, and what a wall it is

You can scroll down to the previous entry to examine the level of the wall at the end of last week. On your scroll, your eyes might not be able to ignore

HOW

BIG

IT IS

NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!


There's Mike (above), testing the threshold. He has this habit of jumping onto the wall whenever he gets a chance, and hopping from stone to stone, with his bare little feet. I'm the type of person who's too timid to walk on my own work, for fear that it might tumble apart and damage my pride (and require more extra hours and backbones to re-assemble it than I have available). When he prances across a new section of mine, I have learned to hold my tongue, and appreciate his doing what I am not man enough to do.

Below, please feast your eyes on the most precious stonework in the house, the interior hearth wall. These grandfather stones didn't just jump onto the wall and dance into a unified puzzle. They spent thousands of years forming unique personalities, all very independent and rugged beasts. It took some perspiration and a 2.5 pound sledgehammer to coax them into the idea of a tight-knit community.


The ugly gray "stones" (concrete) on the left side of the photo will be covered up with cob, and a poured adobe floor will eventually cover up the bottom 11 inches of wall. The beautiful big ones that makes up the right 2/3 of the photo are the ones that will be left exposed, with cob running along the top profile of them. Not only will they look nice, but they will soak up the heat from the stove, and allow it to slowly dissipate throughout those long winter nights.

We like to treat ourselves one day a week with some local brews, which aided me in my ability to visualize negative spaces and pair them up with the fitting physical stones. I used the timer feature on my camera, because Mike was off in the woods, tent-snoozing for hours and hours (couldn't handle the solar power on his body).



Fitting together stones has proven to be one of the most satisfying things I've ever done. Saturday was a day in which my current pursuits in life were affirmed to the fullest extent (whereas sometimes I've thought: "why the hell have I been digging for months in the winter without paycheck or companion?"). I felt alive deep down in my body, and my mind was breathing through my skull. There was quite simply nowhere in the world I would rather have been than on that site. I don't want to work for anyone I don't love, and I don't want to work on anything that doesn't get me out of sleeping bag happy and inspired.

You can see, we've just about reached ground level on the high North side (2 1/2 feet). That wall still needs 18 inches more of height, to keep the cob safely off the ground.


Now that we're at the point of that wall that will be visible above ground, we're using our most beautiful stones (that we've been stingy about saving along the way) in an upright band, to really show off their gorgeous faces. Because they're stacked on edge, it's important to secure them with "bridge" stones (shown in the photo below). The weight of the cob walls will push downwards, and these bridges will hold everything together as a solid unit.


Here I am testing out a bridge stone, giving it all the body I've got.


Mike and I worked about 42 hours in 5 days, which is quite a bit of stonework. On Saturday, we took a much-deserved break for a trip into town to the farmer's market, and food co-op. The town of Carrboro is a free wireless internet town, so Mike and I were able to sit out on the lawn in front of the food co-op and use our computers to check e-mail. It seems to be the most popular place to be, and is always crowded with townsfolk eating ice cream, sampling wine, having picnics, and asking me to watch their dogs while they shop.


Next week, we should finish up the wall, and then have one more week to tie up any loose ends before the workshop on May 2nd!