We’ve begun work on the 2nd house on our land. I just thought I’d post a quick photo: The pilings have mostly gone in and we dug the soil up a bit to put in the cement footing at the top of each cluster of pilings. This house may be a bit heavier than the…
Designing a crazy floating house
I’ve been pondering the idea of making our house a floating house. We have a big pond. A floating house doesn’t need pilings. And I have this crazy idea that the house could be made disconnected in the sense of an autonomous propeller driven vehicle. So it could rotate to track or avoid the sun….
New really fast bamboo growth rates
A few weeks ago I noticed this new shoot popping up from the same bamboo cluster I had posted about the growth rate before: This is the first actual bamboo shoot coming up from the ground that we’ve seen from our new plants. The earlier measurements I was taking were from branches coming off of…
Fixing the problems with the pond level
Here’s the process I’m working on to fix the problems with the pond level: Dig some clay soil up to build a temporary water wall. Pump the rain water out of the part we are fixing the level problem and behind the temporary water wall. (This step is because I would like to fill up…
Testing out two water pumps
We purchased a “pump payanak” from a local agricultural machines shop. (This maybe translates to “naga pump” in English. Because of the shape?) It has a 2.2kW Mitsubishi motor mounted to a belt that drives an impeller. The impeller is mounted vertically inside an 8″ stainless steel pipe. Thus, when the impeller turns on, it…
Measuring the water level
Here are 2 pictures of how we are measuring the water level. Using the bunyip water level from my previous post, we are now able to choose a water level based on being a bit lower than the lowest “shore line” point of the pond and mark it all around the pond using red ribbons…
Bunyip water levels and problems with the pond
During the time that the workers were digging the pond, I was very busy with work. At least that is my excuse for why the pond isn’t level now. 😉 Over the weekend, I was reading up on a number of resources for digging ponds and discovered this very good PDF about building natural swimming…
Swimming ponds and liners
I wrote before about the completion of the pond digging and since then I’ve begun work on the first test pump for the wetland filtration system. Sourcing the washed gravel and sand to use as a growing medium for the plants in the biofilter has turned out to be a bit difficult, so I am…
Bamboo update: One month later
In an earlier post, I was monitoring the growth speed of a new bamboo plant. I found that the first shoots were growing at about 13cm per day. But, of course, that rate would have to slow down at some point. One month later, here is a picture of the same plant: It measured at…
First house really looking like a house now
So the first house is looking nearly complete now. Pilings, balcony, floor (not including tiles), walls (including interior), and roof are all done. Have a look: We just finished adding the vent under the roof yesterday: Now, all we have left are the windows, the floor tiles, the water and electricity, and bathroom toilet/sink/shower faucet.
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