Fowl Weather – March Update.

March saw the rain dissipate just long enough to fool us in to putting our clothes on the line, pour the foundation, finish our irrigation system, gather and de-nail 2000 linear feet of used lumber, terrace our hillside and build all our raised beds including 28 yards of soil (approx. 8,640 shovel fulls) for our vegetable gardens, … oh and gather and clean “our secret ingredient”, finalize our floor plans, plant our blueberry patch, clean up the driveway entrance, and in our spare time, celebrate Ann’s birthday. March also saw the rain dissipate just long enough to snow on our drying clothes… again! We refuse to say “wow”, only “WHEW”!

With the help of a couple friends, we placed 16m3 of high flyash concrete, into a fabric form that had not been used before (in Victoria), that inevitably left us with sleepless nights leading up to the grand finale. The tamping crew consisted of Emily 7, Parker 9, Gord 37, Ann 39.99, Lynn ??, Howie 67, and Bob McMinn 25… at least that was the way he worked. Merrily had yummy sandwiches ready to feed all. An hour prior to the concrete trucks arriving Bob phoned and offered to volunteer to tamp concrete; a gentleman, and wonderful teacher who sets examples through his actions, reminding us of community, humbleness, and work ethic. We hope we can earn half the respect that Bob has earned in his many years watching over and aiding his neighbors and friends.

The secret to our success with the fabric form… wasn’t the used plywood cut into strips to form the curves, but the recycled 2×4’s that we ripped into sections ¼ x 3 ½ and laminated to create the tight curves mirroring the natural landscape. There were no instructions on how to make curves with the fabric form… so we improvised. Exceeding the height specs by 20% of what the fabric was meant to handle, and creating 40 some-odd pleats to curve the material, left us with a sick feeling. Twelve hours before the pour Discovery Channel phoned up and decided to scramble a crew together to film the action. Who knew pouring concrete could be so exciting? Either the short notice, too much rain, or the fact that we told them we didn’t watch TV, may have led them to not show… and no return call to notify us, (after we had worked with the concrete company to meet their wishes). We were actually thankful that they didn’t show though a phone call would have relieved some un-needed stress.

Our secret cob ingredient hinted at last month really stunk, literally, and we wish we could still keep it a secret. A trip was made to Island Farmhouse Poultry, a clean tidy processing plant, to pick up fresh feathers. Our engineering tests had shown very positive results with feathers added to the mix so despite the foreignness of a slaughter house we braved the smell, and did our best not to focus on a couple dead chickens left on the floor, lots of chicken shit, and the odd head mixed in with the feathers, toenails, and beaks. This was an exceptionally clean facility considering what goes on there. The feathers are scalded off the fowl in hot water and then scooped into a rubber maid container and dumped into our trailer. From there we drove up the Malahat, to drain the feather water (it happens), and then down, and then up Finlayson Arm Rd., then home. On route Ann turned to Gord and said without emotion, “Mom pulled an organic chicken out of the freezer for dinner”. Gord turned to Ann, nodded in a blank manner and said, “Yup”.

Once home the plan was to dip the feathers in a bleach solution, then air dry them. Unfortunately Gord was called away to pick up kids, and Ann and Merrily shared the lovely job of picking out a few heads and dipping bags into a bleach solution, thouroughly missing Gord’s enthusiasm. They ran out of bleach and time, leaving half the feathers, of what we now refer to as feather soup. Too bad. With concrete arriving the next day the feathers would have to wait. Feather soup steams, and makes Boo drool. It was now Gord’s job to finish the feather cleaning. Even with the feathers laid out on matting, the fragrance (a polite word), persisted for another 2 weeks, until we decided that we would abort this experiment. Feathers would work well only if processed properly… but until someone volunteers to supply this resource without the protein, we’ll stick to composting them. We call this fowl feather compost!

What good is fowl feather compost without gardens? Our thought was to leave the garden creation project for another year since there is so much going on with the house building , the tours and cob building workshops. Really who has time for gardening? Blame it on the CN strike, as it delayed the fly ash, and, well, we like digging in the mud and moving rocks. Five days of pick axe, shovel, and an estimated 20 tons of rock moved from the lower driveway, we had completed our terraces. This would have been a fine time to stop, but stubbornness rallied to create raised beds, 20 inches deep. Next problem, filling them with soil. Twenty eight yards of soil was used to fill the terraces, a delicate process with no ramp system, in the rain on slippery boards. The gardens were topped off complete with a cold frame made for Ann’s birthday gift, and all the seeds. Our hopes are to be able to thank our neighbors who warmly welcomed us with the fruits of their gardens last year with our fruits this year.

What good is fowl feather compost and gardens without water? Well, this was also solved as we cleaned the lower 2400 gallon cistern, installed pressure tank and switch, pump, float switch, valves and wired it into the fancy septic control module required by code to control our non existent waste water. All systems go; we now have irrigation water for our veggie gardens, at the workshop, and all the way to the bottom of the driveway for the future greenhouses.

And just when you thought we would have had enough fluff about feathers… Howie built a chicken coupe… and by the close of March Ann hopes to acquire two laying hens. Boo, the kids, Howie, and Ann are thrilled while Gord and Merrily just nod their heads and say “yup”.

In preparation for Ann’s birthday, we had to tidy up the recycled forty-eight 2”x12”x19’, the 600 linear feet of 2×8 tongue and groove cedar, and 100 lengths of 2×4. We joke with Howie that when the house is all done we can cash in the scrap metal (two 5 gallon buckets of nails) and be able to pay for the house. We realize this is far fetched as Howie diligently straightens the nails and re-uses them, including the square nails pulled out of some very old fir.

Howie has delegated his labour to the eradication of scotch broom this month, like the nails, not throwing them away but by the creation of a dog house for Boo. Utilizing the very old fir and the square nails, Howie has created an insulated board and batton dog house with a thatch roof. The thatch… you guessed is scotch broom.

The house plans had to be finalized and finalized they were. Having two sides, with four people’s wishes to be accommodated and in keeping with the logistics of mechanics and passive solar, the confines of curved walls, and the expectations of dreams leads to running out of time. Time ran out, and alterations were made. On our side we were perplexed with how to fit cozy “being in” spaces without having them broken up or intruded by “going through” spaces. As we were tearing our hair out Emily walked in with a large grin and a friend sucked onto and around her hand. Slimy the slug was comfortably content on Emily, with a beautiful “S” curve of slime and slug contouring her delicate hand. “That’s it!” Ann exclaimed, “An S”! Our living and dining room were instantly transformed by some smug slug into an “S”. Once through this barrier that we had been butting against for months the “juices” started flowing and lubricated all other possibilities. Then I had to clean Emily’s hand.

April’s tasks are to include installing grey water drains in floor, filling and leveling floor with sand, building rock bases for our built in furniture in our living room, and excavating a section to sink the living room down. We are looking to find a feasible method of transporting 15m3 of pumice rock from Pemberton. Pumice will be used on the living roof as well as a possible additive to the cob to increase the insulative properties.

We are looking forward to the cobbing season. Registration has begun for those interested in participating in the cob workshops. Please check out www.elkecole.com.

We have just begun a Spring marketing campaign to sell the Wise Island home. Check out www.wiseisland.com to learn more about this inspiring place. We are keeping our fingers crossed to find the right buyer and have a quick sale.

Many will be disappointed (or perhaps relieved) that we did not rant in this update… don’t despair, we really will try harder next month.

Cheers Gord and Ann

And special thanks to Darrell at ICL, and Justin of Prime Concrete Pumping, for demonstrating enthusiasm and patients for novices like ourselves, and showing enjoyment in their jobs and the people they work with.