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An update

Thought I should post a quick update here to show all is well. I got back this weekend from a Straw Bale building course – learning how to build and render straw bale to create the perfect eco-friendly insulated building. I had a great time, and I’ll post up here with some information I learnt and photos from the weekend. That might take some time though, as I am currently on overdrive with things I need to do this week!

I have lessons to plan, an inspection at the end of April to prepare for, a trip to Ecuador, two websites to work on and my garden to crack on with in this fantastic weather! Until I get around to it, enjoy the extra hour of evening light, and the fantastic weather we are having!

OOOh, I also received my registration confirmation for the Bristol 10K this week. I’ll be running it on the 20th May in aid of Life Cycle UK. PLEASE DONATE IF YOU CAN!! Find my fundraising page here: http://www.justgiving.co.uk/alunking

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By Alun – March 26, 2012

Using Android as a running tool

Recently, I’ve been training up for the Bristol 10K in May, and been playing with different apps on my phone to help me measure my average pace and times as I improve.

There are many different ways of tracking your running. Most of the popular ways are by getting a GPS watch. This device will lock on very quickly and track your run, delivering you a host of stats once you connect it to the computer. However, if you have a phone with GPS, you could save yourself the £100+ and use your phone as a running aid.

The only problem I found with my Motorola Defy is that the GPS takes about 15 minutes to start tracking me. The GPS is really slow in warming up. When my run lasts 25 minutes, I don’t find hanging around for 15 minutes (and it really does take that long) whilst my phone figures out where I am.

I thought about leaving the GPS on overnight, so when I wake up, I can grab my phone and it knows where I am, but this doesn’t work. I need the app to be on, so it can get my location. Ideally, I need my app to launch 15 minutes before I wake up, so that when I do wake up, it has located me, and is ready to go for a run. This is where AppAlarm comes in.

AppAlarm is a brilliant (free!!) app which launches apps like an alarm clock. I set my alarm for before I wake up and leave my phone on the windowsill. When I am ready to run, my phone is ready too. Bloomin’ brilliant.

If you are wondering which app I use to track my progress, I currently use Google’s MyTracks. A great free app from Google, which allows me to save track information to .GPX format and upload it to a service like Garmin Connect, so I can monitor my performance and use their tools online to share and compete with others!

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By Alun – March 15, 2012

Earth Rammed Tyres Links & Thoughts

Over the last few days, having seen so many useful websites on how to build using the methods I am using, I’ve been thinking about how I can make this website more informative for people who are looking to learn more about eco-building.

I’m trying to collate all the information I have gathered into simple posts, so people can hopefully find this one post, and all the links I have, and save themselves a fair bit of time.

I’ve tried to put useful comments by each link so you can get an overview of whats on the page. If you find this page and use it, It would be good to know if you find this useful, please leave a comment!

Earthship Wiki on Tyre Ramming
This page is a pretty filled out resource which details everything you need to know, like selecting tyres, and techniques to follow when laying the courses.
http://www.sustainablebuildingresource.co.uk/wiki/index.php/New_build:earthship:_tyre_ramming

Bristol Green House
I linked to this website on another page, but there is this section, which links to the specific page on tyre ramming. It it a pretty good account of a real tyre ramming project, where the wiki page above documents methods in a more theory based way.
http://bristolgreenhouse.co.uk/tyrewalls.html

My Experience
As I work on my walls, I’ll document more on my experience and post it here.

Ideal Tyre Size Selection:
Currently, I am using 175s (width of the tyre) to build my walls. While the wiki linked to above recommends 195s, am finding that once filled, the tyres bulk out to much wider than their normal width, and the 175s tend to be reliably high profile, so I can get plenty of earth into the rim.

On the website, you will also find it recommends that the same size tyres are used. For my first wall, I collected tyres with set widths (175) and ignored the other measurements. While this is, in theory OK since the width of the tyres will be the same, what I found in practice is that the size of the tyre wall affects the amount the tyre bulks up when rammed, which I then had to sort out with small stones here or there, or careful placement of the tyre above. So for solid, level structures, using a consistent size throughout will help ensure that you don’t end up with minor levelling issues in your wall.

For my main building, I am currently deciding whether to go with a consistent size using 195s or 175s. Given that I have used 175s ,I might go with the 195 size tyre and this will allow me to feedback on a preference between tyres. They will also be holding the weight of the straw bales, so a bigger base is always welcome!

Tyre Settlement:
In the process of completing a course of tyres, I have noticed that given a few days of warm or wet weather, the rims of the tyres might settle a little. This could be down to me not ramming enough, or perhaps the type of soil I’m using. Either way, once I have finished a line of tyres, I find it useful to go along the completed row, checking the rims and doing a little bit of extra ramming where needed. Bear this in mind if you have the spare time, as it might help out in the long run.

Weather:
While a rammed tyre stands up to rain quite well, and lets it wash off the top, I have found that if you are halfway through a tyre, you will have real problems finishing it, if it has been rained on. The water gets in, and has trouble getting out, and a few whacks with the sledgehammer brings out the muddy mess that has soaked into the earth inside. Try and avoid this by either covering half finished tyres, or by not leaving any tyres unfinished overnight!!

In the long run, if you are building a wall which will be exposed, you should make sure that there is something covering the top, to stop any water getting into the tyre, or rain hitting the tyres and wearing away the earth inside over time. I’ve got no evidence myself to prove that this will be a problem, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. When I finish my tyre wall, I will be building a wall plate and probably fitting some decking over the top, so I’ll post more photos of that in time (hopefully summer 2012).

Posted in Rammed Earth Tyres.

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By Alun – March 15, 2012

My First Gig (in a long while)

Last night was a good day, though with a long 9am to 8pm in college to kick things off, I didn’t expect it to be!

I started the day in college, as usual and we had to stay behind after work for open day, which is the opportunity for all prospective pupils  and parents to come along and find out more about the courses we teach. Its not a bad thing to do, its usually fairly relaxed, but I did have to get into Cardiff afterwards for the first gig with my band, so I was looking forward to heading off!

I managed to make Cardiff for 8.30, and we were on stage for 9.30 so I was pretty happy to get out and make it on time!

We have been practicing for this gig for some time, and were pretty hyped about it, so I’m very glad to say it went pretty well! We played tight, didn’t make any major mistakes, and got an encore! (even though we didn’t have any other songs to play, so we had to play one twice!) People were pretty complimentary towards the gig, so we all left on a high. The only thing that left me down was the fact that I only had 5 hours sleep before getting up for work the next day!

We should be into the recording studio in April, so we will be able to put more time into getting some CDs out and spreading the word on what we are doing. I’m looking forward to it, and I’ll post more up here when I have something for you to listen to.

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By Alun – March 8, 2012

How to Ram a Tyre Wall

Do you often find yourself looking for something different to do?
Do you find that the gym offers no real challenge?
Are you often longing for a way of quickly tiring yourself out?
Do you long for a way of combining money saving with exercise and environmentally-friendly construction?
Yes? They tyre ramming is for you!

I took to the tyre wall today, with the plan of learning how easy/hard it is to ram a tyre with earth, and build a wall. I learnt quickly that it is not something for the faint hearted to take on. If you are thinking of building something from tyres, get this fact straight – it is hard work!

My dad and I tackled digging out the slope enough to foot the first few tyres down. Once we had them in place, filling them with earth was easy, and you then jump, hammer and sledge-hammer them for a good half hour before you find the tyre looks finished. A few more whacks with a sledge tells you that you probably are about halfway! Honestly, its amazing how much earth and stone you can cram into one tyre.


They are sitting fairly level now, and I think this first wall is going to be five tyres high, maybe 6. Tomorrow, I’ll have to get out of there and measure up how wide the wall will be, so I can get an idea of how many tyres I’m going to need. With one morning spent, we have four tyres in place, and four ready to be hammered. On early estimates, I would say that the wall is going to take around 100 tyres, so plenty of mornings left to work!

With that in mind, I sent out a volunteer newsletter yesterday. I am planning to get everyone involved in volunteering near the end of April. From the 16th to the 22nd, I’ll be in the garden (weather permitting) so if you fancy an escape from the gym, and fancy building some muscles, or if you want to help out in other ways, like planting some vegetables, and digging out some vegetable patches, you are more than welcome to come on down. Give me an email, tweet me, or leave a comment here, and I’ll be happy to sort out arrangements for a visit down.

Posted in Rammed Earth Tyres.

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By Alun – March 3, 2012

March & April Plans

Over the last month, the weather has slowly started to improve. I’ve seen dry, but bitterly cold weather give way to wet and windy days and more recently, the glorious sunshine has started to creep back into the days. It was an excellent weekend just gone, and I managed to get back from my trip to Twickenham (for England v Wales) on the Sunday to get some digging done before the sun went down.

The days are getting longer too. I’m now cycling to work in the light, and coming back to an hour of light after work. I might start making the most of this and get working on flattening the first tier of the garden. Half an hour to an hour each day should make a decent dent in the work before I realise!

I have re-thought volunteering dates too, which I need to send out a newsletter about. Fortunately, I stumbled into some extra funds this month, which allowed me to book myself onto a straw bale building course for the end of March. This clashed with a volunteering weekend I was planning, but obviously, learning how to build straw bale is pretty important for this project!

My other dates in April are tentative. I will definitely be able to do one, but the other might have to be cancelled due to a possible visit from a number of friends. It would be too much to host volunteering on weekends with everyone about! Either way, I can certainly look at cracking onto the tyre retaining walls throughout May to get foundations in and done by the end of the month. Thinking about the scale of the work required to get the land flattened scares me, but since I’ve not spent a full day working on it yet, I don’t think I quite know how much I can get done in one day. Once I have, I will have a much clearer idea of when I will get this done, and how long it might take. I’m excited about it.

I’ll send out a newsletter this Sunday to inform people about the vounteering. If you are reading this, and you haven’t signed up to the newsletter, get involved!

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By Alun – March 2, 2012

Only listen to yourself

This is probably the most genuine post I’ll write. Generally, I am genuine, but I very rarely say things without fitting (or trying to fit) in some sort of lighthearted sarcasm or humour. But this post is something I’ve learnt over the last 12 months and I feel like I should share it.

Probably four weeks ago, I decided to swim the equivalent of the (English) channel to help fundraise for Ecuador. When I told my parents, they hit the roof. It has only been ten months since I got taken to hospital with suspected heart palpitations and I don’t think swimming 22 miles in the space of a week was something they thought would be a good idea. I calmed them by saying I had a  full week -thats 3 miles a day. Secretly, I was thinking I could do it in 5 days – 4.5 miles a day.

Meanwhile, a similar situation comes to mind when I moved in. One of my neighbours greeted me when I went around dropping in notes to inform them of a forthcoming housewarming. “How is the house coming along?” Was the main theme of the conversation, to which I ended up telling them about how I was going to sort out the garden. The general response was “good luck, you’ll never get it done!”

I could continue to recall situations where this happens. Back in October when I planned the walk across Wales with Ed, a year or so back when I cycled South Wales to North Wales on my dad’s old mountain bike. I’m used to people telling me things can’t be done, or that I can’t do them.

Most importantly, I’ve consistently proved them wrong. This morning, I finished my 22 mile 1413 length swim, in 2 and 1/2 days. Thats half the time I thought I could do it myself! The walk across Wales, bike ride and numerous other things I’ve done were successful. So when someone tells you that you can’t do something, don’t think “oh ok then” because that way, you are not believing in yourself. Either prove them wrong, or give it a damn good go trying.

I’m not bragging about my achievements. There are people who have achieved loads more than me, and in shorter times. On the face of things, I don’t feel like I have achieved that much, but the main thing is that I complete what I set out to do. As long as I do that, I’ll be happy, and proud. I’m sure I’ll make my parents proud too. I should also add that once my parents get over the shock of my ‘latest idea’ they are, and have been awesomely supportive.

On that note, I’m off to do a few hours work in the garden. I’ve still got one more person to prove wrong!

 

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By Alun – February 15, 2012

Uploadify – How to Rename an Uploaded File

I’ve recently got to grips with Uploadify – a great little jQuery plugin that allows you to simply upload images in a crazily easy to use form. However the images will overwrite, and I wanted to prevent this by renaming it if there was a clash.

This wasn’t too difficult. In uploadify.php, you will find the code that actually deals with the moving of the uploaded file.

Simply adding a file_exists function to the code allowed me to check if I needed to rename the file. Adding a number to the end of it and counting up until it no longer had a clash does the trick. You can also plug in some more stuff here, like creating thumbnails.

  if(file_exists($targetFile)){

    //we need to rename the file here to avoid a clash.
    //Add a number to the end until it doesn't clash
    $info = pathinfo($targetFile);
    $file_name = basename($targetFile,'.'.$info['extension']);
    $count=1;
    while(file_exists($file_name."_".$count.$info['extension'])){
      ++$count;
    }
    $targetFile = $info['dirname'].'/'.$file_name.'_'.$count.'.'.$info['extension'];
  }
  move_uploaded_file($tempFile,$targetFile);

Anyway, this still causes a problem. if you are using the onComplete function call, you will find that the fileObj.name returns the original file name, not the new one. The solution? Read the response instead, which will contain the original file name.

  'onComplete' : function(event, ID, fileObj, response, data){
    //fileObj will return the original file name, so use response instead.
    $('#image_thumbnail').attr('src', response).show();
  }

I hope that helps someone and saves them the time it took me to figure it out!

Posted in Programming.

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By Alun – February 2, 2012

Ecuador Trip Fundraising

As you might know, if you follow a few of the posts on my blog, I’m heading to Ecuador over Easter. In fact, Ecuador is only 70 days away! Myself and another lecturer in my college have started fundraising for the trip, aiming to collect money for the trip, and for the charities that we will be visiting. To this end, I will be making full use of my half term by swimming the equivalent of the channel in the local swimming pools. My calculations make it about 22 miles, which is 1413 lengths. I’m aiming to do this as quick as possible, where swimming times allow!

I have set up a fundraising page, which I’ve linked to below, and I’ve set myself a target of £200 which I hope I can reach, with the kindness of people, which I can put towards the trip and charities we will visit. I’ll be sure to post all about the trip when I return and show photos of the places which the money has contributed to.

If you have some spare change, and would like to donate, please find the link below. Thank you very much!

http://www.gofundme.com/ecuador2012

Posted in Travels.

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By Alun – January 22, 2012

Initial Volunteering Dates 2012

As the weather is looking rather lovely this week, and we are well into January, I’m turning my thoughts away from indoors and back to the building project looming at the back of my garden. A lot has changed over the Winter – namely my planned trip to Ecuador, which is going to impact the building financially as well as forcing me to delay work on it. Nevertheless, I’m going to crack on with the ground work and see if my immense cutbacks mean I can save up money to continue to work on the building.

Initially, the bulk of work needed on the garden is moving earth and building retaining walls. Tyre ramming will be a part of this. The weather will probably not be great for much of this, so starting volunteering events around March is going to be the plan. Unfortunately, I am a busy person around this time and will be working on the Six Nations games in various stadiums, so the end of that can mark the start of the work!

The garden this morning, under a thin blanket of frost.

Provisionally (and I will send out a newsletter confirming this), We are looking at the following (activities are guesswork at the moment)
24th & 25th March – Groundwork
(break for Ecuador trip)
21st & 22nd April – Digging drainage ditches
28th & 29th April – Retaining wall using rammed tyres
The weather should be pretty excellent by April. Going into May and onwards, the work will contiue to be most weekends pushing to finish the groundwork and start on foundations by the end of May. This is where the financial issues will come into play and affect the progress of the building.

I’m hoping to meet some people this month with regard to the structural frame of the building and what kind of timber to use for the living roof. Feedback on this will allow me to give more thought on the progress planned from May onwards. I’ll be sure to keep you updated. Until then, I’ll draft up a newsletter and send it out to everyone about the volunteering this week. If you miss it, get in touch with me on twitter or email me alun.king[at gmail.com].

Posted in Building.

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By Alun – January 17, 2012