Friday, June 23rd 2006
Bonne Fête Québec!
Only 75 tires to go!
As promised, here is the first weekly chronicle of our sprint to the finish. We added 2 more rows to the tire wall, only 3 more to do. Unfortunately, so far, no helpers are expected this week-end, but the 3 of us will be pounding away. Cyrille is still going strong and it helps us keep a very good rhythm. To thank him, the black flies have almost disappeared and the woodpecker must have found a mate, we don't hear it anymore. The deer flies have shown up but a special sticker on top of our hats takes care of them; after a few are stuck in it, we're rid of the others.
A technical detail about the water that accumulates in the tires because of the rainy weather, mostly in the sand before compaction: we stab a couple of holes into the waxed cardboard that sits in the bottom of the tires so the water can flow out and the ramming brings more of it out on top. We do have to wait a day for them to dry out before the final compacting. We now cover the wall when it rains and we'll probably have to cover the pile of sand also...
For a change of pace, we worked another layer of mud onto the walls in the front part of the house. The spaces between the tires are still showing but it's starting to look more even. It'll be a nice change when the lime plaster is done and the walls won't be grey and black anymore.
We also started filling in behind the North wall and it's a lot easier than the East side we did last year since the mechanical shovel was able to leave plenty of dirt just above the back side of the house. Alain and Cyrille used some culverts that haven't been installed under the road yet to shovel the dirt exactly where needed.