I hated status reports when I worked at Toshiba and Canon, but this seems like fun.

Progress has been made on the slab for the main house. (I wish we’d give it a name. Perhaps a contest?) Scott (the guy doing our concrete work) put up the forms and dug the footings. Then he walked me through the rough plumbing. We didn’t pass the first inspection because I (Scott too) was unaware that the sewer needed a pressure test. You have to clamp all the pipes but one closed. The one gets a pipe ten feet tall attached to it and you fill to the top with water. We passed once this was done. There was lots of digging and burying involved in this.

Scott has started adding the rebar, wire mesh, Styrofoam and other miscellaneous items into the mix in preparation for the last inspection before we pour. We’re thinking we’ll call for inspection on Thursday.

As for Tumbleweed, we started putting up the interior walls. Today we put up a wall 26 feet long by 8 feet tall at one end and 9 feet at the other end, made from 2×6 lumber. Whew! I wasn’t sure we could lift it, but we could. :) It was a little tall and didn’t quite fit under the I-joist. I used a floor jack to make it fit. :) Karen said that she will write about this later. (Stay tuned.)

We planted a few things in and around the green house. I planted mint and rosemary outside the green house. Neither seems to taste good to the local wildlife. The rosemary looks great and has been undisturbed. The day after I planted, I went to check on things and discovered the mint ripped out of its hole and about two feet away. There was a hole dug where the mint had been. Clearly, something (a deer I suspect) dug the hole to get at the water. I replanted the mint and added a watering hole for the locals. So far, so good. Karen and I also planted a few things in the greenhouse. I planted green onions. Karen planted lettuce. Little green spouts abound. We’re starting small.

A great thing happened today. Karen found us a supplier of formaldehyde-free fiberglass insulation. The search for this product has been crazy. Johns Manville makes it but no one seems to carry it. You can find it on the Home Depot and the Lowes web sites, but nowhere in Arizona or New Mexico has it, and no, they will not order it for you. We’ve emailed people and we’ve called people. We’ve visited web sites… Finally Karen called Johns Manville and told them that none of the places on their web site carried their product. They came up with a new name… in Tucson. I called and they have it and it’s reasonably price. We were getting ready to give up on this. It’s going in the ceiling of Tumbleweed. Mainly it’s to keep down the noise rain makes on the metal roof, however; another R-13 brings the roof insulation value to R-54. :)

One last thing… I don’t think we ever put this up, but we made a movie of the walls going up on Tumbleweed. You can see it here: The walls go up

Oh… We still need knobs.