Temperatures were just below zero in the morning
this weekend so the ponds had a fine layer of ice.
The air was crystal clear and the view of the snowy mountains in the
distance was spectacular.
The covered garden house with the Pyrenean mountain range in
the distance.
Looking north-west.
Saturday 8:35
___________
We began fixing the roof beams on the braces of the ring beam. The
beams have a width of 20 cm and to use nails of 15 cm (longer nails
are getting to thick) we had to make holes of 10 cm through the
width of the beams with an electric drill. Applying abundant glue
and the OSB boards that will be nailed on top and on the bottom (to
hold the straw) will help to fix the roof beams.
When we checked the correct angle (5º) of the different braces we
noticed some serious
deviations. These were caused by the roof beam that was showing some
angling towards the interior of the house. It took us some time to
realize that this must have been caused by an unbalanced tensioning
of the white cordstraps. With the last session I had only
tensioned the straps inside, supposing that the tension would
distribute itself along the whole strap and the roof beam. But the
roof beam reacted unevenly which we didn't notice immediately (quite
careless actually).
Next weekend we will try to level the roof beam by tensioning the
straps at the exterior of the walls.
Foncho fixing the roof
beams with additional 'toe nails'.
Looking north-east.
Sunday 11:59
These braces are quite complicated with all kinds of angles and
cut-outs.
Looking east.
Sunday 11:58
Four roof beams fixed in position.
Looking east. Sunday 12:15
______________
After some study of internet resources we found an ideal solution for
the many straw bales that had started to rot as a result of poor storing
conditions. It connected with the vague plans we had for a small
vegetable garden on the lower terrace near the garden house.
Personally I was somewhat reluctant to install a vegetable garden:
it destroys the beautiful natural vegetation on the terrain, it is
not very aesthetical and means quite a lot of labour. On the other
hand, I have always been interested in ecological
agriculture in a broad sense and more specifically (and recently) in
the philosophy of Fukuoka and the related permaculture
movement.
It now seemed to come all together: straw is one of the best
mulching agents according to the permaculture principles and what I
especially like about permaculture is that it leaves the soil
untouched and favours the cultivation of perennial plants, shrubs
and trees; I have never liked the sight (and the labour) of nicely
ordered plant beds with black spaded earth.
So I selected a small patch near the garden house where the soil is
relatively deep and humid, cut the vegetation with a scythe and started spreading the straw. This
straw will suffocate the existing vegetation and at the same time
protect and stimulate the soil. We have no detailed plans yet as how
to proceed but at least we will have a patch to begin with next
spring. Relatively urgent are a compost toilet and a compost heap
that will be installed as soon as the work on the garden house
relaxes a bit.
The future vegetable garden on
the lowest terrace.
Looking east.
Sunday 12:17
Some straw bales had a nice vegetation of barley
on top.
They could easily be split into nice slices of mulch.
Sunday 9:07
