Just figured I’d send a quick pic of the pond digging. This should be done in a few days and then we will begin the biofiltration zone construction.
Window frames
The walls are starting to go up now. You can see the window frames being installed.
Natural swimming ponds and biological filters
I have been reading about natural swimming ponds and biological filters for the past few months. The basic idea is that you don’t need to go the chemical route with chlorine or even ozone filtering to get a clear, clean swimming pool (or pond!). An alternative that is gaining in popularity is to create a…
How fast does bamboo actually grow?
According to Wikipedia, bamboo plants are one of the fastest growing species of plants in the world. The reports of growth rates up to 35 inches (about 1 meter) per day are nothing short of amazing. But as with all “up to” statements, presumably this is a particular species found somewhere else, and grown under…
House construction update: Roof and floor done
The roof of the first house is now complete. Additionally, they have finished the floor sheeting out of “cement board” (I’m translating this from Thai… not sure what it is called in English). We will try to get a good veneer tile to put on top after the walls are built. If you look carefully…
Edible wild plants
Praew has spent quite a bit of time recently going around the land and cataloguing the various plants that are growing wild. Since the land was used for agriculture a few decades back, I doubt if any of these plants are truly “wild”. But they clearly aren’t cultivated plants, either. The most interesting part to…
Installing a roof
The roof is being installed now. We went with “Onduvilla” bitumen roof tiles for their light weight and sound absorbent qualities. (Holding a conversation during a heavy rain with a sheet metal roof is quite difficult.)
LandDevelopment: Composting and planting
We’ve been composting the mulch that comes out of the leaf shredder in a DIY compost tumbler we made: The compost tumbler is based on this design. I didn’t wait for the stuff to fully break down because we wanted to experiment with it, and there is a lot more shredded leaves to compost. (It…
Land Development Update
We are making good progress on the structure of the first house. Here are some pictures:
Wood Chipper and Leaf Shredder
Yesterday, Praew and I drove to the other side of Bangkok to check out a business that sells wood chippers (among other things). The place was quite interesting. It looked like a 3 storey tall family owned warehouse of equipment. The lift (elevator) was large, industrial, steel, very slow, had that old fashioned kind of…
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