6 person hours!

OK! Upwards!
It's a Rainy Day, rare thing in the high dessert of West Texas, so we're worried all the work we did would wash out, cross your fingers.
French door frame in, A/C frame in, and the piece of selenite crystal from our friend Mark set in!

Our friend Mark donated two larges pieces of selenite crystal which we are using kind of as windows, or back drops to two nichos located on the left and right on the south wall French doors. Mark actually bought a selenite mine in New Mexico. He has a website http://www.crystallinephoenix.com/
The word “selenite” comes from the Greek “selenites,” meaning “moon stone” or “moon rock,” with the root word “selene” meaning “moon,” and for good reason - the mineral selenite is the near transparent and colorless crystal form of gypsum that exudes a pearly luster which glows and can very much resemble the moon. Selene is also the name of the Greek Goddess of the Moon (a.k.a. Artemis or Diana).


This picture is a piece of Selenite that Mark gave us that is displayed in a window frame at Eve's Garden B & B. We're going to actually make windows out of it! Translucent windows yes, but windows! You'll get a better Idea of what it is to look like after we build the nicho up around the rock, hopefully the day after tomorrow, when no rain is forecast.

Going Backwards!

April 15, 2010
5 person hours.

Harumphh!
Had to knock out a wall because we decided to put in french doors instead of a 4 foot by 4 foot window here on the south wall.
I thought it would be easy, but part of this wall was built two years ago, it was solid as a rock. Will have SORE Muscles!
Tomorrow we make mud and start building UP!



I think he's called a tiger frog hanging out in the pond in the back court yard.---Yes, a LEOPARD Frog! Not tiger, leopard.

Recycling Styrofoam

So, aside from building, there are lots of pieces to put together in preparation of producing papercrete.
We make our own papercrete blocks here at Eve's Garden.
The blocks are made of
- Recycled Paper
- Recycled Styrofoam
- Clay
- Sand
- Portland Cement
- Wata
- Perlite




So, to get the Styrofoam together, yikes a big job for Alaine!
Clyde got a good deal from some folks who supply recycled Styrofoam, however, the clear plastic bags in which the Styrofoam is stored don't stand up to the dessert sun and they have biodegraded! So, we've had a Styrofoam room. I've been spending hours and hours trying to bag up styrofoam. Can you imagine? Can you imagine trying to shove styrofoam beads into bags. bleck.









Got 'er done! About 36 hours of bagging styrofoam beads! And they're all bagged up!

Working!

April 12th, 2010
About 6 person hours

Here's Noble building the frame for the French doors we've decided to put in the south wall!
So we'll have French doors on the north wall AND the south wall! So exciting! Lots of light.
This means I'll have to knock out a part of the wall we already built. The beauty of papercrete, change your mind... just try try again.









Everybody loves photos of kitties. Here's one of the 8 or 9 cats we have around Eve's Garden sitting in a bucket of nails. Tough Cat!

Hi Friends, We're back in West Texas, trying to get the blog up and going again. We arrived in early March here to Eve's Garden in Marathon, TX. We'll be working on building our papercrete "flat" again in the next few days. I'm make an update of how many person hours we've put into construction (it's been 41 days of work I can tell ya) and how many papercrete blocks we've lugged up to the second floor.
The picture was taken by our buddy Bob from College Station. Thanks Bob and Estelle. Hasta Pronto.