The doldrums of June spread into July, but despite the incessant heat we soldiered forward on our projects. We haven't been accomplishing as much as we'd hope though, and have decided to postpone finishing the rainwater cistern until next year.
We're still making good progress on the duplex. Jesse has installed some bracing because the 2nd story was wobbly, and the bracing has really made a huge difference. He along with some volunteers also put in the blocking on the roof to fill in all the gaps between the purlins.
Over the last month we've finished the framing, dug the foundation drainage/insulation trench, put down the gravel bag stem wall, and poured the base layer of earthen floor.
We just finished placing the foam board insulation and drain tile in the rubble trench. The foam board isn't exactly environmentally friendly. We're thinking about using a layer of empty soda bottles as a dead air barrier in future construction.
Tomorrow we'll fill it in with clean 1" gravel and can move on to other building aspects like building window bucks, finishing the roof, and actually stacking the bales!
We finished installing the metal on the roof last week and we'll have the gutters done tomorrow. We used some semi-transparent pieces of roofing to let more light in and it looks they're going to let in plenty of light. We'll probably only need a few lights inside.
We've done a good bit of digging in the root cellar squaring it up and getting it down to a better depth so some of us taller folks will be able to walk around in it without knocking our heads on the rafters.
There's still part of a day of digging left to do on the root cellar, and then it's on to framing it up, plastering the walls, and adding the gravel floor, shelves, and steps.
We had a wonderful 4th of July party, made some new friends and enjoyed the company of some old ones. On the 21st we held an earthen floor workshop which was sparsely attended, but enjoyable and hopefully helpful nonetheless. By the way, our next workshop is earthen plaster on August 18th! Come by, learn something new, and give us a hand!
As it does every year about this time we've gone lax on our gardening duties as we fall behind on construction projects. The drought certainly hasn't helped anything, but despite that we're still getting a nice crop of tomatoes. So far the favorites are the yellow cherries and the hillbilly orange tomatoes. We also got a good haul of potatoes, onions, and garlic.
Most everything else is in serious need of water, but we've mainly kept the watering to a minimum and have been making sure the perennial fruit and berry bushes don't die.
We'll still plant a few more things for a fall garden, but unless the rain picks up we won't expect much. If we weren't so pressed on construction we'd be hauling more water, ah priorities. Next year we've got a full-time garden manager already signed up so that should help alleviate this seasonal decline.
We've had a number of comings and goings this last month, Dan, Lucy, Mike, Tristan, Tony, Bobbie, Janis, and Natalie. We appreciate all of the hard work everyone has put in!
