Common Building Update

John, one of the new crew of carpenters that's on the job now.
Our old friend Matt Garrity (stooping) and Chris, also new on the crew
Closer view of the cupola
Beginning of the stairs...
Stairs, next phase....

Cob Update

Above, a look at one of the doors....
Up close at the cob floor (you'd have to click on this one to really see the detail)
New wall plaster and floor, new door.
The platform where the wood stove will go...still has to be plastered and tiled.
First coat of ceiling plaster....

Flower harvest

Above, salpiglossis "painted tongue". Not the greatest cut flower 'cause it's so small, but it's one of my favorites.
Harvesting for dried flower bouquets, in case frost wipes out the fresh ones. These are different varieties of statice.
Celosia, "Burgundy Supercrest" and "Orange Temple Bells", for dried bouquets
Partying down in the flower field....
A last look at the full flower field. That afternoon Matt came in with the mower and cut down 85% of the field. He disked it later, and today he's sowing cover crop, moving irrigation back onto it and watering. We've saved a small portion to finish up the final month of the CSA deliveries for the season.

The common building -- the second floor

Matty, our friend, neighbor and carpenter, climbing the scaffolding to the second floor.

James of the Portland baling crew. They've spent the week doing the framing they need to do before the strawbales (which are made of rice straw and are gonna be trucked up from Sacramento) come up next week.
Yuki, another Portland fella.
Lydia of the Portland crew...
This is actually the ground floor, but I just wanted to get a look at the beginning of the stairs UP to the second floor.....

The common building -- views of the top

The roof of the common building. The tongue-and-groove roof had already been put up a few weeks ago, and then came the visquine (sp?). The blue jean insulation will go in between those sheets of plywood, and then the metal roof.
A view of the cupola.
Interior view of the cupola
Broader view, with cupola, second and first floors. The blue marks the windows and doors. Our friend and carpenter Matt Garrity is on the roof.
The common building at sunrise this morning.

Plastering

Cob structure, beginning to be plastered. The plaster's made with 3 gallons beach sand, 1 gallon of some grey sand, 4 gallons of sifted clay from our land, 2 gallons of flour paste (flour/hot water), and coloring, in this case a mix of terra cotta and a yellow. This all got mixed in a small cement mixer we rented, along with water.
This is Megan, one of a crew of folks who are coming down from Portland to do the strawbale insulation on the common building. They also have all kinds of other natural building skills, so they came up to the cob structure on Thursday to plaster.
Lydia, the head of the Portland strawbaling crew, plastering one of the windows. I'm still working on figgerin' out my camera; the flash wasn't going for these pictures, so there's some distortion going on.
Another window in the cob structure; I just liked the light reflected on the wall and sill...
...James, who led the workshop that built the cob structure this summer. He's been back alot since the workshop ended to continue finishing the building, and supervised us in the plastering work.

Some other pix from the oven builders' final day

Francisco, Paola y Juan
Cool old car passing us on Yale Creek Road
Eden, Francisco, me and Juan with lais (sp?) of zinnias from the flower/herb garden
Francisco strolling across the suspension bridge Matt built that crosses Yale Creek
Juan coming out of the guest trailer.

Llopis oven-building -- Day Seven

The last day! Paola and Francisco adding insulation to the top of the oven...
The door to the oven....
Hopefully the bread that comes out won't be as hard as this brick, but you get the idea....
Paola with the insulation on her face, which is diotomaceous(sp?) earth of some sort.
Francisco y Juan, at the end of the day today. They're leaving tomorrow. It's been great having them here.

Party in the Common Building

L to R, above: Matty, a friend, neighbor and carpenter working on the building; Chris Keefe, a friend and the architect of the common building; John Di Fruscia, a friend and the general contractor for the building, and Silas/Tinder, a friend/neighbor and carpenter working on the building. Silas is leaving early next week to work on a Greenpeace boat, so this was a farewell party for him as well as a chance to have our first party in the common building.
L to R: Juan (Llopis oven builder), Matty (back turned), Silas & Francisco (Llopis builder)
L to R: Tara, Ocean & Talia
Southwestern view w/a near-full moon, sitting in what will be the dining room
Our dear friends Shannon & Mike, who we lived and farmed with at Green Gulch. They arrived just in time for the barbecue, and are staying until early next week....

Llopis oven-building -- Day Six, Part Two

Another lever I don't know anything about; I just liked the way it looked; it was installed today.
The platform that the bread will bake on. It gets rotated by a wheel, so the baker doesn't have to make awkward maneuvers trying to shift loaves around by hand.
Juan installing the wheel that will rotate the baking platform....
The door to the oven....
Me, badly in need of a shave and with a nice gash on my forehead from banging it into the newly installed oven door, right at the end of the day.