okay, so we’re not *entirely* done. but wow have we made some progress. the main part of the wall construction is finished.
Ryan and I spent Saturday filling in this gap between the north gate and the apse.
Then Sunday’s work party filled in quite a lot of gaps on the East wall, starting near the Cottonwood tree and proceeding south.
the East wall, looking from the garden gate, going from South to North:
detail of one of the arches in the East wall, before we plaster over it. These will be filled with 7 wine bottles each, with the bases of the bottles facing the street, to resemble a sunflower center. then we’ll mosaic the sunflowers around them in the exterior plaster. there’s a sunflower on each outward (street-ward) curve of the wall. on the inward curves, we’ll landscape with desert plants — agave, ocotillo, prickly pear, soaptree yucca.
looking along the East wall, from South to North. I cannot tell you how good it felt to climb up there this morning in the grey light and take this picture!
The view from across the street.
south end:
north end:
the Yet To Be Finished List:
The End of The Wall. This is the very last stretch. That tight C-shaped curve is an apse, which will mirror the one on the North gate. After we build the apse itself, we can tie the end of the wall into it, and this portion will be completely finished. For today, at least there is a line of bags running all the way to the end!
this is the part we need to finish, to tie in to the apse when it is built. You can see the gate post there on the right.
and the mailbox. We made strides on this yesterday, but didn’t complete it. That box in the foreground is the package box that we are in the process of finishing. When it’s done, we’ll install it, building out the column on the east side of the wall to support it at the right angle, then we’ll add some supporting frame work (4x4s, i expect) alongside and above it to support the weight of the earthbags & the tamping process, then we’ll finish that stretch of wall. it’s a short piece of wall, really, but the process has many parts left to go.
North Wall Apse & curved walls to attach to apse.
it’s huge progress. in spite of the amount of construction left to do, and the immense amount of plastering left, we came out of the day yesterday feeling very accomplished. the wall touches the south gate now!