Natural Building Introduction and Interior Clay Plastering

I’m typing this by the glow of a few candles and quite a bit of pain in my left thumb as I was just stung by a wee scorpion. Hard to see those buggers at night when all you have for light is a small flame. This incident makes me think of a natural building design I read about and wish was implemented in our present place of stay which describes lining the outside of a building’s foundation with glass bottles imbedded in the cement or among the stones making it difficult for scorpions to crawl over into the house and sting you on worse places than the left thumb.

The interest in natural building methods seems to be growing in first world cultures where people are waking up to the wisdom of the ancestors and looking for a way to use local, affordable and abundant natural materials in the design of their homes.

The demand for experienced natural builders is also high so I feel lucky to have been able to get some time with Oliver Goshey from Abundant Edge to talk about natural building and what got him into this career.

Oliver seems to have a broad world perspective starting with being born in Japan and moving to different places around the globe with his parents nine times before he took off on his own. He has been traveling for 12 years since then. One feeling that kept consistent through such a transient existence, Oliver said, is that of wanting to be in some way a provider and have positive effect on the different places and cultures of which he was a part.

While picking up some construction and general labor type jobs over the years, Oliver always found that he wanted to not only help provide comforts and amenities to the families of these communities but also wanted to respect and help regenerate the surrounding natural ecosystems.

His education in engineering led him to a job with a natural building company focusing mainly on cob structures and natural plastered finish work and also allowed him introductions to some inspiring natural building teachers. He now runs his own company designing and offering consultation services as well as doing a weekly podcast interviewing natural builders from all around the world.

We chatted about Permaculture and how it’s never defined by any one specific design or another. At it’s core, Permaculture is a set of principles and ethics with which one can use as a lens to view how a design or way of doing things might work most efficiently and in a way that aspires to exist in harmony with the surrounding eco-system.

Now what defines natural building practices? Oliver explained it in a way that emphasized the use of as much locally sourced, minimally processed, recycled and repurposed materials that are found in abundance. This of course changes drastically between where one is located - even between neighbors. Observing and assessing what is available along side the needs of the client are the essential first steps. 

Designs, of course, need to be very well thought out and planned with the consultations of the local people and what one gathers through extended observation of the surroundings. Just because it’s a natural building doesn’t mean it is assured to be cheaper or more efficient. Materials that might need to be transported onto a site and the labor needed to do so along with mixing what’s needed for a dense monolithic wall system is a lot of work.

The idea is to try to take as large a view as possible as to how ones living and building touches the surrounding world. We are now globally connected to all hemispheres with trade routes allowing for imports of almost any material imaginable. How does sourced materials affect the air and water and natural environment around the globe? All this is carefully considered whenever trying to implement any sound natural building design.

I asked Oliver to share an example of a natural building design that anybody can implement in almost any environment and he came up with one of his favorite parts of a building project which is interior clay wall plastering and finishing.

Let’s have a look at what Oliver has to share about clay wall plastering.

First off, why would you want to do an interior clay wall plastering? Well, clay specifically has a ton of benefits for the quality of air in an interior space and the control of humidity. Because clay is so absorptive and a natural filter, it can regulate the humidity to a point where one doesn’t even need to wipe off the mirror in the bathroom after a hot shower.

Almost more importantly, especially in this day and age of air pollution apocalypse like situations in overpopulated, heavily industrialized places like some parts of India and China, clay plastering can be a natural and simple solution for indoor air quality assurance.

Even in first world societies we find health problems coming from the use of many prefab, chemical treated and mass processed building material found on a lot of homes that have been build in the last 50 years. A clay plastering job has been proven to help filter out a lot of those potentially harmful chemicals from being absorbed by our bodies.

Sounds good right? So, let’s get to work!

Clay is available in almost all environments depending sometimes on how deep you want to dig down or if you want to buy a few bags locally. There are various levels of impurity and that can be easily tested with this method from the Abundant Edge website.

Once a decent amount of clay is sourced, it’s mixed with an ‘arrogate’. If you want a smooth finish then fine sifted sand would be your best bet. For a more textured look; less filtered sand is great.

Along with the clay and the sand you also need a kind of ‘binder’. Clay and sand on their own will start to flake and dust off when dried. A binder, for example, a mix of wheat paste made from cheap flour and water, kind of like a paper mashe, works great to keep everything sealed and finished.

In more needy societies, where using an essential food source to plaster a wall might be frowned upon, a commonly found cactus can be chopped up and soaked in water which exerts a kind of mucus like substance. This works well as a natural sourced paste like binding solution.

Once your three materials are gathered, clay, arrogate and binder, do some test patches with different ratios of mixes. Put them on a part of the wall. Take notes and observe which mixes produce your desired result. You never know how it’s going to behave until you see how they dry in that environment.

That’s about all one needs to know to get started on their own clay wall plaster job. Some aesthetics like pigments and whitening along with artistic moldings and designs can be a lot of fun as well.

You can find a number of other more in depth methods and ideas for plastering here on some of the Abundant Edgepodcasts.

Oliver’s now got me more excited about trying a in interior clay wall plastering then I ever thought possible.

Thanks again to Oliver and check out someof his neat desings and fascinating podcast interview with natural buildersfrom around the world on abundantedge.com

Hami -

Kombucha making 101

Kombucha or Combucha or fermented tea and sugar drink or whatever you want to call it; apparently if you haven’t heard of it you’re not up on the hippie health drink craze and you know what? That is ok. Grannie gonna say, "it’s good for what ails ya”.

The word ‘fermented’ brings to mind drinking kimchi or something which might not appeal to the non Koreans among us but let me assure you that Kombucha is absolutly lovely. It’s a little sweet, a bit bitter, bubbly, fresh and very good for you. Annnnnnd, you can easily make it at home in all kinds of different flavours so follow along; I’m going to show you how get started.

Now if you’re not quite sold just yet let's quickly go over some of the health benifits. Kombucha is a probiotic which means it encourages healthy bacteria growth withen the stomach and intestines. Bacteria’s got a bad rap but I’m pretty sure we are all mature enough to know that we are full of the stuff (some good and some bad) and probiotics give a bit of a boost to the good kind. Sounds nice? Let’s keep going. Some other benifits you can get out of Kombucha are:

Healthy gut
Healthy liver
Apparently good for the lungs???
Helps manage diabetes
Good for the cardiovascular system ... and a whole lot more. Check this article for sources. 

Basically Kombucha is sugar water with tea for flavor that has been left to ferment and develope what is called a ‘mother’ or ‘scobee’ which is basically a bacteria that slowly eats away the sugar to form a squishy solid mass at the top of the liquid. The fermentation process makes for a nice bit of carbonation, less of a sweet tea taste and a little kick of vinager. This ‘mother’ can be used over and over again in future batches or can be fried up and eaten like a tofu steak. Some people, mostly vegetarians, are crazy for the stuff. 

Let’s start with a quick ingredients and equiptment list.

1 large pot - we’ll start with making around 5 liters 

1 large liquid container that will accomadate at least 5 litres 

1 large cloth that can cover the top of the container to allow air exchange

1 string to seal the cloth to the container and enough bottles to contain the end result 

1 cup of sugar - any kind will do

2 teaspoons of tea

5 liters of water

1 bottle of Kombucha from the health food store if you are making this for the first time without a ‘mother’ or starter bacteria. 

Additional flavors are optional 

First off, let me say that this is just a very general recipe to start with. People use all kinds of different ingredients and variations in quantity. Making Kombuch goes well with experementing with and tweaking to your own tastes is encouraged. I’ve also chatted with a bunch of different people who make Kombucha and their techniques vary. As with almost anything, it’s best to just try to make it your self and if it doesn’t come out how you like it, try again with a few tweaks. 

Here are the basic steps:

Step 1: Boil the crap out of your water. We bring ours to a boil and then keep it boiling for a good 20 mins to totally kill all other bacteria that might compete with the good kind you’re trying to encourage.

Step 2: Turn off the burner, stop the boiling and add your tea. Let the tea steap for 5 mins and then add the sugar.

Step 3: Stir until your sugar is disolved.

Step 4: Leave the liquid with the tea still inside to cool down fully, sometimes overnight is best. 

Step 5: Pour the liquid into your container and add the bottle of Kombucha if you are starting fresh with no mother. This bottle is to encourage the grown of a new mother bacteria. If you areadly have a mother, pour the liquid in with the mother and a little bit of starter Kombucha left over from the last batch. 

Step 6: Cover the container with the cloth and leave it somewhere out of direct sunlight and at room temperature. 

Step 7: Taste your Kombucha after a 3 or 4 days, it will probably still taste pretty sweet but if you feel that it’s started to ferment you can decide if you want to bottle it now while it’s still very sweet or wait another day or two for a more vinegar type flavor. 

Step 8: Bottle it up, add additional flavoring at this time or not, let it go through a second fermentation in the bottles for 2 or 3 more days to build up carbonation then refrigerate and enjoy!

Now let’s go over a few more details including flavoring and reusing the ‘mother’ for future batches. 

If everything’s gone well you’ll be left with a pretty thick ‘mother’ bacteria possibly a little scummy on the top and with some tea leaves mixed in. For the next batch we trim the top and bottom or whatever kind of browish scummy bits off of and leave a nice healthy clean chunk to start us off fresh. If you’ve left the ‘mother’ a bit too long or in the wrong place it might go bad. Have a smell, if it’s funky go on and start with a new bottle of Kombucha next time. 

You can experiment with all kinds of different flavors.

What a lot of professionals do is as follows: After they’ve made and bottled their basic batch, they make an additional sugar and flavor concentrate in the blender. They then add a teaspoon or so of this to the kombucha filled bottles, seal them back up, and let it ferment in there for another few days. Afterwards they refridgerate. I’ve heard of some bottles exploding from over-active fermentation causing too much carbonation so always make sure you don’t fill the bottles all the way. 

Here I’ve tried a whole bunch of different flavors. I’ve added some straight cut up ginger to a few bottles and some passion fruit fresh from the vine to some others. I’ve made a few with the purple flowers from a bush of basil. Some bottles contain only lemon grass and others a ginger and lemon grass mix. I would love to try to make some with berries s and a whole variety of other kinds of fruit. 

I made a batch that was left to ferment perhaps a day or two too long so I added an extra couple of teaspoons of sugar to see if I can bring it back to a bit more of a palatable balance. In the end it all comes down to individual taste. Personally I prefer a Kombucha with a nice vinagery punch. Others like it more sweet and smooth. 

Give it a try, make your own. Do you know how expensive this stuff is in the health food stores? Ain’t nobody got time for that. 

Big shout out the Max and Kindness Kombucha for getting us into all this. 

Enjoy,

Hami-

Yoga Forest Revisited in the Rainy Season

I’ve lived outside of a temperate 4 season Canadian climate for most of my adult life being that I was a bit of a restless youth and early in my adulthood made my way over the Pacific to tropical Taiwan. One thing I did always missed about Canada was the drastic changes between seasons. As harsh and long as old man winter can be there it serves as a reminder of how much we should appreciate those summer days and warm stary nights. The blossoms of spring and the phycadelic colors of fall that break up those hot and cold (mostly cold) months complete the year with such a variety of life, well, I find myself in awe sometimes. 

 

In Taiwan and the tropical wet and dry half and half year cycles we experienced changes no doubt. There is in fact a full on typhoon season, but they didn’t seem as drastic and I felt that time passed by more quickly or was less made into a memory marker as a result of the weather feeling more similar throught the year. 

When we first visited Guatemala in March I was a bit shocked to see rolling brown hills of dried up grasses and it seemed like the plant life was in dire need of refreshment. Now, we find ourselves back here during the wet season in June onwards and my goodness how things have grown. There in an absolute abundance of life covering every inch of land with lush greens and vivid colored flowers giving me the pleasure of watching humming birds do thier humming thing by the dozens with my morning coffee.

As I am living close by, I couldn’t resist popping back over to the Yoga Forest, which I had visited in the dry season, to see how things have come along there and get an update on whether or not the wicking beds I had repored on early had held up through the heavy rains.

Please enjoy the artistically blurry photos taken with my old cracked iphone 4. We unforuntaly were the victims of a bit of a theivery a few weeks ago. You can read about the night time raid of our kitchen and my newer iPhone here on my other blog. 

I was very pleased to find that the gardener and permaculture extrodanire, Cat, was still hanging around the Yoga Forest. The first thing she pointed out was how happy the fish were among the plant life in the main pond. If you remember my past post about the Yoga Forest, you’ll understand that this is the main source of water and nutrition for the wicking beds they built on the steep slopes of this valley. These beds were built to insure stabliltiy during the heavy rains and the ablilty to water the beds efficiently during the dry months. 

  

My timing wasn’t perfect as it seems that Cat and her crew were in the process of re-fertalizing the beds. They had gotten enough nutrition from the soil and the fish pond feeding for 2 solid harvests of greens and veggies but the beds needed a better fertalizing process in order to keep up with the year round demands of the yoga class patrons and their downward dogs.

 

Still, the place was fresh and lush and the gardens were full of greens enough for a family and more and the beds didn't get washed down the valley during the rains. Cat explained though that these kind of more complex systems involving pipes and water regulation and boarded up beds are all well and good but they rairly hold up in production to good old fashioned simple row planting and rotation. If she had to do it again she would elimanate the sectioned off beds, plant in two solid rows along contour, weed the beds and drop the cuttings along the path and rotated planting on the rows and switch to the paths year by year. For watering, a simple flooding from the pond every few days would suffice and would need less attention. Also, most of the fertalizer would come from a more efficient compost system.

Sometimes … well most of the time in fact, simple, conventional wisdom beats out complex design in the long run. That is a good lesson to learn.

Coming up next, we get into the fermentations with a crash course on making kombucha.