Mud

There is nothing like the feel of mud. 

This mud has been hiding underground alongside a spring. Bright blue when you first uncover it but it changes color as it gets exposed to air.

I love how these guys have used it!!

Kokowai

 Kokowai.

This is the colour of this land. Ngati pukeko. 

This is one of my first attempts of dying cloth with clay from this whenua. 

Mordanted with raw milk then soaked in clay.

Usually I avoid white clothes. Now I am on the lookout!!

Fire bath

 What better way to dye your fabric than a firebath under the stars. This eco dying did not come out to clear so will have to stoke up the bath again soon.

Bus flat kitchen

What a project. This space has been a work in progress for a while as we felt into the space (the landscape and how we wanted to be in it). 

The final mockup felt so good but once we got the poles up and the rafters on wow!! Over Christmas we will be camping here for two weeks with extended family so will get a chance to bed in the kitchen layout using loose parts. 

We had fun playing with new materials during the construction. The poles are New Zealand made clay field tiles filled with pumice-crete and the rafters a eucalypt milled on site. So much potential for future buildings.

 

And to cook it!!!

We have had so much fun building this oven. We had some great helpers and now can have some great bake offs.

While we build we discussed fire and clay. How we can honor it. How we came to be able to use it and the stories that have been passed down to us about them. The little nook in the fromnt of the oven is to place a ??? to remind us of this.

Kibbler

This grinder saves me so much time.

It kibbles my chicken food, and grinds up charcoal for bio-char and pigments for paints and plasters.

This dry clay is being ground for seed balls.

Plastering

I love the curves and contrasts of these walls.
The first coat of plaster seems to highlight both.

This is the first layer of plaster on our earth bricks. There is minimal cracking so we will use a fine sieve for the next layer and that may be our last.

Our mix for this layer is;
-4 parts clay.
-1 part aggregate; 1 part sand, 1 part pumice, 1 part fine pummice
-3 parts straw

All put through a 1/4 inch sieve pre-mixing.

And the tiles go on

We were lucky enough to be gifted these tiles about a year ago now by our good friend Mike O'Donnell.

It took a whole evening of mocking (participators included; sink, toothbrushes, table/bench, mirror, tiles, and a good group of people) up to decide on the final tile positions (they are going to frame a sink and mirror). The language used to define the layout was amazing. The arrangement/form emerged slowly with some tiles being fixed quickly and others as the evening rolled on.

The next morning we did a final mock up on the wall (sink and cabinet included) before setting them into a layer of earthen plaster.

Plaster mix

The ingredients for our plaster mix. We are still playing a little with proportions but at the moment we are going with 1/3 clay. 1/3 agregate and 1/3 fibre.
These small batches are mixed in the wheelbarrow easily.

Mud

I love the way three separate materials turn into one. Sand, pumice and
clay with a little stomping and then some rolling with a tarp makes a mix strong enough to make a wall.

This mix is one of the last that will be mortar for our toilet wall.

Ari and I spent the afternoon today putting up a few more layers of bricks.

Finishing roof

 



Yay!! The roof is up. Talk about delays.

We stained all of the timer and then put up the clear light.
It is great having such a big dry outdoor space. As they say when building with earth 'good hat and good boots'. This should do the job.

Next week we will take down our wonderful bamboo scaffolding clear the sight and start on the wall design.

Kumara harvest

During the growing season Kumara vines should be lifted or they put down roots where they touch the soil. These roots turn into small Kumara and stop the main Kumara from fattening up. The more roots the smaller the Kumara.

I did not do a good job of lifting the vines that were on the beds. I think next year I will put down a thick layer of newspaper in the middle of the beds to discourage these small roots and save the time untangling and lifting vines.

They were put to good use and have made a great addition to our meals.





This year I used a small Broadfork from Crafty Gatherer to dig my Kumara. It made a beautiful job and the beds were then scattered with green manure seeds raked and DONE for winter.

The Kumara were placed in a nest of Kumara vines, covered and left to cure for three days before being individually wrapped and stored in my cob food shed.

Brick yard

An impromptu design session at the brickyard.

I have been using pallets, hay bales and bamboo to mock up a corner cob seat with drying shelves and a mini rocket stove/kai table.

They were making pots and chatting. I was watching they way they moved in the space and then getting some great feedback.

Shelves moved higher, seat backs turned into a leaning wall and cob seats became wooden storage boxes for clay tools, tea making basics and kindling.

 I will not start this project until spring but it is great to be able to consider the design and see it being used before it becomes final.

Brickyard

A good mornings work. 155 bricks.
Total stacked is now 1929.

Enough for our new bathroom, lounge extension and maybe enough left over for a pizza oven/rocket stove.

So grateful to all of the wonderful people who spent time mixing mud with me.

Garlic fiber

Garlic pulp made from cutting one of my garlic plaits up, putting it in a pot of water and leaving on the wood range for a day.

I think I might try paper or maybe add it to some plaster. What an easy way to get fiber.

Cob wall

Just about finished the cob infill in our small wooden shed.

First we put up lots of battens to help hold it in place then mud.

Well not just mud this mix is equal parts clay, sand and pumice with as many pine needles as we could mix in.

Plaster

The finished plaster in our small shed.
Sieved clay, sand and cow manure. Applied by hand and smoothed with an ice cream container paddle.

It was a little green to start with but turned creamy when dry.

Pizza for lunch

There is nothing better than designing your own pizza for lunch. A couple of minutes to cook and then YUM!!!

All feet on the tarp.

It all comes together (sand, straw and clay). Just like baking a cake. Except the mixing is between your toes.

A textural experience for everyone.