Quick update on the house build.

I’m getting the 5th course of blocks on the wall.

I have also cut the 4 x 10 rough lumber lengths for the south wall window rough bucks and most of the 4 x 4 lengths for the trombe walls.

On right you can see some lengths of wood laid on the south wall so I could see where to lay the next course.

As soon as I get a few courses around the windows and trombe walls, I’ll assemble the frames and screw them into place.

I’ve run out of the blocks I had already made, so I’ve set up the press with some new equipment to speed up the process.

I had about 100 yards of extra fill dirt brought in to widen the back yard and give me room to work.

After that, I moved the block press into place and set up the mortar mixer to blend the earth/cement/water mix I need.

The conveyor belt will carry the the mix into the hopper of the press, speeding up the process.

I’m going to try to rig my loader bucket to block the wide parts of the bucket and just scoop and dump dirt into the mixer.

If I can get that done, most of the input process will be free of manual labor- just water and cement added for each load.

If I can get some short term help, I think I can knock out several thousand blocks in a few days.

More dirt for the blocks is being delivered this week, then it’s off to the races.

I need to frame the other windows as the walls go up, apart from that, it’s just a race to make and stack blocks now before it gets really cold.