2009 - February | April | May | June | August
2010 - Feb | April | July | October
2011 - earthship-build-july 2011.htm


April 2009

Things have really picked up again in April. We have a new Nepali team back and working strong. The training has also been focusing on the permaculture and creation of new plant beds. We have prepped them all with seeds to improve the soil ready to take some food crops this season.

 

The new toilet is in use and it's lovely! No smell whatsoever and a normal flush toilet.. Well ok a flush with a bucket from a tap.. but not bad!!

We have also lifted the first of our pillars of 13 feet. They look a LOT more imposing upright than on the ground. We are considering even reducing the height of the house by a foot or two .. otherwise this is a very tall house at 13 feet with a tall roof on top.

We have a new training coordinator. He is from Canada and Heart is spending a lot of time playing with cob and vegetable gardening.

Tomorrow the solar oven!





We've also finished our test wall plastering. This is an external wall made with only the soil found at our feet and water and some coconut hair. I have made this test to see how well it holds up to the rains. The shiny finish is a few layers of Linseed Oil mixed with turpentine. We love it! It's really strong and should easily be good enough for inside. We will try another test with lime and less turpentine to see how it looks with less shine. The lime should hold it strong and keep the color less dark too of the mud.
This shot shows how we're going to screw the window frames into the walls. Every other tyre layer has a half cement block in place. We just put these wooden blocks in with nails to lock it in place. After its done we will screw the window frames into these wooden blocks.







TREE RAISING!!
We have raised the first pillar today. The biggest and heaviest. It was very hard, very scary and right now as I write this the tree is standing propped up and held with ropes. It's looking VERY tall at 13 feet. Luckily we didn't lose the tree down the mountain.





 

 


All in all, an amazing month. The weather is still perfect with some rain but not too much. There are still a lot of people visiting who are traveling India. Interestingly most of the people who come here are from England. I'm not sure why but we English do seem to really appreciate sustainable living!!!