New projects about to finish...

We've been having hard working weeks... We´re mainly making a floor for Lyna's yurt, but also a shelter for firewood and a bit of gardening...

We had Lyna's friend, Aurelie, visiting for a few weeks and a couple from the Czech Republic for a week...

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to... this first one is the early beginnings of the yurt floor, with Aurelie helping out... she definitely went back to France with more muscles and a nice tan...




Nolan would always be around... he's in such a funny stage...

we were trying to use the least lime as possible, so we simply tucked them in the dirt...

Lyna and Aurelie had the hard work of carrying most of the gravel up with the wheel-barrow... me and Nolan were working on the wood shelter... Nolan loves building and he loves the hammer... he's a nice company too...well, when he's not whining ...

but he makes us laugh a lot...he is such a little clown...

He was exhausted !!! It´s siesta time 

our wood shed is finally done... It was not a priority, but we did have rain again,so I guess it was good we did it...I had to go help on the yurt floor as we found out we have less time than we thought...it was a bit messy from the beginning... First we didn't have the yurt measurements and then we had no idea when exactly it would finally arrive...

All that added to the stress, but well, we had to keep going...

Lyna treating the wood with Borax... 

Preparing the lime mix in a wheelbarrow... It´s hard work I tell you...

I was using the lime to level the bricks, where the plywood would sit... the inside is already filled with gravel... it's going well...

and the Yurt arrived from France, together with all of Lyna's stuff...she's happy and excited... but the rain came again, so we had to have a little break... some patience, trusting that the yurt material will be ok... I'm sure it will be fine...but Lyna got a bit nervous...

while it was raining I took a bunch of palette boards and other bits and was determined to literally make my bed... I moved from the upper bed more than a week ago, and stored lots of winter stuff, like blankets and some stuff that other people leave behind waiting for the day they might return (that might never happen)... I didn't manage to make a proper platform for the futon because there was not much time... I just put some pallets in but it was not so well leveled, so I was not sleeping so well for a while...

It only took me 4 hours of thinking, sawing, nailing and checking if it was leveled to get it done...it seemed strong and nice... and it was, I slept like a baby...

I really enjoy building things...

I'm missing gardening a bit, especially in this season when most things should be sown... we have lots of seedlings still to plant, but I haven't got the time to prepare a place for them...

I did work a bit here... an experiment... our young nectarine tree was looking bad (every year the leaves got this illness people call "leper") and the lemon tree next to it doesn't look as healthy as it should... so I thought about improving the soil around as I learned from permaculture and forest gardening... 

I transplanted 2 rosemary bushes that needed to be transplanted, and 3 small Mimosa trees (acacia family), to fix nitrogen... I covered the soil with card-board so the weeds won't come back...I brought lots of compost from the shit pit, the kitchen compost, and mulched it on top with mimosa cuttings... on this nice mulch bed I planted lots of beans (also to fix nitrogen)...and lets see what happens... my neighbors would probably think I'm crazy to plant Mimosas when they are such invasive trees (for them useless because they don't "give you money")... but they have many good things as well... they are nitrogen fixers in the first place, they grow fast, they are good for mulch, fairly good fire wood, they are ok for building if they don't get wet, the flowers have an amazing scent which bees also love and we could even make soap with them one day, or even use the pollen to eat... under the bark is filled with tannin, and the Aztecs even used it to heal wounds... it all sounds great to me...
but, in this experiment, I'm going to control it so it doesn't invade that space (we have lots everywhere already)... my idea is to use them to fix nitrogen in the soil, and as they grow fast, I will use the cuttings to mulch the lemon and the nectarine tree... we'll see what happens!!!

We need to finish Lyna's Yurt floor, and get ready for our Strawbale building workshop... I'm looking forward for it...

PLEASE SHARE , it will be from the 27th May to the 3rd June...and costs 200E, with food and camping included...