3-D printed homes

I've posted a lot over the years about new types of building techniques. The most recent one is the idea of using a giant 3-D printer to build a house out of concrete.

A US company, ICON, is pitching their first design as a way to provide safe housing in the third world. The video above shows their first house being 'printed'. I can see this technique being developed over the years into much more sophisticated designs.

Wildfires

This nice warm and sunny weather is great for those of us on holiday, but the drought is terrible for most everyone else. Farmers are warning of a very poor harvest. I read an article that said blueberry production might be only 20% of normal.

Even worse are the unprecedented wildfires around the country. The Local and the Guardian have good recaps of the scale of the problem.

I'm used to wildfires in the western USA, but Scandinavia (and England) are not prepared for this. Scientists fear that global warming will make fires like these more common in the coming years.

It's been a great two weeks

We're back in London now after a fantastic time spent in our second home. The weather has remained sunny (and worryingly, dry) the whole two weeks.  Some of the highlights:

• Marcia, Rutger and Camille came for the first weekend.
• The boat is out of storage and after a washup, it was in great shape. 
• We went to the old Guns Livs on Nämdö. The restaurant isn't open yet, and the store is operating at half capacity, but the new owners are talking a great story for the future.
• The Nämdö library was open the day we visited and we spoke to Gunilla about the fibre installation. Lots of work was evident on the island; power cables are being laid on the ground along with the fiber cables. Eventually all of the power poles will be taken away, which will improve the views. She told us the same work will start in a few months on Aspö. I'm becoming increasingly confident that we will have fiber installed next year.
• We attended the yearly island meeting, and Sooz followed along with the proceedings pretty well!
• Sooz also did a bit of morning yoga, and she attended the jewelry-making class on Ladholmen.
• We had a nice dinner with Peter and Jeanette at our place, and a lovely meal at Annika and Olle's.
• The World Cup kept us all entertained, and we gathered in Sofia and Johan's barn to watch the Sweden-England quarterfinal.
• Sooz arranged two successful Mat Hem deliveries. We have plenty of food now!!!
• Ove, the painter, came by to paint our little house with the linseed oil paint and it looks a lot better.
• I didn't have too many building tasks this time around but I managed to keep myself entertained with lots of little jobs.

There is a photo album available of all these activities on my Flickr page.

We'll be back for a long weekend in a few weeks, so stay tuned for more to come!

June's weather

A calm month out on Aspö. One thing that's interesting is the rain as measured by my station. I know it did rain a bit that month, although I'm not convinced it totaled a half-inch. The official weather report for Stockholm showed no precipitation at all on June (or May for that matter).

Whether or not it rained a bit on Aspö this past month, there is a significant drought underway. It's apparent when walking around our island, and there is no rain in the forecast for the next few weeks.

It's a double-edged sword, as we love the sunshine and warmth, but the health of our island is starting to be impacted too....