01-08 Jul 2012 cont

Lai Ting and I did the first can and bottle wall on the east face of the greenhouse area. We used fidobe with a little yesso in it instead of cement. As you can see there was some shrinkage which is what you get when you use paper, how much depends on the proportion of paper to earth. We used a 50/50 mix of soaked shredded newspaper to our soil (which has a high clay content). I also added a little yesso (plaster) to the mix to help it stick to the wood. The total shrinkage was 1cm over 47cm - I'm happy with that.

We found a local supply of cane from one of our neighbours - and Dave swept the track bringing a load back one day!

Stripping the cane ready for use.

It is so much easier working with the green cane, but this is going to be a much longer job than we were expecting.

Joss (and Osvaldo not in pic) digging the foundations for the bathroom wall on Sunday morning just before heading off to the beach at Cabo de Gata.

Dave had to drive back home on the Sunday morning because our precious water was coming. He dropped a few people off along the way so they could hitch to their various destinations and just made it home in time so we didn't miss our slot. In fact, it had already gone past us to our neighbour, but he managed to get our tank filled and our very thirsty trees irrigated.

Here he is taking an afternoon siesta after he got back - it's been a long week!

A parting gift from Osvaldo - head, heart and balls - it has certainly helped bring a good energy back to the site, thank you. And a big thank you to everyone for all your hard work while you were with us, we wish you luck with your own projects.