Summer mudding

space creature examines hole in floor

We are here for two weeks for summer break, so I hope to show a bit of progress every day or two.  We have some ambition to get the fourth wall up, the internal wall up, the sub-floor prepared and the first three walls rendered so that when we go home it will look like a proper building.

The main thing holding us back is the heat.  Today will be about 35 degrees, and the following two days will likely push 40 degrees up on our ridge.  There are only a few useful hours for outdoor work when it's that hot.

My job for today is to find some rocks, lift them up and apologise to the scorpions that live under them, move them into place on the footings then move them a few more times until they look pretty.  It's 8.30am and the sun is already a great big orange thing, so I decided to blog about it over a coffee instead of getting straight out there.

TJ is going to finish digging holes in the floor for a bit of concrete work - a small slab for a wood stove and stirrups for the base of all the joinery, because we can't let any wood touch the floor (termite country).

New pile o' dirt

Rendering the east wall taught me that our own pile of dirt, which was excavated from the footings trench, doesn't have enough clay in it.  The render has set brilliantly, but it was very difficult to apply to the wall.  But my brother who lives nearby has a pile of dirt he doesn't have immediate plans for, so we brought some home in his trailer and I'll test that out in the next day or two.

I grossed out my niece M by shaking some of that dirt pile in a jar of water to settle the sand to the bottom, then rubbing the top layer on my teeth.  This is how I test for clay - clay and silt look the same to me, but silt is gritty.  This stuff felt smooth.  So, here's hoping.