I Did Something Beautiful - and It Made Me So HAPPY :)

Friends the timeline is getting twisty. While last week's video showed us putting the finishing touches on our lava crete accent wall, Ashley flying to Texas for a lime plaster workshop, and John and the kids heading back to Tennessee to visit family, what you didn't see was what we did while each other was gone. John stays focused on how many adobes he can make, while Ashley starts a little scattered. And I'm scattered. I'm so scattered. I see one thing and I'm like oh I need to do it. But create something truly beautiful in the end. I didn't even see it. Welcome back to the tiny, shiny homestead. Okay, so we're finally coming out of our lava crete accent wall build. That is done. It is curing. It is drying. So we just spent the morning. Eh, taking all that stuff away so we can get back to adobes. The temperature is rapidly decreasing, and so in the summer we had the problem of making adobes and it being too hot and them cracking. Now we're running up against the problem of it being not warm enough and them taking too long to cure. So we have like... I think it's 600, 650 adobes we need to make. We can do 100 at a time now, thanks to our double-double batch. And so Ashley is actually gone at a lime plaster workshop, and we're here. We're going to make as many adobes as we can while she's gone. So let's get to it. So in case you missed the last couple of videos, way back before the accent wall workshop, we prepped this clay and straw. So this is tin. Buckets of clay soaked, mixed, and then a whole trash can full of straw also mixed. And it's just been sitting here and I keep adding water to it as it soaks it up. It's gotten a little bit hard, so I'm going to... Take the mixer and we're going to just loosen this back up and then we're going to add in 16 buckets of straw. No, not straw. Washed mortar sand. It's been a while guys. It's been a while. Fill all the way up and then we're going to go make about 43 adobes with it and then we're going to do it again with the second trough. That's the goal this morning. 100-ish 98, 94 ish adobes. I don't know what it's going to work out to, but that's what we need to do. We need adobes and we need to start drying so we can put them on the wall so we can finish our roundhouse. Trough one is finished. We got 41 and almost two extras. So we'll call it 42 and a half. I'm halfway through mixing the next trough. I was trying to work on that. While they were making bricks, I just didn't quite get there. So we're, I don't know, maybe an hour, hour and a half into it. So we're moving pretty quick. Started at like nine, right? Oh yeah, it took about 30 minutes to mix. So this only took an hour. Not bad, not bad. I think we finally got the hang of it. We did 88 bricks in just a couple hours. And we've already got the clay set up for the next batch. So later today, if it... It doesn't rain which it might. I'm going to try to chop enough straw and get that all mixed up so that can be sitting overnight and then maybe we can do another batch tomorrow. We could have like two or three hundred bricks done before Ashley gets her back. That would be cool. So we decided to go ahead and chop all the straw for that next batch that we already put the clay in. might be able to do some this evening which would be pretty cool but honestly like we're gonna kind of run out of room here like we could fit maybe another batch of 80 to 90. and then these are going to need to sit here long enough where we can flip them on their side to have like the room to actually lay more. this is really the hard part you have to have this massive area for these things to cure before you flip them up and then keep drying them for days and days and days and then you got to move them to wherever you're going to put them up on the wall. adeline and i figured we're already dirty and muddy we might as well get straw all over us He's going to deliver us before we get showered today. So we're going to at least get enough chopped so we can fill both of those troughs. Today's video is sponsored by the Jackery Solar Generator 5000+. 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The Jackery Solar Generator 5000 Plus is not only useful for construction projects, it also serves as a reliable home backup solution during winter power outages, which makes it the perfect Christmas gift. Just use the link in our description for Jackery's Black Friday sale. Now, let's get back to the build. Well, it happened again. Certain Great Pyrenees stepped on a bunch of our bricks because they were under a tarp because as soon as we laid adobes Of course it had to try to rain on us. That's just the way it goes lately So I have fixed ones I can by hand because they're still really soft because they've been under the tarp There are some that are not gonna be salvageable unless We just redo them, so there's at least 10 that we're just going to pick up, we're going to put like in a container or a bucket, and then put them back in the form and remake the form and pull them off. Like, I think that'll work because they are still soft enough. So we're gonna do that first this morning, and then we have another two troughs to make more bricks. I'm just not sure where we're going to put them because we're running out of room. OK, so that worked pretty well. Everything was still soft enough, a little stiffer than our usual mix, but it worked great. So Adela is going to keep working on those. I am going to grab some ear protection. I'm going to start using the paddle mixer to get our next batch ready. Remember, we put ten buckets of clay in yesterday with a whole trash can of straw. So we've got to put in 16 buckets of sand and get it all mixed together. And then, like I said, we've got to find room for 80 to 90 bricks. Somewhere over there. Drona, good, that's where you walk. Uh-huh. Why don't you come to your sand pile? No, no, sand pile, right here. There you go. That works too. Are you messing with my camera? Huh? Nope, just look at yourself. Officially on the second trough of mix. Adelaide's got to leave soon though. She has to go to work. So she's going to help with this wheelbarrow. And then I don't know if we can put the doodles out for a little bit so Ada can come help. Or if I'm just going to have to deal with it and just make a bunch of bricks. But yeah, we're going to get this done this morning and we're going to have almost 200 bricks ready to go. Okay. 180-ish bricks in two days. It's pretty, pretty dang good. I'm pretty happy with that. Now. As you can see, we're definitely out of room. All So I'm hoping it'll stay clear enough today where these will dry enough where we can start flipping things up on their sides. Otherwise, we might need to get creative. We might need to find a second Adobe location. right. I'm thinking maybe over near the Shelter Logic in front of it. It's kind of like a nice big flat area and we don't have to park there and we could put a few strips there. But even still, like this is it's a lot. It's a lot of bricks. So, yeah, I'm done for the day, guys. I'm going to go take a nap, or have some lunch, or do something besides this. Okay, let's unravel that timeline a little bit. After making all those adobes, Ashley made it back home, and we only had one day to unwrap the Lava Creek accent wall before the kids and I flew to Tennessee to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. So let's see what Ashley gets up to while I'm gone. Good morning. I've got my two drinks ready for this morning, and we are going to begin laying adobes. We're taking a slow, easy morning because... Tired. So let's get started for today. Every time I come in here I can't help but be completely overwhelmed with all the things. And I'm scattered. I'm so scattered. I see one thing and I'm like oh I need to do that. And then I see something else I'm like oh crap I forgot to do that. Just even walking over here the Lava Creek column that's over by the mixers. I want to move it to the cactus garden. We have a bunch of stuff that needs to go to the dump this morning. I made bread dough this morning so in two hours i need to go deal with that. i just felt completely scattered when jonathan's gone like i have no tether like nothing's holding me grounded and i'm just floating and trying to make it till he gets home. jonathan? You can come home any day now. Seriously, this morning I thought maybe we should just cut some bottles, take those forms out by the front door, and put the bottles in. That'd be fun. Sometimes I just need something fun to do. A creative art project. Something that takes me away from doing so many adobes. There's no reason why I couldn't put bottles in there. The most important thing is doing the adobes on the wall so we can get the roof on. I just want to get to the fun stuff, like the art, the bottles, the walls. Let's get going. Okay, it's red handled and they're sharp and it's got to be over here. I was using them over here because I cut metal off. I feel like half, oh it's right here, half my life is just looking for things that I didn't put up. I think so. Very intense. I'll be the one in this place. It's just walking in circles. I'm like where the hell did I even go? The worst is going to happen. Okay. Change of plans. We've loaded the truck for the dump, but it's not open yet. So we're going to fix this little tiny hole here. It looks like the material just didn't get packed in that spot. So Gurados has told us what to do. We're going to try it and see if it works. Let's go. All right. So what we've done so far is sifted the lava creek material, added water and the pigment. Brittany went to go get the Portland, and we'll stuff it in there and see if it works. It looked like a much bigger hole. It did look like a much bigger hole. It's not anybody's fault. I think that was going to look pretty good. Keep it real with me now, I'm sweeping every team, you would think I had a brain. Always had a gas, now we really blowing up, 3, 2, 1, boom, like, na-na-na-na. Okay, so far we've checked off two things off of my to-do list. We filled the hole. It will dry lighter, hopefully. Hopefully. And. We just took a bunch of stuff to the dump. So now we are going to make a crap ton of mortar mix and just do adobes until we're tired. So right now we're getting a paddle mixer. We have 20, no we have 10 buckets of clay that have been soaking in a trough. Mix that up and we'll start adding 20 buckets of sand. Then we can get started. Came up to do something and I remembered I've got laundry that has to be hung up. I just feel so scattered. Like I think that's the theme of today's video. I'm really scattered. I just got the entryway filled in. Looking so good. Started on this wall. This looks really good. It looks so good. I gotta go all the way back over there. We have finished for the morning. We have the whole entryway completely done and we've started on the bedroom wall. So pretty soon, when you pull up to the driveway, you're going to see adobe blocks up there. The hardest part is getting past that bar joist, this little weird spot, and then the next bar joist. Once we get past that, things are going to go super fast. So we put up a little over 60 blocks this morning. And when we come back from lunch, we're going to do something that I've been dying to do for so long. It's time. It's time to make it happen. The time has come. It's time to cut some bottles. Is that going to drive you crazy? I'm starting to sweat. Now you should be able to smash that side in. It's like glitched. This is not level at all. I didn't think so. This has to go up. It's definitely, even looking at it, that side, Tiffany's side is way higher. That's why I was like, this side kept coming down, but it didn't make any sense. Like, I can see straight. Do you need me to pull mine down? No, don't touch your side. That looks really close, really close. Does it need to kind of go like that? That looks great. That's there. That looks great. But I don't know what the distance is from the door. I know somebody that has a tape measure. We have 11 and 3 eighths on this side. Which I think one of these two is 11 and 3 eighths. And then we have 11 and an 8. So I just don't know if we should go off the frame because I mean, if it's ish, yeah. As long as it's flat this way and horizontal that way, I think that'll be... So, if we're between 11 and 11 and a quarter... You know, when you come up to it, you can definitely tell if it's tilted wrong. They look the same to me. Okay. From down here... Everything looks the same. Are we good on that level this way? Really great. And it looks flush from the side. That's the only two things that matter. We did it! Look at it! We have bottles! So are we going to let this dry or do we want to pack on top of it? I think I want to leave it so that it doesn't dry and then do the next look. I agree. I'm happy with that. Thanks guys. You're welcome. Do we need to haul up more bricks? For mañana? For tomorrow? No, it's fine. I'm tired. Good morning. It is day two of working with my friends, trying to get a lot done. Brittany's actually camping here, so I made her breakfast. Chia seed pudding, banana, raspberries, and a slice of homemade bread. So, we're going to get started after breakfast. I've got the grill started. We are cooking, grilling chicken. And it's going to be a good day. It's going to be a really, really good day, if I don't spill all this food. Come on, Claude. Lunch has been prepped. It is time to get started for the day and I already forgot something but we're gonna have a good day. It's gonna be so nice. We're going to hopefully finish that bottle area by the front door and work on some more blocks today. So who knows how far we'll get. This is my last day with my friends so hopefully we can get quite a bit done but also more importantly I just want to hang out with them and have Okay, so we could make some more. Mud. Can you put the next set in? I know. I came in here this morning. Yep. We just laid at least 40 bricks up there. That was really great and it looks so good, but they got to leave soon. So I am going to try to finish up, get these last bottles in, and then be done with that. Hopefully. I might have to add more material later once it dries because, you know, if you do too much cob at once, it just kind of slumps and it's not good. Get these dust bottles in. It's gonna be fun. What this is, this is just our mortar mix and we add straw. It's like making the bricks. It's the same thing, but it's a little drier. So adding a lot of straw really dries it out. It makes it easier to shape around the box. I'm nervous to take out that wood because it slumped when I took it out. I would let it dry dry. Yeah, I'm level right now. But that top one, does it look like it needs to rotate to your right? Sorry, your left. I was going to say my left. Yeah, let's rotate it a little. That looks so cool. I'm going to go make a little bit more mud. I went home last night and I showed my husband. Yeah. And he was like, yay, she's doing bottles. She's been wanting to do them for a bit. Yeah, he's like, she needs this for her, like. Do you mind tipping my shirt back? Yeah. I think my favorite kind of building is this cob and bottle. Like, if I could just work with cob and bottle, I'd be happy. Simple. Once it goes up, you're like, you do your mix and throw it up. You've got your plan in. This just really makes me happy because it looks like something is almost finished, even though I know mentally it's not. But it makes me happy to see it. I'm just going to wash my hands. Okay, the last two days Jonathan has been gone. I've been super productive with the help of my friends. Today is all about editing video, so today I'm gonna be stuck in the shed for a long time, and then Aiden and I are gonna do lunch together and do horse stuff later in the day, so that will be fun. And yeah, it's gonna be an easy day because I really need it. I am so so sore. That was a lot of work over the last couple days. So much needed rest day. Bird's trying to bite her. be nice. I wasn't doing it that hard. Wednesday morning. No it's not. Good Tuesday morning. Today I'm headed to Tiffany and Andrew's because they need some help with finishing one of their garden beds. So yesterday I spent all day like editing video. Ada and I hung out and worked with the horses for a little bit. But it was mostly editing all day, and today is my day off to where I can go help other people. So I'm helping Tiffany Andrews this morning. Hopefully we can get their garden beds done so she can plant her garlic. I'm going to show you my hair look. And... Then I need to plant garlic at my place and I also need to make Jacks a shelf. When you're stationary and live on a homestead and have milk goats, you have a lot of ball jars and our ball jars are out of control and it's driving Jacks crazy. I told him I will make a shelf and I will try my best to organize it all. But main priority is helping Tiffany and Andrew this morning, and then we will see what we can do after that. Don't you want to take a drive? Don't you wish that you could feel alive? Let the wind blow through your auburn hair. What a pair we are. Whether we fly, we drive, we walk or we cruise. we could find something new life's a joy ride with you don't you wanna take a break in the globe and then just pick a place cause you deserve a little r and r no place too far to escape I got a place to escape. whether we fly we drive if we walk or we cruise we could find something new life's a joy ride with you as we has we are you just saw a clip of me um stomping on the branches so we're just grabbing more so jumping again let me just show you that whether we fly drive you walk or we we could find something life's a joy ride with you That was super fun. We got the bed a little bit of the way there. Like we didn't finish it obviously, but part of the way there. And I've got some, uh, garden treats for the goats that I can give them. And then we got to get home and make that shelf for Jas. So wrong? No. Oh, true. Okay. Today's the day Jonathan comes home late tonight. So I have all day to get things done. I still have to finish editing the video cause I didn't get it done. I have to go get a shelf. Our storage unit because running out of space and I decided not to build Jax that shelf on the junk book but I did buy something so I just took off one more thing that I had to do and then I did not do any blocks. I'm going to try my best to get them moved today. I know how long that takes and it's super hard to do because they're so heavy and it's just really inconvenient to move them so many times. But you know the one good thing about Jonathan coming home late is it's going to be dark and he will not be able to see what I've done. So in the morning I can surprise him with the bottle work and the little bit of bricks we got put up. So that's exciting. I think he'll be impressed. Okay that is where The rack is gonna go it's actually 47 and a half inches and the rack I got is 47 so it should fit perfect. I had to clean and organize this so this way Jett will have a place to put more of his stuff since that room is so tiny. Okay we got it in. That is the worst shelf to put together. I much prefer these. Anyway it's in here. We got some stuff out of the Airstream. Jett will now have a place for his shoes and other stuff. And then we have three more shelves for random stuff. Look who's back. We're all back home. They made it. Yes. And I made him, he came in at night and I made him, I said, don't look up towards the house at all. And I'll show you tomorrow. No idea what I'm walking into, guys. No idea. Today I get to go show him. Let's go. Okay, I need you, don't look until we're there, okay? I'm not looking. You're very close. I'm just, you know, I'll turn my head. Now, you're going to wait until I tell you. Okay. Just close your eyes and I'll position you where you need to be. Okay, now you can go. Look at the front door. Yes! Oh, you went all the way up. No, look at the front door. I didn't even see it! Go look at it. Come on. Okay, okay, okay. It's so nice at sunset. Babe, it's just like we imagined it. I know. I was too excited. I had to do it. It looks so good. We put a laser up. You got it all even. Yep. That's some nice, evenly spacing. That's thanks to Brittany and Tiffany because you know it wouldn't have looked that good if I did it. They keep you on track. Yeah. Looks so good. Oh, and the wall goes all the way up. All the way up there and all the way over there. You guys killed it. Two days. Two half days, really. No, one and a half. Was this a pain around the bar joint or the sea prawns? Ask Tiffany. Tiffany. Tiffany and Brittany did that one. I stayed over here. No, it looks really good. Like, you can finally see how tall, how it's supposed to be. I know. Good job, babe. Thanks. Way to go. And I took the forms out. Yeah. We patched the hole. Oh, did you already patch it? Yeah, but don't look too close. Just stand back away from it. Now, I figured that spot's always going to look a little weird. It's a memory. Because you won't get, like, the layers on it. I think over time you won't notice it, you know? Oh, we didn't go far enough back. For the tent? Is that what's going on with that? Yeah, you're not going to see that, though. I think it's kind of cool. Yeah, so that's the difference between the tinted and non-tinted. Yeah. That's a huge difference. Huge. Whoa, oh look at that, our outlets turned out good. I need to trim some of the tape off but yeah everything else looked really nice. And we got the big pipe that accesses from here to here. This looks so good. I'm so glad you're home. I'm glad I'm home too. I was looking for a woman that I knew could keep up my pace, gotta be a runner that I knew would go all the way, cause I had a couple of dreams that I needed to change, and I was stopping for nothing, yeah, I knew that it had to be you from the moment we met, I was raising every stake and you were calling my bluff. After a couple of blocks, I was out of breath. Amen. Said, come and get me.