The verandah at the Big Bamboo

So like I've said before, when we first got here, we had all sorts of stuff around the verandah to keep the babies from falling a fairly big height, and Currawong has masterfully created a verandah surround as his first really big bamboo project here.  

And we've learnt a bit along the way.  Like how people kept telling us to cure the bamboo before using it, and I just kinda thought that was because it made it stronger and longer wearing.  And we had a real mental block going on about doing it, the curing business, because it involved cutting down huge bamboo trees, and cutting off all the side branches, and then sitting them over a fire till all its sap fizzled out and coated it.  In other words the water coming out.  Which seemed like a really big job to do.  And we were a bit stuck on trying to work out how to fire long long bamboo shoots in the quickest way, how to build the fire, and business like that.  So we just thought 'stuff it', it's all a learning process, and we just needed a verandah surround, so we'd just start and see what happened.  

Because like us, and the planet, and most other living things, bamboo is made up with a lot of water slushing round its system.  And when you cut it, and it dies and dries, the water leaves the building, and it shrinks in size.  And I know this because we cut green bamboo and put it straight into the fence, and all our tight bindings have become very loose.......but fortunately they're held together with cable ties, so unwittingly we've come up with a solution to the drying problem, before we even knew we'd have it.    Because we can just wait till the bamboo has finished drying, and tighten the cable ties as we go, so it's still safe as we go, and then when it's finished drying and the bamboo has reached its final size, we'll wrap it over with the rope I'm spinning to hide the cable ties.  Voila.

But back to the verandah, it's gone from this

To this

The beautiful old piano that was performing a job as a barricade has been able to move around to the side of the verandah and become an artwork.

And the other big verandah bit, where the kids hang out, and the rattys live in their palace, and most of the toys have a home, has gone from this....

To this....

And there's room for Spiral Moon to do her amazing spinning thing on the Internal Waterfall.  I first made it to be a fly and mozzie proof door hanging, when we were living in our bus.  But it was a very long door, and I soon got sick of crocheting such long drapes, so I only got about two thirds of the way till I got distracted.  

And then I hung it up on an internal beam as a decoration one day, and Spiral started spiralling.  Spinning and whirling on it like a dervish, and she soon became quite addicted.  She was only about 3 at the time, and we lived with it for years.  And then came a lot of moving around and it got packed away.  It came out again in our last house, but she couldn't hang on it, because it wasn't strong enough. But now we've got it up on a proper chain, and it's strong enough to hold her, and she's been reunited with her waterfall again.  I didn't realise how much she was missing it.  

I don't know if her rat Blue enjoyed it as much as her though.  Perhaps an experiment to not be repeated.......

There's more room for everything on our new look verandah.

And Currawong finds it really hard to not pull a face whenever he sees a camera.....

But back to our bamboo verandah, I'm so incredibly stoked with it, and have been telling Currawong how special he is a lot, cause it's gorgeous, and functional, and practical, and relatively easy to make!

And now we're working on the kitchen.  The goal has been set to make a washing station, where all drying and putting away can be erradicated, as you can wash and put everything in it's place in one go. It's a happy kind of busy making all these bamboo creations.  And as with everything, an extreme bonus for me is how dead sexy Currawong is, and how delightful it is to watch him doing just about everything.....

And Balthazar really wanted me to take a photo of him with the secateurs, while he was busy helping Dad.

Now I've got to get back to doing housework so that we can keep building the kitchen.  It's all on round here!  

Stay tuned for more bamboozlery.....

Occupying Bamboo

Now how's this for occupying my blog.

I was sitting outside, thinking I should put some photos of our day up on Facebook, and then thought 'no.......I'm gonna put it on my blog instead!'  At least I can put in depth bits in amongst it, and it's going down on a lovely blog book record.  

Today was a very productive day.  We were going to finish the bamboo fence on the verandah, and we got distracted by bringing the washing machine inside, and creating a bamboo shelf for wool storage and recycling.  There's no rubbish collection services around here, and we've been doing all sorts of lateral thinking to get rid of our rubbish.  So we've been pondering permanent solutions for all of it.  For a start, we've got a huge plastic drum that we can compost our compostable nappies in.  *blush of shame* We've been binning our compostable nappies guiltily, but justifying to ourselves that it would at least compost in land fill, and excusing ourselves with our travelling lifestyles and the difficulty of composting them.  And between Paul and us have finally come up with a solution.  To slowly compost them in a closed container with added food and straw, and then bury them around the bottom of plants, thereby recycling and reconnecting the cycle of life and eating and waste.  Our composting toilet is coping beautifully with all of us too.  

And we also decided that we needed a big shelving system to do our general recycling, and that it had to be custom designed to go over our big toolbox, so we turned to our new friend.....Bamboo.  I'm just loving what's going on here.  Cause there's a shite load of Bamboo (it deserves the capital) growing here, and it grows so quick that it needs to be harvested regularly, and in order to open up spaces to garden and play, we need to clear it, and when we clear it we can use it to build the stuff we want to fill the newly cleared spaces with!!

We're in an awed kind of honeymoon phase with Bamboo at the moment, and I suspect it may not wear off.  So we decided to finally take charge of our recycling and wastes, and better manage the two rooms that we hadn't quite gotten to in our time here yet.

Here's Currawong starting off the concept, and working with the Bamboo at hand and the particular twist it has, to make it the most structurally sound.  And where he's working, with the blue splash on the wall, is where our new laundry is, with a shelf for all the tools and stuff that suits living in a laundry.

The really big advantage of working like this around the house, is that I get to look at a gorgeous Currawong in various states of dress, and here he's very handsomely displaying his builders crack.  Don't they all have them??

With one shelf up, and another one on the way, Balthazar helps Currawong, who's managed to make a costume change in between cutting down bamboo, cooking lunch, and answering a million childlike demands.

Finishing off the last details......there's always the last little bits that need a bit of final touching.  We're working with cable ties at the moment, but I'm seriously looking into making rope out of wool.  To tie all our creations together, combined with cutting notches out so they dovetail together.  

And here's a very proud Currawong standing next to an awesomely well done job (that I forced him to pose for).  We're starting to get a bit excited.  About all the furniture and shelving we can make to fit spaces, and details of how to do it, and I'm still stewing on an idea for the kitchen......

You'll have to wait for a photo of how good it looks stacked.  There's something so fulfilling about making something from our own hands, with our own labour and skills, and that it's also caring for the land at the same time.  

I think we've been bitten by the Bamboo Bug!  I can just see it now, Bamboo chairs, Bamboo beds, Bamboo everything!!!