ideas and opinions

Just under the wire....again!

2011-12-30T13:57:00.000-08:00

Well now then there, I just got around to the hardest part of this project, blogging about it. Not that I don't like talking about what I am doing out west, but typing is no fun for me. The title "just under the wire again" is in reference to the fact that for the second time I have barely accomplished the goal that I had set for myself at the beginning of the year. In this case it was getting the Rock house in the dry before the end of the year. Closing in the ends of the roof along with the area overlooking the lower roof, framing in new window sills, building and installing doors, and installing the windows. All along the way, bit by bit the work blocked off more and more of the wind that whipped through the place. Sadly, the Owls have had to find new residence. On a brighter note, just when I thought my good fortune of finding free building materials had played out , I recieved a call from a couple of very thoughtful (and quite attractive) women that live right here in Kilgore. Bobbie and Lisa Wylie . It seems that Lisa was perusing my blog , seeing that I was working with reclaimed materials, and thought that I might want to tear down and reuse their 100 year old family farmhouse not far from where we live! Of course I was very pleased and thankful for their generosity. Thank you so much Bobbie and Lisa! There will be pleanty of materials to finish my various projects. The wood is very nice, and straight! My good fortune held up around Thanksgiving. I was cordially invited to dine with the Foster family by Bennet, grandson to Eleanor. He, along with Mark Spurlock and Gene Foster did most all the cooking. And might I say, not as a cook, but as an expert eater, that it was absolutely delicious. Thank you, Foster family. I also had a couple of visitors right at the end of my sortie. John and Gem Hillier, from right here in Kilgore, were in Alpine to see friends and came out to see me. We had a great time playing cards, telling lies and having a few refreshing beverages. We all left for East Texas the next day. On a secondary note, I finally acted on an urge I have had for five years. I made an offer to my friend and neighbor Eleanor for her 75 VW beetle. After her counter offer a deal was struck and I am now the proud owner of yet another VW. I'm sure Karol will be thrilled. Well I don't know how much of what happens out there is going to interest any one but me. Or even how much of what happens out in Big Bend I can or will repeat. So for now I will bid y'all adieu.......R

This isn't Hell, but you can see it from here.

2011-08-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

I had decided to return for the summer in June, but my good friend and neighbor, Eleanor Foster, called and warned me that I maybe should wait until things really warmed up. It had only been hitting 117 or so in late June and early July and August might be more enjoyable. I returned to the desert in late July to get my fair share of abuse. I consolidated all of my solar panels and batteries to try and power a small air conditioner to attempt to mitigate the temperatures inside the adobe. That effort proved futile and I finally went to Alpine and bought an evaporative cooler which worked fine.

The work on the rock house consisted of covering up the framed up walls with boards I had acquired from wrecking out a building in Winona and boards that were given to me by Mike Hamilton from a gazebo. I also was able to connect the 3 water storage tanks with a manifold to ensure that all 3 filled simultaneously.

The owls that are living in the house now continue to be perturbed by my presence. I see them flying out of the windows as I approach in my truck. One day, after I walked in and sat down to contemplate my next move, I heard a rustling behind me. I turned around to see a rather large great horned owl sitting on top of wall staring at me. We began a stare-down and I thought that the owl would be intimidated and fly away immediately. After 15 seconds, I realized that the owl might have something else in mind. After half a minute had elapsed, I started thinking, "Do owls attack people?" I began to get concerned and not wanting owl talons to be gripping my jugular or any other vulnerable area, I thought about shooing him away. That was all that was necessary because he turned and flew away right then.

I read in another Terlingua blog that there are no posers out here, only survivors. I didn't know what to think of that statement at the time, but now I know precisely what they were talking about. Returning to East Texas and the air conditioning, I felt a tinge of guilt leaving my friends behind. But I will return soon and continue with my plan to have the rock house in the dry by the end of the year. (Not that it isn't dry enough already!)

Rock house

2011-06-01T19:49:00.000-07:00

Went out April 15th. Resumed work on window sills, framed up walls and set some tanks. My family was helping me near the end of this sortie so we got gutters up also. I do not know what I would do without my wife Karol and daughters Ayrton and Bailey, who show up right in the nick of time like the cavalry and boost the project ahead. And least I forget best friend Heidi who has been here at least twice and is a fantastic help also. Pretty, funny,hard working, and smart. That would only begin to describe all these women. I am indeed fortunate. I drilled the wall studs and pulled wire and cut boards that came from Winona and Houston to cover the walls. Am planning a return soon so I can get my fair share of abuse this summer. Come on Rain! Hea ya ho ya hea ya ho ya hea ya........thats my rain dance................R

Putting on the tin

2011-03-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

I waited , watching John Wells blog, until the temps rose above artic levels. Then gambled once again on good weather. Good gamble. Great weather for roof work. I was able to frame in for some windows that had been installed in the adobe. I did not like their look in the adobe and removed them. Not wanting to waste the money that was spent on the windows, of course, we bought the rock house project and found a place for them! Next time I will think that through a little better. Got the tar paper on. Two layers per Dean's advice. And screwed down some metal roofing. Karol rode out with me and helped for 10 days. I took her to the train station so she could get back to East Tejas in time to keep her job in Kilgore! Picked up the tin in Alpine and was able to get it down before it blew away. I'm already looking forward to getting back and finishing the doors and windows to "dry it in". The picture of the ratrod we built for Ayrton has nothing to do with the Big Bend project, but I wanted some of the guys out there to see it. I hope to have the windows ,doors and walls up by the end of the year. Adios.......R

putting in the ribs and skin

2010-12-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

I was able to return after two weeks back home. The backbone was in place so all I had to do was put in the ribs. I realize that four foot centers is not the norm, but the original build was done that way. With the addition of another beam to support the new roof, the area I was spanning only amounted to nine or ten feet on either side. After cross bracing, and the fact that I am using 10 " floor joists as rafters, I think I can keep this roof on. The references to Frankenstein is only because I am taking a dead house , adding parts from other dead buildings to create a new living breathing entity. I am hoping for a mild winter so I can return and finish putting her in the dry. I also hope to have her habitable by the end of next year. Not too much to tell from this trip. Enjoyed Regina's B-day party. Got to visit with Casey and Sara and saw the new additions to their place. Visited Arick for awhile along with Eva, Jerry, John, Dave, Jo, Larry, Don, Curtis, Dennis, Debbie at one time or another. I went by Jerry and Jane's place and met Morgan, their son. Went to Beechies to deliver an old state judge plate from Judge John Jackson's car for his collection. Saw David and Greg and the progress the are making is amazing. Hope to get the Baja Bug going while I am home. The adobe was working quite well and was comfortable the whole time. Sealed up some air leaks around the windows and doors and with the help from Eleanor's wood burner I was snug as a bug. Jan Jackson and her husband John came by to see me and left a ton of food. There was so much I was able to share with others. Eleanor and I ate togeather twice. I had Jo and Larry up to eat along with the girls. Jo invited me, along with Johnny & Sandy (friends that were visiting) to their Thanksgiving dinner. She and Melissa, her friend from Houston prepared the most wonderful dinner I have had in a very long time. I am very fortunate to know such people. Thank you so much. Seeya.......Rusty

started on rock house

2010-10-26T22:48:00.000-07:00

Armed with materials aquired from David Barber, Mike Hamilton and a demolition in WinonaTx. I decided to tackle the little problem of fixing the roof on the Rock house. I finaly figured out a good design and think it is time to start. I ripped out the old windows and added some rock work so the wood I had would work out. With the help of Jan Jackson and my lovely wife, we installed another support beam to help hold up the roof. I am planning on returning soon to put in the rafters and decking. all of the wood is used so it is more difficult to work with, but the price is right. The owl is one of two that had taken up residence in the last year or so. I have also seen a fox in the house resting up on the wall.

June 2010

2010-07-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

My daughter Bailey K and I have returned from the June excursion with tales of heat, humidity, and infestation! Five weeks ago, Bailey K, R. Ayrton, an artist named Ryan and myself arrived to find the adobe had been transformed into a beehive. Between the bees, the flying ants, the flying termites, conenose beetles and a large number of moths, scorpions, spiders, grasshoppers and the appearance of "the wind scorpion" or as I call it "the wind fury," we had our hands full. The ever intrepid Ayrton dispatched the rather large and perfectly formed bee hive on the first night, with the aid of a hillbilly bee suit we fabbed up on the fly. The remaining days and weeks were spent defending the adobe from further infestation. We got some work done too. Adding metal to the sides of the pole barn to enclose the trailer and water tanks was done to further achieve the "old tin building" effect. More work is required there. On the next trip, I guess. Ryan and Ayrton left after the first week. Bailey and I forged on. Bouyed by a party at Phil and Regina's, visits with Casey and Sara, a pot luck at the Ranch, and various distractions to Study Butte and Alpine, not to mention the Grub Shack. We survived the record temps and produced some watercolors to boot. Found the parts and assembled " Travis" and "Mouscorpion." We have trapped over 5000 gal. of water and it is the beginning of rainy season. So after a rough start, we pulled it out on the big end, and were glad to return to our respective loved ones. Ayrton and I wrecked out wood from the Rock house to use on the tin bldg. Soon the work will begin in earnest on the "Rockhouse".............R

water barn

2010-05-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the desert. I am building a water barn/cover for the trailer/water catchment system. Most of the material used was scrounged in East Texas. The wood came from an old building that Kelly Barber and I wrecked out a year or so ago. Other wood used came from Baird tire when they moved. It was the old tire racks. The pipe was given to me by David Barber and other metal used was scrounged over the last few years from various places. The metal roof was the only new material used on this project. Not only will the roof catch water and protect the trailer, it will also appear to be an old metal building when I get the sides on. I have been scrounging used tin when I can find it. I think it will help with the image I am going for. Just a couple of old buildings out in the desert. With this new addition the trailer is much more comfortable. I may extend off the building for an area to park cars, trailers or bikes for looks and protection. I am heading back at the end of this month to continue work on this building and start on the "Rock House." This is a house about a mile from the adobe that was built in the 80's and had the roof blown off in a wind storm. stay tuned............R

Test drive

2010-01-18T21:51:00.000-08:00

Well since last time I posted, my family and I went to test out the adobe house. We arrived right after Christmas and stayed a couple of weeks. We installed a wood burning stove that our neighbor, Eleanor Foster kindly gave us. The Adobe had lost 13 degrees in the weeks that I was home in East Texas, and was in the high 50's inside. Much colder outside. The stove saved the day and we cooked on it to boot! Ayrton made asphalt impregnated crochet strips to chink cracks with. We installed some tin in the shower, and repaired a leak in the plumbing. In general the house was quite comfortable and hovered in the high sixties to 70 degrees all week. We also dug a septic tank and plumbed that in. We built a table to sit and eat at and fixed up two more beds with mattress and bed clothes. My Mom Norma, came and was a great help . I need to improve the solar water heater and settle on a place for the solar panels. Do more wiring and strap down a couple of pipes but it is definitely livable!

Fall 2009 mesa project

2009-11-17T20:13:00.000-08:00

I have returned from the project and can report that I have officially moved into the adobe from the trailer. It is pretty great. The adobe stays around 70 degrees regardless of the outside temp. I could not be more pleased. I was able to hook up the water lines, which I ran in copper and surface mounted for the look and ease of installation. I connected the drains for both sinks and installed a crude water heater on the roof that consists mainly of 50 or 60 ft. of 1 1/4 poly pipe attached to the roof with conduit straps. The refrigerator and stove are working and I have bedding now. 5 in. foam for the mattresses. I am experimenting with LED lighting but do not have anything permanent installed. I have met many interesting folks that are doing similar projects. I have made reference to John Wells, but not to be left out are Trevor Reichman, Eric, Kasey, Sara , Phil and Regina. There must be many more I am not aware of. I will be returning in Dec. with my family to test drive the adobe around Christmas. There will be more pix after that. It will look much different after the girls have had their way with it. ..........R

Finishing touches

2009-10-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

I am back and have posted som pix of the latest work. We are getting close to the point where we can stay in the house rather than the trailer. The adobe keeps its temperature more constant, and there is a lot more room. About two weeks into this trip, my wife Karol rode the train from Longview to Alpine. I picked her up and she helped me for two more weeks. We were able to install the kitchen counters , sink, fridge, stove, bed frames, bathroom sink, medicine cabinet, window seats and did more work on the windows. We covered the bar and counter with some old copper that was from a copper clad door. We wrapped the bar and kitchen wall, plus the other kitchen counters with some of the wood salvaged from a 100 year old building in Winona. The bathroom wall was covered by 1x12 pine from the same building. On my next trip I will attempt to hook everything up! Hope to take Mom and the whole family out at Christmas and try it out. Look for an update in a few weeks.................R

Heading out again

2009-08-14T22:38:00.000-07:00

Well have been home for a couple of weeks and am getting antsy to get back to the project adobe. I am going to build in the rest of the counter space, install a small propane stove and refrigerator. I will build in the bed frames and plan a table for the main room. My wife is making rag rugs and my daughters are gearing up to compete for wall space decorations. We all want to make the place unique but there is only so much space. I have an idea for a main room lighting fixture that I think will blend in well. Some guys from Houston ( David and Gregg) are building a straw bale house near me that is turning out real well. I think I will add some pictures of their place to show yet another method that works well in the desert. My wife has made bedspreads from silk remnants spun in Nepal. There will be splashes of color all around. Check back in a few weeks to see the new pix. Seeya.........R

2009-08-01T23:26:00.000-07:00

To answer a question from Aaron about the adobe's, I bought them! I intended to make the adobe blocks at first, but found that the adobe dirt is down on the flats like at John's area. I bought the bricks from Rainbow adobe in Alpine. Steve Belardo builds adobe homes and has perfected a recipe that includes two kinds of cement and lime that stabilizes them. In the end I was glad I went that way because the amount of work that followed was almost too much for me! The floor was made from adobe dirt that I dug up down off the mesa , mixed with water, layered in 2 in. at a time to make a four to five in. thick floor. I did not try to keep the floor from cracking the way you are supposed to, except to keep it covered with a tarp for as long as possible. After it dried I filled the cracks and coated the floor with linseed oil. 100% then cut it 25% 50% and finally 75%. I have not sealed it with wax yet. I am going to try and find some early pix and add them to the blog. Hope this helps. Sorry it takes so long to update. Rusty

2009-07-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

I had to cut the last trip to work on the adobe project short.While I was on the project I applied linseed oil to the adobe floor. 100% at first then cut by 25% ,50% and 75%for three more coats, ending with a 25% linseed oil 75% thinner. This binds the adobe dirt and will be sealed with some kind of wax in the future. I allowed the adobe floor to dry quickly and in doing so had to deal with the cracking. I swept sifted adobe dirt into the cracks, then finished filling the cracks with a mix of linseed oil and adobe dirt. I filled the cracks then scraped them level.I scrapped the aluminum windows and built a custom set of frames that open up to allow full flow of the breeze, and look like the belong , at least better than the prefab. I went with the 1x6 boards to face the kitchen cabinets. I scrapped the boards out from a 100 year old building in Winona Tx. Roach glass in Alpine fitted the glass in my home made frames. The frames were made from the wood that was scrapped out of the deck that was replaced by my wifes sisters lakehouse. When she had it replaced, I asked her to have the builder leave the old deck wood at her house so I could have it. Of the wood that I have salvaged from other sites, This was the straightest and easiest to cut. It was redwood so it was easy to work, but is quite soft. I plan to use the original windows in another project. I hope to continue the project in a few weeks. While I was there I went to visit John at the Field Lab. It was instructional. An ambitious project indeed. Looks like the right man for the job. I have no doubt of the outcome.

2009-07-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Hey, this is Rusty's daughter. Here's a couple of pics from his most recent trek to the Big Bend area. He worked on the floors and building windows and a few other things. I'm sure he'll talk all about it soon so here they are!

2009-07-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

It is the 4th of July and I am still planning my departure. One of the methods I used to bring the project in under budget and achieve the look I wanted was to scrounge as much of the wood I used here in East Texas and bring a trailer load with me every time I came to work on the house. The weathered wood and the adobe look good together in my opinion. I am trying to build something that is strong and functional . Most of the time I was lax on tolerances. Every little thing is not exactly plumb or exactly level . My brick laying has the look of a beginner. But I allowed for much of that in my design, and as it played out, all the critical elements worked just fine. The design made up for the lack of ability. A case in point would be with the walls. Now I knew that I probably would not be able to make a long wall straight and plumb and still do it in the allotted time. But I figured I could make short walls straight enough. Also, I did not know how I would bridge a 30ft. gap that would be the width of the building, with the roof. So I designed the building so I would build it in compartments. All of these problems were solved by changing the shape of my place. It also solved one more requirement. I wanted some architecture, some shape, something visually interesting to look at. When I find three reasons to do something, or in this case three or more solutions to a problem. I go ahead with it so as not to be stuck endlessly trying to make up my mind . I move on the problem and go on to the next. By making the roof square and the walls kind of plus shape I get the advantage of maximum roof area and shade in the notched out areas. This helps in the summer by shading much of the wall area much of the day. It may hurt me in the winter . We will see. I guess I had better go on out and see John at the fieldlab and Betty at the Grub Shack. I will try and update when I can. Rusty

chloe's idea

2009-07-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

This strange odd crazy freaky wierdo man kidnapped me and took me away to his hidden evil lair. It was horrible! He made me one of his robotic child slave units! I was number 24607. He forced me to move this giganto rock with children numbers 23489, 14567, and number 24618. It was a hard day. The heat rays of the sun beamed down on us like we were in a pit of fire! The work was strenuous. Every night he shackled us up. My wrists and ankles were in horrible pain. I couldn't sleep. I was forced to eat only cactus. I finally was able to find a woodchuck that I made bite my way through the deadly shackles. I made it out and ran for my life! to be continued............This rendition of my niece's visit to the project is part truth and part imagination. Her number was 24507. Also it was a badger not a woodchuck that severed her restraints. (It's hard to get good help nowdays) ....note to self.....don't let Chloe near my computer ever again.....Rusty

2009-06-30T20:08:00.000-07:00

Hello, I have added some pictures. For the most part they speak for themselves. I will add more to give a more complete view of the project.....Rusty

John made me do it

2009-06-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

My name is Daniel Mason Chapman. aka Rusty. I met John Wells at Betty's Grub Shack. I am working on a place a few miles out in the desert, as is John. When I checked out his blog, TheFieldLab.org I became inspired to try one of my own. One thing I have noticed about people, ...Texans,... Texas people that live in the Big Bend, is that there is no shortage of viable opinions... We proceed... I will post some pictures and discuss the planning and methods used to build this place. John and I, plus many many more are solving similar problems every day. And as they say "there are many paths to the top of the mountain." So maybe, as people look for ideas for sustainable living, it will be easier to select one that works best for you. I built a large percent of this place without a helper (not in the budget) but had weeks of help from friends and family to boost the project ahead by leaps and bounds. I guess I started in March of 2006 and had an idea in my head that I would have the main part of the building done within two years. I was able to do that, under budget, but paid the pound of flesh. I guess when you bite off more than you can chew.....all you can do is chew! I dedicate this project to my wife Karol who is the one I am building this for. (anyone who knows me knows I am too lazy to do this for myself) I start this blog near the final stages of construction. I am heading back to the project in a few days. I do not have a computer in the desert so the updates will come in a month. Unless I can get my wife to maintain the blog.