Marta Martecka

Hi everyone!

I've just got two 8 week old kittens (siblings) and I am keeping them in my yurt so they get used to me and the new place.

The big question for me is whether I should keep the door open now so they can start exploring the outdoors. They already were outside in the home where I took them from. Today is their 5th day with me and I am able to hold them in my arms although one of them is still quite careful and scared of being approached directly. I can pet them with no problem when their sleepy and both started to come out and come to me every time I come back home.

As they are too small I can't vax them for rabies yet, they were only dewormed by the owner.  We live away from the city and there seem to be no cats around, no dogs running free and only a fox was there before (but now, since he killed all our chickens, doesn't seem to be around anymore). There are big birds around since we're surrounded by fields but our land is well covered by bushes and there's plenty of shelters and trees to hide.

We have a grown up cat here and she already met the little ones twice. One of the baby cats was grawling on her and "rounding the back" so the old one started to grawl back but we didn't let them free to  explore each other yet since I was a big afraid they might get into a fight. This is another point which I find tricky - how should I introduce the cats to each other?

I am a bit lost to be honest I got these cats to be the outdoor mice hunters but they are so small that it seems I am trapped with them in my home and from what I've read I should keep them indoors until they're vaxed and at east 4 months old! 😂 I didn't think about it to be honest, I only had an indoor cat experience and I have no idea why I didn't think about their age when I took them. I mean, it's cute with them but they're making a mess and are getting more and more interested in what's outside... and I am tempted to open the door and let them.

Their mom is not here, of course. So they're on their own, with me only and 9 other people who live here. So letting them out with their mommy is not an option.

Any ideas/tips? Maybe some of you had a similar experience?

M.

Hi,

I am just about to finish the floor with a layer of linseed oil & carnauba wax mixture (50/50). I am wondering if I should put a liquid mixture on the floor or I should wait until it cools down and maybe gets a bit more solid - do you have any experience with that? Is the warm, liquid wax/oil better in terms of connection with the floor? Thanks in advance!

Greetings,
Marta

Cath Brown wrote:Beautiful building!
I have used sedum on 2 buildings now with great success.

You can get it  in the the form of plugs, a blanket roll, or ready planted in interlocking modular trays with reservoirs in the bottom, to store excess water, which the plants can then use in a dry period.
The last is the most expensive system, but seems to work really well for me in the UK.

For sedum, the substrate should be very low in nutrients...it needs very little to survive, as it is a mountain plant that grows naturally on barren rocks and in crevasses.  A mix of perlite and very little soil is best.  I weed it once a year, and spray it with a hose pipe only after about 2 weeks of drought. Lovely flowers all summer.

As other viewers have said.... you need to check that the roof structure can bear the weight! I'm strong, but can barely lift a tray when it's throughly soaked.

Thanks a lot! it looks stunning.

The weight is a bit of a topic for us.. The guy who build the roof can't say if it can bare the weight but he mentioned that already before he started, that he has no experience with that. So we had some people and father of my partner who's a professional in constructing wooden houses and he suggested some reinforcing here and there... so we did it but I have to be honest... I don't have full trust towards it But my friends decided to put earth on the roof and then measure if the wood is bending and if something is changing in the structure. In the worst case we take the earth off and cover it with tiles... but 2 tons of earth to take off... I would be happy if the roof can handle it

If it was totally up to me I would've done the homework of doing the calculations before we build but it was not me constructing it and deciding whether we will put earth there or not... sadly

Hey everyone!

I am trying to make my garden a bit more filled with perrenial plants, also that which attract/catch/repell pests... I am in brainstorming mode and for now I am thinking of tansy. It's a invasive plant I've heard but could it work well in the garden as a repellent? What do you think? Is it a good idea or a nonsense? I don't want to deal with having 20 square meters of it later and having to think of how to get rid of it

Please let me know if you have some experience with it

For now I am planning to put there bee balm, satureja montana (herb), Tanacetum parthenium, and achillea millefolium - sorry for the latin names but I only know the names in German If you also have any idea if the these ones are good in the garden let me know!

hugs!
Marta

Karla Jaeger wrote:We are in a similar climate, with droughty summers, wet all other times of the year, zone 7b. We have a green roof that is stunning fall-spring, and pretty crispy in summer, BUT we have a lot of seedums/succulents on it and they always look good. I really recommend those types of plants. When my partner made the roof, he started with cut sod which I think would have the benefit of reducing soil erosion while it gets established. The roof has gone through phases since then and ended up a mixture of moss, grass, wildflowers, random weeds and succulents. Everything but the succulents die off in summer (they are dead now) but they either reseed, or the roots survive until the rains come. When we go up on the roof, we will often propagate the succulents around (as easy as pulling pieces off and poking them in holes) and try to slowly get better coverage, especially on the south facing slope where it is driest. I'll post a couple pics of our roof tomorrow if I remember :)

Thanks ! that's helpful.  Please post the photos :) What we thought about in first place were also the seedums and succulents and I guess that's what we will put there first, especially after reading your post.. Not sure what to put on the roof to keep the earth from sliding down but that cut sod sounds good! For now we just put some branches on it to hold the earth in case of rain.

How much load can the roof handle? The worst case would be wet soil and snow on top.

Yea... that's the big question. We reinforced the building lately and it should hold 6-8cm of earth and some snow but we will be checking every now and then if all is good and solid..

Charli Wilson wrote:I just wanted to say what a beautiful building!

Thank you! I will pass that to our pagoda constructors

Hey Guys,

We are preparing our green roof and we're wondering what to plant on top... We live in aplace where summers got recently so dry and hot that some of the trees died and the grass turned yellow quite qickly last year... I am dreaming about agreen roof with a semi-long, grass, as I've seen in Norway, but I am afraid the grass will need some watering and it will not survive the heat. Do you have any ideas which plant would be suitable for that purpose? We live in Germany so we have rain, snow, frost, -10 degrees.... but summers have been quite desert-like lately...

The earth is 6-8 cm deep so we are limited with the amound of things we can put there.

Best wishes!
Marta

Gerry Parent wrote:Hi Marta,    From my experience, I've almost always had the edges dry first and work its way towards the center. It seems to me that the water is able to wick/dry away faster contacting with either air or another dry material (against a wall or form) than in the middle where up or down is its only path to dry from. Unless you made the mixture slightly different (more wet or different ratios) I'd give it more time to dry. Of course a fan or an open window providing cross ventilation would help considerably. Good luck!

thanks! I will work on my patience then ;)))

Hey Permies!

I am building an earthen floor in my yurt (we have ca 1meter thick floor with some pipes buried in it So... We finished the floor lately, made it nice and smooth and the time came to put linseed oil. So I did it... 3 layers right away and then the next layers with some days to let it dry a bit. Now I already did 7 layers (i've read somewhere that it's a good amount) and the floor, mainly on the edges, got nice, smooth and hard. Like, really hard - I can't scratch it with my nails. BUT in the middle.... it's still not hard. I ca put my nail in it and scratch it so some sand comes out.

I am planning to put the last layer of 50/50 linseed and carnauba but I don't want to do it before the floor hardens in the middle.. So you think I should just give it some time or put more layers in the middle part?

Let me know what you think about it!

Best,
Marta