Trip # 30 - Two years and counting!

Wow, time goes pretty fast when it's building season.  This was our 30th trip up to the property.  It was also the 2nd anniversary of the 1st building weekend we had there.  For reference, two years ago we were building the ill-fated pyramid and camping in a tent that didn't survive the weekend because of the wind!
 
What a difference a couple of years and a ton of practical experience make.  Now, we sleep very comfortably in a nice van that we use to store stuff, haul stuff and shelter stuff (including us).  We build awesome walls out of more durable material and we have a bit more of a plan for what we want the whole domestead to look like in the future.
 
On the last trip, there was progress, but like we mentioned, most of it wasn't visible.  Mostly, we shored up some walls and did some cosmetic stuff - and moved the firepit (again.)
 
Work this weekend is a bit more - and yet less - visible. 
 

Newly added arch to the kitchen door

(and since we moved the firepit out of this space, we're not sure that this is really a kitchen anymore.  Looking for a new label - salon? courtyard? suggestions?)

 

 

 

The view of the domestead from two points on the road.

We blend in much better now!

 

 

 

Close up of the outer wall. 

All of the bottles and earthbags are covered with homemade bricks and concrete.  This will all be plastered over and will blend in nicely. 

 

We used about 250 pounds of cement on this trip (thanks Grandma!) - and all this water!  The bottles have been collected over the last two weeks from wherever we find them, work, jiu-jitsu, parking lots and people saving them for us when they're done.  Instead of throwing them away, we re-use them for transporting water up to the property and then using them for the mud / cement mix for the walls.  Re-use and Recycle!

 

 

 On the way up, we bought a 65 gallon cistern to store all the water so we can use the bottles without wasting any.  Pic of that next time.

 

 

Part of the work lately has been shoring up the inside of the wall.  The original earthbags from late 2010/early 2011 are eroding at an alarming rate because of the wind and rain, threatening the structural integrity.  (The bottle wall is layered on top of the earthbags.)  Jeff's masonry projects have been installing hexagonal bricks as a retaining fixture to stop the erosion.  You can see through the door (*yay arch*) where he started working.  He's also gotten the interior wall up another foot, you can see what is newly added below because I didn't get to do any stucco-ing this trip. (I was mostly working on the outside walls.)

 

 
 

And here, a detail of what the retention piece looks like right after being installed:

 



(Looks a little rough, but we'll make it pretty after we're sure it won't fall on us!)

 

 

 

The wife's been continuing on her wall building on the outside of the berm wall, extending it from the Qbert wall, past the firewood storage box and over to the next part of the berm that we haven't touched since 2010. 

 

 

The view of both projects, wife's front left, husband's back right. 

 

 And the wife's again, from the outside and from the inside. 

(The wall is about 5 feet high and 10 feet long at this point.)

 



 

  

The view of the entire kitchen space from the north-west at sunset.

 



 

Other notes of note:  Sunday we went into town to get food and drinks and to take a break.  While we were there, the City Market (only grocery store in town) was "evacuated" for reasons unclear.  Gotta find out what that was all about.

 

And... we earned us some Karma: Saw a couple who were obviously cycling across the landscape to and from points unknown, so we asked where they were coming from (Banff, Alberta, Canada) and where to (US, Mexico border).  We wished them luck, and safe riding, and then bought them a couple of bottles of Gatorade.  It wasn't much, but it seemed to make their day.  We often hear about the kindness of strangers, and we wanted to be a part of that.  We hope they make it.