Monday, June 12th 2006
We have a green light, all systems GO!
Starting this week, you'll get brief weekly updates instead of the usual monthly chronicle. Many of you expressed their wish to come out and help us and to be able to follow more closely the unfolding of events. It's very encouraging to see all this interest for our project, it gives us a lot of energy and it's a pleasure to share our passion with all of you. You'll notice we received our new camera... the posting of new pictures will also be more frequent.
A lot has happened in the last month, I'll bring you up to date forthwith. We're very comfortable in our shelter with only one small problem: the small woodpecker that made us laugh last spring while building the shelter because it would bang on the aluminium ladder (see June 9th 2005 chronicle) is back. At first it was the metal roof that interested it starting around 4AM. Alain installed a billboard on the roof and the chimney, the BBQ, the metal wall behind the stove and the fibreglass box for the pick-up truck were next. We covered the wall and wrapped the chimney since we don't use the stove for the moment. The most annoying is that it taps a few time, goes away and comes back after 20 minutes or so for the next 2-3 hours, making it impossible to go back to sleep. It's latest target is the satellite dish, at least that's a bit further away and we can now sleep better in the morning.
In November, we were in a hurry to close the West wall that isn't made of tires and we'd done so with a panel of 2X3 covered in plastic that a neighbour gave us and insulated with straw bales. Alain replaced that with a log wall 3 feet high on top of which 2 windows picked up in the garbage are resting. Only the top wall between the windows and the roof and the insulation to keep our cement floor from breaking are left for later in the fall.
After the 10 days of rain in mid-May, our spring water that collects in our surface well/cistern became orange from the iron content. It's really bad for the on-demand water heater since a chemical reaction with the copper pipes where the water is heated would eventually block them. We found out that besides the water from the spring, there was infiltration through the cement wall of the well and that's where the iron came from. We sealed everything and now the water is nice and clear. We're so lucky to have our own private spring that flows year-round and that's just a hundred meters up the hill above the house. All the water we want, gravity fed with enough pressure so we don't need a pump.
Cyrille, the young Frenchman, arrived as scheduled June 13rd. A charming lad who knows a lot about building: dry stone walls, straw bale and lime plasters to name a few. We've already had a few interesting discussions on a lot of topics and techniques of organic buildings. He has met the local fauna, the bugs love an exotic meal... This year isn't too bad for black flies, we manage to work without the net quite often, specially in the mornings. On the other hand, he finds the river a bit cold even tough it's now around 22C (72F)! Our dog , Tara, finds it perfect and swims with us every day with an overwhelming enthusiasm that always makes us laugh.
We finally started filling tires again! Everyone had been asking that question for the last month. The old habits are coming back along with the aching muscles and the good tiredness at night. The mechanical shovel came for a few hours last Wednesday. We needed more room on the West side of the house to taper the tire wall where we will start building again in a couple of years if we decide to enlarge the house. We needed to improve drainage on that side and we had to finish installing the French drain with picks and shovels before it all fell back in. We also took that opportunity to make the slope less steep in the driveway up to the house and get the pink rock that Alain will carve into a bathtub out of a ditch.
Finally, a group of young people from Katimavik were here on Sunday to lend a hand. A really nice group that had only 2 weeks left to the 9 months program. They come from all regions of Canada and visited 3 different places where they worked and volunteered on all kinds of projects. A golden opportunity to travel and learn as the 7 of them told us. The weather was cooperating and it was a very pleasant day: a bit cloudy but windy to keep the black flies at bay and some sun at the end of the day so we could take a plunge. We managed to fill a whole row of tires but we encountered a problem that hadn't occurred last year. The abundant rain in the last few days made the sand so wet that the compaction process turned it into an elastic mud that was impossible to make hard. We'll have to let it dry some before we finish the job.
Their presence allowed us to work on a few things we'd left on the backburner. For example, we emptied all the garbage bags full of dry leaves that we used as insulation and spread them out in the footpath that tends to get muddy every spring. It looks silly at first but after a year, it turns into a very natural and well packed base. It's amazing to see how much trouble people go through to rake and bag all that highly reusable material to send it to rot in landfills. Fortunately, ALain is on the lookout and Chertsey picks up the rest and composts it.