A Visit from Santa

I guess I've been good this year. Santa just dropped by in his Toyota Tundra to deliver some cookies that he baked in his solar powered oven. Delicious! It was the perfect end to a productive day. 

Earlier today, Don stopped by to help me start on the brown coat

 of the dome. The brown coat is the final inside stucco coat and is the same mix as the scratch coat: 2.5 parts sand, one part portland cement, and a small can of fly ash. But instead of scratching the coat afterwards, it is smoothed out with a foam sponge. Since I didn't have a foam sponge on site, we cut off a little piece of my pillow. Perfect! My pillow was a tad too long anyway. 

It is nice to see the holes get filled and the rough edges get smoothed out.  

Happy holidays everyone. I hope you get to eat some delicious buttery solar powered cookies, too. 

Terlingua Recycles and Plants Gardens

This morning was a bit nippy, just above freezing, as I met the rest of the recycling volunteers at 8 am to take the town's recycling into Big Bend Park to sort. The National Park Service gives us access to their great recycling facility, and the Rio Grande Electric CO-OP graciously donated a recycling truck to make access to that facility possible. The Terlingua Recycling program accepts donations and has an annual fundraiser to pay for the gas and insurance to run a volunteer crew to the recycling facility about once a month. They even trust us to run the recycling machines at the facility. My favorite is called the "Cram-A-Lot". It removes the air from plastics, cardboard, and cans by squashing them to death before they are reincarnated into new products. We broke a record by finishing the job in under an hour. Pat, who owns the Terlingua Springs Market health food store, treated us all to coffee afterward, as she always does for volunteers on recycling days.

The day warmed up quite nicely, getting to about 80 degrees. I went over to the Terlingua Community Garden to pick up some metal scraps that they were giving away to volunteers. Shannon and Zoe were there planting rows of winter greens, and they let me plant a row of broccoli. I am looking forward to eating some in a few months

Another exciting and eventful day.

Here is a great Bill Moyers interview with Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and writer for the New York Times.

Casa de Cob

Yesterday, I helped out new friends Robin and Jadi with their Cob house in Ocotillo Mesa. It was good to take a break from my own project and get some new ideas. Robin and Jadi have a great house in the works. They are doing things in the right order. The first thing they did was have the roof built. That gave them instant shade and water catchment. IMPORTANT in the desert !

Before the day started, I wondered if my inexperience would slow things down, but towards the end of the day, Robin mentioned how much faster this is going having another person. Robin and Jadi have spent most of the last year building their place on their own, with occasional help from friends. With cob building, one doesn't need any experience to be of help. Just about anyone can help to speed things up by shovelling dirt, stomping mud, and shaping walls. Many other cultures have realized, or have not forgotten, that building one's own house is what makes a house a home. It builds community at the same time. This idea is making a small comeback here in America as more people are realizing an alternative to the enslavement of the housing and mortgage markets. This is a pay as you go system...allowing the home builder to always own what they have and never go in debt. Cob ( sand, clay, and straw ) costs nothing. It is found all over the earth and is there for the taking.

It was a fun day. We ate delicious coconut soup and a salad with home grown beets and radishes.

BIG BEND BULLETIN BOARD

Check out the new Big Bend Bulletin Board for posting rideshare ads, items for sale, etc. If the link doesn't work, it's at www.bigbendbulletinboard.com . Hopefully, Craigslist will step in soon. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.