trish beebe

Wow, my 2 cents worth is this could be a very exciting project, with far reaching results.  Play your cards right on the video side, and you could get a TV series out of it!

Ground rules to make things equal for everyone will be important, so having to grow certain crops, with a choice of what extra is grown.

What about only allowing a certain number of people on the land, if one team brings in their mates to help clear and establish that gives them an advantage over the him n her only team?

I think it would be excellent to say they need to rear at least one form of livestock, and feed is from the 1 acre of land only.  So either rabbits, chickens or whatever, to provide for fertilizer, land management and making use of veg scraps - but the meat or produce does not count towards calories.

I also agree with you Paul, that it should start in January.  Setting out the area, fences, shed to hold tools, building animal shelters etc.  But also allowing time to decide what goes where, before turning the first sod.  Jumping in with a race against planting time will allow for mistakes on where things are placed.

As far as funding goes, if you can choose your contestants well in advance, they could also try to get sponsorship for their year "on the farm" ... maybe  from heirloom seed suppliers or other businesses involved in gardening/farming/permaculture.

Would the teams be permitted to actually live on their land? nothing more than a small cob hut/roundhouse dwelling but then you could include how they actually cook and eat their home grown produce as well!

Loads more video opportunities there, building a basic dwelling, setting out the land, animal enclosures, daily living and challenges, battling wildlife for who gets the first lettuce leaf

Jane Mulberry wrote:Thanks for replying,  Trish!

"Plotchy"? I've no idea about that one.

I suspect I'm going to have to do the same, dig up all the cruddy concrete, dig down and lay proper earth floors with plenty of compacted gravel as a base layer. My house has the same damp issues, exacerbated by the fact I can't move there yet so it's empty much of the time. These houses were designed to have fires burning all winter to keep them dry!

Just hoping I don't also have to chip all the wall render off and redo that as well. I think it's been "modernised" with cement, too!

Plotchy is the large flat stones used here in abundance.  Many houses still have plotchy rooves, beautiful to see but the weight of that roof must be amazing.  most have replaced them with roof tiles now, and used the slabs (flagstones) as paving on pathways, drives and even used the smaller pieces as wall dressing on the outside.

if the cement render is outside, you can get away with leaving it in most cases.  It depends what the walls are build with.  Def remove if it is inside if possible.  Mine is stone with mud mortar bottom floor, and mud brick top floor.  it is rendered outside in cement, but thankfully inside they did not do it.
so far, its still good as it seems to be a cement wash more than anything, and underneath was the old lime render.  They tended to do the cement wash to preserve the lime render and not have to keep doing repairs on it.

Inside, i had to remove a type of cardboard ply, a cheap version of plywood - that had been installed in one of the rooms, and they had linoleum on the floor, resulting in a smelly, moldy room.  but once that was stripped out, and the floor done, the room is now fab.

The biggest tip I can give you, is go slow on any planned renovations.  If possible, live in the house for at least 6 months before doing anything.  Because you will change your mind about things when you live in it.  I changed location of dining room, study and kitchen a few times, until settled on something that works for  me.  If I had of gone with first ideas, it would have cost much more, and been only half as effective!

Jane Mulberry wrote:Trish, what did you end up with for the flooring? Did you go with the wood planks? I'm in the process of buying a Bulgarian house (not as traditional as yours, sadly, but I still like it!) that like yours has been "improved" by adding rough skimmed concrete floors, probably straight on bare earth.

Hi Jane,
Nope, I gave up in the end with the wood rounds flooring.
As you say, a lot of BG houses have "poor mans concrete" laid on bare earth as floors,  and are often damp and degrading.  After a particularly wet spring and mold on the floor and walls, I ended up ripping out the concrete, (now used as crazy paving on a garden path), digging down 30cm, laying 20cm crushed stone then 10cm rock dust with a weed barrier fabric between.
I then capped with 5cm sand and laid "plotchy" on this, and grouted with lime mortar.

it has solved the damp issued totally, and is surprisingly warm in there.  I have not sealed the floor, afraid of damp still, so it does tend to show marks re being in the kitchen area, but I can live with that :)

Hi, I would be willing for people to come to my place and help out, earning badges and practising skills.

Just let me know what you would be interested in doing, and if I can help, I will.
Board and lodging in the main house with me.
You must have your own travel Health Insurance, and make your own way out to Gabrovo city, will collect you from there and take you out to location.

1 acre of land, veg, orchard, grape arbours, Adobe building projects, woodworking, house repairs with natural materials, greywater system design and install, possibly new startup of chickens, building greenhouse.. and more.

Dustin Rhodes wrote:I don't know about this from the health benefits angle, but as far as just getting a nice tea:

Thank you for your reply Dustin.

My fault I should have been clear I was referring to a plant feed tea - not human

In summer I dont really measure things, I just full a container 3/4 with nettles and top up with water to the brim, leave it to for about 3 weeks then use on an about 10/20% dilution ratio.
I just have no idea if the same applies with dried nettle leaves, or not.

And another thing, what if my dilution ratio is off - I mean can I be doing the plants harm if I dont dilute enough?  or wasting my time if I have over-diluted...
Phew

Any advice please?  I use nettle tea during the summer made from fresh leaves in water.  However I collected loads of leaves last year and dried them, crumbled them into "tea leaves" and have bottled it ready for use this year.
My issue is I am not sure how much dried leaves to use to make up a batch, and should I still dilute it?
Do i do a cold water soak, or what about hot water, say 1 tablespoon for 2lt of water?

oh dear...  I am lost on this one.

Glenn Herbert wrote:

You might be able to use strips of foam 10-20cm wide with a couple-few cm of solid grout between them, giving a rigid base so boards can't flex. That would be less insulating than continuous foam, but much better than none. In this case, I might use 2 or 3 cm thick foam. I would run the foam perpendicular to the topping boards so all boards have rigid support at close intervals.

Erm..  okay feeling a bit silly here, forgive me. Are you saying laying "boards" of foam say 20cm wide North/South with a gap between each, then putting the wood boards in an East/West direction, and filling in the gaps between wood boards with grout?  This would make a sort of cheque board effect of deep grout to subfloor and shallow gout on top of foam in other places?

Or could I just lay the whole floor with foam boards, no gaps, lay my pattern of wood boards with decent gaps, then trim out bits around the boards to get grouting down to sub floor level.  Means under each wood board is solid foam insulation and only the grout lines will be uninsulated.

thomas rubino wrote:Hi Trish;  I see what you mean about falling in love! That floor in the photo is OUTSTANDING!  I hope that it works for you !  Keep us posted!

Yeah, pretty amazing hey.  I need to do a barn scratch n see what wood i have in there.  Somehow this just wont look as cool with new wood, I just know it so hopefully have enough old stuff in the barn.

I agree Phil.  It is doubtful the embedding idea is going to work.

So what if I change  tactic - look at this pic.  Tried hard to find more info on it but nada - just shows up in lots of "rustic decor" posts.  But I think I am falling in love!  

On the concrete floor in the kitchen, I could drill holes into concrete and screw the boards to the concrete with brass screws.  Means I dont need to smooth or level the floor. Then grout with lime, and wax the  whole sheebang afterwards to seal a bit for kitchen spills.  And whoo hoo no cutting on the chopsaw so time saved.

Bit  more difficult in hallway as cant screw into that strange pebble/lime supposed  mix, so will just have to lay in situ and grout around it.  At least the hallway is relatively level and smooth as opposed to the concrete in the kitchen.  I am suspecting the key here is to have relatively large gaps between boards to provide the strength of the lime.  
To slim between boards  and it may crack and break up, so strength will be in depth and width of lime grout?
The wood will provide the insulation.  Not a whole lot of it, but better than the raw floors now.  
Or...   Could  I get away with a thin layer of EPS under the boards, then grout with lime mortar do you think?  Maybe the 1cm  thick stuff?