A dirt cheap floor, a small green house, and other progressions

My friend Justin spent the month of January out here to progress the status of the dome project, which had been on hiatus for awhile due to a hefty music itinerary. In exchange, Justin left with a set of dome frames to begin his own off-grid abode. It has been awhile since I posted a progress update, so there are quite a few picture for anyone who might be interested. It is at this facebook album link, which I made public.

 

For more photos and the process description, go to this album link

Build Some and They Will Come

Ike and Wendy perform a desert ballad on mouth harps

Well I haven't even finished building and they are coming. Since early February, most days I have had friends or strangers camping on my land, from anywhere from one night to two weeks. This seems to be a popular getaway for Canadians. I have had 3 sets of guests from Quebec. Two from New York. Many from Austin. And from a few other places with cold winters.  It has been enjoyable. I seem to do more hiking and see more sights when I am showing visitors around. I also learn a lot from watching the way that others live off-grid, what they cook, etc. Hopefully, they learn something too. 

Ike and Wendy, who I know from the Kerrville Folk festival camped out here last week. Ike is more of a dome enthusiast than anyone I know, other than Don Bryant. He ogled over Don's work and I could see his head spinning with ideas. Same thing happened to me when I first saw Don's buildings. 

Derek masters the Cram-Alot

My current guest is Derek Hansen, a cyclist who is prepping for a short little bicycle ride to Montana. We are linked by mutual friends in Austin. We put him to work this week in our volunteer recycling crew in Terlingua. And of course, I coerced him to mix a few batches of stucco after I showed him how, while I stuccoed the last piece of the exterior perimeter. Now all that is left of the outer cover coat is the very top. 

On Tuesday night we had a dinner in the shade of the dome. Eight friends and neighbors came by for a big pot of pesto pasta and some jalapeno and onion mashed potatoes.  

Domania!

A small team from Marathon Texas came by a couple of weeks ago to borrow Don's dome frames for a new structure at the Marathon hostel. Whereas I had to transport the dome frame piece by piece on top of my volvo, the Marathon crew demonstrated the portability of the dome frame by coming prepared with a trailer so that they could get all of the frames in one go to Marathon, about 90 miles away. They are using Don's design for a gazebo type structure that will be finished in papercrete. You can track their progress here.

The beauty of Don's design is that the same frame can be used over and over and over again and finished out in many different ways.

Work Continues

Earth Language sunrise on 10-15-10

Don had the sniffles this week and so he stayed home to rest. Whenever he is under the weather, he diagnoses himself with distemper.

This past week, I have been working by myself, stuccoing the outside of the dome. It is like icing a cake compared to stuccoing the interior. Gravity has decided to be my friend. It is more than satisfying to see the rusty metal bars and wire erased from sight with each brush stroke. I have been staring at it for so long.

Stucko

Yep, more stucco. We'll be stuck doing this for a little while longer as we round out the edges inside the dome. Don is quite the perfectionist when it comes to the details. It is labor intensive, but also meditative, and doesn't cost anything, so I don't mind. This building material should last 100 years at least. Once we get to the outside stucco portion, it will be easy because we will have gravity on our side. But on the inside, we are used to having stucco fall on our face and in our eyes.

Work Trade

Now that I am back from tour, the weather is good, and I have some time, it is back to building. Yesterday, I helped Mr. Don Bryant with an adobe project at his place. It is good to see the old guy excited about working with earth materials instead of cement and metal for a change. With adobe, one doesn't have to worry about getting cement powder in the pores of your skin or in your lungs, as well as not needing to clean off your tools at the end of the day. We acknowledged how much faster the work goes with two people instead of one. Depending on the chemistry, it is usually more than twice as fast, which is why it is helpful to form work trades as much as possible.

Back on Ruby Road

I'm back in the Big Bend after an epic summer tour up to the NW and back over the span of over two months on the road. It was a fantastic journey but I'm glad to be back in the post monsoon green pastures of the Big Bend, here on Ruby Road.

Radiant Floor

Awhile back I was considering installing a radiant floor, as friends have highly recommended their inexpensive heating capabilities during the winter. Rusty, my neighbor, renewed that idea when he suggested the same and took it a step forwards by offering to help me install it. Rusty has some experience after installing radiant heating beneath his poured adobe floor on his own house. He happened to have some pex pipe on hand. Pex is a great durable water pipe that is also inexpensive. It's flexibility makes it easy to shape. The pipe will move hot water underneath the floor, which will then conduct through the floor and into the interior space, providing free heating in the winter. A solar water heater on the outside of the dome will provide the heating mechanism. 

We only had half a day to start this process. Rusty was the foreman and my friend and songwriter Johann Wagner also leant a hand. Johann and I are currently on tour together, and so the poured adobe floor, which will cover the pex pipe and provide a plateau for bare feet, will have to wait.

Reunited

Don's 1st cousin, Ludelle, and two of her daughters, made the trek down here from Abilene to visit Don this weekend. After trying to locate Don for quite some time, they stumbled upon this blog during an internet search and contacted me a few weeks ago. It had been about 20 years since they had seen each other last. I can tell that they were related to Don, because they all had that same genuine compassion for those around them. We gave them the abbreviated tour of Terlingua and the more in depth tour of Domeland. I think that they were all quite impressed with Don's achievements and the word is that they will be back again in a month. 

Here is Don explaining how his jig creates a template, which when assembled, provides the frame for the dome. The dome in the background is about 1000 square feet on the inside.   

Don talking geometry with Ludell's daughter, Janet. 

110 in the shade

I never would have thought that 110 degrees would feel pleasant, but it does in the desert, as long as there is shade. Don and I stuccoed for most of the day at above 100 degrees. It sounds hot, but I'd take it over 85 degrees and humid. The nights are still cooling off into the 60s. 

One way to keep cool out here is to dip your shirt in a bucket of water, ring it out, and then put it back on. It is COLD, even when using warm water. This is due to evaporative cooling. This form fitting AC unit is good for about 30 minutes before it has to be recharged. A siesta is also a good way to avoid the hottest part of day, though I still have yet to adopt that pastime.

But the BEST way to cool off around here is at Agua Fria, a year round cold spring about 12 miles from my place. Don and I went there during the hottest part of the day today. Heaven!

Don's Cousin, Ludell, also in her 80s, tracked him down through this blog. She is coming down here next weekend to reunite with Don after about 20 years. 

Anyways, I am getting pretty good at stuccoing. 

Brown Coat Continued

I have been back out here in Terlingua for all of March and April, mostly playing music around the area. Now that the season is coming to an end, I am finding some time to get back to the building. This last Thursday, we had a great team to work on and almost finish up the brown coat inside the dome. Don, Mundo, and myself developed a nice rhythm and got the hardest part done (the center of the dome, where the stucco can fall down on you as you apply it). Since we aren't using any power tools, all the stucco from beginning to end of this project is being mixed by hand, rather than a power mixer. We are also using our own aggregate in our stucco mixture, found locally for free, rather than a pre-mix such as quikrete. In order to prepare for a full workday such as today, all of the supplies must be gathered beforehand. The sand is gathered a couple of miles from my land, where it settles on the road from nearby natural deposits. The road becomes difficult to drive on when the wind piles the loose sand in heaps on the road. By gathering the sand, it also clears the road so that it is a bit easier to drive on. Since I don't have access to a conventional pickup truck, I use my volvo, Ruby, pretty much like a truck by putting  the seats down and then covering the back of the wagon with a heavy duty tarp. There is almost as much room in there as a pickup truck. The sand then has to be filtered very finely. I screen it with both lath and mosquito netting.  We also have to make sure that there is enough water on hand. Stucco gets very thirsty for the stuff. 

Don and Mundo are both expert stuccoers, with very different techniques. I learned a lot from watching them as I mixed stucco. I felt pretty comfortable with stuccoing the scratch coat since it doesn't have to be perfect and gets covered up. But for the brown coat, the part that get seen, I wanted more experienced hands to do the task. 

A long day makes for a good night's sleep, however, I learned later that my slumber was only a few feet away from a rattle snake, the first one I have seen on my land. 

Wired Up to the Sun

I don't have access to the grid out here, but I do have access to the Sun, which is a more secure source of electricity in the long run. 

My friend George helped me wire up the outlets in the dome over the last couple of days. I have never wired up a house before, so I wanted someone with experience to be in charge of this part. 

When Emile visited last year, we installed the

 outlet boxes (the easy part). 

We decided to run both Romex wire (standard housing wire for AC outlets) and DC wiring through the same conduit that wraps around the outside of the dome. That way, I have a choice whether or not to plug in AC powered appliances or equipment directly or less energy intensive 12 volt DC versions. Once the outside of the dome is stuccoed, the conduit won't be accessible anymore, so we felt it important to have the option for both AC and DC, as they both have positives and negatives. 

We spent much of today driving to find the pieces that we need. We went by George and his wife Anita's property to get a couple of connectors that we were missing. They are also getting started here as well, and have built a temporary structure and outdoor shower (pictured here with their dusty puppy, Lulu). 

I learned a lot about wiring by watching George. And I got to install a couple of outlets, as well as the DC powered light in the center of the dome. It seems pretty easy once you've done it a few times.  The dome's power will be on two circuits.  My current inverter doesn't quite have enough power to move the current evenly through the thick Romex wire, and so until I get a stronger inverter, I will use DC power. 

Up till now, I have been running power right from the battery bank, plugging everything directly into an inverter. George pointed out that my connections were messy on my battery bank and stressed that those should all be tight so that it won't short out the circuit or fry the battery or something. He showed me some easy ways to fix those connections. 

I've spent about $500 so far for solar panels, an inverter, conduit, connectors, etc and that seems to be enough for running the basics right now (computer, internet modem and wifi, lights, radio, and rechargeables. I am sure I will have to upgrade soon. 

Other than those expenses for infrastructure, my electric bill each month continues to be $0! 

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. 

bicycles and gardens

I have started riding my bicycle to get my mail. The mailboxes are about 3.5 miles from me, so it is a nice 7 mile roundtrip exercise chore. The ride takes me on dirt roads right past camel’s hump. It then spits me out onto the Terlingua Ranch road, which is paved and mostly flat. Sure beats driving ! The weather right now is ideal for bicycle riding. Most of the year is condusive to bicycle riding really...may have to just adjust the time of day you choose to ride ( mornings and evening in mid-summer, mid-day in the winter ).

In other news, I planted some seeds today. Tomatoes and beets. John Wells then showed up with some green bean and squash seeds, so I planted those too. I attempted planting tomato seeds twice already, but they didn’t germinate in this soil. It dries out too fast. This time I used potting soil so we’ll see what happens. Planting seeds is a good practice in patience and planning. It makes the fruit of one's labor that much more tasty. There are many ways to plant seeds in our lives and those are the things that are most worthwhile. And the motivation behind it is that while new seeds are being planted, older ones are yielding, giving a constant flow of, in this case, FREE food. It works the same way for energy and water harvesting. The instant gratification of a mass produced, purchased item can wear out quickly without leaving any residue of appreciation for what was consumed.

The dome building is back to a snail's pace since Emile left back home to Oregon, but progress is being made. The window wells are now fully lathed, and I've started to stucco them.

I have been listening to too much news while working, so I have begun listening to a music station called Sirius Disorder, a satellite station that is actually pretty good. No commercials. I am still only using 45 watts of solar panels, but it has been plenty so far, especially since Don Mcdowell ( another local Don ) graciously donated a brand new 12 volt battery. Thanks again Don !

Don't forget about total lunar eclipse tomorrow !

watering the dome

For 28 days, I am supposed to water down the stucco on the dome each day. This helps to cure it and make it much more stout over the long run. Being that there was a heavy dew this morning, I was able to skip a day. The thick dew saturated the dome inside and out. I asked Don what would happen if I missed a day and Don replied, “In a thousand years noone will notice”. It takes about 6 or 7 gallons of water to shower the dome, so this morning’s dew saved some agua.

cracking open the shell

Today was another exciting day. We removed the top form as well as one of the side forms. They came off a lot easier than we thought. It was a huge relief, because we had been worrying about this stage. This is the first dome of this shape and size that Don has used his new tracing method on and we weren’t completely sure that the stucco wouldn’t cement the outer form to the traced structure underneath. If that had happened, we would have had to leave them stuck to each other and it would have also meant that that the reusable form would be embedded into the structure forever. Furthermore, the days and days of tracing that we did would have been redundant. But that was all needless worry. The reusable forms broke free rather easily.

What was left standing underneath the cracked shell was a new self supporting structure of it’s own.

Today, we also finished coating one of the window wells. Don warned us not to go any further until we do a brown coat. The brown coat is a second skin of stucco on the inside of the dome. This will make it more stout before removing the rest of the forms.

The dome is no longer translucent. It is now a structure that blocks the sun and wind… two of the biggest hurdles out here.

Blotting out the Sun and Blocking the Wind

Things are coming to a head. As we started to stucco today, it felt as if we were painting shade and shelter around ourselves. This morning started out with 35 mph winds. It was also another very sunny day. We decided to start the stucco on the side where the wind was blowing. As we worked, the winds gradually subsided. The sun in our eyes started to vanish as we blotted it out with the first coat of stucco.

We used a different mix for this first scratch coat. It needs to be stout because it is the binder that future layers will grab onto. The mix we used was 2.5 gallons of sand, one gallon of cement, one small can of fly ash ( the ash left over from coal burning power plants ), and 3.5 medium size cans of water. We mixed the stucco on the watery side because the wind and sun can dry it out fast. The first batch that we made wasn’t sticking. We then realized that the sand we were using had too much gravel in it. We decided to use a double layered filter to sift the gravel out of the sand.

Stuccoing is not too difficult, but stuccoing above your head can be a bit tricky, as some of it ends up falling down on you. It is also a bit tiresome, even for 82 year old Don Bryant.

It is very important to scratch the stucco soon after applying it so that the next layer has a rough edge to grab onto.

The tools needed for this part of the project are a hawk ( much like a pallet a painter uses ), a trowel ( 14’’ pool trowel for this size dome ), a few 5 gallon bucket for carrying around water, sand, and the final stucco mix, a wheel barrow, a hoe or two, something to scrath the stucco with, and a mud board for use as an interim for storing the stucco mix before putting it on the hawk.

vamanos veggie

Sometimes the best work parties are the ones that happen unexpectedly. I met Jori and Betsy at the Terlingua Ranch Lodge when I played a show there a couple of nights ago. We got to talking. They told me about their travels across the country on waste veggie oil. They have traveled over 5000 miles by using the grease that restaurants throw out. They spent the last couple of nights camping out at Earth Language and today they helped us finish the foundation of the dome. Their help turned a full work day into half that. We spent the rest of the day hiking and playing an old Yiddish card game called Klabberjass that my grandparents taught me.

To finish the foundation, we filled in the gaps between the bricks with the same materials as the bricks themselves ( 5 parts gravel, 5 parts sand, and two parts cement ).

Here is a link to Jori and Betsy's blog about their travels using grease.

We are making very good progress on the dome. We have put the bricks in place so that the dome is now level and ready for the rest of the foundation to be poured. The dome is also mostly lathed and we are now framing the windows and the door. There is a lot of detail work involved at this stage, so it is a bit of a lengthy process…more than I thought. I knew it would be more than I thought so it is turning out to be about what I thought I thought I would think it ought. We hope to start with the stucco next week. We will also be adding the electrical conduit and outlets.

We have had some very cold nights here...low 20's at night. Our water is usually frozen in the mornings, but it doesn't take too long to thaw after sunrise. I bought a small propane heater to heat up the small train compartment that we now have on site. In the train compartment, we have set up a small kitchen, shelves, a card table, and a light. It is surprisingly livable and makes a great temporary living space, though we still sleep in our tents at night.

A Little Help From My Friends

One of my best friends, Emile ( from Portland, Oregon ) has come to lend new enthusiasm ( and humor ) to the dome. He spent the last few days here in Terlingua familiarizing himself with the project and the surrounding community. We will spend January completing the basic structure, but for the next week, we will be in Central and Eastern Texas visiting our families. Emile and Don hit it off right away... I knew they would. After Don gave Emile a tour of his domes, they were climbing up scaffolding together like old friends do.

By coincidence, Raina Rose ( also from Portland ) arrived here the same day as Emile. She is touring with Trevor Smith ( prodigy banjo and mandolin player ). They played their sweet sounds to a packed Starlight Theater and then drove into the sunset after camping out at Earth Language for a night.

Fortunately, Emile's timing also allowed him to meet Abe and Josie, who made a surprise trip to their old adobe abode...just for a day to take care of some business. It was great to see them again ! Their never waning excitement over natural building has inspired more than a handful of virgin builders to try it for themselves. Their house in Terlingua is still for sale. Unfortunately for them, their house acts as a demonstration and inspiration for people to build their own homes, rather than buy theirs. They don't seem to mind though. Check out their place if you are interested in the best realty deal in the West. Built from scratch over several years, it's an art piece that doubles as a home, and it's only a couple of years into its many century lifespan.