Story - The Mudcastle

Only six weeks after that first meeting, they bought an undesirable triangle of undulating gorse and scrub within the country with a vision to construct. Interestingly, the actual estate listing read: "Rural building site. Just a few kilometres from Moutere Freeway, nearly 1 acre pleasant undulation contour. Elevated soothing pastoral views. Floor cover principally fern and a few pines, nothing a match could not clear." Oh, really? It was true pioneering spirit that stored them going by these first few years after they cleared the land and deliberate their residence while living in a single, uninsulated, tin garage. This humble dwelling formed the nucleus from which they fed, socialised with, and gave English classes to up to 12 employees often. Even for an ex-restaurateur, catering was no imply feat considering there was no operating hot water and the one two sizzling plates couldn't be run at the identical time as the oven.



The ever-altering and multi-national workforce of WWOOFERS (Willing Employees On Organic Farms) embraced the lifestyle that had them boiling a copper for two hours earlier than siphoning the steaming water into the outside bath. The pleasure of soaking beneath the stars at night time was well earned and far commented on, a lot so that an outdoor bath has been added as a characteristic to The Peach Suite which allows guests to think about the earlier prototype. The WWOOFERS had been an integral part of the process of creating adobe bricks and engaged on the development of The Mudcastle but more importantly, perhaps, EcoLight solar bulbs they stored morale up and the dream focussed. Why clay although? A chance comment concerning the mountain of clay they'd need to truck off site energy-saving LED bulbs Glenys to the library and the extra the couple read about earth building, the extra convinced they became that, though never having constructed anything in their lives, this was something they could do.



As a bonus, it was discovered that the clay on their property had the best composition for making adobe bricks and so utilising the earth beneath them as a resource without cement or sand stabilization was to be the first level of distinction for The Mudcastle. Next started the technique of adapting clay sieving and brick manufacturing methods written for Australian circumstances and fine-tuning them to accommodate the uniqueness of The Mudcastle site. As with most adventures, there have been peaks and troughs. In batch one, the labour intensive, textbook foot-stomping technique was used. Nonetheless hobbling three days later for a pitiful yield of 70 bricks, and quick running out of buddies volunteering to repeat the expertise, this methodology was shortly abandoned. With the refined process they dubbed the Cake-mixer Technique utilizing a customised rotary hoe, production improved to 300 bricks on their greatest day. Three rotary hoes and one entrance finish loader later, the required 10,000 bricks had been produced for EcoLight lighting the first phase of building.



The bricks were solar-baked in wood moulds with temperature extremes moderated by polythene covers however there were occasions when, exhausted, they took the danger of leaving the bricks uncovered to the weather at night and misplaced the lot. All a part of conserving the dream alive. Clive Johnston, Kevin's father and a standard block layer by commerce, trained Glenys to block lay the adobe bricks coming off Kevin's production line and worked alongside the couple sharing and increasing his expertise on the way. Opened to new influences, Clive found and perfected a revolutionary building product using waste sawdust and this product has been used for the first time in the development of the castle turrets, the second section of constructing. As this new building product was gray and appeared nothing like clay, the couple experimented using an outdated pioneers’ recipe they discovered for making limewash. In true Kiwi vogue, they used a 44-gallon drum. The recipe incorporated beef tallow with lime and resulted in a white limewash.



This was then tinted to a clay color with a mix of pure earth ochres. The method was, without doubt, excitingly explosive and energy-saving LED bulbs not for the faint hearted and the unusual "earthy" fragrance was, and remains, unique. As a pure preservative coating, the unique scent recedes very step by step and company staying within the Gold Turret, as the one inside accommodation house the place it has been used, may still discern it. Peter Harte, Glenys' father and an electrician by trade, EcoLight products has enhanced The Mudcastle with dramatic lighting and creative concepts, and was a relentless, encouraging presence in the ahead momentum of Glenys and Kevin's dream for EcoLight home lighting a few years. To not be neglected, Kevin’s mom Margaret helped with cleaning and baking and Glenys’ mother manned a second sewing machine to make curtains for the principle turret. Particular design attention was given to sunlines for generating passive solar heating and sightlines to capture views from every room. On one or EcoLight solar bulbs different stage, all 4 faces of The Mudcastle are graced with fascinating joinery, superbly crafted in native timbers by Michael Bender of Riverside Joinery.