Eco building, Garden

BUILDING AN EARTH OVEN PART 2 – CRUMBLING SANDCASTLES

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Placing fire brick tiles on base

Cutting fire bricks

Piling sand on tiles to make mould

 

We could have researched ahead to see what materials we needed for the weekend. Instead we rose to a glorious morning ready to get stuck into the earth oven, only to discover the oven didn’t want any ordinary bricks for the oven floor, oh no, it needed fire brick tiles. We scolded it, so it knew it wasn’t allowed to be a high maintenance pet demanding a fresh coat of render to match the season! So a week went by and we procured some fire brick tiles, then it rained, for a week. The next week we realised that a chisel and hammer weren’t going to cut it, the fact that they were seconds with chips on them should have tipped us off that they like to crumble rather than cut neatly like a dream…time to call in some favours…

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Eco building, Garden

BUILDING AN EARTH OVEN PART 1 – DRINK BEER & MAKE MUDPIES

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Laying glass bottles on base for insulation

Building earth oven base out of superadobe earth bags

Filling the earth oven base with scoria

 

Well it would be as easy as the aforementioned pie if we actually sat down and read the book properly (the earth oven bible that is). Instead we took the attitude that one shouldn’t actually open to the pertinent page until a few minutes before getting started. Without fail we would discover that we didn’t have the right materials, tools or would need to let things soak or dry overnight or perhaps for a week, in light of this the only reasonable course of action remaining was to take a siesta or perhaps go fishing instead. This is perhaps not the most efficient way to get things done, but far less stressful.

We are now about 3/4 done on the oven and now that we know what to do, having more or less skimmed the relevant diagrams, I can promise you someone more prepared than us could easily knock this over in a week, with 5 out of the 7 days set aside for the oven to have some quality alone time to dry.

I encourage you to buy the book, but as a summary here are the first steps, with more to come (I promise, dear reader, that I won’t be as cavalier with my blog updates as my construction).

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Travel

SEEKING SUNSET, SOUGHT BY SOUNDS

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Peering through the long grass at The Organ Pipes National Park

Walking through curling grasses at The Organ Pipes National Park

Bush walk in the Organ Pipes National Park

Blackwood leaves, the organ pipes national park

Picnic at The Organ Pipes National Park
 
On whim we packed a picnic and hit the highway to get to the Organ Pipes National Park before the sunset. Once we had descended down to the valley floor, we were careful not to walk too far in any direction lest the fantasy of being miles away from the city be broken.

Our study of the curious hexagonal basalt columns was interrupted by a rumble, first one low flying plane and then another and another, oh well we could incorporate that into the daydream, planes searching for lost adventurers, or perhaps something more sinister…then there was a faint whine, we looked around, it was getting louder and more insistent. Hmmm…when it comes to dreams of isolation the Calder Park Motorway is a bit harder to dismiss, but the ants seemed nonplused gathering crumbs we had carelessly shed from our veggie burgers. A kangaroo chomping on grass nearby shrugged his nonchalance at his neighbours over the road. The lovers by the river seemed more concerned by our sudden appearance than any flight path, we left them to it.

Shadows began sliding into the valley, over the cliff as we wondered when the frozen rock worm within would awaken and complete its churning motion exploding out of the cliff face all teeth and malice. I packed my overactive imagination back in its case as orange sunlight licked our backs goodbye and then was gone. We made our way up and out, through the deserted car park and back towards the city lights.
 

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Garden

ENTHUSIASM IN A TIGHT SPACE

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Kids rendering the earthbags at the Flemington Permablitz
SSitting up with a gasp at 4am we heard rain rocketing down on our tin roof as loud as gunfire and we rush outside to make sure our newly rendered garden beds didn’t bear any rain shaped bullet wounds. We were lucky, it had dried just in time.

With a backdrop of grey morning we began to set up the garden for the Edible Gardens Open Day. As the sky darkened Kelly from our local council and the volunteers from MINTI (the Flemington Transition Group) began to arrive with 50 fliers in hand to give out, 50 we laughed, perhaps 30 people will come to have a look. Between 10:30 and 4pm the skies cleared to a glorious blue day and over 200 people passed through our front gate!

It is quite surreal to see 80 people at a time crammed into our small garden, with a bemused sense of unreality we explained our design to the group. The overwhelming sense of good will they offered us with their smiles and eager questions was beautiful. After our rush to get our garden ready, which the bees resented giving us two stings the day before, it was delightful and relieving to see everyone having such a good time (and no stings!). Even the render stood up to being walked on by children and adults alike, being used as a motorway for toy trucks and as a springboard for gymnastic tricks (children only).

My uncarefully laid plans of showing the time-lapse of our garden to a small huddle of people was unrealistic, so I will share it with you here and hope you get as much a kick out of it as me. After the first few viewing I had way too much fun watching minor details like our sunflowers growing and dying and where the neighbours’ cat is going to show up next!


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