Taking shape.

World War Two thinks she's a mountain lion. We can't brake the news to her: she's an ordinary, lowly house cat.

It's getting so big! We've ordered our metal roof and we'll be putting it up next week, hopefully. A bull snake crawled into the tires! It was a few feet long. Cute, for a snake. These snakes are good, they eat mice like crazy, and eat rattle snakes too. Yum. Maybe this will be the last pie I bake in our temporary kitchen... I doubt it though. This is what 1000 feet of string looks like when you drop the spool off the top of your house. We got our sink!! Our SINK! OUR SINK! It's HUGE too!! Almost as big as the encyclopedia I picked up! We also (drum roll please) got our front door! And attic door! They are beautiful! Solid, carved wood! Cedar. They smell amazing! Front door: Attic door: If anyone wants to send me money to get my camera fixed, go for it.

From Kitchen, Greenhouse & Roof (Late Summer/Fall 2011)

Plastic Roof: Totally Unrecommended

I know it's New Mexico and all: but I do not recommend a plastic roof. Anywhere. It rains here, did you know that? It does. We get about 11 inches a year in our beautiful northern location. All 11 are greatly appreciated. It took a while this year, but they are a-comin'.

Fortunately our plastic roof is somehow still holding up. We had few intentions of having this improvised roof for such a long period. It's working, in an intricate maze like way. Keeping us dry. Thank you plastic sheeting?

A funny thing that I wouldn't believe you if you told me: Plastic sheeting is extremely expensive. If we find 12 feet X 100 feet for $60.00, we're excited! What a joke. I never thought I'd spend so much money on plastic.

Plastic: Not lovely. Waking up to this, very lovely.

From Kitchen, Greenhouse & Roof (Late Summer/Fall 2011)

Sometimes I feel like I live in Jurasic Park. Thank you mother earth, I love that movie.

A kitchen with a roof and greenhouse, OH BOY.

I haven't updated in a over a month. This is not because I have given up. It is not because I have been sitting around. Quite the contrary. Besides the fact that we've been super busy pretending to be carpenters, raising roof beams, etc. I have also been knee deep in work at my "real" job, or rather, the job that pays the bills. (Work at home, work at work, work at home, work at work. I outta retire in five years due to exhaustion, but for now: work at home, work at work, repeat.) Work at work is where I get my internet and try to post a blog. I am currently the assistant director of a Teen Center. And yes, we have fun, almost too much fun, usually. High school lunch doesn't get out for another forty five minutes, so I don't yet have 40 high school kids to hang out with at this moment. That said, Voila! Here is my long overdue, action packed blog post.

A month ago we started working on the greenhouse! We were finishing up the trusses for our roof. These "trusses" are being made out of scrap wood that we get from our local saw mill. They are free, free! FREE! Except for the price of screws. We've put over 50 pounds of screws into our house so far.

This is from about a month ago:

And we built on! Collecting enough wood for these trusses is a little bit of a challenge. Driving to the saw mill takes time, and when you get there, you have to hope the scraps are good. Eventually we collected enough. The pickings have been a little more slim compared to last year, but we're not yet complaining. It is free.

After this, we finished our greenhouse bond beam which allowed us to attach wood to the tire wall. As well as the rest of the kitchen roof trusses.

And then we were able to start the greenhouse construction! It took us over a year to build the outer three walls (the tire walls), and only four days to frame the front face (the greenhouse wall). Phew. I hadn't been that tired in a long long time. But we did it! It was such a great relief, too! Here's a nerdy photo of two very accomplished feeling individuals from my camera's self timer. We lifted that huge thing up all by ourselves, only dropping it (and completely breaking it) once, while raising it.

Our greenhouse is made out of redwood: which means $$$. The wood is supposed to last in the humid environment that we'll be creating in the future.

And: Ta-da! We finished over half of it! You are looking at our greenhouse, minus the glass that's going in there!!

And, I leveled the kitchen floor! Soon we'll be able to tile with the tiles we scored from the Habitat Re-Store. Well, "soon" as in: we need a roof first. But that's around the corner! This will be the view from our bathroom! And speaking of roof, we'll be putting one onto our house in the near future!

Alright. You are now UP TO DATE. I will make you a promise: I will update more than once every five weeks for now on. Promise. Wish us luck!

Finally, a ROOF D. SI. TiON.

We have come to a conclusion that picking out a roof from the company "metal sales" is worthless. They offer the most bland assortment of colors. Beige, dark beige, light beige, gray, dark gray, light gray. Etc? Why is it that Americans enjoy these colors? It hurts my eyes, my soul, my head. I was depressed this morning, when once again, we stared at our sample color chips. It actually almost gave me an anxiety attack! We don't need this "pro-panel roof" except for the fact that it is a lifetime option, one of the most inexpensive, and it will possibly NEVER need repairs. So, in a way, we do need this roof.

Here is what the have to "offer" (please try not to cry):

Bland, bland, and blander can not stop us.

We've decided to do this: We're using all the colors. Take that metal sales! A rainbow of roof. And, if you're ever flying over us, you'll notice. Otherwise, it's not even going to be that obvious, unfortunately.

Burning Hot Oil, Mid Summer Work Parties

A lot has been getting done 'round here!

We have had guest after guest after guest. We've had a stream of friends coming in for the past month and a half. My cousin is here now helping us work. It's been busy busy busy, and I'm excited for winter down time: long lonely dark nights, getting snowed in, etc. But as for now: We are here, working, sweating, and then working some more.

We have been working on the front wall of our house. We will be putting up the slanted glass wall on this tire wall. The cans are put in place for our bond beam. This winter we will have so much more space! As well as more heat, because the house is buried more, and also: we'll have two glass walls! A real roof too! And not to mention, we'll be getting our solar set up, refrigerator, and kitchen soon! What a dream. What more could we ask for? A bathroom maybe... We are getting very very close.... /tr> The sun hasn't been treating us too well, a lot of people are saying we are beginning to resemble gnomes. Here is our most recent portrait: A ridiculous mural that I painted, with my friend Ossian, for my cousin Sam: And in other news: I burned the living day lights out of myself with some hot oil. It splattered all over my neck mostly, but hit my face and shoulders too. It's the worst I've ever been burnt. But at least I dyed my hair orange first so I looked awesome whilst being burnt. That was the first day... It's been three days. Now they are all exploding blisters. It hurts. If yr gonna do it, do it all the way: > > Ouch, Amanda J Speer

...it's getting hot in here...

Roofbeams being assembled. Adobe being assembled. Kitchen being assembled. Friends being assembled. July is here. It is hot out. And in. We still need to bury our house. It is always colder than outside, but not quite as cold as one would want it. For what it is, it's manageable, even for me. We are putting together our roof. Building scrap wood truss after scrap wood truss. We'll be done in about two more weeks maybe. Hopefully sooner. So many visitors though, it distracts us from the labor. And two more on the way... summer has begun. We build these for the price of screws: We have also been experimenting with adobe. We're pretty sure we'll be able to make it with our local dirt and sand from our property! This is exciting, because it'll be free, and efficient. It feels good to make adobe. It's so much easier than cement. It sticks more, and is cleaner and non-toxic. So, our current experimental recipe is: 1/2 dirt with clay in it from a specific site on our property, 1/2 sand from our arroyo, and two hand fulls of flour and straw that we got out of dumpsters. Using the adobe as filler on the walls, eventually we'll plaster with adobe too: And a final note: the fires wont stop. The pollution is insane. We haven't had a completely clear day in months. I am glad that they aren't any closer, but we can see the one in the Santa Fe forest burning. It's not a pretty sight. Stop stop stop the fires. The pollution does make for out of this world sunsets and moons.

From Kitchen!!

More to come.

Kitchen tires: D-O-N-E

Kitchen updates are here! We've been busy. With visitors galore! Can't wait for the next two weeks: MOMENTS OF SILENCE. No visitors will be a good thing, actually. I'm not saying I don't like my friends.. but, I mean, we did move out here to be hermits. Of sorts. Secret Hermits, I guess. KITCHEN! 100% Tires done! 100% retaining wall (can wall) for bond beam done! 90% Bond beam done! 40% Wood for truss support done! HURRAY! We are also building the front wall so we can put the greenhouse walls up. Hopefully we'll get this done before winter! HURRY! This is last month: and now (it will be one more tire high, then we'll put the glass wall on and have our INDOOR GREENHOUSE!!): Done with tires for kitchen, done with can wall, almost done with bond beam (one more day of work!): And a view from the top: Alright! Cheers to digging, cheers to leveling the ground! Cheers to Pounding More Tires! Cheers to exclamation points!