The preparation has been laid to rest. It’s time to begin the Hootenanny!  We finished laying all foundation and buttressing bags over the last week.  I have 80 bags of cement; 2 truck fulls of earth in piles; 3 1/2 rolls of barbed wire; a mixer; and my bags.  All is ready to build dome walls.

We found the ‘center points’ of the 2 main domes and anchored down 4’x4’s to be ready for the 3’ ‘springline’ radius marking.  Buttress bags will climb to 2’ heighthe, then leave it to the dome bags to complete the task.

While my ‘frame’ makers all bailed on me (Jose Martin, then Jose Luis, then Nacho all bailed) on making frames), I found a great partner in Blas to help me make the 2 neccesary frames:

1) The ‘Teen Dome’ door, wihch I expended to be 38” wide and it will rise ~ 8’ 2” from the floor.  Hopefully the 32” deptth of this frame is enough to make it from the base to the angled doming. Cross my fingers. I followed the plan, but decided on a 19” radial arch from the arc centerpoint.

2) The bedroom/bathroom door.  I  went back and forth on how high to make this one, and decided on 3’ wide, went up to 7’, then dopped 8” to find the center point; and then made a 16” arch from that center point. It makes a nice, small arched top.

A reminder of how easy it is to work with earth - once I finsihed the bathroom, I noticed that the ‘buttress’ walls were greater than 16” wide. So, I took a shovel an expanded the bathroom space by ~ 8 inches in 30 minutes. I love workig with earth…so simple.

Tomorrow we tie up a few loose items, then are ready for the big days staring Wednesday.  Susan and Wolfie arrived today from Boston.  Tomorrow, Dave, John, and AnnG join us, with Josh and Sarah meeting us in Los barilles to come to El Cardonal. We also get to meet Laurel and Pete in LB, who will join on Wednesday. El Cardonal neighbors have stopped by to check it out, and some say they will show up to help.  Let the Hootennay commerce!