I continue to watch your progress. Like the Dino dancing through every now and then. I know that dessert, I lived in Victorville California for 20 yrs. Your braver then I am, I just couldn’t live there for the rest of my life. So…I moved to the Smoky Mts of North Carolina, bought 44+ acres and moving forward with building my earth bag home. Your truly an inspiration for me. thanks Jean C
You’re an amazing hardworking family. I think this is what’s missing in our society today. I am the oldest of 8 an we worked like this as a family in the desert it’s not easy but it taught us how to work well with other and to be self efficient and hardworking. We made sure to pass those values down to our children and we no longer live in the desert but we still all live within a hour of each other in Oklahoma where we still help each other when needed. Our parents have passed on many years ago but have left us with the knowledge we can accomplished anything together. We had 29 kids and our 29 kids have grown to over 100 and counting. Those 29 kids are still close and we pray they continue to pass down the values of life we taught them as our parents did for us. I am so very proud of you guys and know you will be very successful in all you do now and your future. God Bless you all.
You guys! You are hysterical!! Your “what’s next” talks at the beginning and the end are just about my favorite part. I can’t tell you how much I look forward to your next videos. Hang in there! You guys are awesome!!
Your wall may be drying too fast. The recommendation is to spray the walls every few hours to prevent them from drying so fast and that prevents racking.
I love your candor and willingness to modify your plans. In the world of Agile Scrum software development, there is a common expression called "Inspect and Adapt". What you're doing optimizes that very effective concept. Keep up the great work! You inspire us all. Using the bags on the floor is brilliant! Never seen or heard of that before.
Have you thought about adding Portland cement to your cob mix , they have elasticity that would help with cracking prevention, and sand. And definitely add Portland in your floor mix, it will bind better with the clay. Or just use cement mix for the floor. We're you able too harvest any of that beautiful water from the sky?! Take care until next time and God bless amen.
Y'all are crushing! Great idea with the earthbag on the floors. We are learning so much from you. Thanks for keeping us posted and sharing all of your experiences. As Shelley from MLH says "some days you win, some days you learn." I love your positive outlook. And thanks for the dino ❤️
Different clays can vary significantly in their expansiveness, (i.e. the degree to which they expand/contract with moisture). The upshot is that a recipe using clay from one geographic area may not work in a different place with different type of clay.
The clouds in your sky are beautiful. Yay, the batteries are all normalized! Darn, all that effort and the earth plaster cracked. Wow, trial and error to get the right mix. The smooth texture looks really nice. It sure looks gorgeous! Ashley, at the end of this you'll be the earthen plaster queen. Switch to finishing the floor! Yes, lots to do. All of the floor right? Cute kitties. Oh, crusher fines. It looks really nice with it tamped down. Add 4 mil vapor barrier before earthbag layer. You guys are so cute, magic. Jax is not enjoying the earthbag floor! The monsoon season is crazy for you guys! That's a LOT of water in your wash! It will be so nice when you are set up to catch some of that. That pesky T-Rex is in the office area and glances through the arch door opening like right, you're going to put up a door huh? Installing a door, you buy the door with a jam and threshold already installed. Put that inside the rough opening of the solar shed and then shim it in straight. I would have used some flashing down at the threshold to stop water from rotting out the doorsill. Take the weather stripping off then use that exposed area to run the screws through the shims to the rough opening to install the jam. Put the weather stripping back on when you finish shimming the door in. I like the mission style door. "Great Stuff" to fill in the holes all around. Remember to chisel in the catch for the door. If you leave it proud of the door the wind might blow the door open because the latch isn't fully extended. Very nice! So fun to watch you two and you kids building this solar shed. Thanks.
You guys always make me smile. A merry heart is good medicine. Keep it up. Won't be long now until you're living in (semi) comfort. Amazing journey your all on.
You all are amazing! Such a build for the whole family. I am glad to see smiles even when the day gives you heartburn. 😀 ❤ &🙏 from central Pennsylvania 🙋
Just when I feel I’m so very much overwhelmed by this experience trying to build something in the desert, you bring a ray of sunshine in and inspire me to keep going !! Thankyou for sharing your experience and most of all you’re great attitudes ... so we’ll keep on keeping on, and try and make a home in the desert ... filled with all the extremes you can imagine .. 👍😊👍 you guys are the best !!!
“That took way longer than we thought” said EVERY friggin’ DIY person - on EVERY project. I make the same statement after every quilt. My husband says it after every “fix”. My hiking group says it after every summit. It is the nature of “do it” people to just take longer. Have you finished ANY project in less time than anticipated? Heck, even my birthing mommas (I’m a midwife) take longer than they thought. DSH (dirty, sweaty, hugs) to you.
I always tell myself I could have finished it faster if I hadn’t slacked so much. All mandatory interruptions (drying time, sleep, etc) seem to come with extra downtime. It’s very helpful to be able to have a priority list of tasks you could start immediately with a time estimate so you can juggle available time when you finish a task or have a required wait. This is way to have conceptual organization that will efficiently complement physical organization (eg Always Be Knolling: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-s-CTkbHnpNQ.html ).
Helloooo from 🇨🇦 I Looove you guys... You always bring joy to my heart... No matter what you have to do or have done YES ..you've got it Made out there and are truly blessed👍 Great job on the 1st and 2nd steps on the floor and Yaaaay you have a door 👍👍 God's Continual Blessings to you all 🙏😇💝
RE interior finish... you might want to touch base with the My Little Homestead folks, they have 10 years experience with interior finishes. I know it's changed over time... the animals are getting soooo big.I love that you got to see water move through the property. I'll buy the shed shirt.
Monsoon weather is the worst to work in, hot and muggy, just makes you feel so tired. You guys are doing great, sorry the wall cob has been such a challenge, but you will figure it out. Excited to see how your building looks finished 😃
so, all that giddyness is it called slap happy tired ? You are two of the most positive people facing daily challenges wow! I couldn't do it ever ! after this video I WOULD BE BUYING A MANUFACTURED HOME LOL but, I would definately keep it for my wimpy visitors,and still build a FOR REAL tiny shiny home. ;>) you are all fantastic !
Cobb the floor to fill the gaps and a thin coat over the bags then pour leveling crete from Lowes. Then tile that bad boy! Great job btw. To much work for me though. lol
Can you make a video about what tools you guys tried, how it evolved over time, what worked best, etc. for earthbag building? A video of what order you would do the steps for your next project would also be super helpful! Ooh also a copy of that adobe illustrator design would be awesome! Thank you so much for all of the great content!!
@@TinyShinyHome Hmm, yes, definitely appreciate that video!! But it is not all of the tools. E.g. like for mixing you were using a cement mixer it looks like but then in a later video you mentioned that it had slowly caked material on there, so was curious if you would still use that mixer. Has the dolly system evolved? And an overview video of the tools you would recommend would be helpful. Similarly a retrospective on the project, how you would order your steps for your next build (e.g. do floors before wall plastering) with estimates of time taken for each would be incredibly helpful. Still so much appreciate the content, thank you!!!
In the australias first earthship, the 2nd part. They had 2 people who studied best soil techniques and they gave the solution of successful clay to sand to straw, fine straw cut up. And also scoring the wall before next layer.
I've seen people use strips of wood to level the floor. This was done by leveling the strips, and then filling the space in between. After that the strips act as a guide to level the dirt. Eventually the strips are pulled out, and the gaps they leave are also filled in.
My personal opinion? This final coat is not structural it is the finish. I think it would have been beautiful to finish coat and then grout all those beautiful cracks? The thing is it's your build and I'm so impressed/entertained with you and your family. I love you guys:)!
Tiny shiny home version of A River Runs Through It? Sorry, I’m still stuck on movie titles, lol!! 🤔😂 I absolutely love the monsoon seasons here in AZ, but they can be very dangerous. Case in point, one year here in Havasu a man decided to try to drive through a wash and his body ended up naked and missing an arm at the bottom of the wash near hwy 95! I’m sorry that you lost a chicken in the last video, but I’m glad to see you guys are all safe. ❤️
Crusher is the best for tamping but when I did it I mixed Portland in it and then tamped till firm then added water to the top and it ended up almost concrete.
To level your floor place 2 boards or pipes a distance apart and level them to each other. Add your cobb between the boards and drag a third board to skree the cobb level. Carefully remove the 2 boards and fill in with cobb.
THAT WAS FUN ,when your daughter ,took care of the spider impressed me so much ! o I watch a RU-vid about brain surgery looked simple , going to try tomorrow ! sure it will be fine
With the cracking in the plaster you can also use a damp sponge and in a circular motion it can move agrigate and clay into the cracks then if you like it smooth then go over with your trowel
I really enjoy watching you all. You are too funny! Oh, and thank you for not showing the tarantulas. Signed, a true arachnophobic! Seriously, once I saw one in there I would freak out every time I entered. Kudos to you all for living in the desert.
So happy that you all have almost completed the earth bagging. How many spools or feet of earth bags tubing have you used thus far? We are trying to come up with a plan to make a similar dome home for family get togethers. Your method really looks so much easier than most! Thanks for sharing.
Cement is OUR friend....As long as we clean out the cement mixer before it hardens. Jonathan and Ashley...You need to figure out a way to harvest that water from the wash. If there's a way to hook up an electrical pump and be able to have it filter before it hits a cistern...You could collect potentially all the rain the six of you might need.
You might try applying it with the mix a little drier , if you apply it to wet you’ll have to keep coming back and troweling it to fix the shrinkage which then you’ll realize you need more product. It’s the same concept with any plaster.
It actually is supposed to be applied thinner than what I’m doing. My way works for what I need. No cracks. No shrinkage. Just a little more trowel pressure at leather hard.
Pretty funny. I feel like I can't suck it up! Sometimes! I sure hope you find a solution to your finish with the cob. How about a touch of cement or lime?
Wow, it’s almost fully enclosed! Good job! Odd question maybe - do the cats come into the trailer like Nine Nine? (Ps - super cute shots of them playing, and Nine Nine being a goofball.). 😍
Your cob cracking maybe the ratio of sand and clay. As far as outside plaster washing off, it looks like 2 problems, first it may not have enough hey. We used to even cover the roof and did not have this issue.
after it dries , dont worry so much about the cracks , look into elasticmeric paint , its a rubberized paint that will seal the cracks for use on cement buildings
Suck it up and clean up, quit whining LOL you folks crack me up I laughed all the way through this video! But on a serious side I can’t believe how hard working and cooperative your whole family is, it’s a joy to see you all working together. What about a wood floor? 2x6 or 8s? If they get stained just sand them down. They would be easy to level with shims. Anyway I’m always anxious to see how this turns out. You are amazing family.
Earth bags on the floors? What is the purpose for that? I know old Adobe homes used to just have dirt floors which you already have. Also if you had gravel with a layer of insulation and then a wood floor it would provide enough insulation. Or would radiant floor heat via hot water be possible on solar? A solar hot water heater just for the floors would probably work really well. I’m just curious as I have never seen floors with earth bags. I hate for you to lose so much height because of the earth bags.
Hi guys, super nice video and impressed by the work! We from Vanirah Farm (in the Indian Himalayas) can relate so much to what you are going through at the moment with the building of your earthbag home. We are also building our earthbag home here and are in similar finishing stage. Everything takes so much more time as anticipated! But step by step we are getting there. Keep up the good work, you are almost there! Two questions: how much capacity solar system did you install? We could not find this info in your previous videos. Secondly, we love the video quality and thinking about starting our own RU-vid channel as well, so what equipment are you using?
So much more time right? 😂 Solar system install is happening this week (fingers crossed), but the broad strokes of the system are 7200watts of solar and 28kwh of lithium batteries with a 5kw inverter. We just use iPhones and a small DJI drone for all our videography. But we do stay on the upgrade program so we generally have the newest versions with the best cameras.