips would be appreciated.

Handiwork

2007-12-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago, I cocked an eyebrow when Dancemakers would go on tour and the dancers would knit their way across the continent. I looked askance at my roommate when she would knit away the evenings and moments between classes. But now it seems that everyone is knitting. Everywhere I look, young hip things are knocking needles together, following patterns or creating their own designs as they go. There are even folks who are spinning and dyeing their own wool.

I understand the desire to make things with your own hands; before I learned to build, I satisfied that urge by sewing. It seems to me that we're all trying to scratch a deep itch to contribute to our own shelter in some way. Despite my earlier bias against knitting, I now feel heartened when I see the kids down at the local craft sale exhibiting their funky handmade wares; I think we are connecting to the same thing when we take materials in hand and start making something.

My mother-in-law and I are going to The Knit Café on Friday, where I am going to purchase some hand-dyed wool and some bamboo knitting needles. We are going to sit at a sunny table, and she is going to show me how to knit. Finally.

Full moon

2007-11-26T14:00:00.000-08:00

The other night my husband and I were sitting outside looking at the full moon, and I realized that it was one month since I'd been in Texas. How far I am from where I was, but here I am, looking at the same full moon.

One early morning in Texas, a friend was up and watching the sunrise while the moon set in the east, and he told me that he had the sudden, staggering understanding of the earth's place in space, and of us just standing on the side of this immense ball (I'm paraphrasing here). When he told me the story, I felt unsteady on my feet; just hearing about his experience connected me to it in a way that I experienced physically.

I'll try to stay connected to those feelings as I go forward.

Pictures

2007-11-07T19:26:00.000-08:00

I've spent some time going through the myriad photos I took at the colloquium, and have posted them here. I have organized them by project so that you can see how they progressed, and what state of completion we left them in. Make sure to see the Threadgill Stage and the Chapel Hill albums. Gorgeous!

Busy busy

2007-10-30T18:35:00.000-07:00

The rest of the week zoomed by, as we tried to finish the myriad projects that had been started at the Colloquium. At one point we ran out of prepared clay, so the organizers were scrambling to dig more and pulverize it in a hammer mill for use in plastering. My new red made-for-women construction boots and tool belt got a bit of a workout, but the speed of work was enjoyable and filled with laughter and conversation, as we compared techniques and traded skills.

More music ensued, and some nights of drumming and dancing. (It was so freaking cold in the evenings that it was the only way to keep warm!) Joe Jenkins gave his Humanure talk on Friday night, and he was hilarious, as usual. I guess when you are constantly talking about crap, you find a way to make it funny.

Saturday was a day of finishing up projects as much as possible. Nothing got completely done; a crew will be back this week to prepare projects for winter. But the Kerrville Folk Festival site is now blessed with a cob/adobe/earthbag welcoming booth, a strawbale staff building, a timberframe bucket toilet facility, a spiffed-up-with-earthen-plaster auditorium, and a mind-blowingly-beautiful and artful ceremonial stage for its open air church.

Saturday night after the closing ceremony, we had a talent show, and I performed a song I wrote while I was there, with the help of Pete and James who played guitar and sang back-up. It was terribly hard to leave on Sunday, but it was time for Pete to get Sun Ray and I to the airport.

Sunny again

2007-10-23T12:02:00.001-07:00

Well, last evening was full of music, with attendees regaling us with their voices and instruments. There was one thing that filled some of us with dread, however: the impending night of frost. Two of us (I will not name names), knowing our rated to 10-degrees-celsius sleeping bags were waiting for us in our tents, bailed from the ranch for a night at the cozy Comfort Inn. A hot shower and heated room was what we needed to recover from the chill visited upon us by the previous 24 hours.

Having learned our lesson, we made a trek (again to Walmart) and got us some sleeping bags that we hope stop our incessant complaining about the cold.

Doni and Kaki, of earthbagging fame, arrived yesterday and I spent some time chatting with them this morning, and thanking them for all their help with the composting toilet project at Dufferin Grove Park. I am looking forward to working with them here as they teach us earthtubes, a faster version of earthbagging.

Bale pics

2007-10-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

Compressing bales for use in a straw bale wall

Adobes

2007-10-22T15:20:00.001-07:00

Sitting and soaking

2007-10-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy couple of days. On Saturday, we started some projects, but then sat on our butts all afternoon and the next day listening to some seriously inspirational presenters. We've heard about:

Radical plumbing and alternative grey and black water management (some people think my CSA-approved composting project is over the top, they would probably faint dead away to hear some of this stuff)
Adobe restoration in New Mexico
Getting the building codes to to expand their understanding of what's worth protecting. (ie, it's good to make sure buildings don't fall on people's heads, but it's every bit as important to make sure we are not wrecking the earth in the process)
Intentional communities and how they work in the real world
"Turning Drains into Sponges and Water Scarcity into Water Abundance"
Placemaking par excellence in Portland, Oregon
Cob in British Columbia and the world
Mud, stories and art

These folks really connected mud and life; pretty mind blowing.

Last night, they said we might be having a storm in the night, so I moved my clothes out to my colleague's car. The water dripping through my tent at 3am put the lie to my valiant tent waterproofing efforts, though once the water got in, the waterproofing on the tent's bottom seemed to be retaining water nicely. Fortunately, I was able to divert most of the drips off of my (rather skimpy and not meant to handle sub-zero temperatures) sleeping bag, so that I could at least get through the night.

Today has been around 10 C, though now the clouds are gone. Tonight will be cold, and then it will apparently warm up. Fingers crossed, 'cause I left my winter parka at home, against my better judgement.

I've arrived

2007-10-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I met Janet, a fellow Colloquium-goer, this morning at our hotel. My luggage arrived on the first flight from Memphis, none the worse for wear. We stocked up on supplies at Walmart, and then drove her rented SUV to Quiet Valley Ranch, all the while chatting about sustainability. Then we set up our petrochemical-derived tents and unpacked our plastic canvas knapsacks and folding chairs. Long live sustainability!

Tonight, Penny Livingston-Stark opens the Colloquium with a talk about "natural building, permaculture and regenerative design". Off I go!

Oh, and a guy in a Utilikilt just walked by; so cool.

In San Antonio

2007-10-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

We left Toronto a half hour late, so that left me running about a mile in the Memphis airport in order to make it onto my connecting flight with one minute to spare. In San Antonio, i discovered that my luggage wasn't so lucky; it will apparently arrive tomorrow. I am scheduled to leave at 10am, while my luggage will fly in for 11am. Not sure how I'll sort that out.

Supper was a microwaved pizza pocket and a Snickers bar. Getting geared up for 10 days of vegan fare, I guess. Well, off to bed; looks like a busy day tomorrow.

In Toronto

2007-10-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to go

2007-10-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

I am finalizing my packing, and getting ready to go to the Natural Building Colloquium in Kerrville, Texas: www.naturalbuildingtexas.org. Alan tells me that I might consider taking fewer socks; we'll see what finally makes the cut.

Thank you for Centre for Local Research into Public Space for their generous sponsorship, and for the staff at Dufferin Grove Park, for donating the proceeds of a recent Friday night supper to help pay for my trip.