20-22 Jul 2012

Friday 20th Zaida and Ovando joined us this weekend and after setting their tents up and having a good look around the earthship got to work on the black water pipe out from the bathroom. This needs a drop of 3cm every 1m to ensure good water flow, which involved a lot of digging, measuring and chunking out rocks with the electric thumper.

There was also the trench to be dug for the utility room wall footings. Dave cut the boards for the roof to size and I did a spot of caning (not more caning I hear you cry!). In the evening Zaida and I went to cut more cane and we all helped to strip it ready for the morning.

Sat 21st

After getting up bright and early this morning Zaida and Ovando were champing at the bit to have a go at tyre thumping - here's their very first tyre beautifully pounded we think.

Then we all helped fill the roof frame with that luscious cork.

After filling the frame, the boards were screwed on top and cants were made to direct the rain water away from the dome.

While Dave and Zaida made the cants, Ovando did the can infill walls using a fidobe mix and guess what I did? Yes, more caning!

Last job of the day - Dave painted on the first coat of bitumenosa.

Sunday 22nd

First job of the day - Dave was up at 7am to paint the 2nd coat of bitumenosa hoping it would dry in time to be able to lay the bitumen before the sun gets too strong.