Happy dirt day to all! Well, it never ceases to amaze me, I start making fairly good progress on the house, and something comes up. I have been sick with some type of crud going around, and unable to work on the house. My sister had planned on coming here a couple of weeks ago, but she was sick, this week she came and I was too sick to work. She did however bring the oven template for the adobe oven and firebrick, thanks sis! I want to get it built so that when she comes she will be happy cooking in my oven. *_* She actually made a comment about missing her oven the last time she was here, and I like the idea of her cooking for me as well, she is so good, and it helps that she loves doing it. She also misses her big dog Tank I think she may bring him next time. So, week before last I was helping Anna move, and really didn't have time to work on the house, but, Madison came and pushed dirt up around the pantry and laundry room pods, he did such a wonderful job, and I meant to take his picture standing in front of it, but of course I forgot, I can't imagine me forgetting anything. So, I took a picture without him in it, but the wheel barrow was on top of what I call the dirt bridge, but you really can't see the height of it, so Lou stood in front of it for me yesterday am. The expression, ' a picture doesn't do it justice' comes to mind, but you can see, that you can't see, the pantry pod anymore. He also made me a pile of dirt on top of the hill so I can get to it easier for the pods, so when I get a good day, and am not sick, I should be able to really get a lot done. Before he came though, I was trying to move the dirt with my favorite tools, the shovel, pick, and garden rake, the way I figured it, it would have taken me about two years to get it done, but like I always tell everyone, I am too, 'determined' to give up.

Dirt Day 08-05-2010

Dip me in dirt and hello! Well, just a quick blog this am. Yesterday I managed to finish the fourth row above the stem wall on the other end of the greenhouse room. The rock I put in the wall is going to turn out a lot better than I had expected, so I will have to find more and do it in other areas, this is all for this week, and next week I may not work on the house because of other responsibilities that have come up. Just one more thing, I am hoping to plaster next week at the very least, as you can see I have a bag that has disintegrated. Until I blog again, I hope God blesses you. Ozarkmoma

Dirt Day 7-29-10

Dip me in dirt and hello~Had a great dirt day yesterday, 7-29-10. I managed to lay the first and second rows above the stem wall bags on the other end of the green house room. I used the normal gusseted bags for the first row, then I switched to a small bag, they are actually a 'sand bag' I thought they would be too small, but they are great, and there is a ledge to do cob on which will work out well for making built in shelves and stuff. I just want to say, I couldn't have done this without the help of God, I know that sounds a little far fetched to some of you, but just think about this, I am almost 53 now, and the temps are in the upper 90's , and the sun was beating down on me, but I got that much done anyway, because I asked God for help. The same thing at my real job, I run a big laser machine that cuts metal parts, this machine is really hard to keep running right, but I ask God to guide my hands that I may give the company a fair amount of work for the time they pay me for. They think I can run it by myself, but I have told several of them that I ask for help from God, and it isn't me running the machine, He is guiding my hands. So, that is all for this week, I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed weekend. Ozarkmoma

Dirt Day 7-28-10

Dip me in dirt and hello. I forgot that I had to build the forms for the door and windows before I started laying the bags on the other side of the greenhouse room, so that is what I have done the last two days, and then of course went to my part time job. Today, I may try to lay some bags, but most likely I will try to move stuff around and get it out of the way of the back hoe, not sure when I will get it, but at least I will be ready. I will try to post tomorrow late afternoon. Until then I hope God blesses you and you have a great day. Ozarkmoma

Dirt Day 7-20-10

Just a quick blog today, God gave me the strength to work on the house today, I promise you that, without Him, nothing would get done of course, but today I was just plum tuckered out. I managed to finish the fourth row and ran the weed eater around the outside a little bit, almost filled all of the buckets back up, but got too hot and had to stop, there just isn't any shade down there and that makes it really hard to work when the temps start rising. I did manage to mow a little bit again today, but I don't think I will ever get caught back up on the yard now unless we have a drought, and I would rather just keep mowing small sections, than that. Thank God for the rain we have had lately it is awesome. So, I am going to see my sister and mother tomorrow, I am hoping to work on the house Thursday, but have to work at my part time job tomorrow night and it will be really late before I get into bed, and I am already exceedingly tired, I know whine baby whine.!!! So, if I don't post again, let me just say, dip me in dirt and I hope that God gives you a blessed rest of the week.Ozarkmoma

Dirt Day 7-15-2010

Well, just dip me in dirt and hello. I know I said I would post a blog on Tuesday? but, I had to work at my part time job all day, I thought it was Wednesday that I was supposed to do that, DUH. Anyway, I managed and speaking of which, gotta get ready to go there now. So, I finished laying the third row and started the fourth, and finished that row between the two front windows, and between the left window and the door opening. Next week I will finish the fourth row between the dome and the south facing window and the corner and start the other side of the greenhouse room, but I think after the second row of that side I am going to a smaller bag, these big bags are really hard for me to handle on these straight walls, I am also planning on going to smaller bags once I reach the loft area. That will make it go faster I hope since I will be able to handle the smaller bags, and since I will be so high up that will be a good thing. So, until next week, God bless you all. Ozarkmoma

Dirt Day 7-5-2010

Dip me in dirt, and hello. Hope you all had a happy Independence Day. I had a wonderful dirt day and managed to accomplish a lot. I was blessed with a cloudy day, had it not been for the clouds I would not have managed to work on the house all day. Thank you Lord for the awesome day. I got out there a little bit late, and I had two goals, number one, move enough dirt and level it out as well as possible so I could put the swimming tub there for the grandchildren, and number two, put the entire row of bags on the laundry room pod. Thank God, it all got finished. I had to roll the swimming tub up the hill, it was by the mobile mansion, then slide it down the side of the hill to get it there. I thought it would be very difficult, but it actually worked out very well.There is not much else to say, I am uploading the pictures to flickr, some of them, and I am putting one here. I hope you all have a blessed week, I will probably post again tomorrow. Ozarkmoma

Dirt Day 6-29-10

Dip me in dirt and hello. Today was the only day that I was going to have to work on the house for a few days, but I got up to rain, not that I am complaining, thank God for the rain as we need it in the worst way. In fact it must have stormed because the shade tent was blown over, I was able to stand it back up, it is broken and bent, but will still do it's job. Sort of like me. I was however able to work out there for a little while, and in all actuality, that was enough, I am so out of shape and practice it isn't even funny. I was telling a friend the other day, if I am such a woos right now, how will I take it when I am in my 70s ? I don't know. I hope Jesus comes back before then, I know, really selfish isn't it? Anyway, back to the house, I laid enough bags to get to the barrel, and by the way, the barrel, I am hoping, will be like a cooler someday, where I can keep stuff reasonably cool, it will be covered with dirt, I am not sure what I will use for a door just yet, I can not get the end of it back in, so I am going to have to think on it. I got the idea of the cooler from a man by the name of Mike Ohler? he wrote a book that I bought, " The 500 dollar house " or something like that, you can Google him and it will come up. He dug a hole in the ground and kept his milk and stuff like that in there. Very interesting. Also would like to mention that if my sister were here, she would not be able to see out of the pantry now, over this row that is when it is finished. So, gotta go for today, I hope God blesses you all. Ozarkmoma

Dirt Day 6-23-2010

Not much to say today, another hot and sweaty dirty day. I finished the last section of the dome, and then uncovered the pods, and put the barb wire on them so that when I have the time to work on the house again, which will be sometime next week, I can just get out there and start laying the bags on the pods. I have to say, I had forgotten how much fun it is to work with barb wire!!! Only one cut though, and all things considered, that wasn't bad at all. So, until next week, may God bless you all, Ozarkmoma

Dirt Day 6-14-10

Dip me in dirt y'all! I did the one load of plaster today as I said I would. I also put the straw, wood chips, and rice hulls on the tarp and soaked it all with water so they can simmer overnight tonight. Don't know if that will help it mix any better or not, but always need to try new ways to find the best way. I reckon! So, Lord willing I will finish the plaster in the laundry room pod tomorrow and move on the the outside of the dome, what is left of it that isn't covered, and of course, Lord willing I will finish the plaster this week, course, I may be setting my sights to big, I do that a lot. So until tomorrow, hope God blesses you all. Ozarkmoma.

Dirt Day 5-25-2010

Well, dip me in dirt!! Hope everyone is fine. I had a reasonably good day today, I managed to mix some plaster on top of some plastic with my feet, very interesting, but not as efficient as the mixer. I also mixed it too stiff and it was a lot like what I would assume cob is like and very hard to put it on because of that. I am uploading the pictures to Flickr right now, and they should be there soon, I made a video for Lou, but I am not real crazy about it, so I am not going to share. Anyway, I don't know if I will make it back down to work on the house this week or not, maybe Thursday for a little while. Time to break out the air conditioning too, Lou is going to stay here Saturday night and I don't want to make her suffer in my mobile mansion, but it has really been unusually hot here lately, so will probably end up running ac from here on out. I am so stingy, just hate to pay those big bills!!! Oh, I brought a fan outside to help cool me down while stomping mud, and ended up making a shaded area for Fat Boy and let him have the fan, what can I say.He is in the picture above. Well, till next time, hope God will bless you all. Ozarkmoma