21. Making Concrete

Hey... I am no expert on construction techniques. I have worked in construction, mind you. My father, a carpenter by trade, rose through the ranks of Canada's Federal Government to become Deputy of Public Works in the 1950s, ten years after getting his carpenter's licence through Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, Ontario. He later gave up government office work, which bored him to migraine headaches,  to become a very successful general contractor in Ottawa, Canada. How successful? - well, at one point he was a multi-millionaire. Not bad for a poor Jewish kid in the anti-semitic world that was Canada. But I digress. The point really is I was exposed to construction at an early age, and when I was 14 years old, my father gave me a job working in the drywall business. So I know a little bit about that sort of work. I became an academic in later life, but I will always be grateful to my dad for who he is and what he taught me about using my hands to build things.

The premise of this blog is really to say there are right ways to construct things, and then there are the ones that just cause problems. In order to construct something right, it behooves the individual to gather some skill before application. Otherwise, it can be dangerous.  I mean it: who knows what the concrete mix was in the catastrophe in Bangladesh where hundreds of people lost their lives in a building complex that collapsed? What standards were used to ensure safety of those hapless souls? Was the construction done up to code? What shortcuts were taken that resulted in the unnecessary loss of life? So, it's not a trivial matter: there are rules and codes from which to build with; if amateurs are set the task to construct something without any sort of training, what do you expect the outcome to be?

This post is about making concrete... the dubious way. By that I mean even though the good intentions of the community who were involved in making and pouring concrete for a pad to protect an adobe house from termites, in the final analysis, it wasn't done very well.  The mix varied: one time the ratio was 11 pails of sand to a half a bag of portland cement, plus an unspecified amount of water, with some stones thrown in, to 12 or more pails of sand, a half bag of portland and no stones, and so on and so forth. This type of variation, to my mind, on a set formula to make concrete means, in the final analysis, the concrete will not be consistent and at risk of cracks and failure.

So, I wish to add this caveat to the pictorial demonstration presented in this post on making concrete: this work was done by amateurs, and as such, not to be used as a model for your own projects, unless, of course, you know what you are doing. It's all fun and games, until someone gets hurt. So, please bear that in mind...

Making Concrete

Peggy surveying the area where concrete will be poured

Pi Dao prepares the ground for the concrete

Trying to clear off loose soil from the walls to prevent termites
from tunnelling into the structure

Pun Pun community members all pitch in to make concrete

Mixing sand with portland cement

Sand mixed at a ratio of 11-12 parts sand to
1/2 bag of portland cement 

Stones are added to the mix

Nate starts to apply the concrete

Smoothing the concrete as it is poured. Note some areas are
really wet, while other areas are not. Hmm...

Concrete pad is done. Note the inconsistency in the mix.

Looks uneven

Would you be happy with this job?

Building places to live may not be the exclusive domain of licenced architects, designers, engineers, carpenters - and so on and so forth - but it certainly is the domain of those who have some idea of what they are doing. Before doing any sort of work where people's lives are involved, do some research, apprentice, learn from those who have experience before trying this stuff out by yourself. 

Here is a wikihow web page showing the usual procedure for making concrete:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Concrete

In the final analysis, it's fun to do this sort of work, but ensure you have someone who knows what they are doing to guide you. 

20. Air Layering / Marcotting

Many types of plants and fruit we see in the supermarket are actually not grown from seed. For example, most commercially available apples, like Grannie Smith and Fuji,  are either grafted or layered. If grown from seed, there is no guarantee they will be as tasty as the source tree. In order to preserve that distinctive and uniform quality from one plant (or fruit) to another, horticulturalists use grafting and layering techniques the Chinese discovered centuries ago.

This post is about the air layering (or marcotting) technique.

The technique involves wounding a stem or branch of a plant by removing a small segment of bark and wrapping the wounded area with a moist medium and then covering it with plastic. In a few weeks or months, the wounded area will grow roots and the branch can be cut and put into the ground to grow.

Here's a pictorial account of the technique:

Pi Jo selects a Mulberry Tree to air layer

Cut the bark around a small segment of a branch

Ensure all the bark is removed

Looks about right

Ready for the next step

Cutting up some plastic to cover the wound

Put a moist medium into plastic. It can be anything. In this case,
wet coconut husks.

Wrapping wounded branch with the medium and plastic

Close-up showing wounded area covered all the way around

Tie up the ends of the plastic to ensure it stays moist

Tie both ends securely 

The air layering is complete!

In a few weeks roots should start to form inside the plastic. 

Some things to be aware of when air layering: 

•  the roots won't grow as strong or fan out as broadly as other growing techniques, so the plant needs to be supported
• the plant will not grow as tall as from seed
• the life of the air layered plant will be as long as the lifespan of the original plant. In other words, if the original plant is five years old and has a lifespan of ten years, the air layered root is also five years old and will only live another five years

I'll report back on the progress of this air layered Mulberry in a future post. 

19. My Toilet... redux

Did I say already I love my toilet? I designed it around the "open" concept - it is made of grass thatched shingles. There is no door and only the toilet bowl is protected from rain. This openness I just love! First, the openness assuages my lingering fear of being indoors, a fear I picked up after watching Jerry Lewis in the "Nutty Professor." I keep promising to tell this story, right? Well, maybe another day I'll tell it. The other reason for loving the open concept is it doesn't attract things like snakes or geckos to come and live in it. Apart for some ants, nothing really goes in there, so no worries about creatures and pests bugging you.

I have a water hose that initially comes from the pond which I can use for a shower. It's cold water, but by midday it gets pretty hot, so it's I can have a great hot shower in the late afternoon before dinner.

The toilet is the Asian squat style. The truth be told: I sit on it like a regular toilet bowl! It's elevated so it's at the right height to sit on. Comfortable. There is no toilet paper. No need with the water hose and much more sanitary to boot.

So,  I just love my toilet!

It's hard to imagine what it's like, so I posted a short video of walking to my toilet and looking around inside so you tell get a better feel for what I am talking about.

To see my Toilet Movie, click this sentence

I love my toilet!

18. Fixing a Hole...

... where the rain came in.

Did you get the reference? (hint: Beatles. Another hint: Sergeant Pepper's.)

Anyhoo, this entry is about digging out a pond to fix the placement of the water intake pump so the water will be of better quality. Currently the intake is near the bottom of the pond, so a lot of silt is pumped up to the water tanks making the water a brownish color. Not so good.

The task was to clear out all the plants from in and around the pond, drain the pond, lower the pipe from the reservoir feed to the pond so that more water could enter the pond, then refill the pond. We will be cleaning out the water filter sometime in the near future, so I'll document that process later.

Here is a pictorial account of digging out the pond:

Krisida standing in the pond overgrown with plants

Nate in pond removing plants

Krisida finding the water intake

Pond cleared out in about an hour

Pond cleared and water draining out

Water pumped by hose to the reservoir canal

Pipe is removed and trench lowered about half a metre

Ray digging the trench

Pipe from reservoir canal to pond 

Pond completely drained in about a day

Pond refilling. It took about two days

Soon the silt will settle and the pond will be clear

The hardest part was deepening the water intake trench. It was hard because there was concrete in the ground and to break through it wrecked two hoes and a hammer. Clearing the pond of plants, in contrast, was easy. The plants were mostly morning glory, and their roots were easy to pull out.

Oh yes-  there were two water snakes swimming around with us while we worked. I think they were angry at us for ruining their habitat! It's okay - in a month's time all the plants will regrow. 

17. The Plot Thickens...

A previous post talked about starting my garden bed, or plot (of land). The problems at first were as follows:

1. The soil isn't so good, so needed quite a bit of chicken poop and compost mixed in to get the seeds to sprout. That seemed to work - the seeds sprouted.
2. Pest problems. Snails, ants, larvae and flying insects love to munch on the first unfolding leaves. The first two leaves that appear are the food for the plant until the roots take hold and photosynthesis starts. If they are eaten, the plant dies.

Here is a photo of early plants displaying their two "food" leaves:

Sprouting plants start with two "food" leaves

In my garden bed, the food leaves are eaten almost as soon as they emerge from the soil:

Yellow soy "food" leaves unfolding...

Yellow soy partially eaten overnight...

Yellow soy leaves completely eaten in two days

So, what to do about it?

I notice a lot of snails in the plot of land, and one way to protect your garden from snails is with beer... or so I have heard. Personally speaking, I think beer is better to drink than to put in your garden. But, I am here to experiment, so I poured out a cup of beer and put it into the garden bed overnight, since night is when the snails get active.

 By morning, the cup of beer was down to about a quarter cup, but no snails around. 

Beer almost all gone!

Hmmm... it seems like something else drank the beer. Just as I thought: beer is better for drinking than putting in your garden!

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Recently some fellow interns visited a farm in Chiang Rai started by a Thai Buddhist monk. They came back with some ideas about how to protect plants by changing the smell of your plants with some other plant smell. First you gather leaves of other plants, maybe weeds, since weeds seem not to be eaten so much, then grind them up with water in a blender and use this as a spray. Here is the process:

Leafy weed used to make the spray

Putting the leaf water into a spray bottle

Spray was clogged so poured a bit of leaf water on sprouts

This technique seemed to work with some plants, but others were eaten as usual. 

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Someone suggested using a cut-up plastic water bottle as protection from the pests in the early stages of growth. So I tried it out. I cut up 500 ml plastic water bottles and put them around the sprouts. 

Cut-up plastic bottles around plants

Early morning condensation on plastic

The next morning the "food" leaves were ok, so it seems to work.

Leaves are ok!

Leaves really grew overnight!

A possible solution at the early stages to protect your sprouts is use cut-up plastic bottles. While plastic bottles might work, if you have a lot of plants it isn't practical, since it is quite labor intensive. I put the cut-up plastic on overnight, since in the daytime it gets really hot and the plastic might heat the plants too much, so you have to put on and take off the plastic every day.

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I'll report back on other methods of pest control, notably the use of EM the other interns learned from their visit to the farm in Chiang Rai. They have a recipe for making young banana plants into EM and then adding rice whiskey to the mix as a way to control pests.

16. All Work and No Play Makes Jack a ...

There is more than just farming here at Pun Pun. 

As a community, there are times to all get together and enjoy some activities. There are movie nights, where a documentary film is shown, there is pizza night, which I described in a previous post, dancing night, where the Wa-loons (teenagers) play hip hop and have a dance party, and there is music. There are a few guitars hanging around so there is always music. 

Rocking out. 

And there are times when you can rock out on your own:

So there is plenty of free time to look after your garden, both literally and figuratively (again that reference to Voltaire's Candide).