New Pictures! (start @ the bottom of this entry for info)

Here are the promised pictures. I tried to get captions on them, but then they would not center properly, so I gave up. In order then, going up from here, you have The Shrinking Pile of Scoria (the filling material for the earth bags), filled bags waiting for transport up the hill (about 100 yds @ 35# each). Dan puts a whole bunch of them in the back of the truck and hauls them up in the truck. Then those bags go with the picture of the blue tarp, under which are about 140 bags protected from the UV rays, ready to go in the foundation this coming weekend. I hope. Next one should be the view looking east from what will be the front door. Last picture is the neighborhood twins, real sweet girls but very shy. Thanks for visiting!

Earthwork is done !

The initial earthwork is completed, thanks to Vernon and his backhoe.  I took some photos.  The 4th picture shows a large piece of granite that I will have to embed in the earthbag wall.  We are fortunate that the buildsite has excellent drainage.  I do not foresee any major issues.

We have started preparing the trench for earthbags and the drain tile.

The scoria has been delivered to the build site so we will begin active construction next week. 

I noticed that the excavated material would make excellent fill for earthbags.  The material turns hard as rock and I am not able to break it with my pickaxe.  This is good to know for some of the planned outbuildings.

More photo's to come as progress is made......