The thing with dry stone schist buildings is that they’re dry stone. A good wind will whistle straight in through the walls, and the heat from a stove will whistle straight out. And there’s a fair variety of wildlife that comes and goes and sets up home in the gaps between the stones.
We have no particular objection to sharing the building with the local wildlife, but aren’t so keen on the winter winds and losing all our heat.
With the roof now planked and the wall heads being built up and capped ready for laying the insulation, we’re starting work on pointing the stonework in the interior of the building. It’s a messy job, so one preferably done before we get around to replacing the floors.
Today’s progress on the roof … highlighting the asymmetry of the building. I’m very glad now I decided to stay with the original schist roof covering. Not only for the beauty of the natural stone, but because regular tiles would be a nightmare to lay and would end up looking pretty silly.
Sometimes, when the number of Big Things needing done threatens to become overwhelming, it’s occasionally worthwhile to do a small thing, just for that sense of achievement, satisfaction and progress it can give. Well that’s my excuse at least.
Small thing in the foreground. Big Thing in the background
It depends on what you mean by ‘simple’. The trouble is that simple (leaving aside simple-minded for a minute) can mean both uncomplicated, and humble, lowly, basic. The two are not necessarily the same.
My web hosting for this site expired today so I’ve been completing the migration to the new servers which are 100% solar-powered – for real, not through accounting convention – via Solar Host. Hopefully all should function as intended, but please let me know if you encounter any glitches and/or weirdnesses.
See my earlier post on this for more details. Right now, the sun’s shining in an almost clear blue sky so I’m off to Benfeita to install the stove.
Bill Mollison’s 1979 classic Permaculture Two: Practical Design for Town and Country in Permanent Agriculture is currently changing hands on Amazon UK for nigh on £100 a copy, whether new or used. For anyone who’s been unable to source a copy of this seminal work, or to afford it, it’s now available online at Scribd.
The book does still appear to be available direct from Bill Mollison’s Tagari Press for a more modest £18/€20 (£37/€42 including shipping to Europe), but this presents something of a dilemma. You can’t give something back to one of the guys who started it all without giving an equal amount in support of an insane use of finite resources to deliver a book half way round the world. What to do? At least there is now an alternative to lining the pockets of Amazon booksellers …
UPDATE: This has now been removed due to copyright infringement.
Amidst all the furore over CO2 emissions and global warming, an equally serious and every bit as deadly a consequence of our modern lifestyle is escaping almost unnoticed.
As the 1999 publication from the World Resources Institute Critical Consumption Trends and Implications: Degrading Earth’s Ecosystems by Emily Matthews and Allen Hammond states, “What emerges from this analysis is that fundamental changes are taking place in global biological processes. Our attention has perhaps been focused too much at the local and regional level – on specific polluting emissions, or loss of specific habitats and species – and too little on whole ecosystems. Our understanding of how complex ecosystems function remains relatively limited, but the evidence of serious disruption is now widespread. Chronic, human-induced imbalances in major biological systems – for example, nutrient cycling, inter-species relationships and food chains – are more insidious than acute incidents of pollution or other damage. Their consequences, however, may be much harder to reverse, and more serious for the developmental and security prospects of every country.â€
This is mostly a post from my other blog, made over two years ago now, which I got reminded of yesterday while upgrading the blog to WordPress software (about time! … a case of the cobbler’s bairns …). Since the publicity being given to the disappearing bees doesn’t appear to have moved on much at all from how it was then, I think it’s worthwhile repeating the post, with some updates, here.
After posting about nettles and docks, I got to thinking about brambles (Rubus fruticosus) and bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) as well. Also mint (Mentha arvensis) which we have in abundance and which spreads in a similar fashion, and mimosa (Acacia dealbata) which we don’t have on the quinta but which is another “problem” plant in Portugal. All these plants are vigorous, resilient and quickly outcompete most other herbaceous species. The primary means of their rapid spread and apparent monocultural tendency are their extensive creeping rhizomatous root systems.
Nettles, brambles, bracken and mimosa
What I was thinking about was what do all these plants have in common besides these characteristics? What’s their role in nature? Is there an analogous process we can easily relate to that’s more useful and true to the state of things than this notion of “noxious weeds”?
Something that we presently have growing abundantly in the damper parts of the quinta by the stream are stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) and docks (Rumex spp.). Far from being unwanted plants, these are valuable food and medicinal plants.
Nettles accumulate nitrates and are high in minerals (especially iron, silicon, and calcium) and vitamins (A and C). They make liquid fertiliser, an insect repellent and a hair tonic. The juice of the leaves, or a decoction of the herb, can be used as a rennet substitute in curdling milks. An infusion of the stems and leaves provides an organic pesticide against plant mites or aphids. They make tomatoes resistant to spoilage, encourage strawberries to grow, and increase the essential oil content of nearby aromatic herbs. They tend to grow in soil rich in phosphorus and nitrogen, so are indicators of good soil fertility, and are among the first colonisers of disturbed soil.
Docks with their deep roots are also good mineral accumulators and both make excellent compost activators and a nutritious mulch. Broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) is relatively high in phosphate and potassium levels in the leaves, and is particularly high in magnesium.
In this video, herbalist Frank Cook talks about the usefulness of nettles as food and medicine (there are videos about docks from the same source). In the background is Agroforestry Research Trust‘s Martin Crawford, the creator of the forest garden behind Schumacher College in Dartington, Devon, which is where the video is filmed. 15 years ago this woodland was pasture.
Nettles also make a fabric that’s stronger than cotton, finer than hemp, and is naturally fire retardant. Finally a use for the old weaving loom I have sitting in the attic! It should make a perfect complement for all that hand-knitted yoghurt …
