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 Thursday, May 11th 2006
Great, full speed ahead for a new summer!
It's this week that we're finally feeling things are starting to move. Tree buds are turning the hill a nice pale green, the frogs laid eggs and are singing loudly still and we moved our bed into the shelter we used last summer. We decided it would be more comfortable sleeping outdoors again to make room on the construction site. The rest of the furniture as been moved to the centre of the room in a way that allows access to the kitchen and the desk but let's us work on the walls without moving everything around.
There's also the container that needs reorganizing and some room to work. We built a good workbench out of old pallets and we gained a lot of room to store all our precious finds. François (a friend from Rawdon who studied Tai Chi with us) dropped by at that time to see if we needed any help. That was our signal! We unwrapped the backside of the house and rebuilt a smaller roof to protect the middle wall from rain but leaving enough space to fill the tires of the final wall.
We got quite a few e-mails following the article in "Maison du 21e siècle" and from others who found us on the internet. One of them is Cyrille, a young guy from the south of France who offered his help to learn how to build an earthship. There aren't any over there yet, maybe he'll be the first? We're expecting him June 3rd, he should be in Quebec for a month… Yes, we told him it's bug season but we're not sure he knows what that means. Mind you we're well equipped and we don't suffer that much. Actually, the black flies have just awakened, but they don't bite yet. We have only a few peaceful days left.
This year, since we know better what to expect, it should be easier to manage the worksite. If you remember, last year, I was afraid of having too many people showing up, at any time or at the wrong time. We found out that it's not that hard to take things as they happen and that the more the merrier. It's true that we also feel less pressed for time since we're starting 2 months earlier and that there's only one wall to do before closing the house.
I want to set up a calendar on our website so you can follow the schedule and find out a bit ahead of time what we're up to in case you would like to join in. For now I'll give you the forecast I gave Archibio for their own calendar.
- End of May and early June: the final tire wall
- Mid-June: the bondbeam and roof supporting structure
- July: the roof (trusses, insulation, sheeting and membrane, solatube)
- August: South wall wooden structure and windows
- September: earthen floor??? (to be confirmed)
And along all that there's also filling the indoor wall cavities with straw/clay mud, burying the outside walls on the North, East and West sides, the stone walls of the planters and the indoor staircase... enough variety to please everyone.
Last fall, our camera was crushed on the job and didn't survive it's wounds. That's one of the reasons why there are few new pictures. In the meantime we're using our SLR but it's always a question of finishing the film and getting it developed... there's been a film in it all winter. We just ordered a new one with the Air Miles we get from purchasing building materials. We were saving for a trip but now we don't want to go anywhere anymore.
And real soon we'll be able to go swimming. Tara has been chasing ducks around and finds the water perfect. Personally I'll wait until it gets to 18C before any serious bathing. Tuesday the weather was nice and warm, the water was 16C and I waded in just over the knees before deciding it was still too cold.
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