Wot I did on my 'olidays and then some.

Ok so there's no denying it's been quite a while since the last blog. My only reasons for the big gap are the usual owner builder excuses of a) The weather and b) no time aka too busy earning a dollar. However I have managed to get time off and (finally) ok building weather allowing me to get on with the job. To speed things up we have contracted the services of Adam the carpenter for a few days to help get the windows into the frame and crack on with some additional joinery. I really recommend this course of action as most of the windows make for a diabolical one man lift due to their weight and alignment is much easier with an additional pair of hands. Itmust also be said that having a professional onboard is a great way to pick up fast tracked experience.
We hope to tackle the baling up one of the big gable ends below the roof in the next few days (starting with the East one that is, mostly, less weather affected. This may require tights and a cape but ..... well time will tell.
Plenty of other work that just seems to eat up time but never looks like there is much too show for it but at least we managed to lay a few bales today in a tricky sort of area near a corner and a window. Practically every bale needed to be either notched to accomodate the frame or shortened to allow a running bond (normal bricklaying pattern) to be made.
After a few more days the gable end is still playing hard to get but I'm optimistic in getting the East one started soon after getting some of the preliminary work underway. Some of this stuff involved packing straw in between the joists where bales can't fit. To facilitate this we've stapled lengths of good quality chicken wire over the joist ends to hold the straw packing and render.
Ok so here is an important tip: an air stapler is a great tool for all sorts of these fixing jobs but remember to wear eye protection as I've had one rebound (don't know how but it did) and ping me just below the specs. With my stapler there is no safety so it's dead easy to staple oneself or,worse, your last good helper/spouse to the job (at least they'd be easy to find).
We also had a crack at our first Kram internal wall. This technique was nutted out (and copyrighted) by Brian Hodge. This is an alternative way of cladding a stud wall in something other than the ubiquitous plasterboard and cheaper too provided ones own hourly rates aren't over the top as there is a bit of mucking around involved. What you should get in the end with a Kram wall is (I hope) a classy hand wrought finsh that is well insulated and sound absorbing. These last two qualities can be manipulated ,according to Brian, by varying the packing density (denser for sound reduction and less dense for better insulation). I'll put in some photos that will help explain the process.Of course I left the sd card out of the camera for those shots (Murphy will get his own room in this house!).

Late January 13
Time passes.... Lot's of effort has gone in to baling out the East gable which is on the leeward side of the prevailing weather. Still plenty to be done on it (East gable) but I've moved on to the West gable as well now  to get as much done as I can there while the weather remains dry. In some ways the West end should be easier as I will be unencumbered by the straw bales that were too close for comfort on the East end. The down side will be the necessity to tarp the West as scrupiously as I can when the weather threatens.
We were lucky enough to get a few days help in January from a good mate who helped me by,amongst other things including general abuse, welding up a light metal frame and the positioning of a  big sliding door (thanks Gresh). My brother (H) was also a big help when I was struggling to manhandle timber boxing up onto the wall betwen bale layers (more on this in the pics below somewhere).
It's also interesting that bales seem to get much heavier when one has to rope haul them up the scaffolding and I'm pretty sure a larger diameter rope will make things easier with less effort going in to gripping the rope.


Late February
Finally getting bales into the West gable with the weather holding (scarily dry!) right up until the end of the month. I also managed to fill in most of the ground floor at theWest end over a weekend and after work. I'm afraid to say most of my social life now revolves around notching, splitting, trimming, placing bales and scraping the residue off my hide so a quality lifestyle all in all.
Getting tarpaulins into position to protect the un rendered walls is turning in to a newly discovered sport complete with novel invective as they have an uncanny habit of snagging up when hauling the big ones into position and a lesson in the power of the wind trying to keep them in place. Calvin and Hobbs, our intrepid dogs, also take the opportunity for all in wrestling when the tarps are on the ground which is, in turns, funny and infuriating.

Your 'umble author on The Tower of Terror with the Gentle Persuader in hand doing a bit of bale straightening. Let me hasten to add that the Gentle Persuader is the mallet in my right hand.

Up in the East gable (on scaffolding) showing the intermediate box frame that goes in every third or fourth bale layer to stabilise the wall. Each "little" box is stuffed with straw and a lid of plywood goes over the top (ply on the underside too). Starter straps of polyester webbing can also be seen here.

Something topical for Victorian readers in this shot with a plume of smoke from the Aberfeldy bushfire catching the evening light. This fire burnt for weeks due to the lack of rain.

My favourite bale notching opshop (thrift shop) bread knife. We also use a hedge trimmer and a brush cutter with a tungsten tipped blade of death by sudden exsanguination but usally go to the bread knife first...esp for bread.

And a notched out bale with a framing post behind it waiting to be embraced.