I have been persuaded to continue my blog by members of my family that are interested in the progress of the rock house. We proceed. I have succeeded in achieving my goal of making the rock house operational before the end of this year. We now have electricity, water, and sewer. Sinks and shower, also a water heater. The house now has more insulation and is sealed from the elements much better. Adobe floors throughout and most of the ceiling in place. There is much more trim and paint work to be done and the ceiling in the bedrooms need to be finished. I have been on site for a record amount of time this year. Pulling two month tours at a time to try and finish this thing before new year. I have had help from time to time with major parts of the project like the ceiling and floor. Karol and the girls are coming out after Christmas to help do finish work. The next pictures will reveal the finished product. We will see the results of the "vision" good and bad. We have continued to work with scrounged material for the majority of the project to keep the costs down and they give a look that is not easy to reproduce with new.  I have worked backwards from most in the sense that my materials have dictated the design rather than the design coming first. I would have a problem that needed solving and would look for whatever material I might happen to have enough of to complete said problem, hoping that I could figure a way to make it look right. I am pleased so far with the results. Not to say it couldn't be done better. But another criteria was also always on my mind. Time. I have done this project and all aspects of it as quickly as I could. And it shows. I would sacrifice fit and finish often for expedeincy. Perfection is the enemy of good. I'll try now to enter some pictures...........R

LAST POST tired of the internet

The last post

More floor

Spent most of June putting in adobe floors. Requires little thought and a lot of hustle. Shoveling the dirt from down on the desert floor into a truck, mixing it with water in a wheelbarrow, placing it on the floor, leveling and trowling. Then letting it dry and applying coats of linseed oil. I allow it to dry quickly and crack. Then I go back and fill the cracks. Not much else going on. I bought Jerry Brewster's VW dune buggy. And worked on it some. Got to visit with friends some. Returned for the big "Opening" that my "Girls" had in a "Dallas" art gallery. I will try and add some pictures. The opening was great and everyone had a good time. Ayrton's  Meattroplis has been in the works for amost two years. And I really am in love with one of  Bailey's new paintings. I am heading back in a week to try and get the water system going. There is water in the tanks, now to get it in the house. Seeya.........R

Floors and ceiling

May, 2013  Just returned to visit with my sisters who came to Kilgore to see our mom. I also needed to go see our youngest up in Denton and help her with some welding that will be part of the long anticipated unveiling of the "Meatropolis" sculpture. The last two trips have been all about the ceiling. Using metal scrounged from a building in Stonewall, (just outside of Fredricksburg) some 2x6s from an old deck John Spradlin kindly gave us and more wood from the old Wylie farmhouse generously donated by the lovely Lisa. The building in Stonewall was hit by a tornado in 2001 and lost its roof. Mr. Alton Klein alowed Karol and I to take anything we could use from the old house for 150 bucks. Thank you Mr. Klein. I installed a 2 inch adobe floor in the bath and worked on the front room ceiling for a few weeks before Karol arrived and helped me finish the install. We began caulking the gaps (and there were many) and did some painting with some flat white given to us by Tessa Wingfield, thanks T.W. When we ran out of paint and caulk we transitioned to the master bedroom, emptied it of all the materials stored there and started another adobe floor. Karol is what we call here in the oilfield "a hand." She was matching me shovel for shovel and hung tough for what I affectionately call an old school "thrash." Three days of  brutal labor that would, in the end , give us another beautiful floor. After it dries we will oil it with linseed oil. I did this in the adobe house and was really pleased. Hope to finish this house by Christmas and some day have one Hell of a double house warming!  Heading out tomorrow for more abuse. Maybe it will have warmed up a little by the time I get back.................R

Happy Birthday Bailey. No post since Oct. A lot has happened since then. First of all let me thank Karol, Alex, Ayrton,Space,and Bailey for the tremendous help. With that team there, we just steamrolled through the problems. Strong backs and strong minds...."hey fugiddaboutit" First problem, move a 16 ft. conference table from the auction site where I got it, into the rock house. That was a gargantuan effort in itself! Ask me about it someday. Second, figure out where to put the monster so it looks right in the rock house. (You would not believe the arguing that ensued over that.) You see, the poles I put in the room to hold up the roof were in the way. I was going to have the poles go right through the table. Then I realized that I had six 2x12s just laying there from a carport I wrecked out. I decided to use those to support the gluelams instead of the poles and move the poles over to support the 2x12s. I could also incorporate them into the bar. I was riding high and strutting all around when we got that in. It worked perfectly! As we built up the bar I didn't like the look of the poles in front and decided to build huge brackets and bolt the two main support beams togeather and remove two of the poles. Now most of the weight of the roof is focused on the remaining two poles. It looked so much better that I began to strut again. (no kiddin) The ideas were coming and the execution of said ideas was implemented with extreme prejudice. Not stopping there, Karol and I applied white cement to the outside of the adobe to reflect the blistering sun and keep the walls from heating up so much this year. As if that were not enough(and believe me I'm trying to keep this short) Karol started finding all sorts of artifacts. Metates, manos, scrapers and to top it off on the last day we were there, late in the afternoon when we were loading up, she started finding petroglyphs! She looked in a book and discovered that one represented a comet and one a snake. We knew about the stacked rocks by the driveway but never took pictures. I found another large rock that must have been placed there. These are all right at the adobe house. There is a lot more but I have been trying to keep my entries short and pictures few so as not to bore everyone to death. (too late) I have been home less than a week and am ready to return asap. Maybe next week! Karol will come out later. She cleaned out much of the bus and is ready for me to knock the axles out and turn it into a shop/storage bldg. Maybe I will surprise her when she gets back out. adios......R