Sunday 12 August 2012

Lime... more lime.

Started the second coat and have discovered a new level of hard work.  I am amazed (again) at the stamina and fortitude of people before telly and cars came along and ruined everything.  Here's the method I am using:

3 buckets of sharp sand in the mixer, which needs to be tilted forward a bit so the mix doesn't get stuck to the back of the drum.
Add a bucket of lime and stand back so you don't breathe in the clouds of dust and get a lung full of mischief.
Add 8 litres of water - not "about 8 litres" or render falls off.
Wait until it is all mixed nicely, then stand over the mixer with a handful of hair and tease it in strand by strand.  NO CLUMPS or the render will fail.  This is a 20 minute job.
Turn off mixer and wait one hour.
Turn on mixer and add just enough water to get a paste.  This amount is different every day because lime and life is fickle.  Too much water, render falls off.  Too little water, render falls off.  Wall too wet, render falls off.  Wall too dry, render falls off.  Air damper than yesterday?  Less water needed.  Air drier?  Bit more water needed.  Sand a bit drier than yesterday?  A bucket of dry sand has up to 30% more sand in than a bucket with slightly damp sand in it.  This means you need more lime.  Too much sand, render falls off.  Too little, render falls off.  Well, not really but you get the idea.


It is a bugger.  4 metres squared done in 6 hours of crying, sweating, cursing and praying. 


This is the proper way to do it and it'll get faster when I get my hand in a bit more.  Everything worthwhile's hard to begin with.

Friday 10 August 2012

August.

Been mostly rendering but that's a separate post so here's some pretty pictures.

 Veg.

 Fruit and fartichokes.

 Considerably more runner beans than thou.

 Wors teas.  8 in the freezer, 4 to go.

 250 or so leeks.

 Polytunnel with lots of nice things.

 Onions and firewood drying nicely.

 Chaos/building site/lazy bastard not cleaned up again.

 Garden and orchard with bugger all fruit in it.

Super sharp plot shot.

Too busy to listen to wedding CD music!  Got to get on!  Render Rant coming up soon!