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!

Earthship Movement on KUNM

So, I guess I was on the radio a few months ago. Talking about building an earthship. Check it out! Here is the link if you're interested: Earthship Movement on KUNM

Kitchen walls

Well, every home needs a kitchen... it looks like ours might happen sooner than expected! Here are some photos and a ...one minute video... !!!!! We're starting the GREENHOUSE walls too!! And... um.. our pathetic garden, pray for it, please.. And also, paper macheing giant heads... I guess I'll post the finished projects in a week or so..

Half done with kitchen walls!

It's been a busy month! Everything here is wonderful. Spring is in the air, which is almost awesome. The wind here is outstanding and sometimes out of control. That's only one or two days out of the week though, usually. For the most part, it feels like summer here, which makes me unbelievably happy.

Everyday has been a productive one. We're six tire levels up, out of our ten tire high walls! Over half way done. We're really moving fast with this one. Dain & I can pound a tire in fifteen minutes, no problem. It used to take me forty five minutes to pound a tire sometimes! We'll be done with these tires in a month. We have about 100 more to go. If we didn't have to knock down the hill in the back (to make the next wall, the back wall of the living room), we'd be done in two weeks. So be it. We're getting some of the next room done too, which was awesome when we began these tires a month ago.

Here is a picture of some friend labor from exactly a month ago:

And a picture from this morning: We cemented some rocks into the wall this morning, did a few tires, some digging, and a little more cement. All before noon. Then we played a game of scrabble. I won.

It might seem like I always win, but I just don't write about the loosing*.

*losing with loosing.