July Updates

As you can see the Airbnb advertisement located on the upper right corner on our blog, we started renting our master bed and bath as an earthship bed and breakfast.  Throughout July and now into August we've enjoyed hosting about a dozen different parties (individuals and couples).  It's been neat to share our space with interested people, answer their questions, and tell stories about what we've been through to get to this point.  Sign up to stay with us by clicking on the Airbnb image!  

Here are some pictures from around the house, including our ever-growing greenhouse plants:

finished the bottle wall over the living room entryway

chicken coop and fruit orchard (should produce fruit next summer)

cucumbers in the back branch-trellis planter

watermelon growing on the wall of the back patio

bell peppers

we grew a red pepper right in the greenhouse (it was green for at least 3 weeks!)

San Marzano tomatoes

heirloom tomatoes

herb garden

broccoli

I'm painting the entryway a terracotta orange

entryway

Ellie and Darwin enjoying the evening sun

Chad pollinating the tomato flowers with a small paintbrush

huge basil harvest! (turned into pesto) 

pumpkin growing outside

garlic harvest from our outdoor garden

Another big project we've been working on is our back patio.  I had a vision of a mosaic-ed wall, wrap around bench, unique bottle fence background, and a fire pit.  It isn't done yet, but it's coming along!

tire wall to form bench, can wall fire pit

posts added to support the bottle fence 

20 pieces of rebar set vertically will form the posts on the bottle fence

whole bottles with labels removed and holes drilled through the bottom will slide onto the rebar forming a bottle fence

my Kokopelli mosaic so far (one blue one left to go!)

And finally, Chad's been chipping away at his brick oven.  He adds rocks on the outside almost every day, and started lighting some curing fires.  And then, we finally started cooking some food and some pizzas!  It is soooo good!

Chad added copper tubing to the dome which will heat water to be pumped through the floor of the back hallway.

rock work

Light a fire,

watch the smoke get sucked up the chimney.

Once the bricks get to 900 degrees you push the coals to the back of the oven and wipe down the surface with a wet rag.

Then slide your pizza in with a peel!

Yum!