Hello and welcome to the fifth blog post of ‘Goat Mud Hut’!
Before I get into the specifics of what’s been happening with the dome structure this week and last, I want everyone to sit down. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you fall over when I show you what I’m about to show you.
First I’ll recap where we left off last post…here we are with our ‘Above Grade Bliss’ row and a half, buttress bench started and my wonky door form, remember?
Friends, it’s been a good week here in Rainier….this is what we were able to accomplish with a full week and a bit of dry, sunny and warm weather with a handful of helpers a few of the days:
TA-DAAAAAAA!!!!! I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty pumped about the whole thing. Ladies and Gentlemen, WE HAVE A STRUCTURE!!
I’m beginning to trust that the weather Gods are in charge of our rate of progress and they will ensure we get the power weeks that we need like this past one, followed by ‘X’ number of rain days in order for us to recoup from the laborious intensity of this work (I am currently icing and resting my tingling, tamp-exhausted Popeye-esque forearms). My new mantra these days has become, “I release control and I enter the FLOW”. There is no sense getting all worked up about the weather or other factors that I have no control over…it only blocks me from being able to access the flow that is ever-present and available regarding all facets of this project . If I can keep my mind in it’s rightful passenger seat position, this can easily be accomplished. I am officially 100% certain that this dome structure will be completed before I am required to cross back into Canada and so long as I honor and respect the pace that is laid out for us by said Weather Gods (with perhaps a few reasonable requests)….utilizing dry, sunny days for productivity on the mud hut and rainy days for rest, regrouping, prep and planning for the next phase of productivity (scaffolding anyone?)….there is absolutely no reason for a sense of panic to kick in wondering if it will all get done. It is only my mind creeping it’s way back into the driver’s seat that has the ability to impose this sentiment into the mix. No pun intended.
I HEREBY PROCLAIM TO THE WEATHER GODS, WE ARE IN YOUR CAPABLE HANDS AND TRUST THAT YOU WILL SHOW US THE DIVINE BALANCE OF WORK/REST IN ORDER FOR THIS DOME TO BE COMPLETED IN A TIMELY FASHION, ALL THE WHILE FEELING WELL AND HEALTHY THROUGH ALL ASPECTS OF THE PROCESS!!!! So be it.
OK, let’s back the truck up and go through all of the fun and exciting steps we’ve accomplished since the last post.
We’ll start with the new and improved door form (I’m sure you noticed). I picked up some pieces of lumber and flexible panelling from Mountain Lumber in Yelm that I thought would make a feasible form along with the arched cut-outs from Maryanne. Roger came over the following day to help us assemble it (well, he didn’t actually help us, he just assembled it, we didn’t do a damned thing other than get the lumber). He did a stellar job, wouldn’t you say? I don’t know what it is about working with wood…just doesn’t seem to be my forte. I was so impressed with the ease in which he put this form together and ever so grateful that he was willing to help so that I didn’t have to contend with it! Here’s the form on it’s own so you can appreciate it’s free-standing beauty:
Much like the boulders plucked from the trench during excavation becoming a playground for the goats, this door form will likely become a playhouse for Cyrus once we remove it from the dome.
The door form was moved into place on top of cinder blocks. This way, once we have gone 3 or 4 rows above the peak of the form, we can shimmy the cinder blocks out and it will drop down for easy removal.
Our good friend Wayne of Bio-Sand filter fame showed up the day we set the door form into place last week to help us, what a delight! Here is the whole motley crew (minus photographer) filling another wheelbarrow of Earth to be stabilized with cement before filling the bags.
We’ve touted Wayne the ‘one scoop wonder’. He can fill a bucket of Earth in one giant gulp…we tried to do it visual justice here (not to mention Meggan’s impressive biceps!):
This is essentially the bulk of the work…mixing, mixing, and more mixing. As you can well imagine, we need a constant supply of 10% stabilized Earth mixture to feed into the bags as we are laying them. So when we get an extra person come by to help, it allows one person (usually Meggan, bless her heart) to be on constant mixing duty so that the other two can maintain a continuous flow of bag-laying without having to stop every few feet to mix up more Earth. We have tossed around renting/buying a cement mixer but so far have decided that we are ok to keep doing what we are doing and spare the expense of the mixer. We will see if we still feel that way once we get to the plastering. The mixture is more moist for that so perhaps it will be something to consider. TBA….
Katherine, one of Meggan’s lovely neighbors stopped by towards the end of the day to check up on our progress so we stuck a tamper in her hand and put her to work. OK, only for 5 minutes in order to say we officially have her love and energy infused into the dome….we’d never force anyone to work if they didn’t willingly volunteer (yet).
And one of my favorite aspects of Earth building…..post-work beer time! Yum!
The next day it was just Meggan and myself working away until 3:30 when Dennis, the personable 14-year old was able to come by after school to help us mix and fill bags for a couple of hours. This was also a special day as we laid the first two of eleven pipe windows into the dome walls, exciting stuff!! Here’s a photo depiction of the day unfolding:
Start of the day:
It’s a bit hard to tell in the photos but we tamped the second buttress ring on a slight down slope for water run-off.
Notice the plastic on the outside of the door form. This was done as a way to protect the non-weather resistant flexible panelling from the rain and dew overnight and eliminate the need to wrestle with the two 20′ X 30′ tarps which was becoming a less and less pleasant end-of-day chore. So now all we have to do is be sure the bags are covered but we can leave the middle and outside trench to absorb and drain the rainwater naturally….forget about having to ‘tent’ it in such a way that the water runs away from the workspace. With these crazy winds around here, that was not an easy (or fun) task!
Middle of the day:
Meggan laying bag in line with our center compass while Dennis fed:
Next up, the windows! We decided to cut into the walls to lay the pipe windows, carving a down and outward sloping groove for them to sit in. It is also possible to lay them right on the bag sandwiched between layers without cutting into the bag. I decided that cutting and sculpting the groove would be best as I wanted to be ultra certain that they would not straighten out during tamping with this rainy climate. This was explained very well as an option in the Cal-Earth Emergency Shelter book. So here goes the first cut….part of me felt as though I was cutting open the flesh of my baby! I was half expecting to see blood!
All is well, phew!
And voila, our first cute little window, awww!
I sloped some stabilized Earth up against either side of the pipe so there wouldn’t be too much gap when we lay the next row over top.
We finished the day after inserting the second window and laying the rest of the first half of row 5:
Next, we had a fun idea to buy 5 terra-cotta flower pots to use for the 5 different minerals that stay in the goat run-in shed at all times. Meggan taught me that goats will go to whatever mineral their body is in need of. They sit there available to them for whenever they need some. If they don’t need it, they won’t be drawn to it but they must be there for when they do, very cool! Kind of like when I get a craving for salty potato chips I guess. But I have a feeling if potato chips were left available in a bowl for me all day, there would be more than the occasional refill.
Alas, our idea was to get the pots and insert them into the walls of the dome on a tilt so the minerals will sit in there and they can just sidle up and indulge when necessary. However, Meggan felt the pots would be too deep for them to get their snouts all the way to the bottom so she came up with a genius idea to use leftover grout and beads/jewels from her beautiful dome home to fill space in the bottom of the pots to make them shallower (and waaaaay more pretty and interesting), seal them with grout sealant and end up with a functional and artistic display of mineral dishes for the goats! They will be so pumped! We were to be putting them in the next row so we had arts and crafts night making fun beaded pots to be ready for our next day’s work.
We didn’t get to setting the pots in the dome the next day but we did finish the 5th row with the other two windows on the opposite side of the dome and began the 6th row into which we will embed our pots. Neighbor Katherine came by to take Cyrus for a walk which enabled us to hammer out the last segment of bag without concern of the myriad hazards that double as magnets to a 2+1/2 yr old on our work site. Here we are with our completed window row. These four pipe windows will represent the bottom two points of two 5-pointed stars on each respective side of the dome. Each point of the stars will be a pipe window with a mason jar in the center of each for added light.
On the back wall above the mineral pots will be a third 5-pointed star in the reverse; the 5 points will be mason jars and in the center will be one pipe window. Since we had eleven pipe window lengths in total, this was a perfect configuration that the goats will appreciate along with the mineral pots, obviously!
The following day, this past Wednesday, we had another truckload of Earth delivered as we were getting pretty low on our original 12 yd pile. We had another 10 yds delivered, not because I think we’ll need another 10 yds as I feel we are well beyond halfway in terms of Earth volume, but because the price goes down significantly per yard starting at 10 yds. We would have only ordered 6 but for $30 more, we’d get 10. And I knew, sure as it rains in Washington, if we’d gone for the 6 yds, we’d need 6 yds plus one scoop to finish the dome. Nobody needs that so 10 yds it was.
As I was shovelling fresh Earth into the trailer to start our day of building while Meggan and Cyrus went into town to run a few errands, I was thrilled to see Wayne pulling into the driveway to help out for another few hours! It’s funny not having a cell phone while I’m out here…things transpire unbeknownst to me. I can be shovelling Earth all by myself in my own little zone and all of a sudden, a car pulls up and I get that thrilling moment of realizing, AN ANGEL HAS COME TO HELP US TODAY!! Very fun indeed. And on a day when we were inserting the pots which was great because I can never predict how long it will take me to execute a new detail on this project.
But as I’m finding, much like with the windows, the first one always takes some mental prep but once I get going, it’s really pretty straight forward, go figure! Nevermind the imperfect spacing and the fact that we will have to stray off of our compass line on the next row to go over the pots!
Wayne and I decided it would be a good idea to fill in the spaces between the pots with ‘plaster’ to buffer the impact of the over-laying bag so while Meggan and Cyrus went to make sandwiches, we borrowed Cyrus’ wheelbarrow to mix up a pseudo cement plaster that I hand molded into place, whetting my appetite for the rough plastering that lies ahead (I love rough plastering)!
Nice!
We started the next row but left off just shy of the pots. I wanted to be sure we were fresh and ready to cover the pots with the next row of bag as the tamping process might be a wee bit tricky over those fragile terra cotta mineral dishes!
Here’s where we left off that day:
Thursday was our last day on the dome this past week, and the hottest; 29 degrees Celsius or low 90’s Fahrenheit , love it!! If we aren’t having to tarp our Earth pile to keep excess rain out of it, we are tarping it to keep it from drying up in the sun. But I’ll tell you what’s been amazing and worth acknowledging a great aspect of building in a rainy climate….we have yet to add water to our Earth mix! By the time we add the cement to our slightly mucky Earth, it’s bloody near perfect for building! It is supposed to form a nice ‘log’ in your hand when you squeeze it but not leave too much muck on your hand. Yay for moisture-regulating tarps!
Linda, our fourth helper this week, was able to come by Thursday afternoon to help us build! You may recall I’d mentioned a woman who is also building an Earthbag structure on her property (separate from the woman who gave us the arched door forms) whom I will do a labour exchange with. We organized that she would come by on Thursday and I reciprocated yesterday, Friday, to work on her Earthbag pumphouse. She is a lovely pioneering woman, eager to help bring us closer to completing our project and likewise to have someone just as eager to help finish hers. She is building in a different way than the Cal-Earth style but it’s always interesting to learn other approaches to alternative building methods and of course there are overlapping commonalities. We’ve already learned some really good tips from her as to how we can make our work easier so thank you Linda! We were so immersed in our work on that day (and perhaps a bit touched by the heat) that I neglected to take any photos so I came out the next morning with my morning coffee before heading to Linda’s to document our victoriously productive week and this is where we stand, tall(ish) and proud, 7+1/2 rows up!
Since I was out there photographing our Cal-Earth dome, drinking coffee from my awesome Cal-Earth mug (yes, I am a geek, I brought it with me), I decided to get artsy and give a photographic plug to the wonderful folks who instilled in me enough knowledge, confidence and encouragement to decide to come out here, leaving the comforts of the known for the unknown. Ian, Dave, Hooman, thanks for your passion and enthusiasm for this work and sharing your knowledge and experience so generously. And thank you Nader for being the visionary genius behind it all! I know your spirit is guiding us! 😀
Until next update, enjoy yourSelf! xo
Goat Mud Hut 