We got a horse, YAY!!!!!

So I finally after 20 years got a horse. Of course she is all of ours and thats ok. She is beautiful, she needs a lot of TLC right now but she is slowly gaining some weight. She was on someones ranch and the people she belonged to were not taking care of their horses so the ranch owner got mad and gave them two weeks to show that they were going to take care of the horses. We he first saw them at his ranch they had absolutely no food and no water, so the ranch owner went and got a couple bales of alfalfa hay and filled the water trough, After he called the horse owners, then he went back a week later and it was the same thing. So he called them and told them he found a home for them because they were neglecting their horses and he was mad as hell. So he called my neighbor who immediately went and got them. They are so skinny for their size but they are doing much better than they were. Both of the horses are trained and you can hunt off of them, so that is awesome. They love the kids and they are both so sweet, I can't imagine anyone not taking care of them the way they are supposed to. Anyways so my neighbor told us we could have one and they would keep one. We named her Luna because she is white and has spots like the moon. She is an Arabian Flea-Bitten Grey. She is about 15 hands high and has a great temperament and personality. I can't wait to ride the horses. Gotta fatten them up first though.

Finally feel like we are getting somewhere

We got a chance to work on the cabin a bit yesterday finally and we got walls a little higher yesterday. The weather has been kinda crappy and between the kids fighting all of the time, the weather and Dr. appts, we finally got something done. We put the wood stove in the living room yesterday and have been building around it. We also went ahead and put the water tank in the back utility room. Just in case we cant lift it over the walls later. It is very tricking building around things and keeping your lines in the right place. It is also harder than it looks to build in a circle. We are going to be putting up the greenhouse soon, It is going right up against the cabin and the only way in is through the house. People are always trying to get in other peoples greenhouses here, no matter what you are growing in them. They think everyone with a greenhouse is growing cannabis. So here are a couple more pics of the progress with the stove inside. 

Working on the Cabin

So we have been working hard on the cabin and have a few walls going up. We laid the whole thing out and now we are working on the living room, my bedroom and the 'utility" room for right now. It is getting cold here really fast and we are hauling the dirt ourselves, little by little so it is going slower than we want. We decided to work on these three rooms first just in case it got too cold to quick and we needed to use it instead of the camper. We just got a wood stove for the living room, It is cool, It is an old caboose stove. Anyways here are where we have gotten to so far. We take more pics later and post for your viewing pleasure.

Layout of the cabin

So we have almost got the entire cabin laid out with the mesh tubes, it is turning out to be bigger than we thought. But we are trying to give the kids plenty of room because they are growing up so fast.
Yes, We are stilling dealing with our mountain lion problem. Apparently there are two of them I am thinking Mama and cub, but the cub being at least 100lbs+. The paw prints are big but not as big as the mamas. They crushed 3 different parts of our fence 2 nights ago and left many prints.
So between the lions coming around and being just plain sore we had to slow down a little. It is all a learning process so that slows us down too.
Well, enjoy the pics below and help me pray that a guardian angels will bring me a couple truck loads of dirt so maybe we can get this thing done before it snows.
If you have any questions about the process, please ask. We are learning as well and this is an interesting way to build.
Oh and I threw in a couple pics of the dog house we built for Kashmir, our Pit Bull, We still have to plaster it but she loves it.

Lions VS Walls...

So we had a slow and not very productive day today. As we got busy building the cabin walls we had to stop for about an hour and try to chase of a Mountain Lion. We were just working away when all of the sudden all you could smell in the air was cat urine and dirty socks. (that is what they smell like) So we got the kids away and took the guns up the hill but of course found nothing (except huge paw prints) about 20 feet from where are building the cabin. So we went inside for a little while hoping it would go away. About half hour or so later we went back out and went back to work and then there was the smell again. SO we decided to burn a fire and turned on the radio trying to make more noise but of course that only works so well. So we gave up for a little while, then we decided to hell with the dam cat and went back to work on the walls again. It circled around for a little while but I think it got bored and wondered off finally for a bit. Hopefully we get more done tomorrow. I refuse to let the cat win again tomorrow. I think we really need to clear some more of this property so nothing can sneak up on us. Its kinda scary. The paw prints were the size of my entire hand. OMG...

Starting our Hyperadobe Cabin

FINALLY!!!

We started our Hyperadobe cabin today. It has been a process to get it started, but it is started. Yay!! We started off by cutting into the hill and leveled out the land as much as we could. Then we laid out the whole cabin in rocks to decide where we wanted each room to be. he big pole you see in some of the photos is a giant compass made to make sure we are measuring the walls correctly and that they are all the same distance to the outside walls all the way around. We used a chain link fence post and pvc to make it. We have it marked out to different measurements all down the pvc by inches. 

We are using a mix of 70% sand and 30% clay. The bags/ tubes we are using are called rachelle netting. We only got four rows today but it is all a learning process. This first room we are working on is mine and Jon's bedroom it is 12 feet in diameter. Each room is what is called a honey house dome. 

Wish us luck on transforming the earth into a cozy living space. 

Enjoy the photos from start to now.