Building my Cabin!!

14th Posting - Front walls roof-ready

2011-10-31T21:28:00.000-06:00

We've made progress the last few days, but now I'm leaving for South Africa for almost 6 weeks, so the project will have to continue in the spring. This is the front view of the cabin before I covered it all up with tarps and blankets to protect the bags from the sun through the winter. My sister Gaylene helped me fill bags, and my sister Valerie built the five 'support ladders' that go above the doors and windows. The spray paint job is just for a bit of camouflage for areas that sometimes are visible from the road. That will all be covered eventually with 'northern adobe'.

A close-up shot of the front door and small window. Notice the buttresses go clear to the top of the walls, in order to stabilize them.

This is when the support ladder for the big picture window first went on. The window and door frames themselves cannot be weight-bearing so these very sturdy support ladders are placed over the top of each of them, resting on the bags of the walls themselves, and not weighing on the frames.

This is the end of a support ladder. About 6 to 8 inches of 2x4 rests on the bags and another 6 to 8 inches of the underside plywood extends further out over the bags. The plywood is secured to the bag below with long nails (they really do hold!) and then I put several nails in part way so they can grab the bag that is tamped on top of the plywood.

Here you can see a bag on top of the plywood. The support ladder can now no longer move.

Looking through the small window in the completed front wall, with the support ladder clearly shown. I will use styrofoam insulation sheets to fill in the empty space between the ladders and the frames. The ladders themselves are stuffed with insulation.

The finished northwest corner from the top. On the left is the long support ladder. It is 8 feet long and each side consists of two 2x4's with crossbars every 12 inches. The diagonal 2x8 is a stabilizer connecting the front wall with the north wall. It just adds a little extra stability.

The southwest corner with south picture window and small front window and stabilizer.

The view from the back of the cabin. The front wall, and the front of both sides is roof-ready. The back wall is only 6 feet high and needs another six rows of bags next spring before I can put the roof trusses on. We have filled in dirt all along the back wall and the south side.

This is what it looks like all put to bed for the winter!

13th Posting - Front walls near the top

2011-09-09T22:48:00.000-06:00

Well, I managed to get a little more work done on the walls a few days this week while I was home between tours. The pictures are colorful with the different tarps and blankets I have over the walls, but I use anything I can find to protect the bags from the sunlight. I took these three photos after I had the walls already covered up and ready for my absence for the next 6 weeks, when I have three tours back-to-back.

I next plan on working on the cabin between October 22 and November 1. It would be nice to get the walls finished during that time, but that may be a bit overly optomistic. The weather would have to cooperate well and I'd have to have some help filling bags as well, but we will see.

View of the front wall. The next step is for the 'support ladders' to go on above the door and window frames. Then I'll just have one more row of bags on top of that!

This is the southwest corner - also ready for the support ladders over the frames.

And the north wall needs another row of bags before the support ladders can be put on. The back wall (no pic) will still need several rows of bags and that's the real question mark, whether we can get that done in October.

12th Posting - Work continues in August

2011-08-10T17:12:00.001-06:00

Just in case anyone is interested in coming to inspect the project and help with the building, I plan on working on the cabin again the beginning of September, and again the end of October. All volunteers welcome!!

My friend Ruth Mark from Indiana came out for 9 days to help build the cabin and we were also joined for a couple days by Richard Sharp from DC. We got quite a bit of work done on the walls. Ruth and Richard packed a lot of bags, we strung barbed wire on the walls, and packed the bags into place. Now all walls have at least 13 or 14 rows of bags, or nearly two-thirds of the necessary height. Roger Brownson brought his bobcat out and moved a lot of dirt, backfilling the south and east walls up to the current height of the walls. The dirt hill behind the cabin will continue to rise with the walls so that eventually the hill comes to the roof level at the back of the cabin.

Ruth and Richard pack dirt into the bags.

Ruth has lots of bags ready to go on the walls.

Ruth demonstrates the height of the front wall.

Roger starts moving earth to backfill the east wall.

Richard catches me on camera, shoveling dirt down behind the back wall.

Tamping the bags into the wall.

Front wall after our last bag went on.

Richard standing in the picture window. Also note the earth piled behind the walls.

My white cliffs with ripening wheat fields in the foreground.

Another view of 'White Cliffs Ranch' over the grasslands and coulees.

Even with the grasses turning golden the abundant spring rains are evident!

11th Posting - A new year of building

2011-06-18T21:41:00.002-06:00

Here it is past the middle of June and spring is barely here, let alone summer! For the last 4 months we have been incessantly hammered with snow, rain, rain, snow, rain and more rain. There is a lot of flooding around Montana, but what most people don't realize is that the snow pack in the higher elevations is just now beginning to melt..... and it's 200% of average!

I planted three big trees early this spring on a rare occasion when the ground was dry enough to get out there, and they are now doing beautifully. They are in memory of my friend Bob.

This is the driveway up to the cabin, just to show how unusually green and lush it is.

The Missouri River is trying to appropriate our road!
If the water rises much more, our road will be impassable.

We did get some work done this past week finally. My sisters Val and Gaylene, and my brother-in-law Andy helped. This view is looking at the southwest corner, which now sports another window frame and several new rows of bags.

Also the east and south walls have new rows on them.
Now I'm leaving for two tours back-to-back, so had to put all the tarps back over the walls to protect from the sun - of course I had to do it in the rain!

The wildflowers on the land are beautiful this year!

I plan on being home the end of July and the first two weeks of August to work on the cabin. A couple friends of mine are already planning on joining me on the project and anyone else who would like to pitch in is more than welcome!

10th Posting - New Excavation and Ready for Winter!

2010-11-04T20:41:00.001-06:00

One more posting before winter! Wednesday, November 3, we took advantage of fantastic weather - sunny and 70 degrees - to get one more work day in. Our friend Roger brought his Bobcat out and excavated another smaller area adjacent to the cabin for another eventual room, half the size of the cabin itself. It's not that we're making so much progress we had to get ready to start building more walls, but we needed more DIRT!! Roger carefully took off the top layer of sod and dumped it up behind the cabin and then created huge piles of beautiful, clean dirt which will make filling bags to finish the cabin much faster. Mounds of dirt never looked so good! Then I got the cabin ready for winter, covering all the bags with tarps to protect them from the sun, which would deteriorate them before spring.
All the walls now have 9 or 10 rows of bags, and once the weather warms again in the spring, building should go faster. The beautiful fall weather we've enjoyed resulted in wild phlox blooming again! So until next spring "Lion Cliffs Ranch and Castle" will have a long winter's nap!

9th Posting - The walls continue to rise

2010-09-21T11:41:00.001-06:00

This is obviously going to be a long-term project and I don't expect to get the walls done before winter, but they keep going up. My friend Ruth from Indiana came out for 5 days of good work and we got the walls up to the 8th and 9th layers. My sister Val made a 'box' to go in the root cellar opening and Ruth and I had to force it into place with sledge hammer and brute force - those bags are solid!! My friend Nathan helped me build a frame for the 3 X 5 'kitchen' window which Ruth and I put into place and got one row of bags up on either side of it.
Notice the splotchy green color spraypainted on the door and window frames. This is to camouflage it from the road half a mile away. It works. Ruth still can't pick out the cabin from the road!
After a garage sale a week ago there was a pile of 'free' stuff in the alley. There was a bucket of wire insulation attachments and I've been using them to further attach the bags to each on the corners and buttresses. I straighten the curved end and make a hook to match the other end and pound both ends into the bags solidly. The photo shows one of them just lying on the bag to show what the original wire looks like and also a couple of them pounded in to the bags.
Another photo shows Ruth at the picnic table where we have lunch, and yet another frames Ruth in the 'kitchen' window on the south wall.
Sunday we took a break and went up to Palisade Falls south of Bozeman. It was beautiful and Ruth just wanted to stay there. (Why would she go back to Indiana!?)
Tamping the walls is by far the hardest work in the project. Now that the walls are higher it's too difficult to raise the tamper above my head, so for now it's easier to walk on the walls to tamp. Probably a scaffold will be in the near future out there!
The last photo in this posting is the sunset facing directly west from the picture window frame. That will be a nice feature of the cabin. The Tobacco Root Mountains are off to the southwest and the Big Belt Mountains are to the north. The site is just surrounded by great views.
Saturday I have to take off on two tours back to back, but hope to work on the cabin the last two weeks of October before leaving for South Africa the first of November! Any volunteers to help with the cabin are welcome!!

8th Posting - Building resumes after week of rain and mud

2010-09-03T20:34:00.000-06:00

Nearly a week of rain (and snow over the mountains) slowed the work schedule, but we used time indoors to build frames for the big picture window and two smaller windows. Rachel hosted the construction in her garage. Rachel, Valerie, Austin and I went to my land Tuesday, but muddy, soupy roads made us walk the last quarter mile. At least we got some work done. Thursday Austin and I went out and installed the frame for the big picture window and filled more bags.
We now have most of the bags covered with tarps. Water doesn't hurt them in the least (on the contrary, it just makes the bags set up harder!), but sunlight will disintegrate the bags after about three months of exposure. So unless the cobb (adobe) is going on soon, bags need to be protected from the UV rays.
Next photo - Austin levels the picture window frame and then pounds the dirt into the bags. Now both doors and the picture window frames are in place and the walls are continuing to rise slowly. The last picture shows the view I'll have through the front window!

7th Posting - Larry's Earthbag House, My Inspiration

2010-08-28T17:53:00.000-06:00

Across the hill from my cabin live Larry and Lea Van Arsdale. They are building a BIG earthbag house thirty feet in diameter and thirty feet high! They started a year ago and are still working on it, but they've been living in it since last fall. So far it's two stories high and they plan on building the third story next summer. Right now they are scrambling to "cobb" the rest of the exterior before winter. That means applying the cobb, or adobe, to the bags which make up the wall.
In the picture you can see exposed earthbags on the right. Just to the left of that is dark area that has been freshly cobbed. The larger gray area is what the cobb looks like dry, and the white area to the left has been coated with a mixture of lime and horse manure(!) to seal in the cobb.
The size of the house is deceptive. When you walk in the front door (around to the left) you walk down about 5 feet to the floor, so much of the house is underground.
The earthbags have to be covered with tarps until they are cobbed, in order to protect them from the sun. Rain won't hurt them, but in the sun the bags will disintegrate in about three months!
Larry has been my source of information for the building process and gives me all kinds of advice and hints to make things work better. They live there full time and are off the grid, using solar and generator with big battery packs. The house is wonderfully cool in summer and warm in winter. So anyone who comes out to help with my house will get a tour of Larry's!

6th Posting - Farewell to Lynn & Jerry

2010-08-26T22:29:00.000-06:00

Today Lynn, Jerry, and I worked on the cabin until about 2pm and then I took them to Kalispell. In the morning they will board the train in Whitefish to return to Illinois. I don't know how they can leave me to finish the cabin myself! They really should be staying a month. Anyway, it was great having them here and they were a huge help in getting the project going!
Yesterday Rachel and Val worked on framing and got an incredibly solid frame in for the front door. It was intended to be temporary, but it's so good we'll just have to leave it and use it for the actual door when the time comes. They'll be doing some more framing for another door and a few windows.
Austin helped me lay barbed wire between rows of bags and he also helped filling in dirt between the walls and the hill. Even Joshua filled a few bags.
Toward the bottom are a couple photos of our progress at the time Lynn and Jerry finished up.

5th Posting - Cooler!

2010-08-24T22:19:00.000-06:00

Sunday night we had half an inch of rain and we woke Monday morning to new snow on the mountains! The high was only about 70 so it made for a perfect day for hard work on the cabin.
The shadow on the wall is as close as you'll get to see of a photo of my two Amish helpers, Lynn and Jerry, but the results of their labor are more conspicuous.
We put plastic between the wall and the dirt where the cabin is set into the side of the hill, just to add a little extra protection against water intrusion. The last picture is of our progress through Tuesday evening.

4th Posting - A Day Off!

2010-08-23T07:58:00.000-06:00

Sunday we went to early service and then headed for Yellowstone where we soaked our sore muscles in Boiling River for a couple hours. What a great way to relax! Then we walked around the Mammoth Hot Springs terraces as well for a bit, including my secret hot spring, "Fantasy Cassel Spring!"

3rd Posting - The Beginning of the Walls

2010-08-21T23:04:00.000-06:00

Friday and Saturday, Lynn, Jerry and I started building walls. The work is fairly simple, but labor intensive! Filling and tamping, filling and tamping... After the bags are stapled shut they are placed on the wall and when a row is complete they have to all be tamped solidly flat, which virtually locks them into the adjacent bag. When the tamping is completed, two strands of 4-point barbed wire is run the entire distance of the row to 'hook' in the next row above. Tying down that barbed wire is probably the most dangerous part of the job! Of course we had to put in temporary frames for doors and later we'll do the same for windows. The door in the back of the room is for an eventual root cellar or tunnel into the hill for natural 'air-conditioning'. Not that A/C will be necessary with this construction method! You will also notice extra bags added in strategic places along the wall and corners. These are buttresses to add extra strength to the vertical position of the walls. The buttress on the back wall will actual be a bigger formation with benches all the way around.

2nd Posting - The site is leveled

2010-08-19T23:17:00.000-06:00

The top photo is the view from my land across a square mile of state land and off to the Tobacco Root Mountains in the distance.
My friend Sam brought his Bobcat out and did some leveling and a little more earth-moving so we wouldn't have to do so much with the shovel, although you can see my sister Val doing some adjusting. Then the work started on the bags. Gaylene is stapling corners of the bags. We fill them with damp earth and tamp them solid with a baseball bat. After the tops are stapled shut they will be laid like bricks into the wall and then tamped hard and solid into a flat, level surface. Over a couple months time the bags will harden like bricks.
Today I drove 300 miles to Malta to pick up Lynn and Jerry, my Amish friends from Illinois. We'll see how much work we can get done on those walls over the next week!

The Project Begins!

2010-08-14T12:25:00.000-06:00

In 2006 I bought land in the middle of nowhere an hour northwest of Bozeman. Now we're building a little "overnight / weekend" cabin. The first picture is taken across the valley toward my land and the second is the approach to my yard site. On Monday, August 9, Charlie (a friend from church) excavated the site with his Bobcat! Thursday, August 19, I will drive to Malta to pick up two Amish friends at the Amtrak station. Lynn and Jerry are coming to help me build for a week! Don't expect pictures of them on the blog however!