The Green Lever

Re-roofing a tiny house including carpentry.

2012-02-23T00:04:00.000+01:00

Would you be brave enough to buy this? No? Neither would we.

Renovating a tiny house - an on-going project

This is the start of a project which was forced upon us some ten years ago. We blame Napoléon. The Napoléonic Code for inheritance still holds good in France. It provides for all issue and states that you may not disinherit any of your children. It also means that your property must be divided equally. This can lead to some interesting anomalies and some pieces of property division are so obscure they are sometimes missed altogether when the sale takes place. We once met a guy, who only found out he actually owned the village football field when the greensmen turned up at his door to ask if they could start mowing the pitch for the beginning of the season.

Looking back in time out from the Bake House door. Like many old vernacular Celtic houses ours is very hard to date. The oldest coin scratched up by the Chicks in the garden is a Louis XIII double tournois from 1615. We were told by a local historian, that the ancient granite doorway would have been taken from a nearby abbey during the Revolution. Under the Bourbon Restoration priests were sent out to scour the countryside looking for bits of looted architecture but this being at the back in an enclosed garden was no doubt overlooked.

Our little extra item, which doesn't even show on all of the deeds was a lovely little derelict 'Bake House' at the bottom of our garden. In the 19th Century our property was converted from a longère (longhouse farm) to a Post House. At that time it comprised, stables, offices, sleeping accommodation for postilions and a huge kitchen with a fireplace large enough to roast an ox. Our neighbours' house, comprised the Post House restaurant and two other neighbours' homes completed the complex, with the Blacksmith's House and the Forge. The land around which all this accommodation sits came with the property we bought and the little Bread Oven (below), which sadly had swapped its clay oven for some dilapidated rabbit hutches, was included in the deal.

This is what the little house looked like when we first bought the property. Very much in need of a little tender loving care. The house on the left was the Blacksmith's home later converted to two stories and in the distance the large red roof designates the much enlarged ancient Forge.

We had removed the long dead electrical installations and the rabbit sheds. The time we had in France, in the ten years before we came to live here permanently, was always spent in and on the garden. Like most of the French, 75% of our day was lived outside, whatever the weather.

The tempest of 1999 destroyed a great raft of tiles, which came off like falling dominoes, all the way along the front of the main house. These red, post-War terracotta horrors, which had replaced the original thatch, were now themselves recherché. The only emergency option we could come up with, was to remove and swap with those from the Bake House and totally retile the latter with new.

With the roof off and all the timbers removed the Bake House had almost disappeared. Now we had to put it back together again and in the right order.

Being in a hurricane was something neither of us had experienced before. The sound was incredible, like the TGV express train permanently rushing through the lane at the front of the house. Sue, having heard from her grandma that during the bombings of WWII, the whole family took shelter under the staircase, we decided it was a wise choice. When the next morning we found part of the chimney had actually fallen through the roof into the stables we were really glad we did. I think it was not a good idea at the height of the storm, as we were drinking cocoa to the sound of the tiles being ripped from the roof, for me to suggest that we sung the theme tune to 'Titanic'. Actually we had neither of us seen the film but when Sue asked me what I thought we should do next, I'm afraid I couldn't resist.

Our main criteria for the job was to remove and preserve as many of the tiles as possible and to be really circumspect about the solidity of the old roof timbers. We'd always had a pretty good idea that the carpentry wasn't too brilliant but once we removed the tiles, we realised the full extent of the job. As you can see the main ridge beam was actually split along its length and was sagging. It was, in fact, being held together with a chain twisted as a Spanish windlass, this 'temporary' repair had, by witness of the rust, been effected some many year before. So we ended up starting from scratch, just with the four very solid walls you see at the start of this post. I was happy my years in engineering would give me the grounding for calculating and accomplishing the carpentry work

.....but neither of us were too pleased about the rain...

Pointing the walls with a lime mortar mix requires protective gloves for the hands but the diver's mask and snorkel are entirely optional.

Our cheerful neighbour at the back, kept leaning through the hedge to suggest we demolish the whole lot but we loved this little house and thought it deserved some tlc. That said if we had seen a property like this for sale, we would never have had the courage to touch it, which just goes to show that you never know what you're capable of until you get forced into it. There was one really positive thing going for a job like this and I think it is one reason why so many people love working on tiny houses - low roof! We held on to this thought just until we got up there. We had forgotten that the neighbours' house on the far side of the tiny house was excavated out of the bank. We just didn't look that way too often!

One thing that was slightly worrying was the weight of the new tiles. When they were delivered and had to be moved to the back of the house, Sue found she couldn't carry them in their banded-together state of 6 tiles. In fact she started out only being able to carry a couple of individual tiles at a time. This would mean the job, when we actually came to the tiling, would take longer than we hoped because of the time getting tiles up onto the roof. However day by day she gradually became more and more accustomed to carrying them until when she came to start tiling she was actually carting them up bands in tact. For my part I had to steel myself into going up onto the roof, as I had acquired vertigo from swimming underwater. However, a good ear treatment of hydrogen peroxide and a knowledge that it was raining and that nobody else was going to do the work soon got me going. This is something that the hurricane taught us, you really have to be prepared to take on every job yourself.

The ridge purlin was lifted into place with a ladder and supported with a rope from outside. Just as we were doing this our neighbour leaned through the hedge to suggest we had cut it too short. My how we laughed!

I cut the timber for the 'A' Frame, jointed and pre-assembled it on the ground, to ensure my measurements were correct! The frame was then dismantled and assembled piece by piece in situ.

There are no conventional foundations to any of these old houses. They are built directly onto bedrock with outer and inner faces of laid stone on clay 'mortar' and between them a 30 cms infill of clay and rubble. There was quite a bit of pointing to be done and a deal of stone work before we could seat in the wall plate. We used lime mortar throughout.

Rafters going on and stone work capped off at gable ends

The oh so happy feeling when you begin to get a cover back on the roof.

Laths being nailed in place.

Fitting a layer of roofing felt provides an additional waterproof barrier - very useful for future hurricanes!

A really good buy from a discount store was this tradesman's waistcoat I wore on the roof. It had pockets for nails and loops for tools.

The first one was the easiest! They had to be bedded into mortar and I was working off a roof ladder.

Finished.

A few years on....

..and the brash red tiles have mellowed

and the view from the Bake House door has changed too.

To be continued.......

Starting From Scratch - How to Make a Pallet Wood Creel or Overhead Drying Rack

2012-02-22T17:25:00.000+01:00

Cheap and cheerful engineering in the practical use of recycled, untreated pallet and fruit crate wood to make a pulley creel/dryer.

I had two main reasons for making this drying rack, firstly because our teatowels were getting singed on the woodburner and secondly we had a huge crop of chillies to dry and store.

However, this rack, which in the Winter we use to dry clothes, could be made at least twice the size and give ample room to dry all your washing. I decided to go the whole hog an fabricate the pulleys. It was not as hard to make them as I had supposed. Even if you are just starting out in woodworking I think you will find that you will be able to make them quite easily by just following the steps set out below.

If you decide, as I did, to cut the clothes rails down from pallet wood planks, then I would recommend using a circular saw. Alternatively you could buy three broom stales or wooden dowels (the former I could get here for 1 Euro each) but I enjoy the challenge of making everything from recycled wood!

You will also need a set of hole saws to make the different components of the pulleys, these are inexpensive and usually easy to find as they are commonly used to cut large diameter holes for electrical installations. They are also a good investment as they provide a cheap alternative to buying expensive, large size wood drill bits. You often find them included in drill sets. My set of seven hole saws was included in a set of drills and the collection cost 12 Euros.

Step One: Making the Pulley Wheels & Housing

Some tips on sourcing fruit crate wood

I chose a specific fruit crate wood, which is 3 ply, these are quite common and are usually for transporting oranges and other heavier fruit and vegetables. The side and end pieces are wide enough to be very useful in all kinds of projects. Keep a good look out for these particularly now in the marmalade orange season!

Robust 3 ply fruit crate wood, or in this case a potato box.

Cutting out the basic pulley components

From a pallet wood plank cut 3 discs at 50 mm diameter.

From a fruit crate (orange box) cut 5 discs at 60 mm diameter.

Drill out central hole to dowel diameter.

Assembling the pulley components

You will be making two pulleys, one single and one double. The double pulley maintains the separation of the cord attached to each end of the rack and combined with the single pulley enables the free running of the cord.

Starting with the single pulley, glue both faces of the smaller pallet wood wheel and attach to the faces of the larger fruit crate wheels. To ensure correct alignment of the central hole, insert the dowel shaft prior to clamping (do not glue this).

Clamp and leave to dry as per Manufacturer's instructions for the glue you are using.

Repeat for the double pulley.

Making the pulley housing

Each pulley housing comprises a base and two sides. They are made from pallet wood and I shaped the ends to make them more aesthetically pleasing but there is no need to do this.

Cut 4 sides and cut 2 bases. The base should be slightly wider than the pulley. Drill hole for dowel and having marked base thickness on sides, drill clearance holes for screws.

Glue and screw together.

Prior to screwing the second side, fit the pulley on its shaft into the housing to ensure shaft alignment.

Step Two: Making the Rack

Cutting out the basic components

I used a coat hanger as a pattern for the end plates of my rack.

Cut two end plates from a pallet wood plank.

Cut the square section rails from pallet wood. Each end should be shaped to fit the holes you will drill in the end plates. I used a penknife to shape the rail ends.

Step Three: Assembly

Glue and if you want to, though not necessary, clamp.

Mount pulleys to ceiling joists, sit back and watch it on film.

Using Natural Earth and Mineral Pigments in the Home and Garden - A Veritable Feast of Colour

2012-02-08T20:02:00.000+01:00

The Alchemy of Artists' Materials - So much more fun than opening a tin of paint

What are natural pigments?

Pigments as opposed to dyes are non-soluble powders which are crushed so finely as to make them useable as paints when mixed with different media such as egg yolks, lime, mortars and oils.They can also be used to create unique colours by addition to various white paints and clear varnishes. Natural earth pigments, as the name suggests, come from naturally occurring clays and are specific to certain areas, where they have been used for decoration and adornment for many thousands of years. Often roasted to obtain a greater depth of colour they are known under the names of ocher, sienna, and umber and because of their very natural and harmonious palette they can be used to great effect in the decoration of eco interiors and recycling projects. Ochre, which takes its red, golden and brown colour from iron oxide, is thought to be one of the first ever paints used by man. Sienna, a limonite clay, contains ferric oxide, which gives its rich browns and reds. Sienna takes its name from the beautiful hill town of Siena from where it was first extracted. Umber, orginally extracted in Umbria, contains iron and manganese oxides, which when roasted becomes burnt umber, the famous deep brown pigment. Other natural pigments I often use are the Ultramarines of the gorgeous purple, violet and blue shades. This mineral pigment, originally made from crushing lapis lazuli, at one time was more highly priced than gold, which is why it was used so sparingly by Renaissance painters. Nowadays this pigment is made by heating mainly kaolin clay, sulfur and charcoal. This brings me to an observation about pigments because you will find their price changes from colour to colour. This is particularly the case for the third group of natural pigments the exotic spinels, which are romantically comprised of crushed gem stones!

How to use and apply pigments

For waterbased medium, I first mix my pigment with a little water

and then add the medium.

For finer work and deeper colour, I would add the pigment directly into a minimum volume of medium.

When using with a waterbased varnish, I would always add a clear coat or coats over the top, in particular where there is heavy usage such as on floor boards. Some companies suggest that the ultramarine pigments are not suitable for exterior use. Our house faces full south and we get salt breezes from the sea and the window frames pictured below were painted some three or four years ago. For me also, I enjoy the fact that pigments may change with time and acquire a patina and sunbleached look. With impregnation oils, such as the hemp I used on doors, shutters and the hen houses, I first mix the pigments with a small amount of the oil. The shutters and wooden window frames I tinted some years ago on the North side of the house have not lost any of their colour. When using pigments on boxes, such as Andy's Candle Box Project I used pigment with an Eco water paint and then having decorated the box with découpage, applied a clear varnish.

Freehold Accommodation and no mortgage payments

Latest project the pallet wood bird box: http://www.youtube.com/user/Organikmechanic?feature=mhum

Healthy colour for a myriad of uses

Finding an alternative builders' merchant or organic shop which sells jars of these wonderful pigments is like being let loose in a candy store because how you use them is only limited by your own imagination. The Ultramarine blue and lavender I mixed together with an acrylic white and used on all the recycled windows we fitted at the front of the house. One interesting effect of using natural non-toxic materials is that you find that yourself in posession of the modern day Gingerbread House. Until it was fully dried both the putty and the paint were regularly consumed by snails and from the teeth marks, small rodents.

Finding a colour which would sit harmoniously with terracotta roof tiles and pink and grey granite is not easy but maybe by their very nature of coming from the same clays, the mixture of these two aquamarines seemed to work. Anyway they did for us, see what you think.

We used a mix of ochres, sienna and umbras, five in all, to get a good 'aged' look to the floor boards. I mixed the pigment with an acrylic water-based varnish and then applied a couple of coats of clear varnish on top to seal in the pigment. The banisters and doors were tinted with the same pigments but I used an organic hemp oil as the medium. The linen and lime mortar on the walls had a rather cold grey look to it so I livened it up with the addition of two tablespoons of deep Sienna red per trug of mix. This gave it just the slightest hint of colour but it took the grey out of it. With pigments you really need to experiment and remember that the dry colour may be much paler. Your own unique colours do not come with a shade card but that is part of the fun. I always tend to do a trial demo on a scrap of wood or patch of wall where it won't be noticed! Your pigments will also tend to follow the grain in wood so you can get some really lovely effects.

The garden is a great place for natural pigments. We mostly use pallet wood in our various projects and it is not the most attractive of timbers. Pigments can be employed with great effect and of course you don't need to worry about them harming the environment, your livestock or wildlife. I've used pigments on the hen houses and greenhouses with organic hemp oil as the medium and I've used them in acrylic paints on the pergola, pyramids, plant supports and planters.

The Bee Cosy for overwintering and hopefully taking for a long let. Finished with a water-based varnish and ochre pigment. To make one of these visit http://www.youtube.com/user/Organikmechanic?feature=mhum#p/u/12/_Su6bUc2Qi0

So many colours to choose from makes its easy to mix and match in the rose garden and then in the Winter the supports provide a welcome touch of colour.

Have fun! Thanks for stopping by.

Home-made low cost greenhouse designed to use free untreated pallet wood. Or, how to build a viable, safe, year-round food production system.

2011-12-03T09:15:00.001+01:00


The 5 Euro Greenhouse and its organic produce below

Good Companions - Courgettes and Tagetes erecta

How to construct low cost greenhouses from recuperated materials and purchased polythene. Video Link :-http://www.youtube.com/user/Organikmechanic#p/u/2/br5sE8Pg6Vc

These three models were made on the same principles of construction. The most expensive, made from recycled glass windows and pallet wood, will cost more if you purchase the leaded light and wooden posts. Our cost was 50 Euros but I estimate it would cost around 100 Euros if you needed to purchase the above items.

With water shortages, uncertain weather and continuing fallout from Fukushima, you can provide your family with all year round vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers. The 7 Euro Greenhouse (opposite) incorporates a recycled glass window and has purchased polythene on all sides. It has interchangeable panels. In hotter weather these allow for the polythene covered gable ends and the door panels to be removed and swapped for wire mesh ones, to allow for ventilation.

The largest greenhouse - which has all its walls made of recycled glass is more robust and remains warmer longer, once heated by the sun. For this reason it can, with the addition of fleece covers, be used for growing more tender vegetables throughout the year. It is however, a more difficult project. Start small - work up!

The 5 Euro/Dollar/Pound Green House

Anybody with the ability to assemble flat pack furniture can get to grips with this design in its cheapest form.

The greenhouse walls were made using the vertical uprights taken from a set of pallet shelving which originally had served to hold pot plants. They were 80cm wide and 170cm tall. I was able to recuperate some wire fencing from our local dump and cut it to fit these rectangular frames. I have since recuperated several of these shelving systems so they seem to be a standard throw-away pallet item. If however, you can not get hold of them just use your stock of pallet wood to create something similar. I used four of these frames (shown opposite) in all.

The first thing I always consider, in a design of this sort is to create a way of getting a uniformity of construction. This is not just for aesthetics but because it makes everything easier when you come to fit the project together! To this end I set up a simple jig - out of pallet wood of course!

Mass production! Home-made pallet jig

How to make a jig for the 5 Euro Greenhouse roof trusses.

To fabricate the 5 identical roof trusses needed for this design, I constructed a jig from two pallets joined together to create a worksurface of roughly 2.40m in length. Wooden blocks were then screwed at key positions so as to act as 'stops' when the truss components were laid onto the pallet.

Something perhaps not so obvious in the Youtube film, is that my design incorporates a vertical piece of wood at the lower end of each truss, enabling it to be fitted to the inside face of the greenhouse wall. Once screwed into place, this prevents the tendency for the truss to move outwards. This vertical piece of wood, pushing against the inside face of the greenhouse, I felt, would be more secure than just relying on a scew or nail.

Once attached to the opposite walls the trusses were joined to each other at the side of the roof apex using pallet wood planks. This way of linking each truss means the whole roof structure becomes stiffer and provides a 'smooth' surface for the polythene roofing at the apex. See photo above.

To upgrade the 5 Euro Greenhouse, purchase some horticultural grade 200 micron polythene for arround 30 Euros.


Our Little Helpers

B is for Bee Cosy - DIY Green Gifts

2011-11-21T14:34:00.003+01:00

'B is for Bee Cosy'

http://www.youtube.com/user/Organikmechanic?feature=mhum - link to the film which shows the detailed design and construction

The Bee Cosy for cosy bees is an elegant green gift for you to make using 99% recuperated materials. This time the design uses more wood recycled from a fruit crate and in addition dried plant stems and thin branches from the garden. The Bee Cosy is a little more difficult than the Apple House, see video: http://www.youtube.com/user/Organikmechanic?feature=mhum#p/u/0/t3Y_N4jHDQQ

I know from experience this present is well received by friends, family and the bees and lacewings, its future tenants! The house will provide not only a Winter shelter for many small creatures including some 200 varieties of solitary bees but year round living accommodation too. These superb insects are an essential part of any garden, they pollinate and in the case of the lacewings consume vast quantities of garden pests such as aphids.

It's been a fantastic year in the garden, we've just gathered the third crop of figs and the greenhouses are still providing nasturtiums, tomatoes, lettuce, rocket, basil and lemon balm for Autumn salads.

Planning Accommodation for Solitary Bees

For the interior section of the Bee Cosy I looked at various sites on the web, which had information on insect hibernation. Because the solitary bees are so diverse, they can easily be put off using a Bee Cosy if the accommodation is not to their liking. To make your Insect Hotel as attractive as possible you need a selection of hollow stems but the cube block from a pallet also makes an ideal nest box. You will need to drill the holes to the recommended diameter and depth for bees, although making some larger or smaller will also attract ladybirds and dragonflies. The rule I followed for the pallet block was a maximum diameter of 10 mm, I used a 8 mm drill.

These holes are drilled right through the standard pallet cube/block

Some of the solitary bees are really tiny, the beautifully named, Harebell bee often reuses a vacated woodworm hole, so will need a nest no bigger than 2mm in diameter! You can therefore, drill your block will several sizes of drill between 2-10 mm or make a separate house to attract a specific bee. You will also notice as you look through some of the sites that they recommend lining the holes with parchment paper, I believe this is because bees can get put off by sawdust or splinters but I just made sure I'd tidied up the block. When the bees find the accommodation to their liking they will stay throughout the year, using the hole as a nursery, so your Bee Cosy could become the base of an expanding colony for the garden.

Some useful sites:

http://www.foxleas.com/bee_house.htm

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/readers-solutions/making-wildlife-habitat-recycled-found-materials

http://merseyforest.org.uk/howtoguides/hibernationandnesting.pdf

Wither the Lacewing?

The stemmed section of the Bee Cosy is for all insects but also hopefully to accommodate lacewings. Why lacewings? Well this hugely beneficial insect is in decline because it no longer has the habitats in which to survive the Winter. The Lacewing has unfortunately fallen prey to the mania for tidy gardens and in particular to the whole army of people brandishing snippers and secateurs, who issue forth in the Autumn to attack herbaceous borders and cart garden debris off to the local tip.

Slightly angry Swallowtail caterpillar amongst the fennel stems.

Gardening for insects means leaving as many habitats as possible available for Winter use. The making of the Bee Cosy is in fact the only time we ever raid the borders to obtain these stems, which will provide a plethora of winter holiday homes for a whole myriad of insects.

When choosing stems and branches to use for nesting tubes, remember to think about toxicity, for example I used elderberry branches as recommended on various sites, although they are slightly toxic. All plants are not toxic to all species.

Ready for a wrap - Completed Bee Cosy

The final Bee Cosy was decorated with a wash of acrylic water-based varnish, which had been tinted with natural mineral-based pigments. We have already used these on the Apple House and will be using them and other ecological finishes in the upcoming 'pallet presents', we therefore decided to devote the next blog to their use.

In order to help with positioning the Bee Cosy, I include a nail with the finished gift and a simple instruction on where to place it. Solitary cold-blooded bees need the warmth of the sun, so the Cosy should face south east or south. They tend also to like an uninterrupted flight path when they near their home.

Peace over the Hen House and Bee House

How long will it take to make one of these? Around about four hours, including cutting the stems, time much better spent than sitting in a traffic jam on a seasonal trip to the shops!

Next up - 'C is for Candle Box' - a design which can also be constructed as a window box or book rack and allows great scope for individual artistic temperaments.

A is for Apple House - DIY Green Gifts

2011-11-14T21:08:00.004+01:00


It's a Wrap - http://www.youtube.com/user/Organikmechanic?feature=mhum

It's November and the shops are stacked with chocolate and tinsel. The season of goodwill and giving is approaching and you feel that the next plastic holly leaf or inflatable Santa you espy will start you screaming. Don't despair because this is the time when recycling and recuperating really get creative. Stop shopping and start sawing, at the same time showing someone special and the planet that you care. A single pallet will provide you with up to 10 useful and ornamental presents. Even if you run out of time to make all the gifts you need, you can still provide the materials in kit form with a link to the appropriate youtube video. Many of our projects take less than an hour to assemble, even including the preparation. They also use a minimum of tools and purchased extras and they have scope for personalised, individual decoration and imagination. If you are really inventive you could even recuperate all your nails and tacks and take the price of your presents down to zero. The wood used in all the projects is untreated pallet wood so if you follow these links you will be able to pick up two articles with information on finding and using pallets:
http://thegreenlever.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-collect-pallets.html
and http://thegreenlever.blogspot.com/2011/11/few-guidelines-for-collecting-pallets.html

ABC of Green Gifts - A is for Apple House

We first came across the idea for an apple house in a garden centre in Holland it consisted of a piece of wood with the outline of an apple cut out of it. There was a wire to hold the fruit in place and a couple of strips on top to make a protective roof and give it the appearance of a house.

Apple Picking with the Quality Control Inspectors


Let them eat grapes - Hens adore fruit.


Testing, testing!

We liked the idea for an apple house for our garden because we have a lot of apple trees and windfalls but the wild birds don't really get a look in with all the competition. I also think that wild birds feel more vulnerable eating on the ground, so the Apple House provides them with a safer and more natural position in which to enjoy the fruit. There is another more practical consideration for us as well and why this will be a much appreciated gift for anyone who has late apples, such as Jonagold. These fruit start to ripen as the garden is beginning to prepare for Winter and the wild birds start to feel the urgency to store up some extra vitamins and minerals. So as Autumn begins to bite, so do they and finding the fruit not quite ripe, they move on, hopping and hoping for the next and the next apple to be ready.

Some thoughts about tools

The Apple House as designed for our video uses a minimum of simple hand tools and this gift can with help and supervision easily be made part of a holiday project to get children interested in self-sufficiency and recycling. Furthermore it can also be used as a way of introducing children to the practical use of hand tools, something which could be of immeasurable use in the not too distant future. As for financial concerns, buying power tools has never been cheaper, over the past couple of decades these latter have become a drug on the market and you can pick up a handy and good quality cordless screwdriver, for example, for around 10 euros/dollars/pounds. Good hand tools however, are another story, 1930s novels are full of old men complaining about the quality of steel, they didn't know when they were well off.

We're somewhere in the middle!

You are often better buying old tools at a car boot or yard sale, they are usually of excellent quality and because of this can be sharpened/reset. Be aware of brand name old tools, over the past few years these have become collectors items and can now command very high prices. However, good tools are an investment and the more you become acquainted with them the more you will be competent to build up a fine collection.

For the Apple House the tools you will need are as follows: a saw, tri-square, hammer and a tape measure.

You will also need the following materials and fixings, a pallet wood plank and block, some slats from a fruit crate, a few nails and tacks and some string. In addition you will need some interesting looking twigs and a pair of scissors or secateurs.

I get my fruit crates from my local organic shop, where we do our food shopping. They also give me the occasional pallet. In this way I know these crates come from organic growers and will not have contained potentially hazardous chemically treated fruit and veg.

The Apple House itself can be recycled in the Spring to become a nest box for a small bird, such as a wren, blue tit or robin. All it needs is the addition of a tacked on front and back made of fruit crate slats. Remove the twigs and in the Autumn transform it back to an Apple House.

With the addition of a piece of wood laid across the twigs the Apple House can be transformed into a bird table after the apples have all gone. Use string to attach rinds and nuts to the twigs for additional avian gourmet treats.

Work in progress

Coming shortly to a computer near you 'B is for Bee Cosy - Hibernation Accommodation for Bees and Lacewings'

Handy Hint for all projects - No tri-square?

How to Collect Pallets

2011-11-14T19:51:00.002+01:00

Pallets - The low down - Where, what and how.

So you've been round to your local big chain supermarket and they've told you all their pallets are reusable. Well this maybe true for them but not for all pallets. In Europe consigned/reusable pallets are painted a specific colour, which designates the company who owns them. Funnily enough sometimes bits of these blue and red pallets actually turn up on building sites in scrap wood but they are the least useful of all the pallets and I would never use them. What you are looking for are the unpainted untreated pallets.

Always carry ropes, gloves a wrecking bar and a red flag!

The pallet showing here is a very unusual one in that it is an 'in-house' pallet made of untreated wood for the specific purpose of transporting a display stand for an exhibition. It was put out for me after use.

For a specific job you may also require thicker or longer timber so you should have a whole range of pallet providers in your recuperating itinerary. Pallet collecting is logical. Firms which transport/manufacture/sell large and heavy items have substantial pallets. So a few of the companies I collect from, for example, are swimming pool manufacturers, exhibition stand makers and a double glazing and joinery firm. All these are small family type businesses. I know the people who own them and/or the foreman. I didn't start out knowing them I just saw the pallets and went in and asked.

The upright from a plant transporter pallet

I used five of the above to create this greenhouse.

The Five Euro Greenhouse

A film, which shows the detailed construction of this can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Organikmechanic?feature=mhum#p/u/1/br5sE8Pg6Vc

Another thing I always do is tell the pallet providers why I want them and also get e-mail addresses to send them pictures of the finished item. I also give them links to my youtube site so they can see the films. That way they get feedback on what has become of something, which for many of them was just a nuisance hanging around their parking lot. There is another side to this too, many of these people are only too glad to find I am recycling this resource. As intelligent, thinking people, they are all too aware that their waste is ending up in landfill and/or burnt in open fields and they are, to say the least, not very comfortable with this.

Understanding pallet 'seals' is an important factor and something you need to mug-up on before you set out on your first collecting trip. There are many sites including Wikipedia, which will explain these but I'm posting this here to give you an example of what you are looking for.

This seal will be located on one of the pallet blocks.

On the left the 'wheat stamp' denotes IPPC compliance and confirms the pallet to be made of de-barked wood. Useful if you were unsure whether the wood was real!

DK indicates the country code i.e. in this case, Denmark.

8C - the pallet manufacturer.

S5 - the treatment company.

HT - Heat Treated = Gravy!

All wooden crates and pallets in 74 countries of the world have an International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) seal on them. These denote several things but the most important are the bottom two letters - you are looking for pallets with no chemical treatment. In the US fumigation with methyl bromide, coded MB, is more common than in Europe, where heat treatment (HT) is the norm. In the case of chemical treatment you will also see the resultant discolouration. Many garden centre suppliers, for example, dip items and their carrier pallets simultaneously and you will see immediate evidence of this in the blue-green 'dye' infusing the whole pallet.

A Few Guidelines for Collecting Pallets

2011-11-14T19:13:00.001+01:00

In keeping with the season, we are creating a series of films showing in detail a selection of green gifts for you to make with minimum cost and maximum use of recycled materials. After reading some of the comments on my videos and flickr photos, I thought it might be helpful if, to begin with I shared some of the above to make it easier for you to obtain the basic materials for the series or any other projects you may have in hand.

Five Simple Rules

My first big pallet project was also a gift - a Birthday Present!

Firstly, and most importantly, I only ever take pallets which are of untreated wood - any signs of discolouration due to paint or chemical treatment render them unsuitable.

Secondly, I always ask if I may have the pallets - this obviously is when the pallet is on the premises of an enterprise or site.

Thirdly, if you do take pallets from a site - leave the area better than you found it. Apart from being courteous, you may want to come back for more and should leave the impression that recyclers ought to be welcomed. More often than not, after your first couple of visits, the proprietor or foreman will tell you to take the pallets without needing to ask. In my experience, from then on the company will often start saving and putting out pallets specifically for you.

Fourthly, safety - wear thick gloves, as pallet wood is sawn and splinters are a pain. Often pallets are discarded because they are broken (by mishandling with forktruck forks or rough handling) this may expose nail points and sharp pieces of broken timber to unprotected pinkies. Also watch out for mis-nailed pieces, where the staples or nails have not been driven straight into the wood and the points stick out from the pallet sides. Building and construction sites are often great for heavy duty untreated pallet wood, it may be well worth investing a couple of euros/dollars/pounds etc., to get yourself equipped with a hard hat, often required for access to a site.

Fifthly, transport - it goes without saying that to bring your booty home ensure that your pallets are properly loaded into or onto your car or trailer and that the properly secured load can not affect you or other road users.

Recycled window and pallet wood window box.

Remember, you are often doing these businesses a favour in taking away rubbish from their forecourt or carparks. Many realise this is so and welcome your visit. With the recuperated windows and doors used in our house and in the construction of the large Greenhouse, the source was a joinery firm - now specialising in replacement double glazing. The Enlightened Proprietor welcomed us with opened arms, as people willing to give a second life to perfectly sound single and double glazed units, which would otherwise have been burned!

Our Poultry are obsessed with DIY and FOOD!

The first film in the series 'A is for Apple House' find it on: http://www.youtube.com/user/Organikmechanic There are also further details on this design and more information within this blog.

Moving off the Grid - Part Two - Heat Pumps

2011-11-07T18:10:00.002+01:00

This will be part of an on-going series on how and why people choose their source of energy.

Heat Pumps

Heat pumps move ‘heat’ from one point to another. Refrigerators are the most common example of a heat pump system. In our context we are looking at a system that takes heat energy from a lower temperature body and by mechanical means extracts the heat energy which is then released at a higher temperature. The power necessary to enable this is usually electrical and one would normally expect to use 1kW of electrical power to produce 3kW of heat energy. Mostly the source for the heat pump is either the ground or the air but if available in sufficient quantity, water.

Practical and beautiful - one of the two lakes on the property.

The Lady of the Lake – 35 years of heat pumps

Some necessary maintenance - cleaning the exchanger.

Anne-Marie and Jean-Louis have always used heat pumps as their principal source of energy. Their first system was installed when they lived in a riverside property, where they had the right of use not only of the section of river which fronted their property but also an ancient lavoir (communal laundry). This latter gave them ample place in which to accommodate the exchanger. Thirty-five years ago this type of system was so new here in France that the technician who installed the pump didn’t actually have either the belief in, nor knowledge of, the system, just the technical competence to do the work. Anne-Marie and Jean-Louis were so pleased with the system that when they moved, some twenty years ago, to their present home they decided to go with the system again, this time with Jean-Louis building the exchanger himself. Their present system was built from scratch, as they had managed to find a beautiful piece of land with two lakes and a small dwelling, thus giving them scope to build their new home around its heating system. This is perhaps one of the drawbacks with this form of heating in that it is best installed in a newbuild as it requires pipes to be laid within the flooring. However, it is possible to retrofit the system, if one can break through the flooring or use a system of wall-mounted radiators. For Anne-Marie and Jean-Louis, who mostly worked from or at home it has been the perfect solution. The house is kept at a constant ambient 19°C, except in the bathrooms where additional piping adds to the heating capacity and give a temperature of 23°C.

The constant temperature allows Anne-Marie to grow a whole range of orchids and succulents. A great and avid gardener she uses the heating system to its full advantage when growing some of the many difficult members of these plant families.

This brings us to another consideration with heat pumps, in that they require volumetric calculations for the designs and costings of the whole installation. This could add to the costs of start up, in that you may need to engage a professional to undertake such a study. However, some of the companies selling and installing heat pumps also include a feasibility study within the package – it pays to shop around. All in all this sort of system requires a physical mass, whether a body of water or area of land in which to install the exchanger and a significant initial outlay in time, money and possibly inconvenience for start-up. Anne-Marie and Jean-Louis found and then preserved a beautiful natural environment, which is home to a wide variety of rare and beautiful wildlife. The little grebe, frogs and moorhen paddle about the water lily pads oblivious to the system beneath.

It is also to be considered that the system they have heats a very large volume of living space. Anne-Marie’s original intent was to run a Bed and Breakfast, so their heat pump actually provides a constant 19°C and 23°C in six bedrooms and bathrooms respectively, as the system was also installed in the floorspaces on the upper floors. According to Jean-Louis many people opt for a system which heats just the lower floor and uses radiators above.

The Layout

The lake is some 50m from the house, the feed and return pipes to the exchanger were buried in a trench. Jean-Louis made the 3m x 1m exchanger himself, the tubes arranged in two layers to give a total exchanger area of 6m².

From left to right;- 150l hot water tank, heat pump for
heating and hot water and heat pump for heating only.

There are two heat pumps in their system the first solely for heating the second for heating and hot water. Recirculating pumps deliver the anti-freeze laden water from the heat exchanger in the lake to the heat pump where some of its heat energy is absorbed prior to returning to the exchanger. The heat from the heat pump is then used to warm the water in the hot water tank, the system from then on being similar to any conventional wet central heating system. Central heating pumps move the heated water around the matrix of underfloor pipes throughout the house. In the bathrooms the pipes are laid closer together to provide the elevated temperatures required (9cm apart as opposed to 14cm for the rest of the house). The floors act as massive heat sinks, if there is no heating supplied to the system for a 24 hr period, the temperature of the floor drops by only 1°C. The heat pump system is programmed to only run from midnight to 7a.m. thus taking advantage of the lower rate tariff. The financial implication of this is that their total energy bill for this whole house (floor area of 200m²) amounts to 1 350 Euros per annum.

The circulation pumps supplying the water from the exchanger in the lake. A well spaced out system like this is essential for ease of access in case of maintenance.

Upstairs feed manifold supplies heating water to the bedrooms and bathrooms. A similar arrangement exists for the ground floor.

Advantages

Reliable heating system furnishing comfortable temperatures throughout a large house.

Low maintenance costs.

No fuel storage necessary.

High level of reliability – few moving parts, no exposure to weather.

Long life expectancy

No pollution provided the integrity of the source loop (heat exchanger in lake) is not compromised.

Disadvantages

Initial capital costs high.

Underfloor installation work is messy in a retro-fit operation.

Electricity supply needed to make system work. Hence you have to have a backup source if there is a possibility of outages and you are still on the grid.
For example, in 1999 the hurricane we had here took down pylons with a resulting 7 day power outage.

Any leak in the heat exchanger will lead to system failure but also to contamination of the watersource or land, although use of ecological anti-freeze reduces risk.

Repairs to heat pump requires specialist know-how.

Care has to be taken to ensure no corrosion to pipes and fittings arises from the water in the heating side of the system. Jean-Louis has had to change the fittings in the hot water feed manifold to stainless steel due to the acidity of the potable water. He also cites chemical attack from the concrete has caused further deterioration in some fittings.

Jean-Louis and Anne-Marie are so sure that this system is the right one for them that having put their house on the market they have already chosen their new house with a heat pump system as the prime consideration.

A heating system which takes full advantage of the landscape
but which has no visable presence within it.

Moving off the Grid - Part One - Woodburning Cookers

2011-11-01T17:28:00.009+01:00

This will be an on-going series to explore how and why people choose their source of energy.

Why we chose wood.

Simple primitive living, when we started our new life in France
Christmas 1999 with our plum pudding cooking on the Godin.

Winter is rapidly approaching and inevitably folks are thinking about heating their homes. When we first arrived here the spartan heating was a massive granite fireplace, the chimney of which 1.70m by 0.70m was blanked off and a crudely made open-fronted firebox. This had a swan's nest grate sitting in the centre of the hearth, with its flue passing through a hole in the blanking-off plate. There was plenty of wood-fuel left by the previous owner in the outbuildings, so for the first few visits here, this crude open fire became our sole source of heating and cooking. After all, you can’t carry kitchen appliances on a motorbike.

When we began to live here permantly and renovate our house, we bought an insert, a made-for-store Godin from a DIY Superstore and fitted it into the fireplace using blocks, which we then covered with decorative tiling. This looked like a Swedish ceramic stove but the output fuel-to-heat was poor and we were still reluctantly using an electric hot plate and mini cooker. After having returned the malfunctioning hotplate to the store for the 9th time, we decided enough was enough. We therefore, began to research woodburning cookers as a possible heat and cooking source. By now we had fully insulated the bare stone of our kitchen with hemp and lime and were not really wanting to break through this to install water pipes, so we went for a cooker without the advantage of a wraparound boiler. We also wanted something with glass windows so we could check on the cooking and have the cheering effect of the flames. Firewood is plentiful here, although year by year the price rises significantly. However, we are neither of us happy with burning magnificent oaks and beeches and we realised we could easily collect a supply of pallet wood to keep us going throughout the year. To this end our heating bill for the past three years has been zero.

Using the top of the cooker to heat water, combining this with a solar shower bag in summer and the creation of our own bicycle-powered washing machine, means we are now consuming 85 kWh of electricity every month at a cost of around 7 Euros. We have therefore, reached the point where we should quit the Grid but our house is on the market and unfortunately this has to be a consideration.

So what does our woodburning cooker do for us:

Heats the house, both the kitchen and the bedroom bathroom above
Heats all our hot water,
Cooks all our food
Drys fruit, flowers, vegetables and herbs
Drys clothes
Heats an iron

and what electrical appliances did we get rid of:
Hot plate
Mini oven
Toaster
Kettle
Bathroom heater
200 litre immersion heater
hair dryer
iron

Our woodburner is not recommended by the manufacturer as a pallet-burner but some makers do promote this viz., Esse. The only problem we have found is that the flueways within the cooker need clearing of soot twice a year instead of annually when the chimney liner is swept. We also now have the little Godin stove (seen in the above photo) in our sitting room and this also heats the bedroom above it.

How to chose a Woodburner

Our woodburning cooker with the now rarely-used insert.

We chose a Lincar, which was made by a company which had started up in business as a manufacturer of woodburning cookers and then gone into the manufacture of woodstoves. Most firms we looked at had started with stoves and then gone into woodcookers, we also found that often they did not manufacture the cookers they sold. It is very important to check the labels on the back of woodcookers so as to ascertain who makes them and where. This way you can check the full specs, designs and prices at source. The firm, we chose had an extra commendation for us, in that it also made cookers for the Catering Industry. We bought it over the internet, which was worrying, as we had no prior experience in this. It was also impossible to find a showroom nearer than the Italian border where we could actually see the cooker. Another problem was, that in 2008, when we bought the cooker there were very limited reviews of woodcookers on the internet. However, the company we bought ours through was a small family concern and the person we dealt with had excellent technical knowledge and we had managed to build up quite a rapport with her before we finally bought it. She was also able to provide good quality stove piping direct from the factory and free delivery of the cooker from Italy to France. Hey, we even got a free oven mitt!

Combined with buying our woodstove the most important thing we did was to fully insulate the house. How we did this with ecological materials is the next chapter of this blog. I will also be writing a piece on how we sourced and made our bicycle washing machine.

What happens in Summer?

In the hotter months we still use the woodcooker but only at meal times. Having espoused a French way of life we have a main cooked meal at lunch-time and a cooked meal in the evening, we also have a cooked breakfast. To provide hot water throughout the day I constructed a pallet wood hay box which keeps the water hot for the hours between lighting the cooker. To heat up a kettle we also use a home-made rocket stove. I found the information how to make one of these on Youtube but I have since found that the woodgas burner, which you can make from similar recycled materials is more efficient but I have yet to make one and verify this.

This image shows our hay box in construction, I completed it with a pallet wood finish to hold in the hay and an insulated lid. Within the box water will keep hot for 4 hours and stay warm for up to 8 hours. This box can also be found as a Victorian cooking technique in Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management published in 1875.

Factors to consider before you decide what energy requirements you need;

1. Be brutal. Start by cutting consumption, this is easier than creating energy.

2. What are your strengths. i.e., what energy sources are plentiful?

3. What are your needs – heating, cooking, hot water, drying, lighting ……

4. Budget and capital expenditure, including maintenance costs.

5. Personal strengths/skills

Wood is cheaper in large volumes but these will need sawing, carrying and storing. Solar, wind, geothermal and wood are cheaper if you can install your own systems.

6. Continuing education

Ask around, look what other people are installing, also visit Fairs and Salons/Exhibitions on Organic and Alternative Living. There are now more opportunities than ever for residential and day courses on alternative energy

A taste of something better - Guichen (Brittany) Salon Bio 2011 - Organic
and Green Living Fair. These types of fairs are held yearly all over Europe.

Why ‘The Green Lever’?

2011-10-27T21:47:00.001+02:00

“Give me a lever long enough…and I will move the World” was Archimedes’ claim. He was writing of mechanics but in this blog I will be pursuing the reality of moving or changing two worlds, our own individual milieu and by knock-on effect, that of the Planet. Perhaps the thing people fear the most is change but we have arrived at a point of mass consumerism that makes change inevitable and so we either take control now and direct it, or just let it happen and become a victim. Green Lever is also a play on words because it explains what we did with our own lives. Simply put, we left and became more green. Yes, we were low consumers of the Earth’s resources and we were eating organic food but we never felt we were doing enough to help the Planet. Green Lever too because it was a new adventure and we didn’t quite know how well it would work out.

Going backwards to go forwards and not being ground down

The overall effect of taking control of your consumption of resources such as energy water and food and then going even further and starting to provide them for yourself, is to free yourself from the consequences of inevitable incremental or catastrophic collapse. That was our thinking. Some friends and relatives put it another way, they believed we were mad, leaving jobs, wasting the years we spent in education to go playing peasants in a derelict 18th Century longère in a country, where only one of us spoke the language.

Over the past ten years, living in a rural backwater with a 1000 m² of garden we have had both opportunity and time to experiment with reducing our consumption. Concurrently we have expanded our knowledge of and practical skills in, smallholding, growing and storing food, alternative medicines, animal husbandry and ecological building materials and techniques. I have used my knowledge of engineering in a practical way and have gained another language. In fact neither of us have ever used our education and skills to such an extent as in these past few years.

Living off the Land – Waste not want not

The best 1000 Euros we ever spent!

The amazing paradox of present-day society is, that without the legacy of decades of mass consumption, we recyclers, upcyclers and back-to-the-land homesteaders would not have the basic materials with which we work. Wherever you live you will have access to resources, these may be local, natural building materials such as earth, clay, stone and straw or man-made detritus such as tyres, pallets, discarded windows and doors. When thinking about energy, you should look at the best use of available resources. We chose to heat with wood originally because there was plenty of wood available. Over the years we stopped buying wood, firstly because we didn’t like killing trees and secondly because we found a major source of free wood, which was either being burned in bonfires or going into landfill. Over these next weeks I want to visit and film some of my friends homes where they have chosen different forms of energy production, these will include, heat exchangers, solar, wind, vegetable oil generators, geothermal and woodchip.

However, let’s start with just one of them. We heat our home and water with it, cook with it and use it to build a myriad of things for our home and garden.

The Ubiquitous Pallet

http://www.youtube.com/user/Organikmechanic?feature=mhum

A film showing how to dismantle a pallet to maximize the recuperation of useable construction wood. Including the tools you will need and three separate pallet 'scenarios'.

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2011-10-26T14:00:00.001+02:00

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