Showing off our beautiful Earthstead house.

I wanted to include some beautiful pictures of our gorgeous Earthouse, we are so prouhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifd of the place, inside and out. It looks and feels beautiful, but there is also an internal beauty that comes from the sweet knowledge that as far as possible, the impact on the environment has been kept to a minimum. Luxury with a conscience is our motto.







The bathroom cabinet was made from Macrocarpa by local artisan Russell Thomas. It has been oiled with natural products, and is beautiful and durable. The tiles are Travertine, timeless in beauty and performance. The basin is marble, and a joy to behold. The shower is an amazing satin jet, and has even lived up to Sarah Stannetts high expectations for a quality shower experience.











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The northern pergola catches all the sun and shows off the soft natural colours of the terracotta tiles. Right now, as I look at this picture, all the time and sore knees are worth it. I love how these tiles look and feel. The Australian hardwood poles have stood for so long carrying electricity in their former life, now they give dependability and strength to our beautiful earth home.






Here on the roof are the hard working solar panels, soaking up all that sunshine and turning it into free hot water for the amazing satin jet shower and underfloor heating.

Important visitors, Apple trees and Beautiful doors.

Last week we had some very important visitors to Earthstead. My sister Maree and her husband Michael were in NZ for a conference, and on their way home to Australia, took a few days out to rest and visit with us. Here Maree and Wwoofer Sarah pick apples for bottling.










Maree and Michael run a very successful pub, The Barron Valley Hotel in Atherton, North Queensland. They have hectic lives, keeping up with their flourishing business and 6 children and 4 grandchildren. It was great to be able to offer them some pampering in our Earth House, and see them looking relaxed and happy.








Maree is embroidering a quilt for her second grandchild, Isaac.
















Even though we had visitors, work continues as our wonderful wwoofers, Sarah and Fernando, (who has returned to Earthstead for his second tour of duty) tackle the Barbary hedge at our entryway.











Another job completed this week was to weed, compost and carpet around our apple trees.














Here Sarah and Deb, (from the UK originally, but now living in NZ) load up the wheelbarrow with the lovely compost we have made here at Earthstead.......








....and Fernando is ready to spread the compost, and cover under each precious tree with old carpet.
As you can see from the height of the grass around the trees, we have had a wonderful growing season here, and any areas neglected have become over grown. Now the tiling is done, we have more time to devote to our gardens, and farm, and things will begin to return to order.







Now the Earth House is all but finished, we are moving on with the Cobb Cottage. This week Dave Carter, timber joiner extraordinare, has finished the beautiful Oregon doors we commissioned him to make. We were blown away with the beauty of these doors and the passion and care with which they were made.





Dave is a collector of door handles and has shared with us some of his more interesting ones. We will use these on the internal and external doors.










The job of oiling these beautiful doors fell to our willing worker Deb. She is an expert painter, and we were so grateful for her care and precision in bringing the beautiful timber to life with a natural oil finish.







On Sarah's last morning with us, we pulled out the best crockery and cake and had a impromptu celebration morning tea. Builder Richard and lighting designer Sue joined us.

Ali's chicken empire expands, farewell to Kristi and Ericka and hello to Sara

As I mentioned a week or so ago, we have been expecting another of Georges champion roosters to come visit our girls to fertilise the eggs and hopefully end up with some new chicks hatched. This beautiful big bird has been with us a week now, and with all the excitement of the engagement party etc, I have not posted a photo until today. As you can see he is a handsome brute, and towers over our chickens.








The chicks are growing quickly, and are at the "ugly duckling stage".












Because the eggs George hatched were of many different breeds, we are ending up with some very interesting looking birds. Lets hope they lay eggs.
















Last week we farewelled Ericka and Kristi and welcomed into our home Sara from upstate New York.

On Kristi's last day with us we picked some rhubarb to stew with our pears. We grew this variety from seed and it is called Victoria, but maybe Elephant would be more apt name.

Cow girls, and weed queens.

We've had a very good growing season here in the Waikato, and the weeds have certainly made the most of the ideal conditions. However, Ericka and Kristi are our resident weed queens, and went a long way to getting the thistles back under control during their stint as wwoofers here at Earthstead.












Ambers leg continues to heal wonderfully well.











Ericka the cow girl!













This week we celebrated Suzie's birthday in the earth house with a special meal. It was very satisfying to enjoy the beautiful atmosphere created by cleaver lighting and the soft earth tones of the walls and floor.

Winston and Sarah's Engagement Party

The party got off to a great start with a surprise visit from a piper who kindly lead the procession for the haggis. It was such a rousing call to hear the bagpipes played in our new building.

The day of the party coincided with Ron's birthday, so he was also given a birthday call by the piper.









Winston and Sarah took the haggis around on a platter, a great way for them to say hello to everyone. We all were keen to have a taste of the delicious stuff, and very little was left over at the end of the night.





Nicks, Ella, Tom and Wendy have a good look at the scan photo of Win and Sarah's baby.












Jasmine and Steven enjoy the leather lounge - the earth house was a great venue.












Everyone got into the swing of things and dressed in kilts and tartan. Sarah was most impressed.





















All eyes were on Win and Sarah as they made their first speech as a couple.













Cutting the cake - a very rich delicious chocolate cake.






























Win catches up with Sarah Parker










The happy couple. (it's amazing how friendly a little whisky will make you feel)

















Win and Sarah finally get a chance to sit and chat with Angela and Dan.









Indy fell asleep at her owners feet, she loved the party and was very well behaved.

Guess what, guess what?!?!

Well, we knew the day would finally come when the tiling would really be finished, and not just "another few days", as Ali kept saying for the past month or so. Here Ali finishes the grouting,and sealing, and it's over!












With just a few days to get ready for Win and Sarah's engagement party, it's all hands on deck to get the house ready.
Here Kristi and Ericka brush the earth walls to make them smooth and remove any lose pieces of sand.








The earth walls are untreated, just rubbed with a wet brush until they have a soft sheen, and are dust free.
Earth walls are able to absorb and hold moisture during periods of high humidity, and then release the moisture when the relative humidity drops. This balancing of moisture levels almost completely eliminates condensation, the main cause of mould and fungi growth in the home.





Bryce, the electrician was working overtime to get the house powered for the big event.















Builder Jarred was on hand to put the finishing touches to the blinds and wardrobes.













The glass sheeting over the pergola had to be cleaned, and Suzie and Kristi were the duo who did a sparkling job.









Kristi Ericka and Winston spread the metal on the drive way, adding a finishing touch to the entryway.
As usual, Winston's dog Indy is never far away from him.












Sarah took her station in the kitchen, washing all the surfaces, plates, glasses in readiness for the big night.











Once the electrician and builders had left on Friday afternoon, the final job was cleaning the floors, inside and out, and moving in the furniture . Bella is the overseer, as usual.











Win and Ali move in the leather lounge, via the bi-fold windows.







The furniture all needs cleaning, having been stored in our garage for the past year. Maybe my car will soon be able to inhabit its home once more.










As if there was not enough going on in the lead up to the party, on Friday afternoon Ali was attacked by a very protective mother hen while he cleaned out her feeding containers. The look on his face says it all!














Here is the first photo of our only chick hatched here at Earthstead. This mother looks harmless enough, but she is the one who did the damage to poor Ali.

Another step along the way!

We have at last glued our last tile in to place, Ali did the deed, and we all heaved a huge sigh of relief.








On Friday night, Ron and Beryle came out for dinner as usual, along with our good friends Wendy and Stu. Ron always seems to be surrounded by beautiful women, and Friday evening was no exception. Here he shows off the tile he designed, using the circular emblem which was his trademark during his days as a potter.



















Now that we are nearing the end of the tiling, ( we still have the grouting and sealing to complete ) it is time to begin the big clean-up. We are planning to hold the engagement party for our son Winston and his fiancée, Sarah in the house in a few days, and we will need all the help Ericka and Kristi can give us if we are to achieve this ambitious goal!





















The 5 chicks George hatched for us are doing very well, as you can see in this photo, but Ali has not had much luck with his chick production operation here at Earthstead.
We believe the roosters did their job - George assures us that both of them are proven performers, and the clucky hens certainly did their part, sitting so patiently on their eggs, but at the end of the day only one chick hatched from the ten eggs we had under the cluckies.
George believes the huge thunder storms which were so prevalent a couple of weeks ago are the cause of our problems. Apparently thunder is lethal to embryos between the 7th and 14th day. Ali is not giving up and this week George's best rooster is arriving to stay with our girls, and the whole operation will begin once again, only this time, the eggs will go back to George's home to be hatched by one of his clucky hens.