A few minor updates on the loose ends

In an effort to keep a more regular posting rhythm, this is just a short post picking up some loose ends that are lying around.

The worms in my kitchen

Actually, that one seems to sort itself out nicely. They’ve mostly stayed put lately, though I’m still experimenting with the moisture and bedding content (I reckon I’ll always be doing that though). But I’ve also realised that it’s going to be a fair while before those worms can manage all of our biowaste, so I’m also starting some bokashi bins! But that’ll be another blog post with pictures and all, of course. (And my sweetheart still hasn’t found a single worm – but he finally got round to reading this blog. He just rolled his eyes at me. :-D)

The moss house number

Yeah, well… I was so enthusiastic about that one, and then there was never another word about it. Well, the strange white fluff that may have been mould was gone the next day, and only a bit of a dry white stain remained. I painstakingly watered the moss paste for about two or three weeks, and then my spraying can disappeared and, well, life in general got in the way. (I’m not naturally very good at keeping something up for a long time without losing track.) So winter set in, albeit a very mild winter this year, but I didn’t water it anymore and it seems it doesn’t get much water even when it rains, this being the non-weather side of the house.

But I’m not putting it up as a Pinterest fail yet! No, I fully intend to mix up another bit of moss paste and redo it sometime in March, when it’s nice and warm and everything is ready to grow. It does look a little patchy now in places. And the watering can is back, so I’ll make sure this time it doesn’t disappear on me again… and then we’ll see.

My queue of posts

Well, I started this blog long after I started to work towards building my cob house, so naturally I have this long list of posts that have been waiting to be written for ages. So far I’ve managed to keep on top of the new stuff, but there’s some good stuff I did before that. Just so you know they will be coming, here’s the list:

• I did a wonderful four day cob stove building course in July last year – that one I started to write about in August, and last week I finally finished it! In German… I hope to get it written up in English sometime this week. (Edit: It took a little longer, but here it is.)
• After that course, I got the cob swoons in August, and promptly went to build a little pizza oven in our garden. That was a fun experiment! And it works!!
• I experimented with Tadelakt in our kitchen – I learnt a lot from that, but there are few pictures, and I think I’ll write about that the next time I do something with Tadelakt. I absolutely love the stuff, and it definitely wants a lot of practice, so it’s bound to happen some time this year.
• And finally I have a lot of thoughts on the Sheltering Roof pattern (#117 from A Pattern Language) on my mind. That, however, requires me to go out and take some good pictures of roofs that illustrate my points. Luckily, Tübingen has them in abundance, but still…

So there’s plenty of posts coming, you just need a little patience. ;-)