My Soulmate

Yesterday I lost the most precious thing in the world to me.  At 6:05 am November 3, 2011 Wanda was taken away from me, from her two sons - Jeremy and Lucas, her mother - Wynelle, and sister - Lisa by the cancer that she fought so long and hard to defeat. 

On Oct 20 we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the day we met.  Ten years is not long enough, but I know in my heart that I will see my soulmate again and that we will be together once more. 

Update on Wanda

It has been nearly 5 months since my last post.  These past 4 months have been very trying for both Wanda and me.  Wanda began to feel ill while we were on vacation in June.  It began feeling like muscle spasms in her right shoulder, spine and below her ribcage.  After seeing the Dr. and given pain killers for the pain and only getting worse over a 5 week period, the Dr. finally ordered an ultrasound.   When the ultrasound found spots on her pancreas and liver they also did a CT scan, and 2 weeks later a biopsy which was positive for cancer.  They diagnosed her with pancreatic cancer which has spread to her liver.  It is inoperable and the Dr says that the only choice is whether to have chemo or not.  Wanda has decided not to go through the chemo and we are treating her with alternative treatments. 

We had planned on being in Terlingua in September, but have had to put our plans on hold.  We have received a great deal of support from family and friends, as well as the local Hospice.  For now we are taking things one day at a time.  But one way or another, we will get our cabin built.

Don't know how soon I will be posting again but I hope to be back soon.

Slow going!

Nothing to report since last post.  We went to the coast last week for a family gathering.  It was nice to get away from work for a few days.  Things went pretty good for the most part.  Wanda and her son tried to do some fishing, but the fishing weren't biting.  Good thing we brought plenty of food!

We did run into a problem when our vehicle died on us at the campground.  We had to have it towed about 30 miles away to the nearest dealer, since we had someone check it out and he said the problem was the vehicle's computer.  And of course, only the dealer can program a new one.  The computer had to be ordered and shipped so it would take several days before it could be fixed.  We left the next day in Wanda's son's truck and headed for home - had to be back to work for a busy weekend.

We are now back in Houston to pick up our car and return the truck.  We will spend the night here and get the car in the morning and head back to Fredericksburg. 

It looks like another busy weekend for us, so we have to wait til next week to get back to making our papercrete bricks.  We are starting to get a lot of interest from our neighbors who have seen us out in the yard working on them.  We enjoy telling them what we are doing, and they are very fascinated.

I am hoping to get up to 40 - 50 bricks a week. (maybe wishful thinking?)

Papercrete Mixer Improvement

Yesterday I used my new mixer for the first time.  At first it seemed to take longer to mix the papercrete with the new mixer than it did by hand.  But after getting my routine down things began to speed up.  Today I took another step and modified the mixer so that I could turn the tub, making it easier and faster to mix. 

Wanda came up with the idea of making a turntable to set the tub on.  We have an old square end table that swivels and a small round table.  Her idea was to take the hardware from the end table and the top of the round table and attach them to the stand that the tub sits on to make a turntable. 

 

The more we get into this the harder it is to have to wait to get back to Terlingua and our property.  It would be so much better if we had more time to get away.  But we knew it would be this way at least until I retire next year. 

In the meantime we will just have to keep building our bricks.

Meanwhile, Wanda is learning to can food with a pressure canner.  She's starting with Pinto beans.  Before long we should have plenty of veggies from the garden to can.

Well, its been a long day.  Time to relax!

Testing New Papercrete Mixer

We found a new papercrete site the other day.  They used a drill press to mix the papercrete.  So we decided to try that ourselves with a drill press we bought some time ago and have hardly ever used.

First I had to build a sturdy workbench to attach the drill press to.  Another trip to the lumber store!

Once I got the workbench built I bolted the drill press to the end of it and attached the stucco mixer on the drill press.  I then made a small table to set the bucket on.  after several tries I finally got the table the right height so that the mixer just cleared the bottom of the bucket for good mixing.

I am still getting used to using this to mix the papercrete, so it is still slow going.  I don't know how much faster this will be than hand mixing with a hand drill, but it is saving a lot of wear and tear on my hands and wrists.

Testing the mixer

Making Progress

Well, it's been a while since my last post - much too long!  Things have been busy here, and I just don't seem to have the energy at the end of the day to think about what to say.  But here goes.


We have made progress on making our papercrete bricks.  After my first attempt - which didn't turn out too well - I think I have the right proportions of paper, cement, and sand.  We started out doing only one brick at a time to make sure they were coming out.  The first form was only for two bricks, so it was slow going at first.  But after our tenth successful brick I figured it was time to start "mass producing".  I made a new form which holds ten bricks at a time.  However, we are still not completely up to full speed, as we still have to mix the papercrete in small quantity.  We have moved from mixing in a 5 gallon bucket to one about 17 gallons.  This allows us to mix up enough for two bricks at a time.  Within a few hours we can mix up enough to fill the form, making 10 bricks total at once.

I'm researching how to make a larger mixer to speed up the process allowing me to make more bricks per day.  A 200 gallon tow mixer would be impractical for us , so I am looking for something in between that and what I am using now.  I've see one made out of a 55 gal drum with a lawnmower engine attached and a L-angle driveshaft connected to a lawnmower blade. 





Along with making the papercrete bricks, we have also been searching for used windows and doors for our cabin.  This past weekend we had time to go to the monthly Trade Days here in Fredericksburg.

We found the perfect door for our main entrance.  Among a yard full of old windows and doors (most of them rotting and falling apart) we found this door.  It is old, made of sturdy hardwood, with no rot.  One side was coming loose, but was easily fixed with wood glue. 

The small window is removable allowing for fresh air without having to open the door.

My personal favorite is the large metal door handle.

I think we got a good deal for $30.

Next time maybe we can find some windows.

Papercrete-First Attempt

This is my first post in a while.  Much has happened since my last post that has occupied my time and energy.  Wanda woke up one morning about three weeks ago with Bell's Palsy.  At first we were concerned because the one sided paralysis of her face led us to worry  that she had had a stoke.  But after going to the Dr. we learned that that was not the case.  As if it was not bad enough that it left her face misshapen, apparently the medication she was prescribed made her feel extremely sick.  We were told that the Bell's Palsy would most likely go away in anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months.  She is dong fine now however, after just 3 weeks.  The paralysis in her face went away after within 2 weeks, but it took another week before the effects of the medication went away enough for her to go back to work.

Just before she became ill I had begun experimenting with the papercrete.  I had researched how to mix the papercrete but learned that it is a matter of testing different formulas to get the right mixture of paper, cement, and sand.

We began by soaking the paper to break it down.  I  then used a stucco mixer which I got from the hardware store, attached to my drill, to mix the paper into a pulp.

Once that was done I added my cement and sand.  At this point I am just mixing up enough to make one or two bricks at a time until I get the right mixture.





Once the mixture was ready I poured it into a frame that I made to form the bricks.  I am making my bricks 12"x18"x5".  For now I made the frame for 2 bricks at a time.

All that was left now was to let the brick dry.  I knew something was wrong after about 5 days and the brick still was not dry.  I figured that part of the reason for that was that it was still cold (especially at night).  But when the brick finally did dry I found that the brick could be easily be broken apart.  Apparently my first attempt was not a success.  But it was not a failure either, because I learned that my original mixture had too much paper and not enough cement.

In the next few days I hope to whip up another batch of papercrete and hopefully make my first usable brick.

Labor Day 2010

In my last post I mentioned that we had dug out the footing for our little cabin during our last trip out to our 40 acres.  It's been 5 long months since our last trip.

Although it was early September, the temperatures were still very hot during the day.  So we would wake early, before sunrise and work til about 10 am.  We found out the first day that we work first, then eat breakfast.  After that it was too hot to be out in the sun.   We spent the rest of the day just relaxing, exploring, or going into Terlingua.  Once it cooled down in the evening we would work some more until sunset.

We weren't the only ones enjoying the freedom we feel when we are out here.  Our little dog Fox (named after Fox Mulder of the X-Files) loves it.  We were afraid at first that he would take off and never be seen again if we let him run free.  He has a history of that.  But to our surprise he stayed close by, only wandering off enough to explore his new home.

 Fox has been a part of our family for nearly 10 years now.  He was a rescue dog that no one wanted because he was blinded in one eye from a gun pellet.  He was brought to us by a friend who volunteered at the shelter.  He has been our constant companion ever since.


We had planned a whole week  out there, digging the footing and just enjoying our time off together.  But on the 4th day during a trip into town we ran into a problem with our vehicle's transmission.  We were unable to put it into Park.  Although we were able to drive and go in reverse, we decided that it was risky trying to go back to the property without knowing what the problem was.  It was Labor Day  weekend and there was no place to take it to have it checked out. So we rented a Jeep from Far Flung Outdoor Center and went back to camp and packed up.  We had talked to a mechanic friend back in Fredericksburg who said we should be able to drive home as long as we could get it into Drive.

So we regretfully cut out trip short and headed back home.  We are anxiously waiting for our next trip.

Designing our cabin

We're in the middle of the deep freeze that has swept most of the country - we are up to 16 degrees, pretty cold for central Texas - so it's too cold to start experimenting with making the Papercrete blocks outside.   We have decided to order the materials to make our own solar panels, but have to wait for them to arrive before we can start that project.  So, we have decided to stay inside where it's warm and do more research and update our blogs. 

Last year, before we began digging the footing for our cabin, I set about designing the layout for it.  I searched for a software program that I could use (something not too difficult to work with).  At the time my computer had crashed and I had to replace the hard drive.  I didn't want to buy a new operating system (Windows), so I found a free open source Linux OS called Ubuntu to install.  Having done that I found that I could no longer use many of my old Windows based programs including a popular one called Google SketchUp.  So, I researched and found a 3D Modeling program called Sweethome 3D.  It is very user friendly, free, and was perfect for designing our cabin.

After many attempts I finally came up with the design we wanted.  Check out some screen shots and video tour of our plans.

How we ended up in Terlingua

Before we decided to buy property we took a trip to see if West Texas was where we wanted to settle. We actually intended to go through Big Bend National Park, and make our way up to Marfa to see the famous Marfa Lights. We spent the first night in Chisos Basin in Big Bend Park.


The next day we stopped in Terlingua to see Terlingua Ghost Town. We loved the area, and the people were friendly and very interesting.










While we were there we heard that they were having their annual Chihuahua races the following day. We never did make it to Marfa. We camped at a nearby campground and stayed for the festivities.








By the time we left, Terlingua had captured our hearts!

In the Beginning...

Our dream of living off the grid began several years ago. We are nearing retirement age and through a series of unfortunate events have pretty much lost any retirement savings either of us may have had. So we began to make plans to simplify our lives to make the most of what we do have. Our goal was to own our own property, build a small but comfortable house, and simplify our energy needs so that by the time we are ready to retire, we will be debt free and able to live relatively comfortably at minimal expense.

So, 3 years ago we began purchasing 40 acres of land near Terlingua, Tx. There were many factors that were considered in our decision to buy property in the rugged mountain desert of the lower Big Bend area. First, it was cheap. Secondly, it was secluded - away from the hustle and bustle of more populated areas. And thirdly, there are no restrictions on how we build.
View from our 40 acres.

Years before we actually made the commitment to buy the property, we had researched a number of different building materials that would be suitable to use to build our house. My preference was to build with Strawbale. It seemed the least labor intensive, easiest material to work with. And the R factor is rated very high. It can be load-bearing, bringing the cost of construction down considerably. Cost is a major factor for us. However, the terrain is extremely rough, making getting a large load of strawbales to the property very difficult. After looking at a number of alternatives - Stone ( which is plentiful on the property, but labor intensive to gather), Earth Bags, Adobe - we finally decided to try our hand at Papercrete.