Today is March 6th…this is my first blog post….EVER!  I have been in Rainier Washington for exactly 22 days for the purpose of building my first ever Cal-Earth Superadobe mud hut for my friend Meggan’s 5 (soon to be more) goats.  Here is the site of the future goat dome and the lucky future residents in their current abode which will remain and act as a secondary shelter.

This whole crazy notion came about after taking a one week course this past September to learn how to build with Superadobe at The Cal-Earth Institute in Hesperia, CA.  I was thrilled that my dear friend, who, incidentally had had Cal-Earth mud huts on her radar as well, was willing to work with me and allow me to practice my new-found skills on her property in Washington State so soon after taking the course…brave woman!  Cal-Earth was founded by the late, great Nader Khalili, architect and humanitarian.  This style of building utilizes Earth-filled sandbags coiled up into a dome-shaped structure, then covered over with Earth plaster.  Check out their Website for more info:  www.calearth.org

If I had to guess, the prep and planning phase that we are in currently is going to end up being the most humbling phase of all…I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous or intimidated to make the first dig.  As someone who has never built anything in her life quite like this, I feel like I haven’t a hot clue what I’m doing or who I think I am to come out here with this lofty intention in the first place.  I know that’s just my fragile little ego talking, but as we inch along in this ever daunting planning process, speaking with building experts of varying kinds, including instructors and past-graduates of The Cal-Earth Institute, I am aware of the fact that I have already learned a whole lot and, dare I say, gaining confidence by the day that we can do this!

The first official task we did about 2 weeks ago was to dig up a small soil sample….at night, in the rain…to test the composition of the soil.

This is supposed to tell you the ratio of different components to help determine which stabilizer would be best used for the project.  As you can see, my sample seemed a bit bunk until I learned that in WA, the soil is very rocky and has a top layer, 1 to 2 feet deep, of very rich, black topsoil type of Earth, great for gardening but not so much for my purposes, that has to be cleared off first before you dig down for the foundation.

Onwards….we sourced out a place locally where we will likely order a truckload of Earth from…unfortunately this means it is not free but we didn’t know of any other way to get the proper building material.  We got 3 different samples of Earth that we are testing to find out the best one according to our stabilizer tests.  Will find out in a few days.

Yesterday we scored some PVC piping scraps for FREE which we plan on using for ventilation windows in the goat hut.  Hooray for generous and kind Samaritans out there who like to support unconventional creative endeavors!  🙂

The excavator is booked for this Monday….that’s right…the digging begins and we’ll be off and running!  We’ve decided on a french drain for water run-off as it rains a WHOLE lot here in Rainier…aptly named town!  We are still tossing around final weather-proofing membrane finishes but we have time for that.  There is a woman here in town who has apparently built one of these structures that we are meeting with tomorrow so we’ll see what insights and wisdom she has to share with us.

That is where we are to date…will update once the actual building has begun…hopefully without a hitch!  Any/all good building vibes sent our way are welcome!  🙂