July, 2012

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This week

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

We finished the adobe wall in the back room. I think it came out great.

We also finally finished the last bit of stucco around the outside doors, and Brad dug lots of trenching and water into the house and sewer lines out. We have started prepping the big walls that will get adobe and will start on those next week.

The weather here has been lovely; monsoons are in full force with big storms rolling through almost every day. We don’t always get the rain here, but have had several long showers. The sprinklers on the outside garden beds have been off for a couple weeks, and as you can see, everything is thriving.

This little piggy

Sunday, July 22nd, 2012

On Friday afternoon, we went for a drive and hike and saw some cute javelinas. This was the first pair we saw.

Then we ran into this bunch.

The babies were so cute!

Glad there aren’t any packs of these getting into our garden though.

Today in masonry school

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

Today, we put some rebar into the wall, anchoring it to the OSB backing and adding strength.

We also put in the first electrical outlet in the adobe wall….

…and began experiments for the adobe wall wine rack concept.

Last night, we made a lovely cold soup from a giant cucumber from the garden. The tomatoes are starting to come in nicely as well.

Laying bricks

Monday, July 16th, 2012

We began building the first adobe wall today. As with most things, we “practiced” in an inconspicuous place. This time it was the back laundry room. (The adobe there will help warm our bedroom in the winter.)

First, we mixed the mud. It’s pretty much like stucco, except we added some color to try to make the mortar look less gray and more like the adobe bricks.

The actual bricklaying went faster than I expected. Brad said these bricks are much more stable and solid than others he’s worked with.

Here is the first day’s work. And things always go faster after the first day.

And on the weather front, we’ve gotten an inch of rain in the past 24 hours. We also had pretty big hail this afternoon. Exciting.

July 4 in Rodeo

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

They actually shut down highway 80 for this parade. This year was an especially good one.