How to build stone steps / Como fazer as escadas em pedra

Driven nuts by uploading pictures one by unbelievably slow one onto this blogging thing, never having the time, etc. has meant I rarely post anything anymore.  So here in video format, though it's hardly saved time!!

So here, in pictures that move together our story of chopping up vast chunks of stone that were nicely available right next to where we needed some steps and something done about the eroding hillside.
Fortunate we have been (and grateful we are) to have had Gary over these weeks to teach us the confidence to just go ahead and start, and to understand the main things we have to get right.

Making lime putty for building

Guest post by Paulo

(edits where I couldn't resist:)

Today a truck full of bags of quicklime arrived at Casa Felix and we began the process of filling our lime pit to make lime putty. We will use this yoghurt-type stuff to make plaster in a couple of months when (notice I said when not if) the strawbale walls are completed.

For now it needs to be mixed with water and “slaked”. This is where quicklime and water meet, and will bubble and boil and get really hot, and then mellow out. This is where ye old English drinking phrase to 'slake your thirst' comes from. Many of you

who have been to the UK will at some point probably have had a pint or two at an English pub called “The Lime Kiln” – there are hundreds scattered across the country, mainly because every town used to have one as lime was essential for building before cement came along (and ruined everything). And after mixing lime, you really feel like a drink!So what's going on here? Perhaps a quick chemistry lesson is in order.