During the last week in May 2024, the bamboo palace was moved several meters to the south, at the end of the path through the olive grove. We installed some bamboo panels on both sides and the top of the opening, and put in the door made from a salvaged, deteriorating desk left on the property. This is an effort at cat-proofing the palace-we have had unwelcome feline visitors a couple of times. For the summer, we will leave the sheet of plastic over the top, and will be replacing it with a canvas "roof" next fall.
Our team piled up dirt around the perimeter of the palace to anchor it in place. A couple of days later we mixed sand, straw and water with the top layer of the dirt berms, in effect creating cobb, or adobe, or daub, the moniker depending on the country where it is used.
The first step is to pour water over a small section of berm and start chopping the chunks of clay with the side of the trowel to break up the clumps, which can be very compacted and dense.
Next, we threw some handfuls of sand on the berm, followed by straw. These additions were chopped into the mud to mix them into the clay.
Once this mixture had been thoroughly chopped and more water poured on, the flat plane of the trowel was used to slap down the surface and caress it into a smooth paste. There is always a tendency for the straw and mud mixture to crack as it dries; sand is supposed to minimize this, so we will see how it looks after a few days.
We are also smoothing the dirt floor of the palace, in preparation for a load of straw from Souk Telet. The straw makes for a comfortable floor, keeping dust down and when overlaid with a carpet, it works wonderfully.
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