With the walls up, it was time to put on the adobe. Some of the bags were showing stress from the sun - after all, it has been nearly 2 years since we laid the first bags!
On June 28, my sister Vaughn and I tackled the project. We mixed dirt, water, and straw in a portable cement mixer (powered by the generator) and made a nice sticky batch. We threw small handfuls on the walls, being careful to make sure rows and cracks were well filled in. It went surprisingly fast. That day Vaughn and I finished the entire exterior of the south (short) wall. Two weeks later an Amish family on tour with me spent one day working on the cabin (no photos of them!) and we finished the interior of the back (long) wall. The end of July Ruth, Bev, and Jacqui helped a couple days and we finished a couple more walls. Putting adobe on the walls goes much faster than building the walls, and it's a lot more fun!
Vaughn helps put on the first adobe on the southwest buttress.
The exterior of the south wall is finished the first day.
The buttress of the back wall before the Amish family tackles it with me.
This is how the mud goes on.
The completed back wall
Ruth and I work on the interior of the north wall.
Bev digs dirt and fills the buckets.
Reaching high to put the last mud on the interior of the north wall.
Ruth shows off the completed north wall.
Ruth takes down tarp so we can start on the front wall.
Pouring water into the cement mixer for the next batch
Jacqui likes digging in the dirt.
The south half of the front wall is the last part we finished.
That is the front door and the kitchen window.
The rest of the walls should get finished end of August.
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