Cutting It Pretty Close...

Our Eco Centre has thick straw bale walls that are plastered. Plastering is a tough job, especially if one section is out of reach of any conventional rental scaffolding, as was the case with our East gable. Perfectly tucked away out of anyone’s reach, this section been sitting there waiting to be plastered ever since we finished construction 3 years ago…

Of course this meant that whenever we had a serious rain or snow storm coming from the East, that wall would slowly erode and seep water in. Also the sun’s damaging ultra violet rays were beginning to leave their marks (thank you, hole in the ozone layer).

So this year we really had to get around to plastering that section from hell. Winter is lurking behind the fall-red maple bushes, and once it’s snowing you can forget about any plastering for the next 6 months. If only we knew how to get up there…

And just when we started to get slightly desperate: presto, our farmer neighbour Mo turns out to be a serious scaffolder with just the right equipment for this kind of job. Mo arrived with his truck full of bits and pieces, and 3 hours later we could get up there - finally!

Presto again, and our friend and neighbour Dan Bigelow offers to help us out with a paddle mixer and lots of plaster pointers. Heck, he even offers to do the plastering himself! Dan happens to be a concrete & plaster specialist, so what he says goes (plaster-wise that is).

Plastering away with Dan up top, Hubert as his Vanna White

And after 3 years of head scratching and finding excuses, the East gable finally got finished yesterday! Just in time, it appears, as this morning we woke up to this fall’s first snowstorm. Winter has moved in, the plastering season is officially over…

24 hours later: 3cm of snow and -6C...

A big shout out to Mo and Dan for helping us out just in time!