Billy Bones, I am using the silicone stuff as well.  It looks like caulk, it acts like caulk, but the label says window glaze.  It's setting up nicely.  I went out and hand sanded what I needed to.  I was going to paint but noticed there was a cold snap due for the next couple of days, so that scotched that idea.

Had a little time again today, and forged a second viking style belt buckle, after buying some smaller stock yesterday.

comparison shot of the two:

The second one has a more functional design, but it isn't quite there yet in terms of symmetry and the like. But at least I get comments from family members that I'm improving, took me about a three quarters of year but I guess it's getting visible.

Can you share the documentation on those?

Alexandr, do you have a touchmark / maker's mark that you put on the items you make?

 

Ugh, home repairs. I would love to remodel my place.........with a backhoe. I hate my house, but love the full basement. Here in the desert I would love to expand and deepen the basement and remove the house above.  Then find a British police call box to use as the  entry.

I went into the shop after work yesterday to do some more design and prep for my latest commission (which alexandr would probably have finished by now, along with three other jobs), when a friend texted to ask if I could fix a broken garden rake. Five minutes of FCAW, and the cheap rake that has lasted him twenty years will now last him the rest of his life.

Some people hate to throw things away. I can respect that.

BIGGUN....I have always loved the idea of underground houses.  That and basement man caves.  I love the Underground house in Vegas that is basically a normal house built in a cave 26 feet underground.  With the walls of the cave painted to look like the outdoors.  Odd place, but very cool concept.  Perfect for the desert heat.

TIKI, yes that is a pretty famous house , and it was up for sale, so you may get your chance to own it

When I moved to the desert I looked into all types of alternative construction; straw bale, monolithic concrete over airforms, rammed Earth, Earth berm, subterranean, storage container, etc..  The high cost of concrete killed the airformed ones for me. But I have been looking at the FIBC bags (Super Sacks) we toss at work. They are 35"x35"x52", rated for 1,000kg with a 5:1 safety factor.  Basically big sandbags. For a structure I am thinking fill with the sand and gravel on my property and stack. Hesco barrier style construction, but covered with some sort of coating like stucco or shotcrete to keep the sun off of the plastic.  I would like to talk to a structural engineer about this, and possibly doing this with back filling to make a below grade live work space. I can get thousands of these bags a year for free.  My other idea is using cargo containers. Cut out one side wall, then weld that onto the outside of the opposite wall to form tubes that could be filled with concrete to strengthen the side with the back fill. two high cubes stacked would give close to a 20' high wall.  Use some of the containers as living space, and the space between as a shop.  12-53' and 4-40' would make around a 10,000' shop with a 20'ish door opening. Leave the roof at grade to lessen the load, then insulate it with about 2'-4' of insulation. 

Back 30 mumble something years ago we actually looked at an underground house for sale in central Ohio.  Unfortunately the crack in the roof of the bedroom that was running water indicated that the builder hadn't built it correctly and we went on to buy a large 100 year+ old brick house in the inner city.   Out here in the desert would probably be a better place.  Neatest one locally is down in the Bosque where they built a large Quonset hut and then built a standard frame house inside it.  Very Wild fire resistant!   My previous pastor out here built a straw bale house to retire in and it's very nice.  He's a big Dr Who fan and we were discussing getting him a weeping angel statue for his garden...

If you have the means to move that much earth in supersacks that would be a really neat for mof construction.  I have watched a bunch of cool youtube videos on earthbag construction, and more recently earthships which use old tires.  There is more to it than just that with the earthships of course.  I even saw one really cool video of an arkansas (I think) Family welding some containers together and then burying them for a house.

Most of the Earthbag stuff I have seen uses cob to cover the bags and protect them from light, but I can't imagine that stucco would be difficult.

For a roof, I have been fascinated by Timbrel or Catalan Vaulting.  You end up with overlapping layers of tiles that can create a relatively inexpensive but very strong structure that can be shaped in all sorts of ways.  You can get pretty large spans without the need for internal support. 

Too hot for earthships down here though they do well up near Taos I hear.

I had a couple of work visits with an alumna on Cape Cod who lived in an underground house cut into a hillside. She was a world-famous breeder of ornamental daylilies and had her garden on the roof; I was lucky enough to visit once when they were all in bloom.

My kind of dream house.  I bet that was a beautiful sight.  I wish my roof was something I could tend to with some fertilizer and occasionally dealing with weeds.

It was quite lovely, but there was a pretty nasty mildew problem. She had to keep dehumidifiers running year-round, even in the winter.

I once saw a video about  a family that lived in a Cave; IIRC they said their dehumidifiers produced 200 gallons of water a day.

Everyone hear talking about being hot. In Cincinnati, yesterday it was 60*. Overnight, we got over 6" of snow. Of course, it happened right when my baby lettuces were starting to come up... JHCC, similar weather in Oberlin?

Yup. It’s both ugly:

 and pretty:

We're expecting it to be 88 degF on Sunday and 68 degF next Tuesday; all y'all should do something about that white stuff!  Of course this afternoon winds will be 20-30 mph gusting to over 40 mph.   So typical spring in the valley.

We had a little over 3" down in the greater Columbus area. Go home Ohio, you're drunk!

You poor guys, we only got about 1 1/2" here near Dayton. 

 

3 hours ago, Chimaera said:

In Cincinnati, yesterday it was 60*. Overnight, we got over 6" of snow

Just 25 miles south in Northern KY we only got a dusting. Snow on the grass and trees was about the extent. 

Pnut

Out here we tend to keep snow up on the mountaintops where it belongs!

Well... By 2:00 all it was gone! The ground was still warm and it cleared out in a hurry.

Scratch that. Just started up again.

8 hours ago, BIGGUNDOCTOR said:

Alexandr, do you have a touchmark / maker's mark that you put on the items you make?

Yes, there is a stigma. But as a rule, I forget to use it.

One thing I love about living in the Ozarks is we regularly get all four seasons on the same day. Yesterday started out as spring sunny and 50°F then changed to summer 80°F then to fall 40°F and finally to winter 21°F with about 2 inches of snow.