The end of groundwork is in sight.

This picture describes pretty well what has been going on at our building site lately. My dad and I busting our backs while Mossy reclines and gives his advice. Looking at this picture is encouraging to me. It's from a week ago and we've come a long way since then. The crushed stone layer was leveled and then compacted. And then we put down a 1" layer of insulation, and just today laid down a plastic vapor barrier and most of the sand that will be directly under the concrete. It's slow and exhausting work. But we're getting there. Tomorrow I plan to finish the sand layer and start setting up the concrete forms. Since our footings have to be 18" deep for most of the perimeter of the house, I plan to build forms that can be re-used in our dance room as movable room dividers/platforms.



Here's the foam board all in place. The channel down the middle is for a footing under the center walls, so they can support the floor upstairs.



The colors are really starting to change in the trees. It's always insane how dramatic the leaves are this time of year. Sometimes you can see a difference from morning to evening.



We'll need lots of hands for the concrete pour, maybe on October 10th or 11th, a week from this coming Friday and Saturday.
Happy Autumn!

Preparing for concrete

Justin came over with his tractor again and spread sand and stone into the hole. Here you see me compacting the rocks with the old Subaru. It looks kind of sinister with the one hubcap missing. I'll give it a fair chance by also posting a picture of it on a pretty lady's head.

Permission Granted

Yesterday our building permit came in the mail. It was encouraging after a week of digging out footing trenches. I've known for a while that I would sooner or later have to get in shape by way of hard labor. I've been getting some exercise this summer, but mostly the very easy kind. Walking the dog, riding bikes two miles with the kids, occasional wrestling around. This past week it has been pick and shovel every day. My dad gave me a pick a couple years ago that the local state prison had given away. In the middle of this week I wondered if they had been forced to give it away because it was so cruel and unusual. Mostly I'm joking of course. In truth part of me loves this stuff. This is my first sand castle that won't be just vague lumpy forms the next day. But here's a picture of the progress. You can see it doesn't look that different from the scene on August 20.
My next door neighbor Charles lent me his laser level. I thought I'd just use it once to mark the corners but it has been the magic tool of the week, since I've had to reset the corners and level of the slab a few times.

In the thick of the quiet tedious week I found myself again asking why. Why are we doing this?! Do we really need such a large house? This is something I've thought about many times.

What do I need? The answer is another question: What do you want?

You see, if all you want is to live in a bush next to the freeway in Southern California and die at age 38, then all you need is a few donuts, two 40 oz. bottles of malt liquor, a little tobacco, and something to do with your hands like carving images into pieces of found wood.
So I say to the Answerer: Okay smartass, what do I want? This is answered by a feeling so wonderful it's terrifying. An opening of a chasm inside my own chest which makes the Grand Canyon appear as trivial as a track in the mud from some sticky kid's bike tire.
Thanks for that, and I'm sorry I called you a smartass. He laughs at me.

So: I want to thrive. I want to take the seed of Love sown within me and glorify it deep into the earth and as high as the eagles fly when they're so high you'd have to be looking hard for one to see them. Beyond that, I want my family to do the same. And furthermore, I want this for my extended family and friends and really all the world.
So how and where and when do I start?

Tomorrow morning