Making mud pies!

 Simon left after New Years party taking Rich with him! They decided to have a well deserved week sking in Andorra. Then, as soon as Rich got back I went sking down to Sierra Nevada with Dan my eldest son and Sean. It was crap weather but nice to be away from everything for a while.

Rich started again on the house but slowly, slowly, doing little bits of extra wood sections and recutting some bits that got rushed a bit!

Jose came to visit to check the progress and give us some good and bad news. Good for him as he is going away to South America to learn some new techniques, bad for us as we lose him when we need him most!

A great new helper is Melvin, an old friend of my sons and taking a year out from University as a true Spanish speaker he has already helped a massive amount.

Rich and Mel had a trip back down to the wood yard and we collected the tongue and groove which will go onto of the beams.

The boys have been busy treating all the wood with, 25% sunflower oil, 75% terps and ground chillies left in for an hour! Smelly horrible work but they have done a great job and wood is happier!

The next job was the test the soil that we have on the land and see how we can use it! We took samples and added various amounts of sand and straw. You can see the different sections on our test bale. The first one which on the left, is the one we are going to use, it  is 50% sand and 50% soil from closest to the house. Less work! Mixed with water I could not believe how strong it is, looks and feels like cement!

Yesterday (25th Feb) was an important day as we put the bails into the frame and started to cover them in adobe (mud). Rich first covered the wood with netting which will help the mud to stick. This is all a bit hit and miss and test as we go along. "You Tube" is coming in very useful!

Rich happy with a staple gun!

Lots of pushing and grunting!!!!

Push down hard Sean as Rich needs screws in the cross sections!

Our great Oranges decided to make our own little quarry! The soil comes out and goes through a 5mm shieve to get rid of large bits and lumps. Then we add water and straw and 50% sand. Mel has worked out the correct "drop" so all good to go onto the walls. We are using wooden shuttering (scrap wood from the bins) to hold the adobe in place. This will be removed when its dry and we move along the house.

Mud dropping!

Rich making sure it is packed down tight!

Feels weird that it is all coming along so smoothly! People keep asking "what is the deadline" but I always give the same answer "there isn't one, I don't want any pressure and I am quite happy in the caravans. Well aslong as the sun shines and charges the solar batteries!