Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Day 36

Conan is pink again. He inevitably gets this way when we wax the floor. It’s a little funny to have a pink and black kitten, but gosh he’s cute, happily curled up on my lap right now as I type.

Today a few of us dug some new subsoil out of the pile to pack into the stairs of the long-drop toilet:

Here they are, coming along! We're building a retaining wall around the earth bags, and filling the space around them with the subsoil, packing it with the wooden handle of a hoe (gently) so we don't disturb the bricks.

The house is looking amazing:

We mixed a giant mix of cobb for Kim and Marcelo’s house today.
It took all morning to make it, and we used fresh cow poop which wasn’t optimal (it’s fine to use, but the smell: not so amazing).
We soaked more for tomorrow though, and apparently when it is mixed with water it removes the bad smell. We shall see…
I found this very cool spider who was evading my camera... I know this isn't the best photo, but look at that butt! So cool!
Jo found this spectacular butterfly, who looks just like a...When it opens its wings it's a beautiful burnt orange above!
Our lovely lunch:
Coop's companion:
Tomorrow we are having a pizza party, firing up the oven for the first time. We meant to do it for Keren’s going away party, but we didn’t have a pizza peel at the time so it never happened… While we were in Iguazu, Marcelo made one. It’s quite the sight- so long! He’s all excited about it. He said that his grandmother always baked by lighting the fire and then removing all of the coals once the oven got hot. She would clean out the bottom quickly, then load the oven with bread… so that’s what we’re doing tomorrow. We started cheese making today. We are going to try our hand at making queso cremoso again (our last batch was very wet because we didn’t have time to let the ricotta drip dry)- Kimberly says it’s like mozzarella, and I’m so excited to try it!

Here are some of our sprouting garden shoots for transplanting:
Marisa has been picking us beautiful boquets...
And check out this super cool spider that Coop and Marisa found! We had an awesome picture of her butt as well (which looks red with little stars all over), but unfortunately I erased it accidentally. She's a nighttime spider, and what a sight she is!

My tent has consistently smelled like dried apricots since I got back from Iguazu. I’m not sure why, but it always makes me smile when I climb in at night.

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