OK, so it took me a little longer than a couple of weeks, more legal stuff I had to deal with....

I decided to put pictures of how to sew a gusset into a bag instead of a video. Hopefully it will explain it well enough for anyone that is interested. If you have questions, leave a comment please.

The bag is standing vertical with the bottom seam up here.

Pull the bag to open it outward some and allow you to flatten it out a little on the bottom. The object is to create the v shape on each side. It should look like this.

Lay it on the sewing machine with the sides of the bag pushed to the side of the machine, you only want to sew the "v",  try not to sew the side of the bag into the gusset. The v is what will make the tab as I call it, and that is what makes the gusset.

.Turn the bag right side out, and the tabs should look like this and the bag should have a nice square bottom to sit on.

The bottom of the bag after it is finished.

I know this was not the best tutorial, but hopefully it is enough to show you the basics, then you can experiment with it and see what works best for you. I find it very helpful to sew a bunch of bags in this way before I go out to work on the dome. By using the bags like this, it makes them easier to keep on the wall, it looks better, there is not a lot of material sticking out, therefore it is easier to apply the plaster. A couple of suggestions when it comes to buying or getting your bags, I have learned the hard way. Check not just the dimensions of the bag, but also the thickness, I have mentioned it before but it is important, so I am mentioning it again, be careful of buying bags that are very thin and do not have some type of UV protection on them, especially if you live in a climate that has hot sun. Another thing, I unfortunately did not know about this sooner, but I was told you could paint the bags after you lay them and it will keep them from deteriorating so quickly if it is going to be a while before you are able to plaster. Tarps are good too, but a real pain to deal with. Well, guess that is all for now. G_d Bless you all! Ozarkmoma

Well, as Popeye would say, "Blow me plumb down".

That was Popeye wasn't it? To the person that left me a question a while back, and I have not answered. No, I haven't finished my house. As a person I know used to say, "Life has a way of getting in the way!"  I really do keep trying to work on it, but it seems like the harder I try to work on it, the harder my neighbors keep working on causing me a life full of misery. I thought I was being paranoid about how they have been behaving, you know, you see those crazy old people in movies that think everyone is out to get them? Well, I thought maybe I was being one of those crazy old people that thinks everyone is out to get them, so I asked my adopted son Simon if I was imagining all of the bull larky, he told me that it was real, they are really doing this stuff, that I am not crazy. He said he knows because he has been here and seen it happening. Thank God that I haven't been imagining it, but unfortunately they have really been succeeding in keeping me from building my house, as well as everything else I have been trying to do.

Then there are the three attorneys that I have paid all of my money to, not only did they NOT help me, but they made it easier for these people to interfere with my life and steal from me! I know that sounds crazy, but it is true. So, I finally realized I was going to have to take the matter to court by myself, for two reasons, 1. I am so broke now I struggle to make it through the month. 2. I do not trust lawyers anymore! And while this next statement may sound crazy to some people, I actually firmly believe that I made God mad at me because, .1 I was trying to be content with letting them steal from me so I could TRY to get my work done, (in other words), I wasn't standing up for what is right,  and 2. I wasn't putting my trust in our Father in Heaven, instead, I was putting it in corrupt attorneys, I know no other way of putting it. And obviously, those attorneys have an agenda, what it is, I do not know, maybe it will come out in the wash. But, I know now that if you let a thief get away with something, they will not quit trying to take more. And it wasn't that I wanted to let the thief get away with stealing from me, it was that the attorney I hired when this first started, he let the guy steal from me, and then he quit, which left me open to many years of harassment from the thief, as well as the other neighbors that are trying to take property from me. AND, who would think our laws can actually be used to make it legal to do this?

But, that is all for a different type of  blog or story, I am here now to say, AGAIN, I am going to try to work on the house now, only God knows if I can. Or if I even have enough strength to do it, I have managed to let my body get completely out of shape, I think some of my muscles may even have atrophied. Something that is easy to do, and something else I need to work on. And, in a few months I will officially be elderly!

Lots of drama huh?

Come back in a week or two, I plan on making a vlog to show you how to sew a bag so it is gusseted, it really comes in handy. I will also be vlogging other things I do, like my attempts at lightweight cement on my roofs over the sunroom and mini loft. Another concept I find interesting is the gradual stiffening method that Dr. Owen Geiger posted a couple of years ago on his blog site.  A really cool concept that I MUST try!  OH, last and certainly not least, I want to incorporate aquaponics into my project. Until next time, God bless you all. Ozarkmoma

Happy day to all! I actually managed to take my camera with me today. I decided to try and get one small job done this morning. Which means, it took hours. I most likely will not get anything else done today. No matter, at least I managed to do what I planned on doing at the dome. Well, on the most part that is.

                                                                             As usual, it is obvious that I am not a carpenter!                                                                                     

I used the electric saw and a wood chisel to whittle away the place for the vertical log's notch to sit. Very time consuming.












I put a couple of wood screws in the bottom of the log so I could get some measurements for the logs that will brace this vertical log. In the morning I am praying I will be able to cut those logs, then assemble the entire corner frame. Then I can start on the rest of the frame for this end of the sunroom. Maybe I will get the sunroom framed out before winter, but I doubt it. Until next time Ozarkmoma 

Well, not a lot to post, so this will be short. 

I ran the weed eater inside the dome and sun room, plus I mowed parts of my yard and garden. 

While the temperatures were cooler and the wasps were asleep, I was able to go inside the laundry room pod and get one of the scaffolds. I put it in the sun room where I am trying to frame for the roof. I got one of the long cedar logs out of the log pile, then I ran the chain saw down one side so I would have a flat side. Then I cut it to length, I managed to get it up yesterday. Needless to say, I am stove up today. I hope to work on it some more later this week, if my body will let me :-D! 

Other than that, nothing much to talk about. Have a great day. Ozarkmoma

Well, it has been a little while since my last post. I have been very busy, mostly taking care of my darling grandchildren, and little jobs here and there that I was able to do while watching them play in the pool. I have managed to move some dirt. If you use your imagination you can see that I have started a ramp on the left that will let me put buckets of dirt up on the dirt bridge with my little tractor. This will make it a lot faster and easier.

I also took some time to put tar on the mobile mansion during a short break, when the kids had gone home for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately the temperatures were seriously hot, with the heat index reaching around 105 and above. I had to work for a little while, and when the bottom of my feet felt like they were melting I would take a long break. It took a week to finish the tar because of it. Hopefully though, it will keep the water out of the mobile mansion a while longer. That shows you how close the dome is to the mansion.

I have also started building the arch forms to put over the doors and window. I am seriously not a carpenter! That is why I am loving the dirt, it can be fixed. Still, I think they will work when I finally finish them.

And, last but not least, I have decided to change my game plan for the roof over the sun room. Originally I was going to put the log rafters into the wall of the dome. Now I can see that due to several mistakes on my part, mostly to do with life, the best thing to do is cover the sun room as quickly as possible. So, I am putting edge members around the perimeter of the sun room, and will frame a roof over it. I plan on using the lightweight cement method, modified slightly, that is described in the book, “Latex Concrete Habitat” by Dr. Albert Knott and Dr. George Nez. As you can see, I am not a carpenter, but I think it will all be ok eventually.

I need to also let you see some of the damage from the sun, and the bugs. I estimate that the top half of the sun room walls are going to have be be re-built. Sad but true, but luckily, dirt is cheap, so there is not going to be a huge monetary cost. But, the blow to my mind, (and body) on having to re-build them is enough for sure. Hopefully this time around I will have the walls covered with a roof instead of tarps. Also, I hope to finish without getting side tracked, AGAIN! As you can see, where there is plaster the damage is much less. One thing to note, the bags can be painted if you do not have time to plaster them, I did not know this in time, but was told by one of the earth bag specialists, so I highly recommend that if you do this, at least put some exterior latex paint on the bags.

  

Now, I would like to take a moment to mention a couple of severe mistakes I have made during this experiment of mine.

1. I started out too big. As always, I overfill my plate, I have done this all of my life. I should have built a section, then added on after that section was finished. I thought I could finish the project quickly, and probably would have been done a long time ago, but life has a way of getting in the way of these things. So, remember Murphy’s Law when you get ready to start a project like this, and start small unless you have a crew to help you.

2. Once you have a plan, or blueprint so to speak, do not change it if at all possible. No matter what, unless it is for structural reasons.

3. Stay focused no matter how hard it gets, and believe me, it will get hard, especially if you are doing it by yourself. Granted, I have had some help along the way, but on a project of this size, you really need a crew from start to finish. So, again, start small if you're alone. If I were 'normal' I would have given up a long time ago, but as a good friend used to tell me, I am just too stupid to give up. 

Sorry I have not been making regular posts, part of the reason is that I keep forgetting to do it because I am so busy, the other part of my excuse is that it is time consuming, (DUH I guess that goes without saying) :-D. Until next time. Ozarkmoma

 I just wanted to make a quick post today. This is the front of the house, before I started clearing you could not see it for the brush and wild blackberry plants. Also, there are odds and ends of stuff, most of which I cannot use, but I hauled it off for an elderly couple that needed help. I will have to dispose of it.

 You can see the end of the little shed, and my mobile mansion. The dirt bridge is overgrown with brush, but I am slowly clearing it, that is where I will haul dirt up to with the tractor and it will make my work a lot easier.

 As you can see the tire wall does not look as good as it used to, and all of the dirt to the right of the tire wall needs to be moved out. The drain is the extension of the french drain in the tire wall, it will go behind the greenhouse that will be in that area. The drain will drain any run off from the hill side.

I am still in the process of trying to uncover the dome, there are hoards of wasps under the tarps, and snakes. If you are from the south in the US, then you can imagine how bad it is after leaving the tarps unmoved for so long. DUH! There is also damage to the house from water, most of the tarps are rotten and not working, except they do provide good nesting places for wasps. In a way I feel like I will never get this done, but I was reminded yesterday by my son Simon that every since I started this house, there has been one thing after the other to slow me down, it started with a dog bite. But, don't worry, I am 'too stupid to give up', as a good friend used to say. (She meant it in a good way). I have pulled off a lot more of the tarps, but there are still some that I am having trouble getting off because of the wasps. The dirt is getting moved out too, I will try to post more pictures soon. Hopefully I will be plastering and laying bags soon. Until next time. Ozarkmoma