Forever House (#3)

Saturday 9th February, 2013

Sifting mesh & dirt pile covered in iron to keep grass down

The one full day I had last visit was quite productive - even without the cement (mud) mixer. The old corrugated iron I'd laid around the digging site killed the grass and stopped more growing which made life much easier. The sifting mesh was in tact (sometimes it can be disrupted by unwelcome cows that randomly wander wherever they want to go on the farm). My tools were as I had left them; the wheelbarrow, crowbar, shovel, and a couple of mattocks. I brought out my docking station that Jeff bought me for my last birthday - I can Bluetooth my phone to it, and so had music to work by all day. That was very lovely.

Before I could start digging I had to shovel the previous pile of dug dirt into the house. Sounds ridiculous, but I thought it through and trust me it was the best place to store the dirt for the next time I'll mud. Those random cows had spread it all about on the outside of the house. Next time I go out I'll set the mixer up inside and barrow the mud everywhere it needs to go internally. It is a worksite...
It's been a worksite for nine years. I have invested huge effort, good money, and some big experiences in this place, as have my kids. My second family is here - ten years in a community and your life and those of the other shareholders are indelibly linked. They are like relatives, because you don't get to choose them!

Lifting the tank onto the trailer to transport to my share

Preparing the site for the tank

The hardworkers: Pete, Jess, Billy, Susan, Meegs, Jeff and me

I shoveled the pile then dug and sifted another just as big, and shoveled that in on top of the other. The barrow goes in under the sifting mesh. I crowbar around the edges of the digging hole and then shovel the dirt on to the mesh. I bang that with the shovel until there is only rocks left - which I push off onto another bit of corrugated iron on the ground, and then barrow the load to the front of the house and tip it out. I've dug a lot of dirt and although there can be long gaps in between, its always satisfying to get back into the rhythm. Once I'd had enough of that I got a forty-four gallon drum of water set up alongside the dirt. I thought a metal drum might not be a good idea - it will sit rusting till next time I am here. There has been a blue plastic drum sitting by the digging pile for a long time - I think my cousin Jess might have left it here when he and Kat moved back to town. It was full of lime and water - which is part of the mudding process at some point - to do with rendering the walls. I tipped it over - with quite some effort - and scooped all the lime out. I set it up inside and got to filling it with water. Some time ago with the help of a group of friends, a twenty thousand litre tank was dragged down from where Jess and Kat had been building their place. They had given up the idea for various reasons, and sold off the infrastructure to those of us who were interested. We set the tank up at the corner of the house, and it is permanently full of water - at this stage it hardly every gets used.

To fill the forty four it took twenty trips with a full bucket up hill. Told you the exercise is good. And to complete the day's work, I started on the straw. I moved the straw chopping station from where it has always been up in the corner of what will be the main bedroom, down into the loungeroom alongside the dirt and water. I filled a metal forty four with chopped straw. Using a very rusty and blunt sithe of some kind - reminder to self - bring a decent axe next time.

No need to go and collect sand from down at the river, I already have a good few containers full. Pretty happy with that several hours of work - started at ten, finished at four - and the stash of materials I have means I can just get on with mudding next visit. I am aiming for that to be on the Saturday 2nd March.

Time for a swim in the river - a bath as much as a swim. Fresh river water, deep wide and long enough at our swimming hole to swim over a hundred metres.