Dylan and Kellie's wedding!!

It was quite an honor to be able to attend the wedding of my good friends, Dylan and Kellie. I absolutely LOVE weddings. =) I know - some people love em', so people would rather be dead. Me? I just love weddings.

Here is the new couple!


Chase, Miles, and Lillian looking at something.


Me, Katie and Lillian.


Aiden was feeling needy and decided to use Katie's dress as a security blanket. :)


... and off they go, into the woods to dwell among the fairies!

Actually, the dog in the photo was quite hilarious! And extremely curious as to why these two people were wandering out there when the party was behind them!


Sometime after this, we managed to make our way down to the reception. It was very nice. I met a bunch of people who apparently met me at some point in the past, and met people who I haven't seen since sometime in the past. Meeting up with friends, old and new, is always such a good time.

What was especially entertaining was the kids. Here is Aiden conjuring the ghost of Bruce Lee.


Kids going crazy popping balloons!


Summer, Catherine, and Chris - a couple of my dear friends!


Lillian ..


" ... and here is every reason for why i know that you are absolutely wrong in your thinking about whatever it is you are thinking!"

HAHA! Actually, I have no idea what I was talking about! But check out that mark below my eye! That was caused by jalapeno peppers that I was working with! Crazy, huh? I was being (kinda) careful with my hands, but I rubbed around my eye and it got me! That lasted about a week.

September 8th - Labor Day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day

I like Labor Day and what it stands for. Might sound a little "socialist" to you ... but it's a celebration of the worker and what we can do if we all band together as a team to throw off the shackle of the corporate debt machine. Word.

I spent my time off of work to continue work on the green house.


I spoke with one of the local farmers about getting a few bails of straw for the mud cement exterior. It'll be a few days, so in the meantime I decided it was time to start rigging up the tarp.

This is the interior of the dome. The tarp will be pulled in and under the dome struts at the bottom. When the earthen wall is packed onto the tires, it will form a drip edge so it will shunt any water away.


While I toiled, the kids played on the trampoline!




The tarp at the beginning stages. Just getting it up and on was the biggest task.


Now we are getting somewhere. The initial stabs at rigging it up were only to get the general shape. Now I have to undo some of the rigging to get the angles right for this particular situation.


Alas, dinner! On Labor Day, what could be either more appropriate or more cliche than to grill something on the grill? Sweet corn, bathed in butter and brown sugar (oh, yes i did!), Johnsonville cheddar dogs and some cheap (tasting) American schwill??

September 7th - hard labor day

Well, we are still hard at work on the garden dome project. It's almost a little lonely, considering the groups that I had on hand a week or so ago. But it's peaceful and serene after work-work, going out into the backyard to cut cables, etc.

This weekend, we put the door frame in. Dug the holes, cut the timbers, poured the concrete, leveled it out. We had to remove a few struts. The rest of the struts around the frame will be fully connected to the frame for added stability.


Over the course of last week I cut and fit pieces of cable wire and connected them to the anchor rebar. This will (hopefully) keep this thing tied down and not floating like a kite when heavy winds come.


It's time to start covering up the tires. I want the wall to be a thick earthen mass, like adobe you see in the south west. We have been mining for clay - and there is plenty of it if you are willing to work for it. This is a 100 gallon reservoir filled with clay and water. The clay needs to be in water for at least 24 hours if you want to use it in concrete or pottery or anything useful.


Here is Jim and Matt down in the hole. The hole at this point is around 7 feet deep and the clay down there is awesome.


This picture probably does not do it justice. There are all sorts of color differentiation in there. I would love to know what it all is. Pretty incredible stuff.

August 30th - Tire wall pretty much done (for phase 1)

After much haranguing and even much more ado, we have managed to cobble together the tire knee wall which will form the foundation for the dome.

Ya know, I very much could have done without the foundation and simply moved the dome into this location and said 'da hell widdit' - but there are advantages (aside from the education and sore lower back) to having this structure in place. Besides, I am fascinated by 'Earth Ship' building, so it was a done deal from the get-go.

In future posts, I will take you on a little journey where I attempt to make a sort of Earthen plaster out of clay that I dig right on site, some hay, a little concrete and possibly some horse manure. No, no, no - I'm not shitting you (pa-dum-bump!) =D


The dome has been lifted and moved into place. With 6 friends, we easily moved the structure into place.


Sitting on top of the world.


Next steps will be to ratchet the structure down onto the anchors that we installed, build a door way, and wrap the dome in poly greenhouse tarp. At that point, the bare minimum will be complete on the greenhouse. Then after THAT we will be installing the solar heater (as soon as I can get my hands on a low power inline DC blower and a solar panel), building raised beds, applying Earth plaster to the walls, and putting in a hammock. Other niceties will be a water catch system for catching rain water.

August 28th - Party at Canyon Park!

We got there as things were just beginning. Delvis had not started and people were stilling milling about. What a gorgeous place to have a show and a party! Who knew it would turn out to be the scene that it did!


Tired Rhyme Declines. Yours truly on the drums.


Later that night, Mackenzie did Tarot readings. Let's see ... the hanged man ... the 9 of swords ... and the 2 of swords reversed ... if the cards are right, I would say that things are NOT - i repeat NOT looking good for Jim's haircut ...


Ok Ok Ok already! Enough pictures of us!


Andy watching the band, and Jim brooding about the fate of his haircut.


The magic fairy came and made every magical and sparkly!!


Mackenzie, James and me enjoying the music and freezing our tushes off!

August 27th - Rain Day

Thursday was a little soggy. Working outside on the foundation was not an option. Instead, I puttered around on other projects and stuff.

For instance, taking pictures of wild life. :) Lillian is very excited about her Monarch caterpillars! They have transformed into chrysali. Is that the true plural of that word??


Two of them are still working on it.


Outside, the unfinished foundation awaits. We are about 3 levels up now with one more to go plus the door. Deep in this hole we are mining for clay to use as a binder for the natural earthen plaster that we will use to cover the exterior of the tire wall. I'm hoping for a sort of adobe feel.


Here is another shot of the foundation. The center ditch will be a drain to capture excess moisture in the ground and shunt it down hill. The oddly phallic shape was completely unintentional.


Ya know, I've got some great friends. When I told them that I had a little project in mind that would require about 160 empty beer cans, they immediately came to my side to help! Hey! What's this? V8?? This will not stand, man.


Aluminum down spouts from Home Despot.


Cutting them with a hack saw. I really didn't cut them like this. Just for the photo!


Rip the bottoms out with tin snips ...


Cut the top off with a can opener ...


... and poke them inside the lengths of down spout. What can this possibly be? Stay tuned and find out!

August 28th, 2009 - Foundation building

At work, preparing the foundation for the geodesic dome greenhouse.


The idea is to put down staggered layers of tires and ram them full of earth. At the end, you will have a dense wall of earth encased in steel radials wrapped in heavy rubber. Very strong and high R value.


Jason wailing away.


The kids are also very involved in the process!


Aiden and Lillian in action.


Jim and Andy are sawing away at a tire. We have to cut the tires in half (more of less) when a wall ends. In our case, we need an opening in which to frame a door.


Me and Rachel, Andy's wife. Check out little Baby Chicory on her back!


Avery. Cool dude.


Me, Rachel, and Baby Chicory again!


Andy, Jim and James are figuring out how we put a door in. It is going to require the cutting of some tires ... this will be interesting. This is an aspect of the construction that I am not altogether familiar with.