Curves

I like curves. Domes, arches, waves - I don't think we were made to live in square boxes. Somehow, though, we think its cheaper and more efficient to make straight lines. We think that a bed wont fit well into a circular room. So we put a square bed into a square room and then hop into bed with our curvey body. Strange.
So I hope from now on I can put a curve at least somewhere into every building I build. We are experimenting with a curved roof in the training centre for the main training room. My Timorese mate, Anen, somehow continues to take my crazy ideas in his stride and together we weld up a curved set of 'rafters' or roof members.

I was asked how I knew it would be strong enough. I replied that once it was built we would get up on top and jump around a bit and see if it wobbles. Its a non-technical approach but it might work.
My curved trusses are 200mm wide using 1" (25mm) gal steel water pipe. This was flexible enough to bend around in a curve by itself. 4 lengths are curved and welded to some zig-zag 10mm reo-bar steel. Then for the purlins that hold the roof sheeting, 2 C-channel 100mm steel lengths are welded together and slid in and attached to the 'trusses'.  East Timor Roofing, in Baucau, kindly agreed to curve their zincalume sheeting to a 12m metre radius. The whole thing is a bit of a pig to put together but it is a bit fun.

The main training room getting a curved roof

I have been known to do dumber things in the past. We once built a dome sort of home out of straw bales. One of my many mistakes in that particular venture was that I sourced local straw bales from a soy bean farm. 

Building our first home with curves - its basically a dome. On the left is a sleeping arch.

The fatal flaw was that there were small soy beans mixed within the bales. The mice thought these were very yummy and proceeded to eat our house. Drat.

It had a skylight using helicopter grade perspex. It was coated with local clay mixed with hydrated lime and Clarence river sand. Part of the house had a grass roof. We had solar panels and carried water from the river. Israel is about 2, and Serenity 8.

Weather stations

In one of my worlds I help the Ministry of Agriculture with weather stations and climate research.
I'm testing a new mapping technique which I thought I would put up here.



This shows all the weather stations MAF/SoL operate (well at least plan to operate).
The little map makes it all so easy but when I view it my mind starts thinking back to history, adventures and future possibilities. Here's some picks of the crew and I out at Loes Agriculture research station upgrading sensors to the weather station.

A weather station installed on a Government Agriculture Research station.

Measuring down to install the soil moisture metre.

Sensors - wind speed, solar radiation, rain, wind direction, temperature,humidity, soil temps and soil moisture. These are all sampled every minute and the data logged into the box (with wires) every 15 minutes.

The team - some local friends from the Timorese Govt as well as a couple from German and Portuguese organisations.

Testing the filter

The whole family has now gone back to Oz as Samuel attended the TropAg Conference in Brisbane.
We used this opportunity to bring two water filters to Australia. I've been hoping for more than 12 months to get the ceramic filter tested for its ability to stop bacteria getting through. After a number of attempts, I decided the best way was just to do it myself. Surprisingly, there do not seem to be many laboratories set up for this sort of thing.

Setting up the water filter in the lab

Richmond Water Laboratories in Lismore were willing to have a go and they were very helpful and friendly. I had to go down town, buy a plastic container and carve a hole in it to set up the filter. They will put in some highly contaminated water (like from a sewerage system) and run it through the filter. This is referred to as testing "total coliform" - or all the bugs in the water. Then they will take a sample after it has passed through the filter and incubate on petrie dishes to see if any colonies grow. I hope it works or else I'm back to the drawing board on water filtration for Timor.

Israel found his dream car in Yamba - a Morris Minor. Its shorter than him!

Lino and the Ambassador

My good friend Lino, the humble corn farmer, has been on a long journey. He lives in a small village in Lautem, the eastern most  district of Timor-Leste. He’s what we call “salt of the earth” with “a heart of gold.” He’s ready to have a go at most things I throw at him even though he is really not sure how its going to turn out. But it seems that God continues to bless him. Recently, the Australian Embassy contacted Seeds of Life (SoL) and said the Australian Ambassador is going out to Los Palos and wants to see a farmers group. Lino’s group, Buras Hamutuk (Grow Well Together), have now become the third largest corn seed producers in the country and so SoL suggested he goes and visits Lino! So they borrowed the neighbour’s biggest tarp, and a few special tables and table cloths and plates. They went and dug up extra sweet potato, cassava and peanuts to make a special morning tea. The one hour visit from the Ambassador was going to be a big do.

The Ambassador and other important people meet with Lino’s group under the tarp.

Sharing morning tea with the Ambassador.

Lino now has some cool tech to show off: 2000L silos, seed packing equipment, drums for seed storage, shelling machines, planting tools, grinder, seed screen, flour sifter, rust proof fencing and a husking tool. Some of these were new to SoL as we generally experiment ourselves before taking to the big organisation.

A couple of Timorese checkout the table (behind) displaying tecnhology and produce from Buras Hamutuk.

It was a very successful visit and I think the Ambassador was very impressed with the work that they were doing.

The Ambassador has worked hard to learn how to speak Tetun reasonably well. 

But there is also another side to Lino and his wife Atina that perhaps none of the fancy folks there found out about. If you take the time to listen to their hearts without any fanfare or expectations you find a couple that long to serve God.

In fact Atina would like to become a pastor but Lino worries about how to handle the work load of the farm and making sure there’s enough food on the table. They end up trying to balance both – the farmer’s group and the ministry.

Lino in the morning, managing construction of the group’s seed warehouse.

In the afternoon they are off to the villages to teach children Bible stories.

Its a tough load and they have their hard times and are currently worried about a second miscarriage this year. Atina has just come to Dili to do some more training. But things have taken a toll and she found herself last night in the National Hospital. We went and picked her up today and brought her to our home here to try to feed her up, and most importantly, get her to drink enough clean water. We pray for Lino and Atina, that God would give them good health and show them what He would have them do.

Set in Concrete

Now we have a solid concrete roof over the sewing room, kitchen and shop of the training centre. It was a massive job which I think we were all a bit nervous about. We couldn’t bring ourselves to throw $300/m3 at it so we got lots of young men to mix up the concrete by hand.

They mix it up dry on a round pad of concrete then add in the water. It goes into barrows which they push up a specially made ramp to the second floor.

I am a fan of screed boards so we made an 8m screed by screwing 2 long lengths of C-channel steel together. This gets moved back and forth over the concrete to flatten it out.

I think it worked real well with 2 of us working the 8m screed and managing to trowel off as we went along.

Amau is the man, a rare guy who works from his heart. He often has a technique which he is definitely sure is right until I come along and suggest a completely new alternative – we usually strike some compromise in the middle. We worked hard all day screeding the slab.

The outer edge has a row of 400 x 200 x 200 concrete blocks which have been cut away on the inside. They were not laid so straight so we temporarily screwed C-channel steel along the edge to make the formwork.

Anen (head builder) inspects the finished job. Not perfect but it should hold.

It certainly makes downstairs look more homely. Here’s the kitchen with wiring for lights, fan and power in the slab and walls (ok, that’s revolutionary in this world!)

And the Taj Mahal from outside. This is the downstairs 1/3 with all the heavy bits done. Now we’ll peck away at bringing it to lock up while getting the next section done. Hopefully sometime soon the girls from Bele Kria can move in to a better space. Thanks so much for those who’ve helped us get this far, God bless you!

Set in Titanium

This year is our 20th year of being married. We got engaged a little too young, at 19 and 17 years old but we’ve stuck together with most of the credit going to Cynthia. Its been a tough 20 years I think and we both could do with a bit of a break. I hope that we can go another 20 years or 40 years – that would probably do though. As you can see from the photo, Cynthia is still as beautiful as ever.

For this auspicious occasion we ordered some special rings to replace some plain silver ones we’ve been wearing.

These were done by titaniumringsforever and they did an awesome job. Cynthia and I look mild but when it comes to possibly the only thing we’ll have stuck on our bodies for any length of time we get very fussy. The folks who made the rings were very patient. Cynthia’s has “filigree” which is fancy carving with a few stones: amethyst (engagement), ruby (grandma) and diamond (a girls best friend). Mine has a tree bark sort of look (?) with a feather engraved (??). Inside we had engraved “bind us together”. And if you place one inside the other, line the diamond up with the feather and hold them up to the fire light then some fancy writing shows up saying … just kidding.

20 years ago.

Kaiyil Leonardo Bacon

More sensible minds have prevailed to the relief of most friends and family. Still, we just had to have a difficult name. So our son is called Kaiyil Leonardo Bacon. What is it with this generation? Whatever happened to names like John and Mark and Thomas?

 

Kaiyil is doing very well and I am very thankful to God. He squirms and burps and exudes other less exemplary semi-solids. But things look normal on the whole. The name Kaiyil is a corrupted form of a less known Hebrew word in the Bible meaning something like “valiant”, or strong or wealthy. Someone of khah’-yil could be thought of as a person of force. Cue Yoda going, “The force in this one strong is!” I am currently working through the book of Ruth with a Timorese friend and this word of valor is used to describe Boaz. He is a noble and respected man in the village of Bethlehem who ends up marrying the beautiful young Ruth from another country in order to redeem a widow’s family. Boaz also describes Ruth as a woman of valor as she has left her country to stick by her widowed mother-in-law. Kaiyil was born near the ocean which is called Kai in some island language. So Kaiyil it is. Leonardo has always been a bit of a hero of mine in terms of creativity of mind.

Incidentally, Kaiyil is currently stateless. He is born in a country which does not recognise his citizenship because his parents are Australian. Yet he is also not an Australian because he was not born there. We must apply for naturalisation for him to be called an Australian citizen, then apply for a passport before he can leave Timor-Leste. Just another quirk of the bureaucratic world we live in. Why? What is the point of making international travel illegal? Why is this world some sort of global dictatorship? Of course, I am speaking not for Kaiyil but for the many babies his age born into other nations who may not successfully find a safe place to call home. I give my son to God and hope that Kaiyil will serve Him valiantly to make this world a more peaceful place.