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                         a   S T A M M E R  project              

2009 September 2 to 10

We finished the compost toilet with strawbale walls and a roof improvised with left-overs: OSB board, knobbed roll (HDPE), small stones (filtered from the clay plaster) and straw. I 'sowed' leaves and cuttings of Sedum species in the straw and stones. Many of the stones are actually hardened particles of clay and I suppose that this soil will be sufficient for the Sedum species to grow and help against the erosion and sliding of the material on the roof. Anyway, it forms a nice experiment for another type of green roof.

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Taking advantage of a visit of friends with a lot of potential labour force, we continued the plastering job. This time we started with a first layer on the outside walls as this is a lot easier to do than the finish layer on the inside walls. The workers were quite dedicated (for an hour) and had a nice and memorable time.

And on the following day the next step: smearing the mud on the wall.
6 Sept 11:12

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I did some tests for the finish layer of the inside walls. They revealed a surprising high clay content of the extracted soil because even a mix of 50% soil and 50% sand showed severe cracking. What also surprises me is that the previous layers with straw (and no sand) in the mix shows almost no cracking at all. It seems that the straw works as a kind of buffer for the clay particles to expand or contract.
I suppose that a mix of about 25% soil and 75% sand will do the trick, and the next tests will go along this line.

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We are not the only ones, here on the terrain, to construct with natural materials. I found two examples of what some insects are capable of. We can only marvel at the perfection of these shelters.

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We suffered quite a lot these days because of the terrible wound inflicted on the terrain by a bulldozer. It had to dig a trench for a service pipe for water and an electric cable for the solar panels. The trench is only 50 cm deep but the amount of moved soil is tremendous. Fortunately, it follows more or less the existing path.

introduction
floristic catalogue
faunistic catalogue
contact
index
gallery 1: 2006-2012
gallery 2: 2012-
map
>> 2009 Sep 18
<< 2009 Aug 18