Good enough for rural work.

This afternoon I took my youngest daughter Abigail up to the block to layout and start to dig the trench for the first part of our dry-stone garden wall.

She was a star and very funny, taking two sticks and drumming on everything! "dad, DAD! listen to this" on the grass, different rocks, the cro-bar the shovel, I stopped her short of drumming on the car.
She had a ball playing in the red dirt that I dug up.

Now 'dug up' is a funny term, you see the ground is so very hard that I needed to use the cro-bar on every inch! there was no "digging", with a full force drop of my heavy bar, it made it only 5 or so centimetres! Basically i removed the sod from about 5 metres of trench 900mm wide with the bar... I think I need a mattock?
At least this time I beat the cro-bar, no blisters! I used the bar continuously for an hour and my hands feel as though they have worked, that's for sure but no blisters so I guess I win.
Once I made it through the 5m it was time to break for dinner but i noticed that the bottom of the trench was no where near level, So next time I'm up there ill remove some high spots and level it out.

Now I got to figuring, how could I do this best by my self?
I have a water level, but it normally uses two people or bucket and pressure that I haven't got my head around yet, so this evening I went out to the shed and selected a few lengths of suitable stuff and quickly dressed it up. Ended up with a piece of black wood, a piece of QLD Silver Ash, and a piece of northern Silky Oak. and knocked up an "A frame"

You can see in the pictures below that an A frame is simply two long length of timber with a cross bar. Add to this a plumb bob and a couple of pencil marks and you've got a hand tool for finding levels that are the same.
These are normally used to follow contours in land for surveying etc but I think it will work equally level in helping me find the level in the bottom of my not so deep trench.

Preparing stock with the jack plane. Notice my great working holding devise, a wedge fashioned for old flooring with an axe and used to wedge the board in place between to bench dogs.

The completed A frame. Bolts through the leg and a old hinge at the top hold it in place. Notice the Plumb, hanging on the string line

Notice the pencil marks.

To "calibrate" the a frame you mark the location of the string once. turn the Frame around, being careful to observe the location of the feet and placing them accurately in the same location, although reversed. Marking the new location of the string line.

A new line half way between these two line should show that the two feet or on the same plane.

Total cost... nought. recycled everything. If you didn't all ready have a plumb bob, you course use anything heavy like a small stone for instance.

Just because i have one of these it's no excuse you erase the dumpy level from my wish list.

This guy is a bit full-on (read American) but he discribes the use of the A-frame pretty well.



Worrying and planning

"Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning. "
W. Churchill

So last week we got a little busy with planning and came up with this!

Hopefully you can make out the pegs and the red and white tape that mark out the approximate boundary of the house. Minus the veranda.

This is one of the best planning activities we've done. Although I believe that I'm quite capable of visualizing drawings, it really helped us see it in the flesh.

Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.

But what about a garden wall?
A start on the garden wall at last!

Over the last few weeks I've read four books on building with stone.
I highly recommend all of them, if you're interested in such a project, or even a larger project!
In the company of stone - Dan Snow
The art of the stonemason - Ian Cramb
Stone Primer - Charles McRaven
Stone by design - Lew French

Whilst they all recommend using "suitable" stone for walling and if its not available, buying it in from a quarry, I have a different idea. (Yes I'm acutely aware how stupid that sounds. But I'm a teacher and therefore, I know best! tut tut..?)

I feel as though our outcrop can supply enough stone, all be it rounder then the recommended flat field or quarried stone. I would dearly like to be able to use material from our property and keep the loop closed as often as i can.
I will have to break up many, many stones and be careful in their placement but it'll be great to complete the work, whilst cleaning up our site a little. Our stone will suffice for the garden wall but none is useful for larger pieces like stair treads, mantels or lintels like I was hoping for.

The photo below represents my first efforts in moving some of our stone to a stockpile near the start of the wall.
The largest at the front I figure to be about 80kg or so.
How do you estimate the weight of a stone you can't lift?

In the coming week I hope to get a few 'feathers and wedges' perhaps for my birthday next week? A Rotary Hammer drill and see if i can open up a few of these. Many will be able to be used as is and I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Stockpile growing

I've held onto the pallet truck for the last three years since closing the timber shop. Glad i did! being only 100mm off the floor means i don't have to lift anything! just bar it on.

Speaking of barring! The first time in two years i picked up the cro-bar and within 5 minutes i had 8 sizable blisters!
soft much?
Owing to the lack of rain lately the pallet truck was great, i thought the wheels would sink in but the ground it so hard it rolls smoothing and i was able to tow this stone with one arm (all be it hard work)

"The more a man looks, the fussier he gets"

Whilst passing my 100th hour of looking at floor plans, elevations and 3D renderings, I got to thinking about one of my favourite outdoors men, (no not Bear) Dick Proenneke.

The title of this post is a quote from his film 'Alone in the wilderness'. An absolute must for anyone who enjoys nature, on any level, and if your into hand tools and old trades and the skill of an individual than you simply must watch this film.

Get your hands on the whole thing if you can or ask to borrow mine.

Liza and I have began getting bogged down in interiors at the moment and it hit me.
"The more a man looks the fussier he gets." (dick whilst searching for a building site for his log cabin)

So here are the floor plans as they stand tonight:

Ground Floor

First Floor

Please take a look over these two plans and if you have any constructive feedback it would be appreciated.
Make your suggestion in the comments below and I'll take a look at it. I've been alerted to one already and its the Laundry and the WC, the door and the washer will not work (wrong size) Thanks Dad ;)

Field gate finished

Well it's done bar the hanging...
Oh wait first I need to build the wall! Well it's going to have to wait till that's done first.

The gate is made from stuff that I had on hand in the shed that didn't need too much processing.
Cypress, western red cedar and fir.
All mortise and tennon pinned with hardwood dowels.
Anyway, a picture

Timbercrete videos

Here are some Videos to bring you up to speed with Timbercrete

 

 TV advert

 From Gardening Australia

A short Introduction


Does anyone have and information on septics and grey water they can point me at?

Whilst in the shed today I thought that I'd get a jump on a garden gate.
Sorry of the side ways picture, i thought i rotated it prior.. Guess not.
The gate still needs it's diagonal bracing and yes she has pants on.

Dunmore House

No I haven't done more
Dunmore House is the key architectural influence to our design for our home.

Some things are timeless and others, well lets just say there ephemeral.

In Australia we call this style colonial, that is a vague time from before 1901 (what we term Federation) and back to white settlement. Heavily Georgian in appearance, but toned down to use locally available materials and labour.

Modern day Dunmore House

Modern day Dunmore house

Original Dunmore House

present day Dunmore House

Here are several view of Dunmore House.
Essentially a Georgian Cube with an Australian wrap around veranda for the heat!
Here is a story from the Maitland newspaper with a good photograph

Typical Georgian House

There are a few key features that we are looking to include in our house.
The front door, typical of Georgian houses, side lights and transom. I want it tardis blue! (read white - yes Liiiii zaaaa)
Double hung windows, and glazing bar, steep hip roof, Concave verandah.

Here is my REVIT drawing as it stands tonight. It's missing a few details at the moment but you get the idea.

Stone Cloven House Isometric View