sauna foundation

above photo is gabriel helping digging out the sauna foundation. this is made from cement bricks with lime/cement/sand morter. i did this to have smaller walls, for both the sauna and toilet area. for the rest of the house i used earthbag foundation.

you can see my first mistake here. i did not dig out the subfloor first. i then had to do it carefully when the stemwalls were there

filling the rubble trench

above photo is the foundation excavation. inside is a long piece filter fabric that is covering a three pieces of 2" inside diameter black tube made from HDPE, i drilled 1/2" holes into the tube almost everywhere to let rainwater flow through and out of the foundation

above photo is me filling the trench with large stones. i then covered this with small stones to the top

harvesting

collecting/harvesting stones by the creekside to fill the rubble trench for foundation drainage

above: less than a week later i have about 50% of the foundation trench dug. its only like 1 foot deep in most places, i will go deeper soon, to about 18-24", but i need this done carefully to create even and proper drainage. yesterday a neighbor helped me for 4 hours in the morning, and its amazing what 2 can do, its like 5x faster than just one worker (me)

this is just the start of a my most ambitious project yet. these white lines represent the foundation to our future guest house. the walls are 1.5 feet thick in most places and will be made of "cob" . the top left rectangle will be the sauna/bath, powered by a "rocketstove".
there is a little toilet/sink in the top right.
the center area will be a large bench, heated underneath by the rocket stove as well. and a kitchen/spectator gallery.
i have allready dug up 10% of the foundation. this is really tough work, all alone with a pickax and shovel
you cannot see it here, but the cottage is right next to our stream, including the hidden 6 foot waterfall!!!
the trail in the back leads up to the mountains

living roof

these photos are of our living roof over the garden shed. i mixed clay, sand and vermiculite.
which will make it lightweight.

Crab on the land

one of our many little friends on the land. lucy our cat smelled this little crustacean under a rock and dug her out and tormented it for 10 minutes or so. this one was about the size of my hand

Natural Building Colloquium

last october i spent 10 days in Kerrville, Texas at the Quiet Valley Ranch.
below photo is me drilling 3/4" holes to support 5/8" rebar, filled with special epoxy. you will see what these columns created in the photo above. this stage was created by "SunRay Kelley"

turtle

releasing a turtle into out stream
our friends gave him to us, not
sure why, but they wanted him
to go to our land. this was over
a month ago and i have not
seen him since

dia de los muertos

gabriel, jacob, and samuel ready for the "dia de los muertos" or "day of the dead" parade in our village.

natural building colloquium

this is me, with the straw hat, building the foundation for a "sun ray kelly"
creation at the natural building
colloquium in Kerrville, Texas

below is the final product

second (first) day of school

we put the little guy into a new school. now, instead of the private pricey one, hes going to the local public school

wooden shed

today, finally, still tired in my arms and my bleeding finger that got banged up by the hammer more than once, but i want to post this picture of the roof. i nailed up 1/2" thick hardwood. tommorow i will make it grow, check back to see how!