THE WELL

With no mains water to our property, we were forced to buy in water for use in the construction until we could dig a well.









We started by chipping out the side of ditch as low down down as possible against our boundary line to limit the depth of the well. It was pretty close to where the water witch had predicted a good supply of water.




A bucket, shovel, pick and a measure for the diameter of the well.





The dirt is hacked out of the wall as the well gets deeper and hauled up
one bucketload at a time.








As the well gets deeper we have to
start using a home-made winch










And at 11 metres, 14 short of the water witch's prediction, we hit water!

CONTINUING THE FOUNDATIONS AND LAYING IN THE PLUMBING

We used river rock to build the foundation walls inside the hand finished excavated footprint.





Then we laid in the plumbing

BUILDING OUR FIRST CISTERN

Before building the well, it was important to have a cistern near our house to store water from the well and from harvested rainwater. The cistern was dug by hand, and then reinforcing steel wired together to form a cage for the concrete walls.

A wooden form was then inserted to support the poured concrete whilst it dried.

STARTING THE FOUNDATIONS

After months without rain, the ground was rock hard as we started the foundations.




























We had already made a firm committment to using men rather than machines, but the painfully slow progress hacking out the baked clay forced us to use mechanical means.

OUR FIRST BUILDING - THE SHED

We urgently needed a secure building to house our building equipment, tools and materials. So we used the first batch of adobes to build a shed and also to see how strong the walls would be. For the time being we decided to install a tin roof, sloping backwards to drain water into a large barrel.




The shed would also give us an opportunity to experiment with different types of rendering.

MAKING ADOBE BRICKS

The recipe for making adobe bricks is simple. Here are the ingredients:-





DIRT






STRAW











WATER







METHOD

Take two men, dirt, mix with water and chopped up straw (not the men). Put into mold, stamp down with wellie boots, smooth over with hands, lift mold and place to one side. Repeat thousands of times.

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