Inspector Gadjet

I always wanted to do a building with a green roof so when I was approached by a local Steiner school for idea's on how to repair a pagoda with a leaking timber shingle roof I jumped at the chance to modify it to a dirt roof with plants growing on top of it. The structure was originally built with the students as part of a class project back in    and the actual framework was able to cope with a lot more loading than the roof was carrying with just the rotting shingles so adding tarps, ag pipe and topsoil wouldn't be a structural issue. The first step after pruning back vines which had grown through the roof was to tarp the structure. The tarps used were actually helicopter landing tarps from the Vietnam War. Kicking footholes through the rotten shingles as we went up the roof with tarps in hand seemed the safest and easiest way to do the job. The bottom layer of ag pipe was secured to treated pine battens left over from another job and the successi...

When I started my Earthship project in sunny Tasmania a big question for me was: to compost or not to compost? When I weighed up all the benefits that a composting toilet provides, I was sold on creating one. As with most things in life, plans don't often reflect the results and in my case I didn't end up with one composting toilet... I built two! Before I describe the practical aspects of construction I would like to talk about the benefits of composting your poo. * compost toilets use zero water. * composting your poo creates soil. * compost toilets can be located away from your house. *you'll never have to clean your toilet bowl again! Let's look at these points in order one by one: * Every time we flush a toilet we take an average of six litres of drinking water and add shit to it before flushing it to a chemical treatment plant in order for it to be pumped into our precious oceans whereas composting toilets use zero water. * Poo = soil, th...

Having chickens for meat, eggs and fertilizer is a must if you are into gardening and self sufficiency, but...  they need to be kept safe from marauding foxes! The beginning of the framework for the enclosure using star pickets and treated pine This customer already had a small shed for the chickens so my job was to build a fox proof enclosure around it. I used simple, readily available and durable materials to build the enclosure. Once my framework was in place I set to work leveling everything. attaching blocking to get the right levels for the framework. Once I was satisfied everything was relatively level I attached my treated pine timber framing to the star pickets using 100mm bugle head screws. ready for the chicken wire to be attached. Once the frame was complete I rolled on the chicken wire and fastened it using cable ties and fencing clips, also running the chicken wire down to the ground and out from the bottom about 400mm ...