Last weekend (July 30th), I went up to work on the firepit. I've been talking with a few folks about finishing options and still struggle with what to do. Pouring concrete in there to stabalize the wall seems ideal but I worry about freeze/thaw a little bit. I got this old wood (2X4) from a rancher in Fort Collins that was tearing down a fence. They were open to other neighbors taking the wood so I collected a bunch of the fencing and stored it at a friends until that day that I started building.
Well, I found a great way to use some of it - I dug a trench and stuck the board in. This will give the rounded fire pit a faceted dimension inside once the vertical walls are poured with the concrete. I may leave the outside wood face exposed, for character, but also have plans to cover the vertical walls with mosiac designs. Decisions. Decisions.
This week, the need for some key materials came to a head. I picked up a generator and a cement mixer on craigslist. Great deals. Next season, I may need to get serious about drilling a well for water access. My WY neighbors have graciously offered their outdoor spicket, but accessing their supplies gets old after a while, especially when I'll need more than I can carry for the building project. Also, I don't want to wear out my welcome.
Preparation work for earthbag kitchen walls
I don't know about you but I like a lot of diversity. One can only do so much before your brain gets overloaded and it's time to move on to the next project. In this case, the earthbag kitchen walls were beckoning for my attention. The wall building process involves filling bags (burlap or polypropylene) with gravel, dirt and a little concrete, laid out to make the wall, similar to brick laying. I dug a one foot deep trench where the wall will go. The next steps will include pounding rebar into the ground for additional vertical support, and putting down one layer of bricks to keep the bottom of the wall dryer and more stable. From what I've read, the vertical support is not necessary, but it will make me sleep a little more sound at night. It is windy Wyoming after all. I'm sure there are gusts of wind that could take a 2 to 2.5' wide wall down! Aren't there???
Changes in my summer completion goals
So, I'm finally starting to realize that I have a big project on my hand. It might not be completely realistic to think that I could have the firepit and the outdoor kitchen completed in one season. I thought that was a realistic goal at one time. Not going up to WY this weekend probably didn't help but the weather seemed iffy. So this summer, I still do have three main goals.
Goal # 1
My goal by mid-October is to have the firepit completed (but not necessarily all of the mosaic designs). This means that I would like to have the firepit walls and seating areas filled with concrete or some solid mixture. I hope to recruit some creative friends to help with the mosaic designs on the vertical walls. Having them add their touches to the different sections or facets will be an awesome way to remember them. This one shouldn't be too hard to complete and will be my high priority goal.
Goal # 2
Also, it would be great to have started the kitchen wall, and ideal to have at least that wall completed and sealed up before winter. That process is pretty fast once you get into the rythym but involves a lot of shoveling of the gravel/dirt mixture into the bags. Thanks to the backhoe weekend, there should be enough earthen materials to complete this.
Goal # 3
Lastly, I would like to have trenched out the perimeter of the shed so that I can start ramming the earthen walls earlier next spring. In addition, it would be great to have poured the shed's (perimeter) foundation for those rammed walls so that it's had time to cure and is ready to bear the earthen wall loads the following spring. This is the 2nd highest priority.
As I write this down, I realize that it might make sense to build the earthbag kitchen wall and the rammed earth shed at the same time. If I have friends helping, they can learn two different techniques in a weekend, switching between the two walls to break up some of the monotomy.
Smaller goals over the winter
Last weekend, a hummingbird visted me inside the trailer and I realized that I didn't have anything to feed it. I'd like to work on a few projects that will increase the presense of wildlife on the property and this event just reinforced it.
I've been thinking about building a bee farm on the property so I will research what is involved to make this happen over the winter, including whether it's a viable plan. Also, I'm going to build a bunch of bird houses to attract "mountain bluebirds". There's some building specifications that you need to follow to get this species to nest down in the boxes; it's great to entice the birds that are native to Wyoming.
Long term goal:
My neighbors and I talked about damming up one of the valleys between our properties to attract some of the larger animals (deer, antelope, elk, mountain lions, etc). This sounds like another major project in itself, doesn't it!
There's always some other fun project to work on up there. Looking forward to all of it!
