Take that...and that!

Thursday was torture...for our test bricks, that is.

We subjected our subjects to various unpleasant tests...

no Chinese Water Torture, though--that would have been just too much!

Just needed a little information is all --didn't actually want to kill 'em.

Lucky for us, the bricks cooperated.

First up was giving the bricks a thorough once-over--being careful to pay attention to any obvious cracks or weaknesses. The bricks didn't look too bad! There were a couple of questionable spots, but Brian seemed to think those were on the bricks I made! Sheesh! I didn't know it was a stinkin' beauty pageant (of course, this coming from the guy who can spend 5 minutes smoothing out a tub of margarine)!

Anyway, next up on the torture agenda was the scratch test...!

We took nails and scratched the bricks as hard as we could. I have to say, all of our bricks held up extremely well! Hardly any crumbling, and it was almost impossible to make a groove.Nice "blue steel"...are you a model?
After that was the Twist Test. We tried to break the bricks by twisting them. I'm happy to report they didn't even budge, and as you can see, we used every ounce of our muscle power.

I think we've decided that our best bricks were made with 3 parts sand to 1 part clay, although 2:1 worked out nicely, too. Supposedly, the more sand, the stronger the wall, so I think 3:1 is going to be our Little Darling! She's one tough cookie!

What's little and green and comes out in the spring time?....

Patty O'Furniture!

We also picked up these little beauties, so now Brian and I have a place to have tea and crumpets, and smoke pipes while reading the morning paper.

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3

Thursday was our much anticipated test batch day! We mixed some cob up in various proportions (2 parts sand : 1 part clay, 3 parts sand : 1 part clay, etc.). Brian and I got to practice our "cob dance", and I've got to say, Brian sure knows how to "mix it up" on the "dance floor"! He's a regular Cob Travolta. I mostly had the rather menial job of moving the tarp around...such is the burden for those of us with smaller feet.

Here's Brian river-dancing on the cob. Due to his extremely ticklish feet, he really was doing the "Elaine" at the beginning. This brought me great satisfaction.

Here I am looking a lot like a cob ninja. Despite my assassin looks, I am actually forming a cob ball to test by squishing (snow ball test), and dropping (drop test?). You listen to the cob, too, when you squish it. You're supposed to hear the scratching sound of sand-on-sand. Mine said "Paul is dead".

We made test bricks of our various cob mixes, making sure to scratch the recipe on the top of each brick with a stick (see below). From each batch, we made bricks without straw, and bricks with straw. Brian made the brick mold out of a broken down pallet. He's so crafty!

Kenny, Rhonda, and Clancy came out to help us! After donning Miss Piggy's gloves, Kenny mixed mortar and helped with the heavy lifting.

We also filled the middle of the wall with mortar and less desirable sandstone from around the yard. This is where Rhonda came in with her tuck point (?...small trowel thing), and helped spread the mortar. Rhonda also brought us fruit juice slushies, which tasted mighty-fine!

Clancy was a big help too (and by "help", I mean a total spaz).

He swam in our clay tub, burried things in the sand pile, made himself some tap shoes out of mortar, ate our leather gloves and flip-flops, peed in our house, and jumped in the back seat of the car covered in mud. All in a day's work, right, Clancy? (Oh, but look at that smooshy face!).

Here are our test bricks drying in the sun. As soon as they're dry, we'll karate-chop them, and submit them to various other forms of torture in order to determine which one most deserves to become our house, and which ones are "fi-yad".

Mailbox

Hey! Guess what! We've got an address! We've even got a pretty little mailbox. With the reluctant assistance of the enclosed instructions, Brian was able to assemble it lickity-split. I assisted by watching and taking pictures. Although, later, I was able to put my years of sign making experience to use by skillfully sticking on some numbers. (I'd love to show you, but I don't want Big Foot to know where we live). Later, Brian took the mailbox out to the Hollow and stuck it into the ground on a rather handsome looking log. I have to say, I think it looks quite spiffy! We may not have a house, but, by golly, at least we've got a mailbox!

PS. No, our mailbox doesn't have "naughty bits", and no, despite rumors, that was not our mailbox on Mailboxes Gone Wild IV--our mailbox has never even been to Cancun.

Brains and Braun (or Brian and Bron)

So here is what Brian and Bron did all last Thursday (I think it was)...they moved dirt and gravel from one place to another. Our buddy, Bron, was kind enough to lend us his time and tractor, and moved gravel and sand from the end of our driveway all the way up to our building site. Thanks, Bron!!! He made a big pile of sand, and dumped the gravel right into our foundation. Brian then proceeded to spread the gravel around to make our foundation pretty (well, there's more to it than just looks, but that's what I like best about it). Supposedly there's a tool/machine that can do this (called a "gravel hog" or some such nonsense), but we unfortunately found this out after Brian did the whole thing with a shovel and rake. Poor Brian. Fortunately, we have about another foot-and-a-half of gravel left to go, so there's still plenty of time to become acquainted with Mr. Gravel Pig (or whatever his name is).

The Wise Man Builds His House on a Rock

As promised, here are some pictures of the foundation! There is still a little more tweaking to be done, and a bathroom wall to finish, but isn't it nifty? It's really starting to look like something (I'm not sure what, but it's something)! It's really a site to behold, and much more impressive in person--some of the walls are a good two feet thick. That sucker's not going anywhere, I can tell you that much!


Some more pictures...hey look... we've got grass growing in our living room. That's weird.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank my wonderful husband for all of his hard work and mad skills! You rock my world (ah, I crack myself up)! But seriously, you give a whole new (and sometimes pungent) meaning to "sweat equity". I mean, you couldn't pay people to do what you do (well, maybe you could, but I certainly couldn't afford them). I love you. Thanks for building this dream with me (and mostly for me). You're the best!

Good Foundation

Here are some more pictures of the foundation. I'd like to put them in a slide show for you, but, unfortunately I'm the opposite of computer savvy--I'm yvvas retupmoc, nyuck,nyuck. So you're just gonna have to scroll! Sorry!

^Hey, look! It's almost finished! This picture has people in it (Hi, Jake, Abby, and Tyler!) just to give you a little perspective...in case there were any doubts about how intsy-wintsy this house is going to be.

<--Things were starting to shape up in this picture! Brian has been using his grandfather's old-timey cement mixer for the mortar. This is a picture of the back wall. That little notch is where the back door is going to be.






<--The walls are really thick, so it's economical if you can fill in in between with junky stuff. Some people use ugly rocks. We like to use ugly dogs. [Hi, Iwis!]









<--Job Foreman Tyler is checking out our high-tech home-made leveling device. It's clear plastic tubing filled with water that's been dyed red with

food coloring. Works like a charm!

<--

This is me taking a little snooze in our sleeping nook. It'll be much more comfortable with a mattress in it I think...and walls...and a roof...you know, the little things.

<--Me standing in the bay window/window seat/possible dining nook. We like our nooks. Nooks good.

The foundation is really, truly, almost finished now! Yippee!!! I'll get out to the land soon and take some pictures of Brian's piece de resistance! And more good news...as of yesterday, we've now got clay, sand, straw, and gravel at the job site--so watch out Mud, here we come!

10,000 BC

Here is Brian working on our foundation. I'd like to say that it has been a labor of love for him, but at this point (about a year later), I'm thinking it's more like a labor of I-hate-your-stinkin'-guts. Ok, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but, seriously, this is the foundation that never ends! Of course the poor guy has had to do the entire foundation by himself (I'm not all that in to heavy lifting...go figure), and he's only been able to work on it 3-4 days a week, and he had to stop over the winter (and built a beautiful fireplace for his cousin, Sam, by the way). Although, I must say, I grow a little suspicious when he comes home with waffle marks all over his body strangely resembling the pattern of the hammock. So, ya, these things take time...and patience. And he's been working so hard. And the foundation looks AWESOME! I'm really proud!





(Pretty cute cave man, huh?)