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