Payaka urban development
It's been already more than two weeks since I have started collecting dry leaves from the garden and chop them off to make compost. I am getting the right proportion of Carbon / Nitrogen (25:1 according to some texts) chopping off dry leaves and soak them in EM water before lay them on the pile.
I am using big gardening scissors with one hand, pressing one handle on the ground and holding it in position with one foot. It's a very efficient technique I simpy came up with, many years ago. This way I can chop also quite hardy palm leaves, holding a bundle with one hand.
This picture on top is how it started, on the 18th of June 2013. Various papaya and palm sticks hold the plant matter into hexagonal shape.
In three days the pile becomes so high... that I need to start another one! The rains of the last days and few regular sprinkles of EM water when it does not rain and it's already lowering down as it's quickly maturing. I could be turning the pile every week to speed up the process but I am not taking risks and bugs seem to be under control this way, without turning the pile.
Next to the compost pile I found place for a coconut that sprouted already; then I planted few seeds of Hopi blue corn received from friendly hands and a cover crop of red beans. Many have sprouted already after then super full moon of the last days. Good. Let's see how they grow!
A few days ago I placed a separated box for paper. It filled up pretty quickly with all the printing and the kids making paper airplanes... So after soaking in water for two days a few handfulls of hand stripped paper, today we made our first experiments!
The paper "soup" just before blending.
The frame ready for pouring.
This is the first sheet! After laying them down one on top each other, between cloth to absorb the moisture, they are now "resting" under some weight pressing them. Possibly it is going to be some sort of cardboard... but it`s all good! We`ll see tomorrow.
Three bales will do for the first tests.
We *harvested* three bags of each kind.
We will use a mix of techniques and see what`s best for this site, possibly staying in the range of the so-called light-clay and widely promoted by my earth building teacher and many other ecobuilding centers in Italy using this clay/straw method instead of using strawbales or making adobe bricks.
