Blogg

Today we had a Swedish journalist with photographer visiting. Last week we had visit from Norway and Saturday we’ll have another journalist visiting. Much interest from the media currently. Soon it’s time for the next open tour as well, busy days!

The climate in the greenhouse is very summery now, normal Swedish summer temps. Outside it’s a little colder.

In the garden things are growing, most things still quite small though. First strawberrys are expanding and will hopefully turn red soon. Last year we started picking June 1 but it was much warmer then.

Loads of different tomatoes in all sizes are waiting to be planted, they just need to grow a bit more first. Cucumber and squash is in the ground, maybe a bit early but they should make it.

Planted many different flowers as well that have started flowering and gives some colour.

The wines are growing lots and are full of flowers, should give more yield then last year I hope.

Some fun plants this year, winter tomatoes, gigant basil, lemon basil and ”air onion”. The onion grows like chives but becomes thicker and produces lots of small onions instead of flowers! Strange. The winter tomatoes will stay fresh the whole winter after being picked, a nice suppliment hopefully to the diet. Will look nice with loads of tomatoes in the kitchen ceiling all winter too. Yellow ponderosa is the type we are testing.

The peach did not produce a single flower this year as well, strange. Hopefully it will be happier next year.

Mum got some nice sand stone slabs which we have made a small path out of. The path will connect with the main, brick path eventually when we continue that.

For the terrass we finally got a table and chairs so we can start eating out some more. Great views of the meadows and our new sheep neighbours.

Still many tickets for the next tour on June 2 if you fancy a visit. Dates for July and August are available too. Book in the events section.

Some pics!

Busy days. Many things needs to happen at the same time. Seeds and seedlings nursed to give veggies later on, the greenhouse cleaned up after the winter, preparations for the first tour of the house, continuing with building stuff! Also a very rewarding time, as soon as the sun is out we have summer temperatures. The wines and other shrubs have started to get leafs which is very nice, soon we’ll disapear in greenery 🙂

The upper balcony/terrace is mostly finshed, now it’s more smaller touches left to go, a cool space. Once we have built a stairs from the ground up, the house will become and even more confusing 3D puzzle, awesome!

We got some nice documents from the local council, the permanent occupancy permit, no more interim permit! Very nice, thanks Vallentuna!

We also sent water samples to the lab for testing. The drinking water has become better than the test done shortly after the well was drilled, quite normal. Slightly harder (more Ca) which would explain the calcium buildup we have in the sink etc. A de-hardening filter would be good.

The other water sample was from the cleaned/treated waste water after the growing beds. VERY nice result! The beds are only 1 year old though so the values might increase a bit further on. But the echoli, BOD7 and phosforous values was extremely low. Lower than the big treatment plant north of Stockholm. Drinking water quality. The nitrogen is slightly higher but that is due to no plants growing in the winter, it will be nice to compare with a new sample after the summer.

Anders Solvarm http://www.ecorelief.se stopped by one evening as he passed by Stockholm. Great to catch up, have a look around and do even more measurements on the beds. Anders designed and built the whole treatment system. This time he brought a measuring probe that could sample pH and ammonium nitrogen. I.E. sample before and after the beds to see how efficient they really are. Yucky to take the pre-bed samples but great to see the results, the nitrogen was reduced ~100 times by the beds. PH rose in the bed, probably due to the different types of salts that goes hand in hand with the nitrogen if I understood correctly. Results and more exact numbers from the tests are published under the ”data” page to the left.

Also on the data page are the data from the heat recovery pumps first year. I expect the numbers to become even better next winter when the greenhouse is finished and will keep the temperature higher around the house + more filling material around the slab + house logs sinking/compacting making the walls tighter + tuning of the heat system + using the wood stove more.

Only a few days left now before the first open tour of the house, lots to do, little time. Hopefully people will be happy afterwards at least. More dates for the summer has been added too, book your tour now! 🙂

Time for some pictures! A bumble bee that needed some sugar (amazing little straw it has to suck up nectar), finishing some of the facade, washing the windows (everyone seems very intrigued how we wash the windows), big tulips flowering like crazy, wine leafs, more tulips and finally the solar sails that makes the balcony not too hot during the day. Way too nice to sit in the shade and work from home on the computer. Last pic of our road that got a sping cleaning too, a good grating/planing to get rid of potholes. Making the road grate again!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Let’s see if we can keep the blog up to date a bit more! Our first open tour is slowly filling up, will be exciting. April 28th is the day. Tickets available to the left. By then the greenhouse will have woken up a bit more, currently some things are starting to push out greenery.

The greenhouse is still a bit open so it does not get as warm as it could be at this time of the year. Plants are a little slow. The strawberries have started pushing up new leafs, by June we’ll have loads of berries!

The chives is waking up. Perfekt to the pickled herring and sourcream on Easter.

Under the balcony we have tried to keep a warmer area for tropical plants. Currently only plastic ”walls” + a heater, next winter we hope to have glass walls to make a greenhouse in the greenhouse. Unfortunately the storm Alfrida in January caused a power outage for 36 hours which killed the lemon. The almond on the other hand is flowering like crazy.

The peach out in the main greenhouse, also a prunus like the almond, is just about to push out it’s leafs. Hopefully we’ll get some peaches this year.

The SE corner currently, quite a big differance to the summer last year when the walls were covered by greenery several meters up. Grape wines to the right, peach centerish and some sort of hibiscus to the left. Hopefully it has survived.

Tulips pushing out of the sand but it’s slow, they have been working on it since February. Will bring some nice colours soon I hope.

Let’s not be fooled by the cold weather, it can be hot already in the greenhouse! That is one of the benefits of the nature house concept, much longer ”outdoor” season. We’ve had several days where the greenhouse reach 25 degrees C and automatically start to open the ventilation. We found some solar sails on IKEA to protect a bit against the direct sun. Looks OK, we’ll see how good it works. The pergola beams are perfect to anchor all sorts of things like the sails. They are quite big at ~3 m high and 135 mm square timber.

The black cloth is also from IKEA, ”balcony covering”,semi permanent. Mostly it is to prevent kids from climbing on the fence.

The terrass is nearing completion, we made the floor out of sturdy and huge 2x9s (45×220 mm). Really nice, a bit soft wood but looks cool being so thick. Still left to do is the handrail with the same boards. Somewhere to put the drink!

Lots of things to do now that spring is here. Long lists to complete but great to work in the greenhouse again. Next week will probably be putting up wires for the plants to climb on, finishing up facade boards and some more sowing of seeds. Currently we have two large mini greenhouses going with seeds.

Until next time, smooth sailing!

//Björn

The rain is pouring down and melting the snow. The summer feels distant but things are starting to wake up in the greenhouse. The almond tree has been in full bloom a few weeks, tulips are pushing out of the ground. The strawberries are pushing new leafs as is the chives. Seeds has been sown for the coming season. Time to prepare!

We have been here for 11 months now. Very nice so far but time is running too fast. Last summer was hot and things grew like crazy. Hard to imagine the jungle now.

Time to start having open/guided tours! We have added one date, April 28 so far, more to come. Book your tickets under ”events”. A bit of confusion between English and Swedish in the web page plugin but it seems to work at least, albeit the link only shows up on the Swedish version of the page.

Some pictures from the year we have been here below.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Time flies… a long year of building since the last update, but now we are nearly there! Some more documentations then approval from the council. We have to move during easter either way so hoping to get the approval next week.

There are still many things to complete but it’s totaly livable currently.

Ending ths short update with a winter pic.

Time to update this page! Sad times in Stockolm with a terrorist attack on Friday. The positive thing is that most of the society is coming together more closely than before.

As usual during the winter things tend to slow down. Maybe it’s the lack of daylight that drains energy. This was the third winter building and it has started to take it’s toll. It’s been tough going all winter.

An opportunity to work abroad turned up so I spent one month in Singapore, one more coming up shortly. Nice to see a new part of the world and get a break from building.

So what has happened since the last update then. Two days of wireing has completed the upper floor and the lower is about half finished. Still switches and sockets to go as well as switch box, main incoming wires, sub boxes etc.

The ceiling has been clad with vapor membrane and then insulated with lose, blown insulation. Made from old newspapers it is blown directly from the lorry. Outer walls wil be done when the electrics are done.

Now we are finally adding the ceiling paneling.

Outside we have started with the frames for the external insulation which will be blown as well.

The wood burning, water jacket stove has been installed and the chimney tested. Nice to get some heat. It’s an interesting stove from Aquaflam, Vario Barma, where the water jacket can be replaced so it works like a normal wood burning stove. Good since it will take a long time until the all the water heating can be installed.

One of the pumps for the recycling system broke down and had to be replaced. Running fine again now and provides the looping final stage of the recycling system as well as a stream in the greenhouse.

Planted the first three grapes which we ordered from vinplantan.se. Some fun eating grapes varieties. It will take a few years for them to give grapes but they have already started sprouting. Strawberry plants from last year are sprouting.

Still waiting for final delivery from Palmatin, they seem to have problem delivering…

Left to do before it’s possible to move in: finalize the electrics, balcony/pergola, external insulaton and facade, bathroom, heatpump, kitchen, ceiling, floorboards. Money is a bit of an issue…

Some pictures below!

After a hard weekend of infiltration bed building the first bed is operational!

Ca 20 m³ of sand(0-8) mixed with peat on top of the EPDM rubber and drainage pipes. 15 cm below the surface are 4 pipes that spreads the water which then infiltrates to the bottom and is collected by the drainage pipes. Took some time and sweat to get it in, thanks everyone that helped!

Anders Solvarm (ecorelief) who has designed the system, connected pipes left and right the recycling room (as well as shoveling a lot of sand).

Currently water is only circulating in the first bed, but enough to try to plant some things. The water is pumped up again from one of the tanks once the water has reached a certain level. Not any nutrients yet since there is no waste water to clean. Some regular soil added for nutrients and micro organisms. GO! cucumbers, tomatoes, paprika, basil, strawberries!

Automatic watering is nice 🙂

Took the long way back from the neighbours after coffee. Starting to look nice.

Long time, no update!

We’re on the verge of summer now, finally more light and lighter evenings. All migrant birds are almost back, still waiting for the swifts and swallows around here. Trees are going green.

Work has been ongoing on many fronts, house, growing beds, recycling house, etc. Late February we finally go delivery nr 3 from Palmatin. This time with doors, windows, roof, floor boards, terrace boards. The driver only spoke Russian but it worked out fine anyway.

Two of the windows unwrapped. Sturdy, triple glazed windows from Estonia. Really heavy as well but with some ingenuity and manpower we got them into the house the following week.

Blue front door 🙂

To get doors and windows up to the second floor I built an elevator. The heaviest glass doors weighed over 150 kg so it was a bit nervous to hoist them with the winch and thin wire.

Contraption to prevent to window from falling out when we lifted it into place.

First window in place! They look really nice. Great space on the windowsill.

BBQ break. Worked fine to light the BBQ in the greenhouse, as long as the top windows are open. A bit smoky otherwise..

One day I found this baby hare in the house. Probably placed there by the mother during the day. It stayed perfectly still as instructed, I wish our kids would listen as good. The next day it had moved to some other place.

A lot of super heavy OSB boards were delivered.for the roof. Good thing we had the winch to lift it all up.

One of the heaviest glass doors in place on the first floor terrace. The terrace floor boards will be at the same level as the door eventually. We have started mounting the vertical insulation beams as well, they will hold 200 mm insulation and then the facade boards.

Great, big door! The floor inside is a bit lower, we’ll need a step once the real floor is in place.

Time to get water! The drilling jig was really fast and reached 90 m in a few hours.

Unfortunately no water was found during drilling…

A fracking specialist was brought in to sort out the well. He lowered a pipe with a cuff which sealed off the hole at 21 m. After that he filled the hole below the cuff with water and applied pressure. Starting pressure was 130 bar which quickly went down to 80 bars, i.e. the bedrock cracked below the cuff. Water! After letting out the water from the fracking we started getting water from the rock. Eventually it has been estimated to 1400 liters/hour which is quite a lot. Good. At first it was milky white from the pulverized rock. Now it has cleared out nicely after pumping for some hours.

Another area we want to get going is the infiltration/growing beds so we can start growing something. After all, it is a greenhouse. First up is 45 m x 6,1 m EPDM rubber membrane and fiber cloth to protect it.

Starting on the first bed, step one, clean up! I have lined the bed with insulation boards we had lying around after the foundation work. Might keep the beds slightly warmer = longer season.

Laying some tubes for the incoming water in the recycling system. The three black PEM tubes will feed each of the three beds with water. The grey pipe will feed back the filtered water from the bottom of the bed to the recycling house, then it’s pumped up through the next PEM tube to the next bed.

Protective cloth in place of the gravel with the rubber on top. The gravel has a slight lean to it so water will collect at one end. The rubber will be spread out to catch all water after being filtered. Drainage pipes connected to the grey pipe in the previous pic will lay on top of the rubber at the bottom of the bed and collect the water.

To be able to install the water recycling system, tanks, pumps etc. as well as the control system and tanks for the well, we need to get cracking on the recycling house. Finishing up the LECA walls by pouring a reinforced concrete beam at the top. The wall became slightly too high so we had to cut out ca 5 cm of the top U-shaped blocks. Then also saw down into the block to create new U-blocks. Much work.

On the western wall there is no wall crest to place the roof beams on, instead they have to rest on this 2×9. Linda is cleaning out the holes for threaded rods.

Finally time to open the package with the beams. They have been there since last summer, a bit nervous if they had survived. But they still looked like new! A few small places where the wood had blackened by water.

First one in place. At 6 m long it weighs a few kg.

Threaded rods in place. Secured with chemical anchor which gets good grip in the LECA and concrete after cleaning the holes.

The 2x9s supported by vertical 2x4s to give even more strengths. More screws were added after this pic.

Linda fastening the third joist.

Everyone gets a go! Lova trying the compressed air tools. The bolt pistol made it a lot easier and faster to get all the screws in place, just wished I had a bigger compressor, it had a hard time keeping up.

Good thing Tomas had time to help, 13 beams x 80 kg each was a bit much to move around the greenhouse and lift up.

Starting to look like a roof! Photo from the first floor terrace.

All beams up on the roof, just some more screws to secure them. 60+ huge wooden screws still to go, each beam used 12 screws. Now it should survive a hurricane.

We have also had time to start laying some floorboards on the first floor. Solid pine boards at 28 mm. Looks really nice.

Skis still out… Might be time to put them away for the summer. Temperatures are starting to become a bit high in the greenhouse now, but OK when the big doors are open and the breeze comes in.

Planned activities going forward is getting the water working. Anders Solvarm (http://www.ecorelief.se) is working on getting the needed hardware for the recycling system so we can get that going too. Hopefully the recycling house will be watertight after this weekend, will be nice to have come that far. Material (gravel, sand, peat, coal etc) for the beds needs to be ordered.

We are still waiting for material from Palmatin, a bit slow to get responses from them, especially from their stair manufacturer. Still to go is stairs, balconies, facade boards, ceiling boards, more floor and terrace boards.

A short update from the site. Sun! The greenhouse is starting to work, just below zero outside, 7+ halfway up where the thermometer is, a lot warmer up at the top. Nice… Can I stay here?