Concrete Review and Report:

As many 'green' builders know, concrete is actually a very toxic building material, with the horrible environmental impacts of it's creation at the top of the list. Add the big truck, and the lye/lime chemicals, the dust, and the fact that when people are done with it, they break it up and put it in a landfill... it's not that great. However, it is a very solid substance that is highly recommended for stability in earthquake zones, and to work against moisture issues. Thus, we had to use some. We got one trucks worth (yes, the whole nine yards, where the saying comes from) for the 'bond beam', the bottom rim of our little house. Of course, we're also using masons mortar for the retaining wall (mortaring together chunks of 'used' concrete, "urbanite") and we will mortar in another foot or so of urbanite on top of our bond beam.

Here you can see the bond beam after we took the forms off. We didn't have to worry about the smoothness of the top, as we need to mortar in the next row of urbanite, and a rough surface is better than a smooth one.
You can also see the overlap 'step' going from one level to the next in this photo. We wanted a couple of feet of overlap to help deal with the change in levels.





The one 'not perfect' situation of our concrete pour was there was more concrete in the truck than we needed. We had the pump guy go around and fill up our forms to the level we wanted, and we helped settle that in with plungers, etc. Then he said he had a batch more, and since it was paid for, we told him to add it to the top, to give us more height on the wall... Well, it was coming out of the truck drier than the rest, and we had a hard time keeping up with the pump working the harder mix. Thus, in a lot of places, we got this result:








It's not a big deal, as the entire bond beam will be covered with exterior plaster (along with the rest of the wall, or we may put some decorative stones on the front of the house, and the interior will have insulation and plaster over it... still, it would have been nice to feel that we had a perfect pour.


We got right back to business and started the little 'mini' retaining wall for the steps inside the house. This is the first 'course'. None of these will be seen inside the house either.






We're ready for the vampire wars after pulling out all the stakes that were holding up the forms. These are just some of the sharpened ones.

Concrete Day!

They got here bright and early; I biked down and met the pump guy, and the concrete truck was right behind us. Art (Melissa's Dad) got here just in time to do some serious helping out. Here you can see the guy pumping the stuff into our forms, and Art doing a two-handed plunging to make sure there aren't any air bubbles.




It started to harden up really fast. Since it was in the truck for an hour before it got to us, it was already to go when it got here. We had to work really fast to get the J bolts in and the stuff smoothed out. Here's me and the pump guy putting the J bolts in with a hammer.





This is the east wall, looking good. You can just see a bit of rebar sticking up out of the bond beam in the front of this picture. We'll now put a couple of rows of 'urbanite' on top of this bond beam, and use those rebar bits to tie in the mortared 'stone' wall to the whole thing.






Here's one of the footings filled up and smoothed out. None of it will be showing when we're done, but it doesn't look too bad now. The J-bolts are off to the side like that because they'll be hooking into an L bracket that will bolt to the side of the post.

Forms are ready for concrete

Here you can see how we've prepared the forms for the concrete pour. As said before, we're using 'masonite', a sort of reinforced cardboard... also called 'hardboard siding'. It's bendable, and slippery on one side. You can see how we've made a blue mark to show how high the concrete should be poured into the form. Since it's not important to have a smooth or perfectly level surface, we're able to have those supports (redwood branches) go across the top.









Here's one of the footing forms, with the J bolts ready to go in. They'll be holding a bracket that will be bolted into the wooden post that will be holding up the roof.



Here's our plan for the different levels. The end board will hold up the extra stuff on top (it's extra thick at the 'steps' so we've got a good overlap)






Here you can see how we've propped up the rebar so that it's up off the bottom of the form. it's higher in some places than others.







This is looking down on one of the steps. Hope this works!

Foundation forms starting to go in


Working with 'masonite' (a sort of pressboard cardboard stuff that comes in 8x4 sheets), spacers cut from redwood branches, and redwood stakes, the form for the concrete bond beam is starting to take shape.



it's harder than you'd think to get the rebar and the form to follow the curves Melissa has ascribed to the house plans.

Pizza's Done!

Well, I got the earthern oven up and running, baked four loaves of bread and a cassarole, but first I did two pizzas. Notice my oak 'peel' (the paddle) that I made from a board I milled from a tree I cut down. Ah, country life.

Rebar goes down.


So, after doing some trading with my neighbor, I got 20 pieces of 1/2 inch rebar from him and dragged it home behind my truck. Yes, dragged.

Then we spent about two days (not the whole day, as it was necessary to take breaks) to bend two sets to the outline of the house, so they'll be tensile strength for the 'bond beam' that goes around the entire perimeter of the house. Here you can see it laying on top of the gravel trench.



sometimes it was hard to keep them parallel, but I'll now have to wire in some small cross pieces, and that will keep them in place.

(this is the East, highest, side of the house)




(this is the North side)




I also did some more digging today; I moved all the topsoil that was piled up between the 'driveway' and the patio area. I spread most of it on the hillside below the patio, but also made piles on the 'road to nowhere' for later use. here you can see the new 'walkway' so one doesn't have to scramble over the gravel pile.










After cutting the grass around the meadow, leaving it's seed head on, I spread out the straw/hay on the hillside below the patio, hoping to help hold the dirt on the hill, and promote native grass growing. I'll probably also buy a bunch of grass seed and spread it around before the rains.

The Gravel is IN!

This is what 23 tons of gravel and one excited natural builder looks like:


We had to put some of this gravel into the trench, on top of the drain pipe, then 'tamp' it down. I made 'tampers' out of logs, and put handles on them. You lift up the log and smash it down on the gravel... over and over. Melissa is a very good tamper. How 'bout them guns?



I made a shorter, heavier one out of some Madrone, but one handle broke off as I was putting it in. They don't work as well with only one handle.


Here you can see the Eastern perimeter wall trench, with the first layer of gravel in, and tamped down. The waves in the wall will help it be more stable in case of an earthquake... and make it a more interesting dwelling.


Here you can see Melissa, tamping away on what would be the bathroom outer wall. (she's in the NW corner)

Making Mulch


Since I was caught sitting around waiting for the gravel delivery, I decided to make some mulch for my fruit trees. Keeps the weeds down, and holds in the water better, retarding evaporation.

Last spring I moved an old brush pile to make room for a stawberry patch, and after scraping out the good firewood, I still had a pile of brush to deal with. I piled it up out of the way, and now I've decided to sift through it.

Here you can see my glove and pitchfork on the brush pile.


I built a quick sieve from 2x4s and some chicken wire. Here it is sitting on the wheelbarrow, with a bit of brush in it.


I stir it up, taking anything that could be used for kindling out of it (I'll use it in my wood-fired oven, as that little stuff burns nice and hot) and am left with a leafy dry mulch that I spread around the fruit trees.

Now the drain pipe...

After the trench is completely dug, we've dropped the 4 inch pipe in, and connected it up so that any and all water will flow out to 'daylight' on two sides. Here's the western pointing drainpipe,

And here's the one going SW, through what will be the patio. Did I mention we moved the solar trailer to our future patio? It's getting great sun there, and our batteries are happy, healthy little things. You can see the tire of the trailer here.

Digging the foundation trench.


The outline of our place will have a gravel trench underneath it that will be 18 inches wide and at least a foot deep. It will also have a perforated pipe going through it.

Here's me, enjoying the fact that there's a slight bit of skill needed to dig a trench, rather than simply moving tons of dirt. You can see how Melissa has used fireplace ash to mark the lines that I'm digging out.


here you can see me celebrating the finished part of the trench.

Cheese Update:


The cheese is now dry enough to get the wax coating, then sit for as long as I can stand it before I eat it. The orange stuff on the one round is from Hawaiian Sea Salt I used as the 'drying rub'... looks weird, but was easy to work with.