Update: Quickie

We are still waiting for ODOT to give us the okay on the driveway. At first they marked a spot that was not on our property. Then they couldn't find our markers. So, still figuring that part out. Meanwhile, we've been searching for a freshwater spring, putting up tents and scoping out small building areas, protecting the wildlife from the jaws of Pixie, dodging mosquitos, grubbing little trails, digging for clay, and making models of cob buildings. More pictures coming.

I love summer!

Welcome to Spider Spring!

Here is the one acre piece of land we bought recently. On the first morning, waking up on our very own property, I spied a tiny web just outside our tent. It was perfect in construction and it's wee tenant sat perfectly in the middle. I watched the sneaky little lady sitting in her perfect home, waiting for the perfect meal. She did not seem worried that we pitched an orange tent right next to her. I thought of Robert Frost's perfect little poem and the name, Spider Spring flew around for awhile and then stuck.

We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.
-- Robert Frost


We plan to build a small complex of little buildings mainly out of Oregon Cob. (See previous blog on our cob oven!) We are planning to use earthbag, cob and natural plasters to sculpt forest "outbuildings", a secret sactuary in the woods.


This is our road, our neighborhood.




Here's looking onto the property from the road.

This is the "trail" leading back off the road.




We have natural springs on the property. This is what we thought was the entrance to the main spring, but it could be a seepage spring, or consentrated upslope a little ways. We'll have to dig around.


Two reasons why we want to limit our overall digging:

Bleeding Heart

Sword Fern



Nathan on The Land.



Look up! Not much sun for solar. Sadly, a few trees will need to be cut for building space and materials.

Home Sweet Home:


And the view from the tent:


We have preliminary driveway plans. It doesn't cut into the buildable area and it only goes back 75 feet:



One more person is happy about the purchase of this land.

She LOVES it!

More to come! We're heading out tomorrow to dig around for springs and do soil testing for clay!

Way Past New Years

Yawn.
Stretch.
Blink.
Blink.
Blink.
And it's officially spring.
Scratch.
Scratch.

Here is what we did just before hibernation.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2006!


Mitch. Nathan. So begins the party.


Gayle. Spletts.


Michele. Greg.


Katie.


Michele. Pixie.


Mad Mitch.


Hello Greg.




Greg. Allison. (Robert.) Katie. Spletts.


Happy Greg!


Goodbye Greg.


Mitch.


Party Sit-in.


There went 2005!

Happy New Year!

Cloudy Hodag McGee: Fall Crabbing Adventures

We went crabbing this weekend! We found a spot closer to Cloverdale, where the bus lives. It happens to be the spot that Joanna had to rescue us from on my birthday weekend! The bus drove in and out without a problem this time, whew! It rained sideways all Saturday. We stayed cozy in the bus, reading stories and cooking Top Ramen. There was too much rain for good crabbing. But we fruitlessly threw our pots out into the howing winds anyway. The rain and wind died down at night and the morning was glorious! Still no crab, but we'll try again this next weekend.

The Alis Layer with Pigments: The Squid Turns Blue

Finally! It was time for colors! As I said, I bought natuaral clay pigments from a natural building supply in town. I made a mix of 2 parts sand, 2 parts clay-rich soil, 1 part cooked flour paste, .5 part medium mica flakes, as much pigment as possible (dumped all I had in, about .5 part).



We mixed water in until it held the consistency of sour cream: Sparkly, Blue, Green and Brown Sour Cream. Then we just globbed it on with cut out yogurt container tops and trowells and fingers.



Later we will add more color as needed. When it is completely dry we will buff out the mica sparkles with warm water and a well-wrung sponge.











The soil provides an amazing pallate of colors. The actual Vampire Squid is black with red eyes that change to blue, depending on the photograph. But what does color mean at the vast dark places of the sea floor? Our squid, we believe, is perfect in blue and green.

Vampire squid comes to life?

After a few weather related false starts, we were greated to a crisp and sunny saturday for our final plasters on the oven.



Gayle and Allison discussed the mixture for the first sculpting layer. About 2 parts sand 2 parts clay 1 part flour paste.



The clay and sand are mixed.



The flour paste is added. It is still wam, making the mixing warmer on a cool day.



We all needed to chip in the mix after the paste was added.



The first task was to add a layer of plaster to cover our original form. There was plenty of room for all of us.



Now the squid is taking shape. Matt, Katie and Gayle are working on the tentacles.



Here, Katie works on the eyes. These required 2 people to hold and form.



Matt and Allison took control of the house facing eye.
The sun was getting low in the sky, but we still had one more layer to go...

The Vampire Squid from Hell

This is my favorite thing I've read about the Vampire Squid:

We're familiar with the idea of squid and octopi spraying out a cloud of ink to distract predators; this strategy obviously wouldn't work at all in the dark depths where Vampyroteuthis lurks. Instead, the tips of the tentacles are translucent, contain clusters of iridescent green and yellow particles, and can ooze a viscous, glowing goo. Instead of a black fog, these guys spew a sparkling, glowing cloud and flash their waving tentacle tip lights in a pattern to bewilder, and presumably swim away while their foes thrash at fluorescing ejecta.

Allison, our downstairs neighbor came by for a planning session before we began the final layer and color. We got some more sand, we discussed Nathan and my idea about the Northwest Hodag-type thing. We looked at pictures, surfed the web, talked and talked. I typed the word, "Monster" into Google Image Search. Up came a big red eye. A huge red eye. And it belonged to a creature called Vampyroteuthis infernalis, or Vampire Squid from Hell. Allison started jumping up and down. She had thought of this earlier. Nathan and I were exited about learning about the new species: a distant link to Pixie? I always suspected she was part squid.

Here are some more articles on the Vampire Squid from Hell. You will agree this is one cool invertibrate.

Tentacle Cool
Movie of Vampire Light Show!
Smithsonian Pictures
Good Article
Tree of Life Web Project

So, we've changed our plans. Next comes the final plaster and then the Alis (color)! We're getting closer!

Step Five: Pliable, Sculptable Plaster

Earthen Plasters are so soft and sculptalbe, Nathan and I had a hard time breaking away to take pictures. Our plaster was composed of Two parts fine sand; Two parts clay-rich soil, sifted through 1/2" hardware cloth; One part cooked flour paste*; One part finely chopped straw (about 1/2" pieces); and enough water to make it roll into a big, shiny, strawy burito.



It felt like... Imagine you are in a kingergarten classroom. You pick up a big wad of salted play-dough and carry it over to the sand box. You roll it all around in the sand and engrain it completely until when you squish the playdough, you can hear the sand squeak and crunch.



1/2 Hodag and 1/2 Big Foot was the shape we were going for. We knew we wanted another layer of sculpting plaster, so we got the basics formed so we would have a place to work from.



While I was screening the soil and prepping the area, Nathan gathered scrap wood and banged together this very cool shelter. Earthen structures need to be protected from direct rain. This simple structure, with help from the trees it's built under won't keep it absolutely out of the elements, but will provide enough shelter to keep it from direct rain.



Rain is the only real concern here in Portland. For the mid-west, you would need a four-walled structure to protect it from the cold. Cob lets air flow through, so moisture does too, to a certain extent. That moisture freezes, expandes and the cob crumbles all to pieces after time.



This layer was by FAR the most fun to work with. At this point, we were excited about letting the shape emerge and then coloring it. I went out and bought some cheap powdered green, blue and deep brown clay pigments as well as a jar of fine mica to add later.

The oven is technically done when we make a door, but the sculpting and experimenting with these final layers was half of the appeal of building this baby in the first place.

*Cooked Flour Paste:
1/2 fill a pot with water and put it on to boil. Mix flour and cold water together to get the constistency of smooth, thick pancake batter. When the pot is boiling rapidly, slowly pour and whisk the "batter" into the water, maintaining a rolling boil. (Not Easy!) When it is about as thick as gravy and slightly transluscent, remove from heat and cool before stomping it into the mix. It totally STICKS to your feet. It is, after all, paste.

Step Four: Cob Layer

The mixture for this layer had more clay and lots of long fiber (straw). Pixie helped us stomp.



This layer could be applied by the handful and held its form well. It went on about 3-5 inches thick.



Working around the door was a little tricky, but it dried fine.



Gayle deep in cob.



With the remaining cob, we adding a little height for sculpting with the next layer. Our creation looked out over St Helens.

Thermal Layer

The first layer, or thermal layer, is a mix of mostly sand. A small amount of clay and water were added just to get it to hold together. The less clay, the less the shrinkage between firings. But enough clay has to be there to hold it all together and give it a little give. Too little clay and the roof caves in. We were pretty nervous. This was the "make i t or do-it-all-over-again" stage.



The mix was not easy to work with, but if we smashed it down and molded it, it worked just fine.






It was fast work, once we got how to squish it together and measure it with our hands as we went. Sadly, we ran out of mix just before we got to the top and had to make a sand run so we could make more...



But we got it done before the sun set.



We then got a 2x4 and whacked the sides of the oven to set the sand into the clay and firm the whole thing up. We also rocked the board back and forth across the surface between beatings. It started to almost shine.


The book says that we can cut the door out at this point. But we were still nervous about the mixture and decided to let it dry a bit before cutting it out.