Only six weeks after that first meeting, they bought an undesirable triangle of undulating gorse and scrub within the nation with a vision to build. Curiously, the true estate itemizing read: "Rural building site. Only a few kilometres from Moutere Freeway, nearly 1 acre nice undulation contour. Elevated soothing pastoral views. Ground cover principally fern and a few pines, nothing a match couldn't clear." Oh, actually? It was true pioneering spirit that kept them going by these first few years once they cleared the land and deliberate their residence whereas living in a single, uninsulated, tin garage. This humble dwelling formed the nucleus from which they fed, socialised with, and gave English lessons to as much as 12 staff repeatedly. Even for an ex-restaurateur, catering was no imply feat considering there was no working scorching water and the one two scorching plates couldn't be run at the identical time because the oven.

The ever-changing and multi-national workforce of WWOOFERS (Prepared Employees On Organic Farms) embraced the lifestyle that had them boiling a copper for EcoLight home lighting 2 hours earlier than siphoning the steaming water into the out of doors bath. The pleasure of soaking below the stars at night was well earned and much commented on, so much so that an outside bath has been added as a function to The Peach Suite which allows friends to imagine the sooner prototype. The WWOOFERS had been an integral part of the process of creating adobe bricks and engaged on the construction of The Mudcastle but extra importantly, perhaps, they stored morale up and the dream focussed. Why clay though? A chance remark about the mountain of clay they would must truck off site led Glenys to the library and the more the couple read about earth constructing, the more satisfied they became that, although never having constructed something in their lives, this was one thing they might do.

As a bonus, it was found that the clay on their property had the best composition for making adobe bricks and so utilising the earth beneath them as a resource without cement or sand stabilization was to be the primary point of distinction for The Mudcastle. Next began the means of adapting clay sieving and brick production strategies written for Australian conditions and high quality-tuning them to accommodate the uniqueness of The Mudcastle site. As with most adventures, there were peaks and troughs. In batch one, the labour intensive, textbook foot-stomping method was used. Still hobbling three days later for a pitiful yield of 70 bricks, and fast operating out of buddies volunteering to repeat the experience, this method was quickly abandoned. With the refined course of they dubbed the Cake-mixer Method using a customised rotary hoe, production improved to 300 bricks on their best day. Three rotary hoes and one entrance end loader later, the required 10,000 bricks have been produced for the primary section of building.

The bricks had been sun-baked in picket moulds with temperature extremes moderated by polythene covers but there have been occasions when, exhausted, they took the chance of leaving the bricks exposed to the weather at night time and lost the lot. All part of conserving the dream alive. Clive Johnston, Kevin's father and a conventional block layer by commerce, trained Glenys to block lay the adobe bricks coming off Kevin's production line and EcoLight worked alongside the couple sharing and increasing his expertise on the way. Opened to new influences, Clive found and perfected a revolutionary building product using waste sawdust and this product has been used for the first time in the development of the castle turrets, the second phase of constructing. As this new building product was gray and looked nothing like clay, the couple experimented utilizing an old pioneers’ recipe they discovered for making limewash. In true Kiwi vogue, they used a 44-gallon drum. The recipe incorporated beef tallow with lime and resulted in a white limewash.

This was then tinted to a clay colour with a mixture of pure earth ochres. The method was, no doubt, excitingly explosive and not for the faint hearted and the unusual "earthy" fragrance was, and stays, unique. As a pure preservative coating, the unique scent recedes very steadily and company staying within the Gold Turret, as the only inside accommodation space the place it has been used, should still discern it. Peter Harte, Glenys' father and an electrician by trade, has enhanced The Mudcastle with dramatic EcoLight home lighting and creative ideas, and was a relentless, encouraging presence in the forward momentum of Glenys and Kevin's dream for EcoLight home lighting a few years. Not to be overlooked, Kevin’s mom Margaret helped with cleaning and baking and Glenys’ mom manned a second sewing machine to make curtains for the primary turret. Particular design attention was given to sunlines for producing passive solar heating and sightlines to capture views from every room. On one or different degree, all four faces of The Mudcastle are graced with attention-grabbing joinery, superbly crafted in native timbers by Michael Bender of Riverside Joinery.

Edit

Pub: 08 Aug 2025 01:16 UTC

Views: 25