We worked so hard these last two weeks that we actually had time to take today off. So we all headed down to Canyon de Chelly in AZ to check out some spectacular Indian ruins and artwork. This is the White House which has ruins at ground level as well as in the cliff.
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The Rammed Earth Wall is finally done! It is so beautiful. We took the supports out of the steel openings and revealed the entire wall today. Everything looks fantastic. Check out the BluffBlog to see some more of our handywork.
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I miss my wife.
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A late night at the site. The rammed earth wall is finished, but the forms are still up.
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Standing on top of the rammed earth wall.
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So, there have been a lot of questions as to what exactly is Rammed Earth. Well, I'll tell you. It's pretty amazing stuff, all it is is a mixture of different types of soil that is compacted/rammed into a form. Think of making a really nice sand castle. The key to making it work is having the correct mixture of sand, gravel, and most importantly, CLAY. Ideally you want between 20-40% clay in your soil. The clay binds the sand and other aggregate together. Cement may also be added as a stabilizer if there isn't enough clay in the mixture. For our rammed earth (RE) walls we have about a 30% clay soil content. It took forever to find the right color and clay content. So, our mixture for the wall is a 45% sand and 30% clay mixture with about 12.5% cement and 12.5% road base gravel. You mix this all together and add just enough water to make the mixture ball together in your hand. It is a very dry mixture. This is poured into the forms about 8 inches at a time and then is rammed down with a pneumatic or hand tamper. That is what creates the layers in the wall. The gray layers were done with a different soil clay mixture that had a little less clay, which we compensated for with more cement. I hope that clears up what RE is.
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Here is the newest RE wall. The pipes sticking through are going to be used to hold the formwork for the final middle section. By Friday we should have this wall finished.
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It's getting there, just one more section
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Sunset at the site. I now have access to the DesignBuildBluff blog. Check it out: www.designbuildbluff.blogspot.com
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We worked pretty late today at the site getting the second section of rammed earth rammed into the form.
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This was the first panel to go. Everyone was so excited to see how it turned out. This wall, when it's all finished, is going to be so beautiful
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The rammed earth wall section 1 has been revealed!!! It is so wicked awesome. There are a few flaws, but what do you expect, we're new at this. What do you all think? The plywood squares are inside of the steel frames that I made. They are there to support the steel while we rammed it and while the wall dries and cures.
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this is the steel frame inside the formwork. You can see the rammed earth that it sits on. More formwork is added and more earth is rammed in all around it. Just wait till you see the finished wall!
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Here's Matt attaching the steel frame into the rammed earth formwork. The board behind him goes above the existing formwork to complete the wall. We finished ramming this section of the wall and will probably take off the forms tomorrow to reveal how awesome the wall is.
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Inked
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Start of the Rammed Earth Wall

the construction of the rammed earth wall has begun! hopefully by monday we'll be able to pull the forms to see what the first section of wall looks like.
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More car pics...

 

Meet our new Car!

So, while Tristan has been busy in Bluff, I have been busy buying new cars. Well, okay, just one. Here is our foxy used (but new to us) 2004 Subaru Legacy. It is the 35th Anniversary edition. It has alloy wheels and a moon roof.

I don't even feel that ripped off; although, they were able to get me to buy an extended 100,000 mile warranty that Tristan would have probably turned down. oh well. Oh, the best part is that it only has 5,001 miles because it was a factory sample or something.

Anyway, we haven't named her yet. Please let me know your name suggestions that start with and "S" or an "L" (e.g., Scarlett Subaru or Letta Legacy).

This is John's clayman. It kind of looks like a turd.
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The big dark pile of soil/clay in the middle is the pile that I collected all day today. Fun times shoveling all day long.
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Some more forms. This photo has the formwork for the concrete foundations that sit on top of the gravel filled trenches. The rammed earth formwork is in the background.
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It's been awhile since there was a picture of me up on the blog. So here you go. I'm standing next to some of the formwork for the rammed earth wall. When this wall gets rammed and the steel frames I made are put in the wall it's going to be one of the sweetest things ever in the history of the world. Just wait and see.
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Here you can't see the pile anymore, but you can see everyone taking a lunch break.
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That pile of gravel in the back, went into this trench in the front all by shovel, wheelbarrow, and big tough dudes. It took about half the day, but everyone here (except me) are late sleepers so half a day is from about 10 or 11 until 1.
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These are the steel frames that I welded that will go inside the rammed earth wall of our house. They come complete with a flying Matt.
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another view of the new painted walls.
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So, Terri has been staying really busy while I've been down in Bluff. Which, by the way, I now have my own computer down here now, so I'll be able to check my email more often. I haven't figured out how to send emails yet, but I can recieve them at least. Anyway, so Terri has been busy painting the dining room in the house. As you can see, it looks great. You can also see that we're painting the moulding and trim as well. The bases are done, but the door frames are only primed, waiting for their final coats.
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A Day in the Life of 2 Ts

Also, new links on the left to the DesignBuildBluff websites.

All the Balloon pics

As promised, here is a link to the rest of my pictures from my balloon ride. www.tc.umn.edu/~shep0090

Here's another from high above the desert with our shadow on the Finger.
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Up, Up, and away. Valley of the Gods in Southern Utah from 5000 feet in the air or so.
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Well, I'm back in SLC for the week. It's good to be home with Terri. I have a few things to build for the project in Bluff, but I hope to get it all done today. As for this photo...this is the balloon that I got to take a ride in last Saturday during the balloon festival down in Bluff. Some of us just happened to be in the right place at the right time and this group needed some extra crew to get the balloon launched. I just happed to have my gloves on so I was offered a ride. I'm still not sure if it was because it was going to be cold up there or if it was because I was going to be close to the flame. At any rate, it was super wicked awesome, a.k.a. swicket. I'll put up a website of all the photos that I took while in the air and will let you know when that is up with a link. If you look at the "More Balloons" post, the ballon I was up in is the big green Alien, it's just above the red truck in the photo.
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After

 

Before

 

More Balloons

More balloons taking off from the school yard. It was cool having the moon out with them this morning. 

Out my window

Here is my super sweet Airstream trailer that I live in down here in Bluff. It really is an ingenious design marvel. So this weekend is an international hot air balloon festival here in Bluff. This is what I got to wake up to this morning. Tomorrow they are launching from Valley of the Gods, so we are going to head over there to watch them in the morning. Should be pretty spectacular, I'll try to get some good photos. 

rammed earth

These are the samples of different mixtures of rammed earth that Matt and I were working on the other day. We still have a lot of testing to do, but these look promising. 

Bluff Sunrise

While this picture doesn't do it justice, the sunrise this morning was pretty spectacular. It was enough to get me out of bed and grab my camera and jacket and stand in the cold for a few minutes. It might have turned out more red and saturated if I would have gotten up a few minutes earlier. 

Bluff sunset

This is my third try at posting this, so I'm a little sick of writing the same thing. This is a sunset, but not the best that you get down here. I don't have pics of the site, because I've been at the house working on testing and experimenting with rammed earth walls. We went to Page, AZ today to get a sample to play with of a material called "Flex-crete". Ethan, you should check it out...www.flex-crete.com I think. 

The End of Day 2

This is the end of day 2 on site. Four of us went out to the site around 12.30 or so, while the rest of the group went to Blanding to get some supplies. So we graded and leveled the floor in about a quarter of the day, because the Blanding group didn't get to the site until 3 or something. That's a whole lot of sand we moved by shovel and wheelbarrow. 

A little fun at the end of the day

We had a little celebration at the end of the day yesterday.