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Working… Progress!

August 22, 2010 in Team News, The Build by fullmonte | No comments

I have been so slack at keeping this blog up to date – apologies but a limited internet connection on the campsite, combined with an unlimited work schedule has meant more doing and less writing about doing!

So here’s a run down of all the tasks ticked off the list this summer:

The basement door has been painted a tasteful silver grey and the ugly piece of pink polystyrene that was wedged in the top of the door to stop people hitting their heads as they enter has been replaced with a strategically placed piece of wood, nicely painted white to blend in with the building…

The kitchen is looking great!  All shelves, cupboards & hooks are up.  Now everything has its place and commonly accessed utensils etc are within easy reach.

The laundry sink is tiled!  It was a labour of love for Steve who patiently, single-handedly completed this project.  It has really grown on us and has become our favourite thing in the kitchen!  Almost the day after it was completed, guests arrived and innocently asked: “Can I do some some washing?” – “Yes!” we gushed! (and then ran off to quickly erect a washing line and dig out the pegs!!).  Despite our reservations about it not being wide enough, everything fits in it fine!  It’s great for scrubbing the big ole pan I use for most of the cooking and its a good place to leave pots and pans soaking over night.  This is a poor picture of it (taken at night with a flash) but you get the drift…

A scabby old cupboard we salvaged has been painted with white gloss and is a nice addition to the communal building.  Our eco books and Guest Book live atop and I try to keep fresh flowers displayed there too.  Inside live all the board games, packs of cards etc…

We have signs!!!  This one was artfully drawn up by Gav during his stay with the chalk board pens he brought with him from the UK.  A piece of old wardrobe is transformed into a posh sign, varnished and protected from the weather…

And here’s another of Gav’s masterpieces… A back of a wardrobe was painted dark green and became the perfect canvas for our roadside sign.  He even tried to reproduce the letters in our font and using a part of our logo:

The final sign is Mr Nik’s great work… The campsite name & phone number positioned here draws people’s attention to the bell (just above the sign) and means we can leave the site without worrying about missing business – people can phone and let us know they have turned up and we can dash back…  You can’t see it in this picture but to the right of the sign is a motion-activated solar spotlight.  It illuminates the sign and the gate at night and works brilliantly!

The last shower has been tiled!!!!!  All 3 showers are now in use, shower curtain up – job done!

A random shelf unit that we salvaged was transformed into a handy bathroom cabinet by Nik & I.  It’s a place for guests to put their toiletries and has hooks to hang shower puffs, back scrubbers etc…

Access around the site is an issue.  We really need purpose-built steps in lots of places down from one terrace to another but its just too costly right now so we are trying to do the best we can with the materials available.  One of the routes our guests want to take is from the basement down to the lower terrace, without having to walk up stairs, through the building and down stairs again or the even longer route of all the way down the garden to the steps by the stream.  Nik loves to work with stone and doggedly sought out the necessary stones, lugged them up to the building, wrestled them into place and created a set of steps that run down alongside the concrete steps from the building…  You can hardly see them in this shot but that’s a measure of how well they blend in with the existing stone wall!

Intent on tidying up the side of the building, Nik persevered with mattocking & raking the ground level and then barrowing loads of sand & gravel to cover the earth (which turns to a claggy mess when wet if not covered over!).  It was really hard graft but the look was still spoilt by the ugly side view of the steps.  Then I remembered the piece of bamboo covering we’d salvaged from Maja’s Grandma’s place and it fitted great…

I finally got my cork noticeboard finished and marketing material in place!  The signs inside the building still need to be branded with our logo etc but at least we have ditched the unprofessional looking bits of carboard and have decent, laminated signs in Serbian and English for all key messages…

Alongside all these projects we’ve done some tidying & prettying-up (made up word alert?) – the basement is a really nice space now with room for both laptops, a library for our guests, cushions for chairs and roll mats neatly stacked and easy to access.  The second plastic bottle window for the kitchen area has been completed and all these panels stack nicely in the basement.  The mess and disorder in the workshop finally got too much for me and I had a good old clear out.  The torn canvases soaked in mouse-pee have been removed (we managed to salvage some good pieces and scrub them clean); all the rags have been washed and sorted; the floor has been swept and boxes rationlised.  You can actually get into it and find what you are looking for without too much hassle now!  And the second wine bottle window that we decided not to grout around (it lets in more light this way) now has a neat wooden frame around it, courtesy of Nik the Carpenter, and its painted a nice dark green.  It finishes it off really well and has attracted approving comments.

Then of course there’s the ongoing maintenance of the site.  We’ve had to do some work on the greywater system and the compost loos have kept us busy too but these are for future posts in the autumn when I have more time – there is much to share here about our experiences of DIY green sewerage and toilet systems!

The waterless urinals are close to completion so I’ll report on this project, with pictures, soon.  There are only a few key projects outstanding in the building: tiling the toilet walls; making hand rails for the steps out of the building and tiling these steps with lovely old tiles donated by fellow eco warrior Paul.  Then, apart from the inevitable ongoing touching up of paintwork and further modifications to the kitchen to continue to use every inch of space to best effect, the communal building will be done, done, done!  We are very proud – knackered, but proud!

Having got this far, the work ahead for the autumn, winter & spring will all be focused on the grounds.  There is much levelling of earth to be done – we need more tent pitches and a level eating area for the 10 – 15 people we need to attract most weeks in the season next year.  There are also areas of the grounds yet to be uncovered – spoil from the building works remains and once this has been dug out and used to fill in and level ground we hope to create new nooks and crannies for: another hammock, shaded seating areas and at least one outside bathroom (we have one bath and an offer of another!)

Hopefully now you’ll realise that my lack of blogging is for good reason!  Wish us luck with the mammoth tasks ahead…

Grey days for Grey water

June 14, 2010 in Environmentally Friendly, Reduce Reuse Recycle, The Build by fullmonte | 2 comments

Things have not been going well on the DIY sewerage front!  Our ingenious grey water system was: a) leaking and b) starting to smell.  This was round about the time we had just finished installing the final piece of the puzzle – the irrigation system into the raised beds – all the baths were stone walled in and we’d declared the job done.  Ahhh.  Not so fast Professor!

We’d went into denial  for a bit, kidded ourselves the leak would stop and generally dug our heads in the sand whilst tackling other tasks.  We could put it off no longer and it was time to dig out the last bath to see what was going on in there:

Oh I get all the best jobs don’t I?!

The good news was that the root system of the plants in the bath was incredibly well developed.  The mint, reeds and grasses had established themselves and thrived on the nutrients in the waste water.  We took this opportunity to split some of the clumps of bamboo and grass up and redistribute the flora to maximise plant filtering in each bath.  The bad news was, it was pretty smelly and yucky in the bottom where the water had been sitting and it ALL had to come out to check thoroughly for leaks.  It was about this time that we got the call from Amy to ask if we could host the Naming Ceremony for Eloise, in 3 days…  Right, well we HAD to have the bath reconstructed by Sunday and all smells and open baths GONE.

Matt, as ever, was a total star and helped Steve to seal all the possible area where the water could be leaking out – particularly the oversized outlet hole and the area around the original bath plug hole.  With heavy hearts, they dismantled the stone wall Steve had built – they had to be absolutely sure that all the pipework (now buried under the stone wall and dirt) was intact and functioning correctly.

Having sealed everything, adjusted the pipework and tested for leaks, the boys confidently declared the problem solved.  The bath was rebuilt (hurriedly, it has to be said) and that, we hoped, was that.

No such luck.  At the end of Eloise’s special day when the system was being put through its paces with lots of washing up, there was still greywater seeping out into ground and now the second from last bath was backing up.  Disaster!

We thought there was a number of factors contributing to failure:

  • the tap onto which the hosepipe for the irrigation system into the beds fits was blocked.  Despite frequent cleaning it kept getting blocked as particles of muck were dislogded into the pipes from the soil in the baths being so badly disturbed
  • the hosepipe system that fed the garden was not perfectly positioned for a 2% gradient.  It was simply laid on the ground and had humps and kinks in places – through which the water was not flowing, contributing to the system backing up
  • the hosepipe into the beds was of smaller bore than the other pipework and therefor the water wasn’t running away fast enough

However we couldn’t be sure that the last bath hadn’t been damaged as it was rebuilt or the pipework dislodged.  Now very fed up with revisiting tasks that we thought were sorted, Steve dug out the last bath – AGAIN.

It was the right thing to do because he discovered that the bath was clay-clogged mess.  For the baths to function properly, filtering the waste water and acting as a  reservoir for the surge of water, it should be constructed of layers: big stones at the bottom, followed by smaller stones, followed by earth and compost.  These had not be reinstated properly plus there was too much clay and this was making it difficult for the water to permeate through fast enough.

We have left the last bath empty for the past few days, anxiously checking for leaks…

With the last bath not functioning, the system has been deprived of a vital reservoir in the chain in dealing with surges of water.  So the second from last bath has begun to back up as the water isn’t able to flow fast enough out into the garden.  There’s been much adjusting of the hosepipe system, encouraging the water through and clearing the blocked tap…

We are hoping that if we:

  • carefully rebuild the last bath, reinstating the layers and replacing the clay with soil and compost
  • take out the tap altogether
  • and level the hosepipe system on sand with the required 2% drop,

that the water will flow fast enough and the system will not clog or back up.

We are considering using a Y-shaped adapter in some places in the hosepipe so that 2 raised beds can receive water at the same time and therefore speed up the safe & non-smelly disposal of the water!  If all of the above doesn’t work then we will have to consider scrapping the hosepipe arrangement altogther and using larger bore pipe to carry more water.  We are reluctant to do this because: we’ve already invested in the hosepipe, which won’t be much good elsewhere; and because it will look ugly and clumsy.

It’s tough working all this stuff out ourselves.  Keep your fingers crossed for us folk.  We potentially have our first guest arriving in a few days and it has to be sorted by then…

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It’s All White Now (well almost…)

May 30, 2010 in The Build by fullmonte | 1 comment

So – time to paint the building, we thought… Hmmm – it’s very high!!!!  And the steps beside it make it very tricky…  Ladders just weren’t going to cut it.  Nope – scaffolding was the thing.  But where to get it?  How to put it up?  And more importantly how much would it cost?

During the limewash frenzy of the working weekend, I had mentioned our dilemma to Therese. She thought she could help.  A follow up call a few days later secured us an amazing deal: she would get scaffolding to us, complete with the men to erect it for us, in return for a few hours strimming of the garden of one of her properties and a meet & greet for some rental customers.  Done!

The scaffolding arrived the next day and within a couple of hours it was up.  Time to get busy!


We had only expected the guys to erect scaffold on the outside but they helpfully put up a structure inside the kitchen so we could reach the gable end inside too.


We were able to use the hefty, metal scaffold boards on top of the compost loo walls to reach the other gable end inside:


It was incredibly sastifying, turning everything from grey to white but the scaffold was a real pain to navigate around – Steve’s head was a patchwork of bloody scabs where he kept hitting it on low poles!  We raced to slap on the 2 coats of lime wash needed everywhere so we could get the damn stuff down. But wasn’t it worth it…

And this shot shows one side of the building painted too – Steve (of the long legs and long arms) managed to do this using only a ladder…

And the ‘well, almost’?  Well, we still have the other gable end to paint and are hoping to use the scaffold boards on top of the compost chambers and a ladder on top of those. The other side of the building is yet to be done but it is the easiest to reach and will only require a ladder.  Wednesday the scaffold will probably be collected so if we have time before then we might paint the workshop too!

We have saved ourselves 100’s of euros by using limewash as our medium.  We bought 2 big bags of lime which cost us just over 5 euros and that will be enough to finish everything inside & out & probably to paint the workshop too!  What a bargain!!!

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Progress report

May 20, 2010 in Camping News, The Build by fullmonte | No comments

Sorry if the last post was full of doom & gloom.  I’ve decided to cheer myself up by posting about all the stuff we have achieved.  This is a scheduled post as we are now back on the campsite…

I’d like to say this was an update on the BIG LIST but actually most of the things left on that list are staying there for the foreseeable future until we get a) good weather; b) a period of time with no events, no friends staying or other distractions and c) some more help (please let the promised volunteers actually turn up!).

We’ve decided to focus on the high impact stuff – doing the things that visually make a difference so that the place looks good, even if when you peer into the corners of the place they turn out not to be fully tiled etc.

So, here’s a little round up:

  • The glass bricks are mostly in – just the last window in the last loo to do.  We haven’t been able to tackle this up until now because the cables for the solar PV were threaded through the window.  Now that the solar cupboard has been made and the cables have been re-positioned through the wall we can get on and fill that last gap.  Here are some pictures of the windows:

  • We have hooks up for towels – by each shower and around the wash basins – and strings of battery operated lights adorn the wash basin area at night:

  • The basement is painted & has a lino floor down.  We took everything out, sorted & organised it and moved it back in.  We now have a wardrobe and chest of drawers for our clothes in the inner sanctum, which is also the storage area for tents & tiles.  The main room now has an office area with a desk we can work at; cushions for the chairs are neatly stacked & readily available; there’s a cleaning cupboard with all the mops & brooms; there are tables containing gardening stuff and an area for ‘illumination’ (candles, gas lamps & refills, solar lights etc).  I need to take more pictures but this is what it looked like with the walls painted and the floor down:

  • The solar fairy lights have been positioned around the site, lighting the steps and walkways.  The solar spot lights are up (bar 1, which will be installed any day now) so the entrances to the building are all well lit and 2 spot lights illuminate the kitchen area at night.  It’s a tricky ole job because they need to be positioned at night to ensure the angle and height of the spotlight is really lighting the important areas.  Here’s Steve up a ladder, drilling holes at night:

  • The solar equipment is all tidied away in a wall cupboard, which has been made strong enough to accommodate a second battery as we hope to be generating enough power in the sunny months to charge 2 batteries:

  • All the window ledges in the kitchen area have now been tiled, so we have a smooth surface to perch on and, more importantly, a neat frame for the plastic bottle windows to fit into.  This picture was taken on the rainy morning of the working weekend but shows the nice brown tiles of the window ledge:

  • And here’s the new design of the plastic bottle window and us making them (proper picture to follow when the entire window is complete and the rough wood frames have been painted!):

  • Most of the strimming, stumping & raking around the site has been done now, although this is a bit of an endless task and we have deliberately left some areas to let the new grass grow as long & as strong as possible.
  • The 45,000 litre water tank is pretty much full – just one more tank of fuel in our trusty pump and that should do it!
  • The wooden fence that will be planted with beans and provide additional screening for the lower camping terrace is finally up.  It looks great and its strung with solar fairy lights so its all lit up at night and provides a way-marker for the camping area.  Just got to get planting those beans!

This weeks tasks include:

  • painting all the grey cement still left inside the building
  • finishing the plastic bottle windows and getting them fixed into place
  • putting the last 4 glass bricks in
  • limewashing as much of the outside of the building as we can reach and as the weather allows
  • re-digging paths and using the piles of gravel and sand we have to create smooth, mud-free trails around the site

Watch this space to see how much we actually get done!

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