COB ART

The light was falling

on the cob sculptures and they looked absolutely awesome

so here are two pictures, the kiwi and the fantail. Thanks a million Carrie!

WWOOFER 50

Mauve was 49 and Gary was Wwoofer number 50! A nice, round number to start off the 2007/2008 summer season.

Gary had a lot of tree planting and agricultural experience and kindly offered to tidy up around the trees. Wal hired a big scrub cutter for 2 days and Gary swished grass and weeds clearing out around small trees to give them light. We took advantage of the short grass and spent the following long weekend laying out trailerloads of carpet to keep the weeds down.

Mauve cleaned up some woodwork which was splattered with clay, did a heap of weeding helping me clear out the winter greens from the vege patch, and sanded a huge slab of macrocarpa for our bathroom benchtop.

Gary helped Ami bake and Mauve hit it off with Shannah and we really enjoyed the pleasant company of our first wwoofers for the season.

Thanks to Gary and Mauve for startingoff the Trees for Travellers season as well with planting 4 trees taking the number up to 59.

and the weekend finsihed with pizza dough made and baked in the pizza oven by a professional baker (Gary!) ...so yummy we couldn't move when we were finished.

ORCHARD

We were offered two lambs so Wal spent 2 weeks finishing off a lot of fencing around the place and we got the orchard planted and protected, and put the lambs in to keep the grass down. We have 15 trees in the orchard including walnut, lemon, plum, apricot,apple, pear and hazelnuts.

KITCHEN CABINET

I scored a cabinet at a garage sale for $20. It was a hideous thing painted with a brown paint to look like stain...but... we discovered underneath it was heart rimu. Wal scraped back one end and the grain is absolutely beautiful. he took off the hardboard on the back and replaced it with tongue and groove. It looks a million dollars now and saved a lot of cabinet work as it fitted exactly into the wall we had intended to be a shelved wall in the kitchen.

GIB

Most of the wall gib is done, except for spots where the plumber is required. The ceiling gib is likewise and now the scotia (edging between ceiling and wall) is done in most room's except our bedroom.

Not a very exciting photo BUT it does show something is finished. Gib and scotia.

Next steps will be gibstopping/plastering then painting!

SHOP! SHOP! SHOP!

This was a speech I gave last week at Toastmasters.

Shop till you drop! Retail therapy! A night on the town! Buy now pay later! 15 months interest free! SALE on now! Two for the price of 1!

Consumer society, we've got it made…....but wait, more shopping = more goods = more packaging = More landfill….shopping till you drop is not good for the environment…......but wait.....

Tonight I am going to sell you some ideas for shopping with a difference. In fact, I am going to tell you to shop… shop with your head, shop with your heart and shop with your wallet and you can make a difference…. That is to say YOU and YOU and YOU can make a difference….For the environment and for the world.

A recent survey stated that most Kiwis want to shop, recycle and plant their way through the climate change problem. So here are some tips on different approaches to shopping for the planet.

Buy New Zealand made, especially food which makes up a large portion of our weekly expenditure. Instead of this pasta, made in Italy, buy this flour milled in Ashburton available by internet order and make your own pasta. It tastes great and reduces the carbon miles generated by products having to be transported from the other side of the world. It also supports our local economy, providing jobs which flows on to stronger local communities.

Buy organic.Areas of opportunity for organic farming include improved consumer health and producer health, sustainability, organic food branding, regional employment, recognition of consumer demand and economic benefits. Support the growth of the domestic organic sector by being one of those consumers demanding organic products.

Shop at Trade Aid and support an income generating venture in a developing country or take out a Child Sponsorship and welcome another child into your home. Buy a family in Africa a goat or a well! Support a charity. Change to Fair Trade tea or coffee and support local organic ventures where the farmer receives a fair price for their labour instead of being exploited by a multi-national company.

If the world were a village and there were a 100 people in the village only 1 would own their own home. In New Zealand we are among the world’s richest people. So let’s shop with our hearts and share our wealth with those less fortunate.

Shop to reduce carbon emissions by choosing energy efficient appliances such as ecobulbs or a 5 star fridge or dishwasher. An ecobulb, though more cosly initially, will save you money on energy usage over the term of their life.

In a recent Eco-bulb campaign at Shell service stations over 800,000 eco-bulbs were sold. This equates to over $100 million of energy savings and could reduce the carbon dioxide equivalent of taking more than 65,000 cars off the road.

Buy services instead of products. For example, instead of buying a toilet bag for someone give them a voucher for a professional massage. Goods often come from overseas and have a high carbon footprint, whereas a service is provided by a person locally which incurs a lower carbon footprint and provides employment in the local economy.

Buy it back. Instead of this (hold up white notepaper) buy this ( hold up recycled paper) Buying recycled goods help close the loop. Resources flow from virgin materials to goods to recycling to recycled goods and back into the market. This uses resources efficiently and keeps stuff out of the landfill.

Find a bargain. Check out the 2nd hand shops or auction center. Scrounge around at the Silver Shed or the Crow’s Nest. Go garage saling. Shop at Save Mart. ..and don't miss the church fair. It really is lots of fun finding that bargain.

So, you can shop to your hearts content….or shop with your heart..shop with your head and let your money do the talking… for the good of the environment and for community wellbeing, both local and international. I believe in putting my money where my mouth is….shop green and save the world...oh, and remember.....take your shopping bag with you.

ZERO WASTE ADVISOR

That's me! Rusty. In May I got a fulltime job at Timaru District Council. Unfortunately, it is a 35 minute drive (45 km) from Waimate but I have got a car pool each way, so philosphically I can cope (just!) with the mileage..........anyway, the job is my dream job....it was made for me! My job is varied , interesting, exciting, and gives me a real buzz- especially when I set up a waste exchange. That is finding something 1 business is throwing out which another business can use-thereby saving it from the landfill. I also get to teach in kindies and schools about Zero Waste and recycling, take groups on tour around on fantastic Materials Recycling Facility and work with businesses on waste management and coming up-other sustainability issues. I have a great co-worker on the same wavelength as me and the day at work just flies............When I put the kids to bed I count down....10,9,8,7,6,5,4, "3-2-1-Zero Waste"-and turn the light out!

SPRING IS SPRUNG

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz.

I wonder where the birdies iz...

totally unoriginal, my mother used to say it.

Our magnificent magnolia ( or mongolia tree as I once called it when I was losing my English in Japan) has blossomed. Thank you Beth and Mac for this special treat.

and we are wondering what travellers and friends-to-be are going to pop out of the woodwork this year.

Mark 21 today

We seem to be gathering 21sts. When Mark arrived and we found out it was his 21st in a week he had to stay. Mark came to Toastmasters and a friend there had a birthday on the same day. She made a cake and brought it in for morning tea to celebrate. The girls enjoyed art lessons with mark each day after school and we enjoyed his lovely company. Particularly memorable was a family picnic at KNottingly Park and playing in the autumn leaves.

ALAN

Alan stayed at our place killing time until the snows arrived and he could go skiing. As he was a great help and fitted in with the family so well we were secretly praying for a warm winter and delayed start to the ski season. Notwithstanding, after 4 weeks here he went skiing and then off to the States. Alan helped Wal instal the two back doors, put up most of the Terra Lana natural woolen insulation and helped line out the house with gib board. Absolutely heaps in other words...not to mention falling voctim to the Chinese Checker mania!

THE REGENT THEATER

Many WWOOFers enjoy a night out at the Regent Theater. It is an old style theater with intermission- time for an icecream or popcorn- and as it is run by a Trust the prices are pretty reasonable too. This is a nostalgic experience for many who come from cities where the only movie theaters now are multiplexes.

Jo and Nick

Jo and Nick could only stay a couple of days, but they helped dig out some more squares for the orchard weeding carefully and replacing the dirt in barriers made by Wal out of corrugated iron. The concept behind this labour intensive job is to plant the orchard squares with a herbal ley and to keep the twitch at bay.

Penny and Charlie Brown

Penny and Charlie were a chatty couple and we enjoyed family time with them. They helped dig out some squares to plant the orchard in the spring and planted comfrey root all around the edge of the orchard. They put down lots of carpet squares and tires around the trees planted by Carrie. And they insulated the south wall with batts. This is the only wall using batts- the rest of the house is insulated with TerraLana natural wool insulation.

Returning friends

We were delighted to have Matt and Carrie come back to visit. Matt and Carrie planted the first trees in the Trees for Travellers programme and in 6 months the total was up to 32. They added to that with some belated Christmas shopping for family bringing the count to 45! The garden Matt and Carrie helped to plant to border the new section at the front had grown unbelievably well. Compare the previous post of them to this new picture. Carrie's sunflowers had all sprouted, grown 6 feet tall and died off before she came back again.

Carrie planted 2 hedges, one for a windbreak to screen the future orchard, and one on the boundary between the current house and the new section. Matt and Carrie helped build the first adobe wall of the WWOOFers room. When they returned the walls were all laid up. Some finishing was required so Carrie and I threw cob at all the gaps in the walls and down the sides of the pillars and our pinnacle of artistic achievement was the sculpturing in cob on the two pillars inside at the sides of the French doors. Adrienne also helped with this. Rusty did the leaves and vines and Carrie did the AMAZING piwakawaka (fantails)!

Matt's major contribution was the handmaking of our kitchen table. He inserted rimu butterflies to stop the splitting, planed, sanded and oiled the table with help from Wal. To celebrate the completion of the masterpiece we transported it down to the new house and had a party. Last weekend on Queen's Birthday Wal entered the table into a woodworking expo where it was much admired.

Matt also made the cupboard for the outside basin for the laundry along with shelving on the outside wall.

We are indebted to Matt and Carrie for their huge contribution and will always cherish their friendship.

OUR FRENCH FAMILY

Apparently, we say in the WWOOFer book we don't take families BUT Monika and Geoff and family arrived nonetheless and we had a ball. After a couple of days the children were playing together, Rusty was cuddling the baby and chaos reigned........ha!ha! Monika made jam and paper pulp ( not at the same time!) and the kids picked up fallen fruit from around the trees to help tidy up.

Geoff was very experienced in brick laying so he made the concrete block manhole on top of the grey water tank and helped Wal put deer fencing wire around the pizza garden.

We particularly enjoyed a picnic at the Black Hole, a local swimming spot, with several friends.

Beth & Mac

Mud!!!Hmmmm.........this was a challenge for Mac- a professional plasterer by trade. He spent several days instructing Wal in the finer arts of plastering, which was a great help. We wish he could have stayed longer...

Beth helped Rusty with some jam making and odds and ends.

Funnily enough, Beth (from England) also visited parents of a penfriend in Waimate. The penfriend now lives in London!!

Kathy & John

Kathy & John arrived in their own accommodation- a camper- and parked down the back. When it cam to weeding Kathy turned out to be superwoman and we made great progress in tidying up the gardens. John helped Wal out with some fencing at the front of the new drive.

Kathy and John live in a 3 bay shed converted into a strawbale dwelling, so it was interesting to have some exchange with people of a very similar ilk.

Jerome and Shiho

Jerome and Shiho joined our family for Christmas along with Gran and Poppa. The weather wasn't great so we had a leisurely day inside. The plan had been to lunch in the new house but the inclement weather meant a lunch at home.

Jerome and Shiho helped Yooko and I fill in the drain along the back of the house. A little arduous, but one of those jobs it was good to get tidied up.

We also made several trailer loads of bricks, creeping ever closer to the final trailer.....

OP SHOPS

Do you need some clothes? Opportunity shops and bargains galore in Waimate.

This pure wool jersey kindly modeled by ...( well, let's keep that secret) only cost 50c.

Xelp with the Xouse

Delphine and Junko turned up separately on the same day only to discover they had bunked together in Oamaru at the backpackers. (NZ is a small place.) They were both fun loving, cheerful workers.

They helped complete the first inside wall both finishing the laying with Wal and then helping Rusty to set a row of bottles into the top of the wall.






Then they helped to lay the rest of the second inside wall and thus, were present for an historic moment....

da
da
da
da!!!!!!!!!!




The laying of the very LAST brick into the top corner.

Big celebrations!!!!

Champagne!!!

& fireworks!!!

THE LAST TRAILER

Jen, Cassie and River helped us make the very last ( really and truly) trailer load of bricks. To celebrate we had a small mud fight but decided that facials and a lie in the sunshine was more therapeutic!

So to any intending mud brick makers-sorry! you'll have to wait till we build our next adobe house.

FAIR DINKUM MATE

Sam and Alex, brothers from Aussie, came for 2 days and we got started on laying the 2 inside walls. 4 rows on 1, then 4 rows on the other. We found out after all this time we had been making two different sized bricks. Our bricks were from a 300mm mould and had generally shrunk to 297mm. The others were from our friend's 310mm shrunk to 305 or so. So, having realised this and sorted the remaining bricks by size we got remarkably straight walls.

YOSHI! YOSHI!

Yoshi came and stayed around New Year. His strength was instrumental in helping us complete the battery room. We ended up with a small gap at the top, which we filled in with a cob mix of mud and lots of straw.

Yoshi could compete with Shannah for tomato sauce consumption!

I used to say "yosh! yosh!" which is a play on the sound of his name. "yosh! yosh!" means go!go!-let's get on with it!

Waimate

A nice stroll is to walk up to the WhiteHorse on the hill, which is a monument to the role of Clydesdale horses in breaking in the countryside. Some WWOOFers have walked from our place there and back ( about 3-4 hours). Others start at the bottom of the walkway-about 40 minutes to the top.

Our house "Earthwood" can be seen quite clearly.