Four days have past without me working with straw, mud, or render. My clothes and shoes are clean again and I get my physical workout through my normal fitness routine. What has changed? I feel a different connection to buildings now. I walk past at least one construction side every day and I look at […]
Straw bale workshop – day 4
Day four, the last day of the straw bale workshop. I admit, I’m exhausted albeit it was an awesome experience. We did a lot of work on the house in a short amount of time. It’s amazing to see the progress from a timber frame to rendered walls. Today’s biggest job was to begin rendering […]
Straw bale workshop – day 3
Day three of building a straw bale house with natural materials and I’m starting to get comfortable with the process. I spend most of my day today on the interior mud walls, just like yesterday. We tried a different technique by forming mud-straw-sand-balls in our hands and ‘staging’ them into the timber frame. This technique […]
Straw bale workshop – day 2
Day two at the straw bale workshop meant I got to play with mud and I loved it. The morning began with a recap of the previous day and the plan for day two. There were two main tasks: finish of the outside straw walls and begin work on the interior mud walls. I was […]
Straw bale workshop – day 1
The first day at a straw bale workshop – it smelled (and looked) like a barn. My first impression of the building side when I arrived this morning was that of any other building side in Australia: the house-to-be has a wooden frame on a level surface with a roof of corrugated iron. However, in […]
Attending a building workshop – live blogging
As part of my collection of ideas and thoughts on a smaller and more fulfilling lifestyle I’ve been looking at alternatives to conventional housing designs. As a family we have started looking into ideas such as Earthships, mud brick houses, and straw bale buildings. This is all very exciting for me and also completely out […]
Dietary labels – being vegan or not
A few weeks ago I watched the documentary Cowspiracy. Their basic argument is that the meat and dairy industry is largely responsible for climate change. It’s a compelling argument I cannot (and will not) diffuse. However, the conclusion that we should all turn to a vegan diet is not a straight forward one for me. […]
A praise to my veggie box
A few years ago and more by accident than anything else I started getting a veggie box every week. The reason I’m starting my post today with that? A veggie box has pushed me to cook with fresh vegetable and to explore new recipes. With that came a gradual move to a whole foods diet. […]
My alternative to shampoo
About two years ago I made the transition from commercial shampoo to baking soda and apple cider vinegar (ACV) for my hair. It’s a transition that I really love. Not only is it much more economical but it also means I have to wash my hair less often. The transition to baking soda and ACV […]
Goals in life: decluttering and minimising
When we moved into our current house I started seriously going through our stuff and donating a lot to our local second-hand store. This decluttering and minimising still continues and I have set myself the target of 10min going through stuff each day. There is not even one specific area of the house that I […]