Anyway, this is a good introduction piece to the whole peak oil issue for anyone new to the theory.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/Articles/International_Energy_Agency_Reports_Peak_Oil_Happened_in_2006/
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| Our biogas digester coming along... For more photos click |
- Biogas septic tanks (digesters) deal with the problem of pollution to rivers or ground water;
- They provide a form of energy that would deal with environmental problems locally while reducing global emission increases from human-based methane production.
- This energy can be used to provide free, smokeless gas for cooking – freeing people up in so many countries from the horror of fire-smoke, which WHO reports kills over 2m people per year.
- The odourless liquid effluent that biogas tanks deliver could solve the massive food crisis affecting millions in poorer countries – by providing safe and highly effective fertiliser to increase soil fertility, which people can then use to grow more food at home and improve nutrition.
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| The design we're using to build our biogas digester. Source - David Fulford, Kingdom Bioenergy |
With all the clearing work we’ve been doing in the woods, there’s now a need to get all the firewood-to-be under cover to season well before use. The log store we’ve been constructing next to the main building at last has its roof – a patio area – complete. We just need to relocate the things presently occupying it – like the washing machine – which, as is the way of these things, ideally requires completion of another couple of stages in the project beforehand.
Log store patio roof under construction – membrane goes down on screeded roof
Schist slabs being laid
Log store roof complete and low walls for seating under construction – there will eventually be a fire pit in the centre of the patio
This store will provide about 12 cubic metres of firewood storage space plus room for a workbench and tools. The wood stored here will be used primarily for the rocket stoves in the kitchen and bathhouse/greenhouse, so another storage area is needed for wood for stoves in the upstairs rooms. This dovetails nicely with the final stage of groundwork and construction needed to keep the main building dry and to provide space for a toilet, a connecting corridor between the upstairs rooms and hanging space for outdoor clothing and footwear.
So the next project is to construct a lean-to roof, along with natural drainage, along the back of the building. A lean-to roof with a difference. We plan to take it right out to meet the slope behind the building, varying the pitch as necessary, and cladding it (after waterproofing) with straw and a light covering of topsoil as a growing medium. It will be left to seed naturally with the pioneer plant species – mostly carqueja (Genista tridentata), wild lavender (Lavandula stoechas) and various heathers – that thrive in the thin dry soil on the slope above it, eventually resulting in a roof that’s almost indistinguishable from the surrounding hillside. So really neither a turf roof nor a green roof, but a living, growing roof nonetheless. Minus brambles and pine seedlings though …
Slope behind the house cleared of mato and brambles
View from the other side
Two days ago, the first day of January’s waning moon, we cut some poles from the few eucalyptus trees we have growing in the woods. Apparently if eucalyptus is cut during January’s waning moon, it has much less tendency to split and twist as it dries. Although most of the eucalyptus grown in Portugal goes to make toilet paper, it can make an incredibly strong building timber if it’s seasoned carefully and kept away from any source of wetness. It’s also naturally resistant to the indigenous wood-boring insect population, so this is what we’re using for the framework for the back roof. We’ll be using the poles in the round, as we have elsewhere in this project.
Eucalyptus poles, freshly cut
7m eucalyptus poles for the main beams, stripped of bark
To minimise the chances of the poles splitting at the ends – the end grain dries fastest – we’ll be painting the ends with diluted PVA to slow the drying process. (A handy tip thanks to Jonny from Quinta das Abelhas, the newest member of our now 4-strong part-time construction team.) As it happens, the ‘ecological’ wood preservative we used for the main roof timbers contains PVA, so is ideal for the purpose. The time of year is also on our side as we have another 3-4 months or so of slow drying in cooler temperatures and moister atmosphere before the summer heat hits us.
All the poles stripped
Wood for a roof, and all harvested from our own woods!
Burning the bark
Once the roof is completed, I’m intending to insulate the back wall of the house externally. The building gets no sun at this time of year so we have no possibility of utilising passive solar gain. In some ways, this actually makes designing for the extremes of temperature here much simpler. The rear walls contain by far the greatest proportion of total wall area in each upstairs room, roughly equal to all the other walls combined. External insulation allows their thermal mass, together with the dividing wall between the upstairs rooms, to be used for heat storage in winter, conserving the heat we generate from the woodstoves for as long as possible. This will significantly improve winter comfort levels and energy use in the building and, with internal insulation on the remaining outside walls, prevent walls at ambient temperature from sucking all the heat out of the room. Anyone who’s lived in an old stone house without adequate insulation will know this only too well …
In summer it works the opposite way round, keeping the building much cooler, especially with the benefit of the solid rock back walls and floors on the ground floor.
I’ve looked at various natural insulation materials and focused on ‘slip-chip‘, or wood-chip light clay. It’s a flexible material with good insulation properties and a wide range of possible ways of using it. We’ll need to experiment to find the best application method – either plastering it directly into and onto the stonework or pouring into reed mat forms fixed to roof timber supports – but the raw materials can be sourced very locally and very cheaply, if not for free. A final coating of lime plaster will provide a breathable finish, and a more durable and harder one than clay plaster (which will be used internally) in an area of heavy traffic where the walls are much more likely to be frequently knocked and scraped. A smooth white-painted wall will also enhance natural light levels in the corridor, which will be lit in daytime by 2 litre clear plastic soda/water bottles filled with water fitted into the roof.
Being out of sight under the turf roof, the insulated and plastered wall won’t detract from the external appearance of the building’s traditional schist stonework either.
Well … that’s the theory anyway. No doubt I’ll stumble on many things I haven’t thought about yet along the way …
Chema, the lion ....
... atleast I try and convince him that he is a lion. He needs all the encouragement he can get. He's getting far too used to warm and cosy livin' when he should be getting out there and exploring the small forests, that will one day be jungle. Truthfully though I do wonder how the natural habitat will be affected by his presence. He's far too thick to even notice mice most of the time, but to give him credit, when he first got here he did spot one quickly and then lost sight of it as it went into the grass. Funnily enough I could see the little mouse. I could see his two eyes looking straight at me saying 'Please don't tell him that you can see me!'. So I didn't.
And Mr Grosshopper, I think he called himself Gary, came by to say hello. An interesting fellow, had much to say. Said he'd earned his stripes ...
He was on his way down to the little creek that has started flowing from a few weeks back (the video is not very good quality me thinks) ...
A foto shows things nicely too ...
This means that there is plenty of water in winter time to fill up quite a few retention spaces.
In the mean time I'm working on the barn yard where I'm building some swales. I'm considering planting some kinds of fruit producing shrubs or bushes there that will work well with the chickens that will be using this as their living space also, perhaps Goji berry? Anyway, this is where I'm at so far ...
You can see how moist the soil is, which is the way it's been since November, which is good, because the summer was DRY. I'll be filling the ditch with clippings and mulch. Those two humps in the middle are boulders :-) It's not that deep the soil, but generally it's very good, and I will be building this up higher with mulches anyway. I'll put follow up photos later in another post regarding this.
The worst thing you could do to the earth....plant eucalyptus trees as a monoculture.
We are looking for a farm sitter to help us taking care of the farm, animals, plants and more,
We have a room that we rebuilt in an old ruin.It has woodstove, solar pannels and other necessary stuff, and a compost toillet.
We need a person as soon as possible until the summer or more.
We also help with food, monthly (2 food baskets).
We look for someone nice, that will take good care of our animals and plants.
We don´nt leave faraway from the farm, so we will be there lots of times.
Please contact us:
quintanemus@gmail.com
Since the beginning of October, we – or, more precisely, Duncan with the occasional help of Wayne – have been working hard in the woods above the terraces. These steep slopes of predominantly Maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) have been neglected for a number of years and were overcrowded with self-seeded saplings, wind-blown fallen trees and sparse but flammable understory of Carqueja (Genista tridentata), tree heath (Erica arborea) and bracken (Pteridium aquilinum).
The woods before clearing began
The initial objective has been to remove trees affected by pine wilt nematode (Bursaphelenchus xylophilus). We lost some fine trees to the disease this year, including the 3 below on the edge of the track below the forest.
We’ve also worked to open out the woods, particularly removing crowds of pines from around young indigenous hardwoods like sweet chestnuts (Castanea sativa), Portuguese oaks (Quercus faginea) and cork oaks (Quercus suber) which still, amazingly, are managing to germinate in the acidified soil and struggle up through the dense canopy of pines.
I also wanted to make clearings to begin the process of diversification, planting a much wider range of hardwoods and shrubs – some indigenous species and many more edibles ones – which will be able to grow with the benefit of some shelter from the remaining pines, but without overcrowding.
Clearings emerging amongst the pines
A cork oak or sobreiro sapling (Quercus suber) sees the light of day again
The woods after clearing
The last objective was to get ahead of ourselves with firewood harvesting so the wood would have a good couple of years to thoroughly dry before use instead of just a few months. We now have about 3-4 years’ supply cut and awaiting processing. Huge thanks to Duncan for all his hard work.
3 month to 1 Year Volunteer at Tribodar
Characteristics of the volunteer:
To have experience and passion on garden/permaculture or building
Be comunicative/liking to be around people
Liking to work 5/6 hours a day
Commit for a certain time ( 3 month to 1 Year)
For the volunteer:
Sleeping in a caravan
The fee with the other volunteers for food covered plus 50 euros month pocket money
Please read the rest in our web in the volunteer section
To know more about Tribodar visit www.tribodar.com
If intereted send us an email to: volunteer@tribodar.com with the title – Long term volunteer
and we discuss further details
All the best,
Moabi
www.tribodar.com
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| Pete |
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| Yer lemon tree. |
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| Pete's berry terrace |
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| the two raspberries |
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