Story - The Mudcastle

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Only six weeks after that first meeting, they bought an unwanted triangle of undulating gorse and scrub in the country with a imaginative and prescient to build. Apparently, the true estate itemizing read: "Rural building site. Just some kilometres from Moutere Highway, virtually 1 acre nice undulation contour. Elevated soothing pastoral views. Floor cover mostly fern and a few pines, nothing a match could not clear." Oh, really? It was true pioneering spirit that stored them going by means of those first few years once they cleared the land and EcoLight planned their residence while dwelling in a single, uninsulated, tin storage. This humble dwelling formed the nucleus from which they fed, socialised with, and gave English classes to up to 12 employees recurrently. Even for an ex-restaurateur, catering was no mean feat considering there was no working sizzling water and the only two hot plates could not be run at the same time because the oven.



The ever-altering and multi-national workforce of WWOOFERS (Keen Staff On Natural Farms) embraced the lifestyle that had them boiling a copper for two hours before siphoning the steaming water into the out of doors bath. The pleasure of soaking beneath the stars at night time was well earned and much commented on, a lot so that an out of doors bath has been added as a feature to The Peach Suite which allows guests to imagine the sooner prototype. The WWOOFERS have been an integral part of the process of creating adobe bricks and engaged on the construction of The Mudcastle however extra importantly, perhaps, they saved morale up and the dream focussed. Why clay though? An opportunity remark in regards to the mountain of clay they'd need to truck off site led Glenys to the library and the extra the couple examine earth constructing, the extra convinced they grew to become that, though by no means having built anything in their lives, this was something they could do.



As a bonus, it was found that the clay on their property had the perfect composition for making adobe bricks and dimmable LED bulbs so utilising the earth beneath them as a useful resource without cement or EcoLight sand stabilization was to be the primary level of difference for The Mudcastle. Next began the process of adapting clay sieving and brick manufacturing strategies written for Australian situations and nice-tuning them to accommodate the uniqueness of The Mudcastle site. As with most adventures, EcoLight there have been peaks and troughs. In batch one, the labour intensive, textbook foot-stomping method was used. Nonetheless hobbling three days later for a pitiful yield of 70 bricks, and quick running out of buddies volunteering to repeat the experience, this methodology was quickly abandoned. With the refined course of they dubbed the Cake-mixer Methodology using a customised rotary hoe, manufacturing improved to 300 bricks on their best day. Three rotary hoes and one entrance finish loader later, the required 10,000 bricks have been produced for the first section of building.



The bricks have been solar-baked in wood moulds with temperature extremes moderated by polythene covers but there were occasions when, exhausted, they took the chance of leaving the bricks uncovered to the weather at night and lost the lot. All part of maintaining the dream alive. Clive Johnston, Kevin's father and a standard block layer by commerce, educated Glenys to block lay the adobe bricks coming off Kevin's production line and worked alongside the couple sharing and expanding his experience on the way. Opened to new influences, EcoLight Clive discovered and perfected a revolutionary building product using waste sawdust and EcoLight this product has been used for the first time in the construction of the castle turrets, the second phase of building. As this new building product was gray and EcoLight solutions appeared nothing like clay, the couple experimented utilizing an outdated pioneers’ recipe they discovered for making limewash. In true Kiwi trend, EcoLight they used a 44-gallon drum. The recipe included beef tallow with lime and resulted in a white limewash.



This was then tinted to a clay colour with a combination of natural earth ochres. The method was, without doubt, excitingly explosive and EcoLight solar bulbs never for the faint hearted and the unusual "earthy" fragrance was, and stays, distinctive. As a pure preservative coating, the unique scent recedes very gradually and visitors staying in the Gold Turret, EcoLight solar bulbs as the only inside accommodation area the place it has been used, should discern it. Peter Harte, Glenys' father and an electrician by commerce, has enhanced The Mudcastle with dramatic lighting and artistic concepts, and was a constant, encouraging presence in the forward momentum of Glenys and EcoLight Kevin's dream for many years. Not to be ignored, Kevin’s mother Margaret helped with cleansing and baking and Glenys’ mom manned a second sewing machine to make curtains for the primary turret. Particular design attention was given to sunlines for generating passive photo voltaic heating and sightlines to capture views from every room. On one or different degree, all 4 faces of The Mudcastle are graced with attention-grabbing joinery, superbly crafted in local timbers by Michael Bender of Riverside Joinery.