Course 6

Course 2

Course 5 Untamped

The southern doorway buttress

Trying to maintain a running bond...

Course 5 tamped

Bathroom greywater exit

Kitchen greywater exit

Shelf brackets on velcro plates

Brackets installed

Course 6 waiting to be tamped

It's been almost a month since I've posted and just over two months since I arrived here. How time flies. Course 6 is bagged and waiting to be tamped tomorrow. I've been working on level and plumb which get much more even once you pay attention to them. I laid my first kitchen shelves today and my greywater plumbing is in. With course six, the plastic has reached its resting place on the north side, which is a few inches lower, and has one more course to go on the south side. I'm tired. Haven't been sleeping well lately and the work is hard and endless. I hurt my back last week so had to spend a couple days soaking in the hot springs (poor me). More than anything, it's my hands that hurt. They seem to be permanently cramped. I'm going to do one more course then take a break for a bit. Well, break is a bit of an exaggeration. I'm going to stop doing bags and build some window frames, mud over the bags that are up to protect them from the sun, get some more dirt moved, scoria delivered before the walls get too high and go to the sheep farm finally and hunt down the one door and window that elude me.

Brad, a reader of this blog, has been giving me LOTS of help/advice over the last few weeks with my roof. Getting close to figuring out exactly how it will be but at least have the general shape down and it's taken me to some new ideas. I'm going to do a gable roof. So, there'll be a ridge beam in the center running north to south, some end beams on the west and east ends and rafters running between them. Ceiling will go below (no more exposed vigas), insulation between, and purlins and roof on top. The cool thing is that since now the north end has to be all high there's all sorts of space to do something with. I figure I'll put in a door there too, let it be glass (low-e) for light and put in a small loft with a tiny office area below. Won't even bother to describe the cool stair setup down into the kitchen but it's pretty snazzy. Just working out with him how to disperse the heavy load from the ridge beam that will be falling exactly on those large openings.

Had another nice breakthrough with the plumbing. To make life simpler I had decided to run the greywater out at ground level. That's fine except the bath tub would have to be elevated like three feet and the shower would then be non-existent or too low for most people. But then I realized that since I'm going to have a curtain drain around the house anyways, that running plumbing out lower and through the drain--though still within pipes--wouldn't be that big of a pain. So, there'll be a shower.

It's been hot lately. Some days, like today, I just can't work that much so quit after about three hours. I have started a new schedule which results in lots less suffering. Earlier and earlier. I'm starting around 6:30/7:00 and would like to start working at 5:30. That way I can work for 6, 7, 8 hours and be done by the hottest point of the day. Before I was working in the morning taking a few hours off and then going back at 4:00. But at 4:00 it's really hot still. It's nice this way because I end up with more free time to...haven't quite figured out how to fill free time yet except with the hot springs. Looking forward to my bag filling break and even more to April and Jen coming out.