The great wall

The next task which I started in the evening and continued the entire next day was to remove the dividing wall of the two main (living-) rooms under the thatched roof. We want to see the beams that hold together the house, and allow guests to look up and enjoy a sense space when staying in the house. Another point why this wall had to go, was the air circulation of the future heating system. We are now thinking of using a wooden stove, to provide warmth in winter. For hot air from that stove to reach both rooms we need to get convection circle going.

The way this wall is constructed is pretty simple, but yet clever:

The space between the beams is filled out with a thin bamboo latice, that is interweaved and tied together with straw rope. Some bigger splinters are under tension and thus hold the thing in place. Then both sides are covered with a mixture of soil and straw. The lower parts of the wall - reaching up to the ceiling that I removed previously - were also covered with some sort of ugly mineral finish.

To my surprise, these walls were incredibly tough, and you could not for example just kick them out. I guess particularly the bamboo is responsible for this kind of resitance.



This time I had better equipment: a helmet, a gasmask style of breathing mask, protective goggles, leather gloves, a 4 pound hammer, a scraper and a ladder. At the highest point the room is roughly 5 meters high, and it was actually quite fun to sit on the huge beam that goes through the house.

The technique was pretty simple: hammer off the earth from both sides to reveal the lattice. After that cut the straw ropes and pull out the fibers and sticks. With some improving technique I was able to knock out both sides at once. The lower panels were the most difficult as they had the mineral finish on top, and some of the bamboos were also nailed into some crossing boards. At the top I just hammered out the lower parts and sawed off the bigger bamboo sticks, then hammered on strategic bigger bamboos that held the whole triangular lattice up. Finally it own weight pulled it down.

I cleared out the dirt from the house, and maybe we can recycle it for fixing smaller wholes in other walls. Apparently they had already the right mixture of clay, sand and hay, so maybe just need to add water.

After this weekend's job I was truly knackered and aching all over, swinging that hammer and doing the garden are excellent exercises. Fortunately the hot spring is only 10 minutes walk away, to offer relaxation and soothing.

Garden Attack 2

I headed out to Ueda early morning by shinkansen, still nursing a slight hangover from a previous evening event. To clear my head and get the old body moving, I started off by addressing the field/garden of the house.

From my mothers previous experience I understood that the two short Kamas were not ideal, as there was a lot of weeds and grass to cut. So on the way over I popped into the nearby DIY shop to buy the extended version.



Progress was ok, although some stones lying hidden under the grass took their toll on the blade. Maybe try to get a motor operated one for the near future. Grass hoppers and several "kamagiri" or praying mantises frantically got out of the way as I hacked away.

It was a good workout for arms and abdomen, and I think its even better than Billy's Bootcamp!

Later that day, a contractor came to take a look at the roof, and see how much needs to be done. He also brought his experienced dad (looked like 100 years old), and they had fun surveying the place all around.

To finish the work I lit a fire and burned the mountains of grass and weeds. Last time I let some of the stuff dry first, but this time it was just too much. It got a bit smoky, but overall the field is in much better shape now.

Hidden Secrets revealed

Tomo joined us and lifted up floor and ceiling boards to learn about the structure below and above. Its important in order to decide how to apply insulation to keep the house warm in winter.

At that stage we made an exciting discovery: 2 fireplaces were hidden below the floorboards! So this is how the previous inhabitants kept warm in winter. Its difficult to say how old they are, but ash is still contained in them. Its amazing - the round one looks like it is carved into a solid stone. How old may it be?








Looking below the floor revealed that the house is in rather good shape, so no problem from that viewpoint. The question is how to get the place insulated. Tomo suggested to replace the lower layer of floorboards, and then place a layer of insulating board, before adding the wooden flooring.

Now that we had bright daylight it was also possible to better discern the condition of the roof. Pretty ok, but some dusting and cleaning would be advisable. We also found potential problems: 2 beehives. The one on the picture is roughly 30 cm high, so relative small, and it looks deserted.

However, above the bath, Tomo discovered an enormous monster hive, about 3-4 times bigger. It must be the source of the 15 bees that I dispatched inside during my previous visit. I think we need professional help to remove that...

Relaxation and Recreation

Even the inside of the house is largely a construction site, with holes in the ground and still plenty of dirt and dust lying around, my family still enjoyed the house. The genkan (wooden corridor in front of windows), provided pleasant seating opportunities. The view was nice and warm air flowed around us pleasantly.





Near the house is a local speciality shop. Soba is made fresh with nice Kuromi sauce. In the same building you can make your own Japanese traditional paper (washi). We made a paper fan with gold fish, bamboo and dragon fly motives, under the supervision of the skillful insructor. It took only one hour, and after drying they sent it to us by mail.

Garden Attack

Two weeks ago, I freed the plum tree in the garden, as well as the shed from a lot of crawling vines. Some of them were over 4cm thick, and a few clinged so firmly around some thin steel bars that it was impossible to separate them. I left them, out on a wheelbarrow to dry. We finally erased them for good by burning them. The Photo show Maya guarding the fuel on the wheelbarrow.



The concern was of course that due to the dry weather it was a bit scary to have a fire near the house, or on the dry field.

Because of this we checked wind direction to ensure no danger for the roof. My mother started hacking away on the weeds that have taken over the field in front of the house.



Before lighting up we also drenched the field with water, and kept the hose handy just in case.



Dry wood stored on the north side of the house provided fuel for the fire. Within seconds it was lit up and burning nice and hot.



Finally the entire heap was burned, and left only a few ashes.

A family outing during harvest time

This weekend I brought my entire family including my Mother who is on visit from Germany. I was keen to get at least a little work done, check on any possible typhoon damage.

Despite negative prognosis for the weather, we had a wonderful blue sky and pleasant temperatures. In fact the ripe rice in the fields looked extremely pleasing to the eye, against the backdrop of lush green wooded hills and blue sky.The ever-present sound of "semi" cicadas was still to be heard day and night, but significantly less than two weeks ago.

The pictures above show a field about 200m from the house. Many farmers have started harvesting. The machine cuts the stalks of rice plants and bundles a bunch of them together before spitting them out.








I am now trying to sort through the pictures and post only relevant ones, so for this weekend you will see several posts over the week.