It's snowing again?

Humanure Compost

Sample Bags

Plastic for Moisture Protection

Well, barely. But still. And thunder storms today and tonight.

Progress so far:

Before my brothers left we laid down plastic to go underneath the first course and around all of the underground layers.

I've been making test bags (above) because my first one or two cracked, though they still remained very solid and did not shatter additionally when dropped. I chalk this up to the clay drying too fast. Mesh bag mixes dry faster than the normal woven pp bag's, and since I'm in the desert...I kinda freaked out at first and then I realized it's just not a problem. I read that the same thing happens with lime stabilized bags and all you have to do is help them cure slower. So, I'm going to cover them with the plastic every day so that curing will slow. I've experimented with that a bit, placing them under a tarp, and it's helped mitigate cracking. Different moisture content gives different bags but I've tested barely any moisture to sopping wet and they all come out quite strong. If I had to guess, I'd say the moisture content I'm using--some mud will come out when tamped but not much--is about 10%. But that's a guess. It sticks together nicely when you make a ball but there isn't any excess water and it doesn't look shiny.

I'm still working on wetting methods. I've been letting it all sit together and soak for a day or two which makes it look like some really delicious chocolate cake mix. Wetting will be easier once I have the dirt in smaller piles. Luck is on my side, and one of my neighbors has a tractor that he's doing small jobs with for $45/hour. I really wanted to dig a curtain drain around my house to steer water away from the site (it will slope down to it from the house and eventually be planted on top with herbs/perennials), but it would take me a million years by hand and not worth having someone come out to do. There's other small jobs like fixing my driveway and digging basins for trees that would also get pushed back into eternity. But now that I have my neighbor Tim! I'll have him come out in the next week and do those things and move the two giant piles of dirt into smaller, more manageable ones. It will save a lot of time.

I was planning on starting to fill bags in place today. I kinda feel like I'm pushing it back because in reality I'm not going to do it today because it's cloudy, windy, rainy, and 40 degrees. That's okay, I guess. No rush. Best to start things out on the right foot. If there's a break in the weather then I will head up.

Are you wondering what happened to scoria? I was planning on getting it from Vigil's, who had quoted me a price of $35-$40 a ton plus $75-$100 for delivery, which is quite reasonable since the mine charges $36.50 a ton. When I went to finalize the order at the yard he told me a) that he would have to charge me by the yard and it would be $50/yard (it's between 1.5-2 yards/ton) and b) that this was because the price had increased without him knowing. Well, that's a ridiculously huge price change and I called the mine and the price is the same as it was two months ago so...I've talked to a friend of Jeff's, Art, who's going to go to the mine for me next Thursday and get about 10 tons. I'll use it for insulation for the floor and around the bags and probably have some extra for other projects too.

I have made exciting strides with windows. I went to Santa Fe and have bought two operable 3'x5', 3 fixed 3'x4' and a small 3'x2'. All I need is two operable 2'x3' and one operable 3'x4'. I've spent $400 so far and the 3'x5' windows I bought are very nice aluminum that they gave me at a fantastic price. I've been looking around Taos too, but deals are harder to come by here. I might go back to Santa Fe to one window shop that was closed until tomorrow, and there is also a nice glass door and a 3'x4' in Espanola I might go pick up sometime. I've got some scrap 2x6 to start making bucks.

I finally finished my compost and emptied buckets of poop for the first time. Really not bad. I guess when you decide to do something and not let it bother you, then it doesn't bother you. I'm going to ask my neighbors, who have horses, if I can clean out their hay/straw from the stables for the dry material needed for the compost pile. I used sage brush but in the long run it won't be best.

Next Thursday I have somewhere between 2-5 people coming out for a building party which would be great. I'm making sure I have everything--velcro plates, window bucks, etc.--so that building doesn't get held up on anything.