Yukon Cryosphere II, Hydrosphere - Work Continues

Working with slippery synthetic sheers I can't keep the large pieces of fabric under control. Solution - hang them on the wall and take down as needed.

My current problem is to find a method for making a soft material appear hard. 

I have made tapered tubes. They need weights in the bottom to keep all lines vertical, the way water falls and freezes.  I considered lead fishing weights but couldn't find any small enough and they would all have to be painted white.

Solution - Beads. I cleaned out my white bead stash then scoured all thrift stores in a 20-mile radius. I sorted them by size and made 3 different soup mixes.

The beads are successfully doing the job of weighing down the points but now the tubes don't look substantial enough. I have decided to stuff each tube with fine interfacing. It took a long time and was hard on my hands.

To give my hands a break I started making the flowing water panels - cheesecloth dry-felted onto flat sheer tubes.

I am laying out the flowing water panels to see if I had enough of them and enough variety in length and width.

In the meantime, in the back of my mind, I am working on how to hang these individual tubes and panels. Percolation time, again.

Whakaari/White Island New Zealand

While in New Zealand, we did a unique trip. We went out to Whakaari/White Island, New Zealand's most active volcano. There had been several earthquakes and a volcanic eruption the week before so we wouldn't have been surprised if our tour was cancelled.

The first challenge was to get over the bar and out to sea.

No problem. Just a gentle swell.

Here we are outfitted in our safety gear - a hard hat, to be worn at all times and a gas mask around the neck, to use at leisure (when feeling overcome by the fumes).

The sea stayed calm for the journey and no one was seasick (as in 'threw-up').

According to our guides, it was already a good day.

Next challenge - getting from the RIB to the rust poles they called a ladder by timing the swell and the step/stretch/leap just right.

The sea co-operated with only a smooth light swell.

We were supposed to be listening to our guides giving us the safety briefing but most people were already hooked to their cameras.

And most of us had our masks on already. The acidic air caught in the throat, made eyes water and noses run. We were handed boiled sweets/lollies to suck on as relief for our acid etched throats.

Steaming fumaroles and boiling mud.

This what our guide warned us about. "Stick to the trails and don't stand on a mound - it could be a thin crust of ash covering a fumarole." (My Spell check wanted to know if I meant 'funeral.')

With the most recent eruption happening last week there was grey ash everywhere and steam continually drifted through our group. It was difficult to see where the actual path was.

Peoples' cotton t-shirts were getting bleached.

The centre of the island is now a lake of acid.

This is a colour picture/photograph - not a black and white. 

If we saw glowing white steam we were instructed to move away because it was sulphur dioxide.

I Googled it - 

What are the most important things to know about sulphur

 dioxide in an emergency?

Emergency Overview: Colourless gas. Suffocating odour. VERY TOXIC. Fatal if inhaled. Corrosive to the respiratory tract. A severe, short-term exposure may cause long-term respiratory effects (e.g., Reactive Airways Dysfunction (RADS)). CORROSIVE. Causes severe skin burns and eye damage. May cause frostbite. SUSPECT MUTAGEN. Suspected of causing genetic defects.

eeeek!

Sulphur was mined on the island until last century when and eruption killed all 10 workers.

The remains of the operation are a fascinating study of corrosion.

The strongest materials are eroding the fastest - steel and concrete while wood and rubber seem to be being preserved.

Rusted equipment

Steel and wood.

The last challenge - getting across the sea to home.

No problem - the sea was mirror calm. So calm albatrosses couldn't get the lift they needed to take off from the water and were marooned until the breezes started up again. 

A bonus was seeing literally hundreds of sea mammals - dolphins, porpoise, whales.

Such an amazing trip. A 'must-do' on any NZ trip.

Backyard Project - Drainage

Drainage for the Gravel Bed garden

Sammy explains to Ron how the French drain will work.

Sammy Kent, owner of Pacific Ecoscapes is our general contractor for the landscaping.

The river channel in the Gravel Bed garden is dug out. No more swimming pool.

Laura and Mat put down a layer of sandy growing medium.

The river channel is lined with a porous cloth before being filled with rocks.

The porous cloth is pegged down on top of the growing medium.

Sammy cuts and places the first lot of log rounds for the paths between and around the hugelkultur beds.

A layer of compost rich soil is added to the rock garden beds.

In the meantime, I am in the studio blocking a shawl I knit for my cousin.

The back yard is a busy place.

Real Time Update April 26 - Backyard Project

In the cut flower bed, the first iris has bloomed.

Why is it that the white is the first to bloom for many flowers?

Also in the cut flower bed, the first allium has opened up.

In the rock garden beds, the green manure crop is being turned under and a mulch layer of straw is added.

In a week or so these beds will be ready for planting another soil building crop.

I have set up a straw bale garden bed on top of one of the new beds where the soil mix was not as rich.

Layers of compost, coffee grounds, and straw were piled on top of the straw bale. It was deeply watered and left to cook.

In a couple of weeks, the internal temperature has gone from 50 F degrees to 120 F degrees. The rise in temperature indicates a certain group of soil organisms is at work decomposing the material to make soil. The temperature needs to rise into the grey area for the next lot of organisms to get to work. Once the bed temperature has dropped back down to the 60s F again it will be ready to plant.

The days have suddenly become much hotter. I am watering the new plants every second day.

Here is the beginning of the path through the gravel bed garden.

There is lots of activity in the garden.

Backyard Project - Recap and Coping With Winter Rains

It has been so long since I posted on progress on the Backyard Project I'm going to do a quick recap of where things were at in the beginning of November.

The raised studio beds were constructed, filled and planted with spring bulbs.

The 3 hugelkultur beds were constructed and planted with a winter green manure mix.

Soil was laid down for the meadow plants in the flat areas in between.

Here am I planting comfry roots around the base of all 3 hugelkultur beds.

I mulched the studio beds with fallen maple leaves making them ready for the winter.

Tom had excavated and placed the rock for the gravel bed garden.

He had also constructed all of the raised rock garden beds and filled them with logs and soil.

Then the rains kept coming turning the gravel bed garden site into a swimming pool. It served to highlight where we needed to place the French drain.

The areas around the hugelkultur beds got super-saturated. We want the water to accumulate around these beds where the buried logs have the capacity to absorb huge amounts of water but the amount of water showed us how much we have to build up the pathways.

Meanwhile, the raised rock beds soaked up the above average rainfall like a sponge. The rotten logs under the soil are doing their job.

And this is how we left the project until the new year.

Real-time Update, March 16th

With the first day of spring only days away some of the plants are ready to burst.

The first lot of bulbs in the studio beds are flowering.

Much excitement - the deer fence construction has begun.

Once it is finished we will be able to begin planting.

The irrigation lines are being put in around the new garden beds.

While in the studio, I am working with leaf skeletons.

Studio Footwear and Laundry Centre

I received lots of comments and questions about my choice of Studio Footwear, as seen in this previous blog post.To answer you all, here are the details.

Outside: (Left) Suede, Danish-style clog. Brand - 'Simple'. The best feature is when I step in soft soil the heel print says 'past' while the toe part has a forward pointing arrow and says 'future.'

Inside, winter: (Middle) Shearling sheepskin suede, backless moccasin. Brand - Nuknuuk.

Inside, summer: (Right) Thong/jandle/flip flop with moulded sole and cloth straps. Brand: 'Axign'. (Thank you sister for putting me onto these. And for letting me wear yours until you took me shopping to get my own pair.)

All are easy to slip on and off as I move in and out of the studio.

So there you have it.

Now to the Laundry Centre.

Regular laundering of cloth I will continue to do in the house.

Wash-out of dyed cloth I will do in the studio, beginning with the cold rinse in the big, deep tubs.

Since learning about Carol Soderlund's wash-out method, the next step will be to simmer the cloth in a stock pot filled from the instant boiling water tank.

Out of the cupboard under the tubs I will lift out the spin dryer...

... and set the outlet spout over the tub. I put the cloth in the top, plug it in and away it goes, spinning out all excess water into the tub.

It is one of those appliances with lots of names all over it - The Laundry Alternative Inc., Nina Soft, Mueller Electrodomesticos (the best name). They also make/sell? a small, bullet shaped manually operated washing machine - appliances for those who live in small spaces.

After the spin, I will steam-iron cellulose fibres dry, a technique known as polishing. Protein fibres such as silk and wool I will dry on a rack in the shade before lightly steaming them.

This is the studio laundry process. 

I didn't want 2 big machines when there is a set in the house. I didn't want to make the studio plumbing more complicated than a single tub area. And I didn't want to take up valuable studio space with machines at the expense of the horizontal work surfaces.

I'll keep you posted on how this laundry system works out.