Prep work + tools +  materials + tunes =

We mixed local soil, local sand, local straw bale. Ratio is soil (1), sand (2) and straw bale (0.5). No cement! No chemical compounds!

(Above) Our 1st attempt at mixing the materials

(Above)  A succesful attempt at mixing the plaster materials!  (Below)  Its amazing what a little muscle will do.  We learned how to really work this material, to create a smooth, even finish.  For it being the first time to do this, we’d say that the wall turned out pretty good.

A group of students reinforced the formwork for the fireplace stemwall, then filled it with concrete.  The rest of the group stayed back at the residence finishing drawings and earth-plastering one of the walls.

Here are some additional shots of the foundation being dug…

This is Preston aka Grizz, Suzie’s oldest son

42″ x 42″ x 36″

Here are the rest of the pictures of our first week.  While the the bathroom crew was at work Andrew, Kinley, Mike and Tom built bunk beds, Cindy helped hook up the instantaneous water heater, Hank laid some gravel and Vida built an airplane.  Click on a thumbnail to see a larger photo

Here are two panoramas for those not acquainted with the Scorup House/DBB Campus and Suzie’s site.

The first is the DBB campus, taken from the center of the yard.

the 6-person ”residence”, home for Matt, Mike, Nick, Scott, Tom and Zack,  on left, ship/shop on right.  both projects built by last year’s class.

supply yard and tool sheds

Scorup house from the back, home to Andrew, Christian, Cindy, Daniel, Jason,Kaitie, Kinley, SK and Tara.

From left, behind the red excursion is The Unit, Airstream 1, home to Brian and Jeff, the unfinished bath house, Airstream 2, home to Atsushi, and the other Trailer.

This is Suzie Whithorse’s homesite.

Looking East, the mud Hogon is Suzie’s current winter home, behind that is her summer shed.

South

looking into the sun you can see the outhouse

north, Suzie’s favorite view

Some of us (Mike, Jason, Katie, Nick, Kinley and Tara) spent our afternoon taking in the culture of Southeastern Utah today, hiking up several washes and exploring the Anasazi ruins.

So here we are after our first week in Bluff, time for a serious blog update.  We arrived late Monday, Christian and Erika cooked us some tasty stir fry and we all found a place to sleep.

Throughout the week the foundation team has met with the “design” team that met with Suzie in Dec. to rework the overall design a bit and finalize our foundation plans. This has been a fairly smooth process (from what I’ve seen) that has involved a couple of group votes and has culminated in the digging of our foundation. (in one day!)  Sean has found a couple of options for the telephone poles in Flagstaff and Joseph City, AZ, and there is talk of a run to Cortez, CO to look a scrap metal to fashion a sleeve for the base of pole so we can hide the foundation in the ground.  Word in the house is that we’re looking to pour the foundations Monday…

Those of us not on the design/foundation team have been working around the “campus” down here to make things more comfortable for us.  The six residents of the “residence” (Mike, Nick, Matt, Tom, Scott and I) have inherited an empty bathroom, and two bedrooms without beds.  With the help of Atsushi, Jason, Kinley, Andrew (our ASU pal) and Daniel (our Denver pal) we’ve since finished the bathroom (to 90%) and built shipping pallet bunk beds for our shipping container bedrooms.

bathroom when we arrived

nick preping the shower pan for a new finish

pouring a concrete floor for the shower

atsushi and I doing our best to make it smooth

matt cutting some 3-form faux marble to finish the wall tile

it took all of kinley, nick and scott to draw one line…

jason welding our steel edging to protect the radient heated bathroom floor

scott and matt setting the john

we made another steel edge protector for the entry way step

jason measuring for the curtain rod

pretty happy with our bending ability

welding the connector plates for the shower rod

a good time to learn to weld

installation of the shower rod

daniel crafting our towel pegs

jason installing the pegs

finished product

Structure Planning

After the collective group split into four groups during the day to finalize design, work around the Scorup House and complete the bathroom in “The Residence,” we convened after dinner to work on the structure design.