I have not updated this blog from the last trip, I suppose, because I have blocked out much if it from my already feeble memory. Karol, once again, was an incredible asset to the project. Painting the roof and picking up the giant mess I have left behind in the building process. Although before we got started in earnest we did quite a bit of rock hunting. Well now, that is to say Karol was hunting for the terrestrial kind while I was on the hunt for meteorites. I am pretty sure I have found one at least. You would not believe how many rocks will stick to a magnet. I also found an incredible scraper/ knife. It is very old (maybe 8,000 years) according to Ring. Karol found an awsome flint hand axe! We mounted a meter can and disconnect, ran conduit, pulled wire and hooked up the breaker box inside the rock house. When the electric co. came out to hook us up we were then told to rip the boxes out so they could install their meter and disconnect. That is the short version. We did more reinforcing to the metal bldg. to keep it from blowing away. Did more experiments with white cement as a reflective coating for the adobe. Looks like we are just going to use white latex paint. The image to the right that looks like it might be the surface of some alien moon orbiting jupiter is in fact my butt..........with shingles. Note to self...don't get so stressed out over what people think about you. You might just break out with something! The other picture is of the national weather service background reflectivity radar. If you watch it you will see wierd stuff that does not make any sense. I think it is from the spraying. I have a computer full of images of the chemtrails. The "haze" is everywhere. Check at commercials now, sky is almost always hazy in them. ...look into it.  I'm heading back in a few days to continue the work. Don't know if I can get the rock house on line by the end of the year. When you bite off more than you can chew.....all you can do is chew!

Karol and I have returned from a month in the desert.....alone....together....we are still married. Now that my lovely wife has retired from Kilgore, she has time to spend with me on the project. We made a lot of headway at the adobe which I have been neglecting since I started on the rock house. During one rather spirited storm out of the south, I discovered the metal building's roof moving like a drum head. My plans changed quickly to reinforcing the metal building. We were able to add on to it, which stabilized the building and gave me a place to put solar panels that would power the freezer so I could move it out of the adobe and into the trailer. It won't heat up the house now. The shade it provides is wonderful. I had an idea to whitewash the adobe to keep the walls from absorbing so much direct sunlight and heat. It really makes the walls much cooler. Karol, who only weeks ago was a powerful administrator at a junior college was reduced to grinding lime that had hardened, into powder that I mixed into whitewash and applied to the walls that had been catching the sun. We built a solar oven from some glass that was left at the rock house, some 2X12 some old v crimp roofing and fiberglass insulation that had been left behind. I did not want to deal with reflectors so I went with a design I cooked up to make use of the stuff I had laying around. It worked better than I had hoped for. Easily topping 300 degrees with no fuss. Just pop the food in the side door and get it out sometime in the afternoon!  I had to use the swamp cooler in the mornings to add cool air to the adobe and keep the walls cooler. Even with all we were doing the temps still crept from the high 70's to the mid 80's inside the house. Over all the cooler weather made it quite pleasent to work all month. Hope to return soon.....we are on a roll !..... The trip with Bailey coupled with the trip with Karol have jumped the whole project ahead by leaps and bounds.  Am happy. .............R

Bailey and the old man

My luck is holding. Bailey, the oldest, came with me to help. And what a help she was! Despite my chronic  lethargy and general aches and pains, she was able to get a tremendous amount of  wood on the walls all the while prodding dad to try and get to work before noon. Her job in the wood shop at college prepared her to work with the wood like a pro. A master cylinder replace on the 75 beetle solved the brake problem. We also attended Jerry and Eva's going away party. Lots of people were there. Followed by a great party at Phil and Regina's. Other than that it was mostly measuring, cutting and nailing. We used some of the cedar scrap from framing the windows to make a viga style support below the upper windows...a kind of catwalk to get to the roof windows on the inside above the kitchen. I, of course, forgot to take a picture. Bailey did a movie walk around with her camera that turned out great. Wish I could figure out how to put it on this site. Karol has officially retired and will probably come out to work with me, and prove once and for all that I indeed do have a wife!   We hung one of the doors that were given to me by Jo and Larry. Bailey's boyfriend Ryan let me have a fantastic front door latch that is so unusual and perfect for this house. I have to continue wrecking out the Wylie house for more material. Hope to return in a month. It will be on Karol's calender now so we will go when both can go.  Seeya .....R .

forgot to update

My mom reminded me that I had not posted any pictures from my last sortie. I mentioned that I had little to show for my last effort and explained the reasons. So she told me to write that down (I think she believes that if I practice I will get as good as she is at telling stories). OK so I gamble on the weather once again and head out in Feb. Everything was going fine....for three days. That is when it came time to unload the trailer load of wood we had wrecked out of the farmhouse donated by the Wylie's. I planned to use the backside of the wood because the other side had been painted. I took my time and spent a couple of hours at it so as not to pull anything out of whack right at the beginning of my stay. One week later I was able to walk around and start back to work. The picture of the closet is the only evidence of any work that was done on the house, although in my defense, that wall continues on for many more feet. I found myself drawn to my old weakness (not that!) Volkswagens! Got the brake parts out of Austin VW, thanks Johnny Davis. I spent a lot of time working on the Beetle I now call Eleanor (not to be confused another local by the same name). At some time after the back pain had subsided enough to work at least on cars I came to notice that my left elbow had that tennis problem. Anyway some work was done but I was not happy with the overall effort. We will get em next time. Oh yeah I took pictures of the planes spewing out the chemtrails. I had hoped that moving out to BB would get me away from all that here in E Texas. I have a camera full of that stuff, and one picture of the house. Karol was thrilled. and so it goes.........R