May 3rd, 2009

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Playing with mud – part 1

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

We’ve started work in earnest on the greenhouse. The great thing about the cement work on this is that it is the same process we’ll be using on the exterior of the houses. This gives us a chance to practice techniques and also an opportunity to try out colors, etc. before committing on the house.

Here is a column before we started:

The first step was to prime the cement block that was there. (This is a part I’m very good at.)

Then comes mixing the cement. Another part I’m good at. (It’s hard work though. I couldn’t help thinking how useful a couple big teenage boys would be.)

Then we spread the cement on. I’m very bad at this and find it extremely frustrating. Brad tells me I’ll get better at it. When I think of doing this over two whole houses, I want to cry.

Then you float the surface and finish the corners. I can see getting good at this.

The last step will be a finish coat stucco. We’re looking at colors now.

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The sound of silence

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

We were in Albuquerque last week and Silver City this weekend, attending the American Clay workshop. (More on that to come.) In Silver City, we stayed at a little hotel right on the main street….which normally would have been very nice, but wasn’t this weekend. The Tour of Gila bicycle race (with none other than Lance Armstrong) was in town, making it a real zoo.

Friday night, there was a lot of activity around town, including at a very loud bar directly across the street and down from our hotel room. Everyone was partying loudly until 2am. And every 20 minutes or so, an deafeningly loud bunch of motorcycles would come racing down the street, each time setting off all the car alarms.

Needless to say, we didn’t sleep much.

Then at about 5am, they started setting up for the race. Unloading metal barriers, rolling out stacks of tires, shouting instructions at each other. I guessed these were not the same people at the bar the night before.

When we got home last night, we sat out on the porch for a bit before going to bed. It was so quiet, you couldn’t hear anything but a slight breeze.  It was so nice to be back in the solitude of home.

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