erinisshovelinggravel.com

Good news! I ordered a new camera battery charger and it was delivered today! We no longer need to rely on 5 minute Paint jobs! (There are some pictures in this post. They are Jessa's. Enjoy.)

We went to Michelle's on Wednesday and Friday. It's starting to get exciting out there- the site actually looks like we're going to be building something there.

On Wednesday, we finished stripping the trees. Locust trees are far harder to strip than pine, but luckily, there were only two locusts.
(See the tree that is the second closest? That one was the toughest to strip. All those curves and knots. Looks good now, but not an easy job.)

The last of our gravel was delivered. When Phil and I were out there Monday, there was some gravel, but we still needed a little more for a corner and to fill the bags for the stemwall. Jessa's mom was hit on by the gravel deliverer. Good stuff.

Just for kicks, here's the site before gravel:
Notice the columns. They were erected in the rain. They will hold our logs, which will hold the building. We are counting on these columns. (Jessa did a test to see if the columns were all in line and level, as we planned them to be. Only a few are a little off, and it's nothing that can't be compensated for when we cut the logs. Good.) Also, notice that, at the time that this picture was taken, the topsoil was not completely removed. Lastly, please notice the drain tile, which slopes downhill (thanks to some great digging) and comes out to daylight on the side of the hill (per code requirements.)

Post-gravel:
This picture was taken yesterday. I dub yesterday "Day of Extreme Heat." It was hot. We moved the tent-ish-thing to where we were working, but it was still, very hot. Please note in this picture, the pillars are mostly covered. By the time the floor gets put in, only a couple inches will be showing. Note me, filling bags (the same kind as what we use at John's) with gravel. This will make up the stemwall. The straw bales will rest on top of the bags. Notice the two rolls of chicken wire that were (later) rolled out so that the earthbags could be placed on top of them. They will, later, wrap around the earthbags, providing extra strength and unity in the stemwall as well as giving us something to plaster to. Note the lumber in the background that will be used throughout the structure.
The beginning of building. We are finally going vertical. (I can't really see the chicken wire in this picture, so I assume you can't either. I promise it's there though.)

Tomorrow (yes, Sunday,) we are going out to meet up with a guy named Paul who knows how to timberframe. I think Phil and Jessa both wanted someone with more experience in on this step, just to make sure things go well. We're going to put our long logs up. I will take pictures.

Now, another "picture bomb," featuring John's house. (I was only there for a few hours on Thursday, filling bags. I had something else I had to do in the afternoon. No real updates from Thursday.) (These pictures were taken a little while ago. Our walls are higher now.)

Electrical has been set. It was a little tricky bagging around the outlets, but we succeeded. They are nailed/screwed/attached to a flat piece of wood, which is nailed into the bags. We used a slightly-less-full bag on top of the outlets, molding it around the outlet as much as possible. Placing electrical stuff has been mostly John's project.
Another one of John's projects has been meeting code requirements for plumbing. Even though John has no intention of putting a commode in his bathroom, he has to put the plumbing in to support one. The pipe sticking directly up is for his non-existent toilet. The other lines lead to the kitchen and shower (I think. Again, this is John's project mostly, so I don't know a ton about it.) John has had to re-do the plumbing multiple times to make the codes inspectors happy.
He had to dig underneath the wall at one point (to get the plumbing to go to the kitchen.) Nothing collapsed. Even when John stood on top of the wall. We must be doing something right.
The dome is going to be 16 feet tall. This pole is 16 feet tall. It's weird to see how far we still have to go. The pole will be part of the compass once we start arching the dome (after the four foot mark that you can see painted on the door forms.) (We're probably beyond that point by now- I haven't been at John's much in the last several days, but after I left Thursday, more stacking was done and Jeff is back and was stacking on Friday.) I will post more about the compass as I learn more about it. (If you look very closely, you might see a tiny orange flag at the top of the pole. We needed a flag.)
Meet my least favorite job. Tamping. Since I've posted on this site that it is my least favorite job, Phil and Jessa always get a chuckle when I do it. I really don't mind it, but if there's something else that needs to be done, I will generally go to that other job. In this picture, you can see both kinds of tampers. The store-bought one that I am using (my favorite) and the homemade one sitting on the ground next to me.

I am becoming an expert digger.

Thursday, I dug all day. I was shoveling excavated dirt onto a screen to sift out large rocks. Then, someone (mostly Jeff) would scoop up the dirt and put it in a bag. Then, someone else (Jessa) would move the bag to its position in the wall, where someone else (Phil and Adam) would tamp the bags. (This is a fairly simplified version of the day, but, really, I just dug all day. Other things happened, like a bag holder being designed and forms being finished and placed.)

Yesterday was a lot of fun (to me.) The team split up, so Adam and Jeff went to John's and Phil, Jessa, Jessa's husband (Nathan) and I went to Rob and Michelle's. Jessa had purchased 40 80-pound bags of concrete, so we needed to take two trucks to carry the load. Jessa and I were in her truck- we met up with Michelle and her boys at a farm to look at bales of straw- test the wetness and size and whatnot. Everything seemed fine and the straw will be delivered in a few weeks (so Michelle doesn't have to worry about keeping them dry on her property until it's time to start strawbale construction.)

When we met up with Nathan and Phil at Michelle's (after a spurt of rain and lots of "please stop raining so this concrete doesn't get ruined..."), we started cleaning up the foundation trenches that were dug last time we were up there. We had to widen a few spots and take all the loose clay/dirt out of the bottom, squaring the edges as much as possible. Then we had to mark where the pillars for the timberframing were going to go. There are 12 pillars (which is probably overkill for this tiny structure, but we're going with it- designed by someone else) and each pillar needs a concrete base. So, using many tape measurers, line levels, yards of string, plum-bobs and lots of brain power, we marked our 12 posts and dug out where the base would go underground. Nathan and I mixed concrete in the mixer that Phil normally uses for plastering while Jessa and Phil prepared the 10 inch tubes that we would be filling- hammering rebar in the free-standing tubes for extra support. We worked out a system for filling most of the tubes- Nathan would move the wheelbarrow full of concrete to the tube and tilt it up, either Phil or Jessa would hold the "funnel" (extra tube cut open and used as a slide) and I would push the concrete with a hoe. As we were filling the first 6 (mostly buried) tubes, we saw that there were some big storm clouds coming. We started moving faster to fill the freestanding tubes,concrete although they took longer since we coudn't get the wheelbarrow close enough to pour; we had to shovel into the tubes, which were twice as tall as the tubes that were buried. We got a few filled, keeping an eye on the fast-approaching clouds that were starting to lightning. We worked through the first couple of sprinkles, but as soon as hail started falling on us, we ran inside. (Actually, Phil and I ran inside. Jessa and Nathan ran to the truck.) We waited for the rain to stop pouring for nearly an hour. Once it got down to light sprinkles, we went back outside and continued filling the last couple of tubes and leveling the tops of the tubes that had been rained on. Our shoes collected mud/clay like crazy- they became so big and heavy so quickly that it very soon became difficult to walk. We finished up though, stuck empty concrete bags over the top of the pillars (to try to protect the smooth surface from the still-falling rain), decided against laying drain tile (which was part of the original plan so that Michelle could have the gravel poured at any time) because we didn't want to risk knocking over one of the wet free-standing concrete pillars. Jessa said that she and Nathan would come back tomorrow (today) to check on the pillar bases and lay the drain tile.

By the time that we moved the rest of the concrete bags (which had been kept fairly dry throughout this whole process) into Michelle's barn and said our goodbyes, it's was 7:00, we were soaked, bad smelling and in desperate need of showers. It was fun though (although I am now going to move my rainboots into Jessa's truck.)

Machetes and Excavations

It has been several days since my last update.

A guy named Jeff had e-mailed Jessa volunteering to come help at the workshops. From what I understand, he has studied at Cal-Earth and just finished the bagwork on a double eco-dome somewhere. We needed to decide if we wanted to let him come on board for free or allow him to do some kind of work exchange. E-mails circulated and a meeting was held with John. Jeff is going to come up, I believe, although nobody really has a place for him to stay... (I honestly don't know too much about this situation...)

Phil and I returned to the bamboo site that I mentioned in my last post. We want to use bamboo as a thatched ceiling in John's house, so we needed a lot. I used a reciprocating saw to cut down the stalks and Phil used a machete to clear the extra limbs and leafs off them. The patch was huge, so after a couple hours of cutting, we had hardly made a dent in the supply.

Adam and I returned the next day. (Have I mentioned that Adam is back up here?) Jessa and Phil had alternative things to do- this was the first time we've ever been split up doing non-computer work. We cut bamboo for a few more hours.

Me, trimming with pruning shears.

Adam, trimming with a machete.

I learned that trimming with a machete is far easier than trimming with pruning shears, but trimming with pruning shears is infinitely easier than trimming with my utility knife thingy-ma-bob.

Jessa met up with Adam and I in the afternoon to move all the cut bamboo. She had brought the trailer to the truck because she knew the pieces wouldn't all fit in the truck. I think we underestimated the bamboo.

The truck, full of bamboo.

We took the bamboo up to John's house. The ride there was not an issue at all. We had wrapped bungee cords around the bamboo to keep it together and attached the bundled bamboo to the truck and trailer with a few more cords. The trouble came once we got to John's. The road from the entrance to Egret's cove and to John's plot of land is steep(ish) and rocky, with little room to turn around at the top. Since Jessa isn't entirely comfortable backing the trailer up, we decided to detach the trailer and let the bamboo drag on the way up. It worked until we were about 20 feet away from the site- the hill got too steep and the bamboo decided it didn't want to be bundled anymore. It came out of the truck and scattered across the road. (Across, not down. We didn't have to go chasing it down the hill.) We decided we were close enough and, since Egret's Cove is an intentional community, we left the bamboo there, scootching it off the road. Good enough. ^_^

The next day, we all woke up early to go help with the excavation at Michelle's house. We had marked out the foundation last time we were there. From our soil testing, we thought that there was only 6 inches or so of soil before hitting bedrock. One we got the excavator (Michelle's neighbor) in there, we found out that it was very much not true. There was just a lot of flat rock near the top...

A lot of dirt.

There wasn't much to do during the excavation (since only the man on the Bobcat could actually do anything.) We ended up sitting under a tree on some blankets for a few hours, discussing foundations and other details of the house. I figured out how much clay was needed for the site. Hooray math! I met Rob for the first time, cooed over the adorable baby, moved Michelle's windows into the barn and ate a granola bar. Nothing too strenuous.

After a few hours, the perimeter was dug.

Phil and Jessa, making sure the trench for the foundation was satisfactory.

The excavator moved the dirt into the lawn and flattened it; it will probably be used for raised bed gardens later. He also went ahead and dug the draining trenches.

After visiting Michelle's, we met up with Howard Carlberg at his home in Berea. He cooked us lunch (which was fabulous because we were very hungry.) He had an idea to build a cob oven somewhere in Berea, but wanted to make sure that it was used for something (as opposed to just being a structure to point at and say "we have that.") Howard is very involved with the folk dancing that happens in Berea, so one thought that he mentioned was firing up the oven when there were festivals. While no decisions or agreements were made between Howard and HomeGrown HideAways, I think Howard got ideas about how to make his cob oven something for the community to enjoy.

On a different site for the first time.

Today, Phil and Jessa and I went out to Michelle's to mark where her strawbale/cob studio is going to be. The site was gorgeous and entirely different from John's wooded site. Michelle had her two sons with her (Eli and Ian- Ian was strapped to Michelle's back the entire time. Eli is my new boyfriend. Both boys are adorable.)

Michelle, Phil and Jessa, on site.

We staked out the perimeter of the building, having slight difficulties with the arch that will be the curved cob wall. Apparently, natural builders cannot be good at math.

Phil staking. This is one option to send to Richard for an "action pose."

The house, marked.

We marked the foundation for the person who is going to come dig it out for us. I think this will happen Wednesday. We marked two foot in from the wall and one foot out. We also marked where the posts are going to be for the timber frame. We are going to look/cut down trees tomorrow.

Phil, marking where to dig for the foundation.

Michelle wanted to know how much clay she was going to need to order. When possible, we will be using clay that comes from the site, so we needed to dig to see if we were going to find any. Once we started digging, we realized that we were planning to build on top of a solid rock that was covered by 6 inches or so of soil. This is a very good thing- strong foundation.

Phil and Jessa, digging to see what we were dealing with.

And, of course, there was some goofing off. ^_^

Perhaps an alternative action shot? I'm sure Richard would love it.

On the way back to campus, we stopped beside the road to look at some bamboo that might be used in the earthbag walls for some extra sturdiness. I think Phil took some back with him to see how it dries.

I did have a weird issue today. After coming in from marking the building, Jessa, Phil and Michelle were discussing some technical aspects of the house (the part that I don't have much to contribute to yet) such as the size and placement of windows. We were standing in the kitchen around the floor plans that were layed out on the island. And then my stomach started feeling pretty strange- in a familiar, dull, terrible way. I got my bottle of water and drank a little, but didn't feel much better. After standing there for another minute or so, I recognized what the feeling was- it was the pre-fainting feeling that I get whenever I'm around needles. Not wanting to be the weirdo who passes out on the first day on site, I took another drink and hoped the feeling would go away. But it didn't and I got dizzy, so I told Jessa I was going to sit down. The others told me I looked pale and offered me food and such, but I said I was fine- I know that just sitting can help quite a bit. So I sat on the floor and made goo-goo eyes at baby Eli and soon felt better. To be super safe, I ate a granola bar and felt completely up to par after a nice lunch of quinoa (this is how wikipedia says you spell this word...) and and beans.

Please note, this is not normal for me. The only times I have ever passed out have been when needles were involved (shots, tattoos, piercings.) I have only been dizzy from a lack of food once in the 9th grade when I didn't know how to manage my vegetarian diet. My little near-fainting spell could have been for several reasons (or combinations of these reasons):

1. I hadn't eaten anything yet.
   
2. It was incredibly hot.
   
3. Not enough water.
   
4. My body is completely ridiculous and just decided to give out on me.

I doubt option 4 has much validity- I have been nice to my body and it should be nice to me too. Option 3 would surprise me, because I had been drinking water while I was on site. Granted, warm water, and probably not enough in proportion to the heat. Option 2 would be weird, since I've never had heat issues before, and I spent last summer out in the sun for ten hour shifts, four times a week. Also, we were inside an air conditioned building at the time. The food thing is possible, but I wasn't feeling hungry at all and have been eating very healthily lately. I assume it is a combination of these things. I will work to prevent this from happening again in the future.

Tomorrow, tree picking. Wednesday, digging the foundation on Michelle's house. Next week, our first workshop at John's house. Phil recommended that I read the section on floors in my Building with Cob book. (I've been reading Earthbag Building: The tools, tricks and techniques lately, since earthbag is our first workshop.) I also need to get my timecard set up online.

Workshop Schedule

HomeGrown HideAways has updated their website. The workshop schedule has been posted.

June 15-20 Earthbag Workshop 1, $500

Learn to build the first code approved earthbag dome home in Kentucky. Built in an intentional community, the techniques of earthbag construction and planning will be covered along with discussion of site and foundation preparation. This workshop offers plenty of on-site lessons to help participants learn the tools, tricks, and techniques of constructing with earthbags. Hands-on opportunities will help participants to gain a feel for the nature of dirt, clay, lime, and sawdust as building materials as well as earthbag as a technique for residential construction.

June 22-27 Earthbag Workshop 2, $500

See description above. Discounts available if registering for both.

July 6-11 Post & Beam/Timber Frame Workshop, $500

In this workshop, participants will learn the basics of building a post & beam structure. We will cover layout techniques, tool use, hardware, and joinery cutting methods. This workshop is part of a larger project to build a strawbale and cob art studio.

July 13-18, Earthbag Plaster, $500

Like any building, earthen structures need to be protected from the elements. Earthbag construction poses its own unique challenges and working within the dome structure creates many unique learning opportunities. This workshop will cover materials, mixing techniques, troweling and texturing, and using pigments to color plaster.

July 20-25, Strawbale Design/Build, $500

Come learn the basic skills behind one of the most popular techniques of natural construction: strawbale. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to work first-hand with strawbale design and construction and develop a greater understanding of and appreciation for straw as a building material.

July 27 - August 1, Building with Cob, $500

This workshop will provide participants with instructions for creating cob structures, an affordable, safe, and ecologically sound method of construction. Workshop participants will learn the tools and methods used while constructing a cob structure which complies with modern building standards.

August 3-8, Natural Plasters & Finishes 1, $500

Learn how to use clay and lime based plasters on a variety of different natural surfaces, such as earthbag, strawbale, and cob. This workshop will cover materials, mixing techniques, troweling and texturing, and using pigments to color plaster.

August 10-15, Natural Plasters & Finishes 2, $500

See description above. Discounts available if registering for both.

Exciting things are taking place!

I've had a couple of meeting since my last post. Yesterday, Phil, Jessa and I had an impromptu meeting to hammer out some details with the workshops and specific things that need to be completed before starting the workshops. I don't feel like I contributed too much, but I listened attentively.

Today, I woke up early, (said goodbye to Adam, who left today) and went with Phil and Jessa to meet Michelle at the codes office. Michelle had her two kids with her- a baby strapped to her chest and a hyper boy who really wanted some attention- cute as anything. She got her building permit (from the same guy who approved John's- he seemed friendly and fairly excited about the buildings. It was nice to see who the others had been working with for so long.) Her permit was not near as hard to get as John's, since she will have a timber-frame to support her structure. I got to look at the official floorplan for the studio and I think it's going to be beautiful. (For a reminder, Michelle has the strawbale and cob studio. John had the earthbag dome house.) Jessa took a picture of Michelle with her permit, so maybe I can get my hands on that and post it as well.

After going to the codes office, Phil and I met up with John to discuss his house some more. Phil had plans drawn out on his computer, which I think helped me to understand and visualize the house much better. I felt like this was a very good meeting- I understood and felt up to speed with the others. I might owe my cup of Mocha Jo a thanks. I think John's house is going to be wonderful and unique to look at and I really hope that he opts to put bottle in his wall somewhere. I want to put bottles in a wall.

I just typed up a list of things that need to be done before our first workshop at John's on the 16th. I now need to type up short descriptions of each of the workshops so that Jessa can start advertising. I'm not entirely sure how well I will do on this, but I'm going to go give it a shot. Once Jessa posts the schedule and descriptions somewhere, I will post it on here. I don't want to falsely advertise.

I'm feeling good about this. I'm looking stuff up in books and becoming familiar with the terminology and processes. Phil let me look through his tools that he ordered for the summer, so I now know what I need to buy. I'm looking forward to this.

Planning the Summer

I had a meeting with Phil and Jessa yesterday. I was waking up from a nap that I took to get rid of a headache, so I was fairly low energy. The meeting went well though and I now feel more comfortable with what I'm going to be doing this summer.

There are three buildings that I am going to be working on.

1. John's earthbag dome. This is the structure that I'm most familiar with- I've been following the progress as John, Phil and Jessa have been designing and dealing with codes people. This structure is unique because it's actually a house. From what it sounded like, nobody has lived full-time in any of the structures that Phil or Jessa have made.
2. Carol's cob pottery studio. This will be a round structure with a shed roof.
3. Michelle and Rob's strawbale and cob art studio. Three walls will be strawbale and the fourth will be cob. Cob needs to be round, so the fourth wall, the southfacing wall, will be rounded, allowing for more thermal mass.

We set up a schedule for workshops for the summer. Jessa wanted to check with the project owners to make sure that the weeks we designated to work on their buildings was alright with them, so I'm going to wait until I hear confirmation from that before posting the complete schedule, but I will say (that this sentence is getting very long and) that there are nine straight weeks of workshops that I will be helping out with. The plan is to hold workshops Monday through Friday, 9 to 5 with long lunch breaks. We're hoping that each workshop has 5 to 15 people. The workshops will start June 16th, two weeks after my internship officially starts. Phil and I will be doing prep-work in those two weeks. I'm waiting to hear more about that.

June 10th I have a doctor's appointment. July 30th I go to the Warped Tour for free tabling for the Rainforest Action Network. I honestly know nothing about this- a friend of mine (Lilly) asked me if I wanted to join her. I will be recieving information in the mail to pass out, etc. I just found out that it was July, not June, so I will have to tell Jessa next time I see her.

I'm taking care of the animals now. They are sweet and wonderful. Even the shy cat (Sara) let me pet on her for a while. Good stuff.