What to do with Those Pesky Plastic Shopping Bags!

But first...

Last weekend, we took a couple of days off, paired them with the weekend, and spent four days at The Home Place. It was a wonderful trip. The trip is what followed my Crappy Day posted here. Of course, I had no idea how prophetic that statement was at the top of that blog post. Yeah, nobody died that day, but a few days later....

Anyway, here's what made the crappy day. David went to work as usual that Tuesday morning last week. His boss had recently announced that he was taking a demotion so he could spend more time with his family. David had no idea when he went to work that day that within an hour after he arrived, he would be fired so his new boss's wife could have his job. When he stopped by my office to give me the shocking news, I lost it and left work. But David acted with tons of grace, which made it possible for me to pull myself back together. I went back to work after about an hour and went to my class. My kind boss let me take a couple of days vacation that Friday and Monday, and we made it a long weekend at The Home Place. It's exactly what we needed. We started the work of moving on and trying to see the good. It really did seem like the end of the world to me. And then Wendy died, and I had no choice but to put this all in perspective. Yeah, David lost his job, but there will be another (Lord, please send it soon!). Yeah, he was making great money but he hadn't had a day off in a very long time. Life's too short.

We are going back to The Home Place over the Thanksgiving break.

So, during our 4-day weekend...

I gathered a hoe, a shovel, a plastic container full of (what I hope is) clay, a 5 gallon bucket of sand, a sifter, a bottle of water, a step-stool, a wheelbarrow, and about 20 plastic bags. The goal? To experiment with the sand, (what I hope is) clay and water mixture to see if I can build a bench. If this mixture works, we can use dirt right from our place to build our earthbag house. David dug the sand and I dug the (hopefully) clay.

Then I selected a spot (by the firepit).

One by one, I filled shopping bags with a mixture of (what I hope is) clay/sand/water and stacked one on top of the other. I put about 70% sand with 30% (!!!) clay, dampened it with a little water, and filled each bag. Everytime I stacked a bag, I tamped it down flat with the hoe. When I accidentally made holes in the sacks, I just taped them up withclear packing tape (it's what I had on hand - any kind of tape could work). I filled in spaces with used ziploc bags filled with the mixture. I didn't worry about the outline-shape of the bags. I wanted to focusing on flattening the bags from the top. There's no time for beauty here, this is all about getting it done so the experiment can start.

After I finished filling, stacking, and tamping bags, I stuck duct tape in various spots over the bags. I chose duct tape (the cheapie kind!) because it has a little texture and I thought it would help plaster stick to them.

I made another mixture of (!!!) clay, sand, water, and chopped dead desert grasses. I used this to plaster over the bags. I didn't have time to make this pretty. This is just an experiment. I'll worry about aesthetics later. Also, I didn't put barbed wire in-between each course of bags because I wanted to save the wire for the bigger first project, an earthbag storeroom. Again, this is an experiment to see if the bag contents firm up and if the plaster will stay put.

Bench with duct tape and earth plaster in progress. The bag mixture is very firm and I think it has worked!

Still working on the plaster.

Finished bench that night by the fire pit. You can see where some of the plaster is drying to a lighter color.

The next morning, I got up and checked the bench. Yes, I know it's not very pretty, but this is for experimentation only. I'll watch it over the next few weeks to see how it holds up, but I used it for sitting the morning after. It was firm and while the plaster cracked a little, I think it will work. I've since read that adding more chopped grass will prevent cracks.

Here is the solar shower. That's a piece of plywood with a vinyl tablecloth stapled to it.

David and Pepper found this HUGE cactus growing out of the rocks during their hike. I worked on the rock patio while they hiked.

Pepper

Little Dog

Roxie, sitting on the step-stool.

Pretty Sky.

Nearby Puckett Mountain.

Velvet-tipped mimosa.

New favorite reading. (The Solar Living Source Book.)

Inside the trailer.

Spiderman still watching over the place.