This last week the main things we worked on was the porch. Finally the wall of faswall blocks for the porch is up. These blocks are interesting to work with. Not totally uniform it is sometimes tricky to line them up. After the first two rows it was getting a little bit easier. We also had not enough corner blocks - so we used regular ones from which we trimmed off the groves to make them flat. We also went to see what kind of gravel we might want to put on the top layer of the driveway - if at all. I am thinking to use gravel and later on maybe also put clay pavers down. We also checked out the clay pavers - the cost for the total area of the North part of the driveway would be somewhere around $350. Not too bad - and then some sand and lots of labor. So I will need to start soon on that in order to be ready with some sort of foot path and access for Berta's clients.
Also I will need to complete the wall, using some cement to close holes and close edges, set rebar and dig out more space for the outside future plastering. And then have another inspection before pouring, which we want to do coming Friday.
In the meantime I also started working on the next output. So far it is going well - much easier than the last one. Hopefully today I can complete another section of it.
I am reading currently a book called "balance point" by Joseph Jenkins and like it a lot. It expresses very well many of the ways how I have been looking at things - we are spiritually out of balance and by loosing our balance point between self awareness and selfless awareness lost connection and understanding of the Greater Existence we are all part of and become destructive to the very planet that nourishes us.
Reading this book brings back strongly the vision for the ultimate lifestyle I want to develop - beyond the project for the degree work. For the IESD the defined project is for existing fairly regular buildings to make them more sustainable. This is, as I am experiencing a process that will take a few years at best and easily up to a decade. What I really feel like doing is developing a polycultural garden micro eco-shed way of living. A small shelter, here where we live it can be 200sf living space without needing a building permit, which is about the double size of the room I am working in.  All made out of local and natural materials - foundation rubble trench, dry laid, or in lime plaster, rock as bond beam, straw bale or cob walls, preferably round with a self-carrying reciprocal roof that is thatched maybe or with cedar, clay tile, slate shingles, the walls are finished with earth plasters and lime washes or similar, the floor is clay. For the building no cement, plastic and metal is used. The toilet is a sawdust/composting type, water is piped in using bamboo, etc. It is very open to the polycultural, permacultural designed garden. If electricity, it is provided by solar panels for light and communication needs. Everything else is done by hand. This place could be in the backyard and there is a zone of transition, an edge, between that and the existing house our home. I have such a strong wish for this and would like to be able to implement this soon - a little bit more area would be great in order to have space for some projects, like developing some income producing crops, distilling alcohol as fuel, do carpentry and crafts and for research. I will keep this dream alive - a simple living in terms of material things and complex in the relations and connections to the urban human designed environment, allowing nature to come back as much as possible.