We learnt a lot on our expedition to Extremadura. Most of the really useful stuff, like where the local spring or where the useful shops are, we got from talking to people but we also got some really useful online resources too.
Daniel build our stove with the materials we had at hand, but this is a really useful guide to making wood burning space heaters. Ours is designed to be a cooking stove as well, but it’s clear it could benefit from a heat exchanger as described in the guide.
We were hoping to cover our dome in straw and render it with earth and lime, and this fabulous straw bale building guide was huge help as was this guide to earthen renders,
but a number of factors pursued us right now was the the time. One of them was winter is not the time to buy straw – of the people we found on Agrodigital and Milanuncious wanted a 5 tonne minimum order at 600+ euros.
We managed to find powdered “aerial” hydrated lime (“Cal Aerea Hidratada CL-70-S”) at our local building merchant in Montehermoso, which after consulting this guide to lime products looks like it might be right stuff. Would be be great to hear any other experiences of sourcing or using lime products in Spain.
