Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One year On And A Companion Fence

Now that our adobe wall is just over one year old 

I thought it would be nice to give a look at how the adobe plaster has held up.

We had couple of hard driving rains this past summer 

and as expected they left a nice texture to the plaster

but also washed off much of the pigment in the exposed designs.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,

Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs.

Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs

In this post of our series I want to take a look at how we plastered the wall 

and Allison will explain how she and her sisters made the designs, such as you see above,

 out of adobe mud and mineral pigments.

 In the photo above Cynthia used caliche, a clay slip, and oxides on her burrowing owl 

with earring eyes hiding under the Mexican Hat flowers Allison created earlier.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,

Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof for the Gate

In this post on building our wall, after having looked at how we put the metal cap on in the last post,

I want to now look at the standing seam hip roof that will protect the yet to be built gate.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,

Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap

In this fourth part of our series on building the wall you see above

 let's take a look at how we did the metal cap that will protect the wall from the elements.

An adobe will not last without protection from rain.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,
Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes

In this post of Building An Adobe Wall we will start putting up adobe bricks.

In the previous post we made our "gringo blocks" and set up our mud mortar mixing pit.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,
Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,
Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started

After the first post in this series
where we looked at how to build the stone foundation for our adobe wall
we will now take a look at making the "gringo blocks",
 and setting up our mud mixing area for making the adobe mortar that will be used with our bricks
as we go through all the steps for building the wall you see in the photo above.

All of the posts to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,

Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation

This is the first post in a six part series on how to build the adobe wall that you see in the above photo.

All the posts in this series to date are:

Building An Adobe Wall: #1 Stone Foundation,

Building An Adobe Wall: #2 Getting Started,

Building An Adobe Wall: #3 Putting Up Adobes,
Building An Adobe Wall: #4 Putting On The Cap,
Building An Adobe Wall: #5 Hip Roof For The Gate,
Building An Adobe Wall: #6 Plastering And Creating The Designs,
Building An Adobe Wall: #7 One Year On And A Companion Fence.

In this post I will cover all the aspects of this wall from the stone foundation to the metal cap...

Making Adobe Bricks

It is (was) June in the southwestern USA and as is typical it is hot and very dry-

 what better time to make adobe bricks because they also like it hot and dry.

I had a pile of adobe dirt that I wanted to get rid of

 and knew I would need these bricks for a future project.

As you can see above the ingredients for making adobes are:

-a pile of good adobe soil

 (sift your soil only if it has stones larger than about 2" or lots of debris),

-a form for the bricks,

-straw for mixing in with the dirt,

-water, a water barrel and a 5 gal. bucket,

-a very sturdy wheelbarrow,

-and a shovel, hoe, and trowels.

Adobe Domes At The Northern New Mexico College Adobe Program

Some time ago I did the post-

An Adobe Dome Building,

profiling the dome, above, built in El Rito, New Mexico

 by the Northern New Mexico College 

and it's Adobe Construction Program .

Since the last post was on adobe hornos

 I thought by extension it would be nice to take a look at domes.

Adobe Hornos Built By The Northern New Mexico College Adobe Program

We were on the El Rito campus of the Northern New Mexico College back in the spring 

and I got some photos of the hornos that had been built 

by the Adobe Construction Program there.

Having gotten much interest in the recent post-

Wood Fired Ovens In Baja California Sur,

I thought these ovens would be a nice contrast.

The above photo shows two contrasting styles- 

the traditional one on the right that is found all over northern New Mexico

 and on the left the smaller, lower type that requires less wood to heat up.

Leonard Knight's Salvation Mountain In Niland, California

One of the more amazing places we have been over the years is Salvation Mountain, 

built by Leonard Knight not far from the south eastern shore of the Salton Sea

just outside the town of Niland, California.

Allison had been wanting to go there for quite a while 

and this winter we had the opportunity to see this part of the world,

and she provided the photos for this post.

Architect Focuses On Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo Homes

I recently saw the article Architect focuses on Ohkay Owingeh homes

 in the Santa Fe Real Estate Guide, 

a monthly publication of the Santa Fe New Mexican.

The article was authored by the real estate guide's editor Paul Weideman,

who has done a terrific job with the monthly publication,

as well as write articles on architecture.

Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo is well over 600 years old 

and lies on the banks of the Rio Grande River in northern New Mexico.

What caught my attention was that instead of using grant moneys

 to build new, conventionally built, single family homes,

 as has been done in the past with HUD money, 

the emphasis here is on rehabilitation of existing old adobe homes,

as was noted by the architect Jaime Blosser, 

who has done a groundbreaking job on this project.

As The AIA Santa Fe chapter noted in giving the project an Honor Award

“The brilliance of this plan is that it preserves a national historic treasure, 

not by freezing it in time, 

but by encouraging it to thrive as a natural evolving community.”  

Wow, the concept of letting historical structures

 "thrive as a natural evolving community" (note the word evolving),

must have the historical preservation community up in arms.

You may detect a hint of derision

 towards the preservation police in my comments.

Please read the whole article 

by clicking the first link at the top of this page.

Adobe Workshop In California From Root Simple

In case you missed it from Blogs I Follow on the right sidebar,

Root Simple

 had a nice write up on an adobe workshop held in Southern California-

Mud for the People! Building an Adobe Garden Wall.

The workshop looked good and the write up with photos was excellent.

Enjoy.

Building An Adobe Wall

When properly built and protected,

 adobe is a good material for privacy walls.

(Please note: this post is a reworking of the post:

Notes On Building An Adobe Wall from 2/8/10.)

Adobes In Hillsboro, New Mexico

In the previous posts we have seen:

House Styles In Hillsboro, N.M.,

and Ruins Of The Hillsboro, N.M. Courthouse And Jail.

Now let's look at adobe.

The Annual Mudding Of The St. Francis De Asis Church In Ranchos De Taos, N.M.-Part 2

Please refer to the last post:

The Annual Mudding Of The St. Francis De Asis Church

 In Ranchos De Taos, N.M.-Part 1

 to follow along with the annual remudding 

of this famous church by a strong community of parishioners and neighbors.

Just last summer a service was held here for Dennis Hopper

 before he was laid to rest in Taos.

The Annual Mudding Of The St. Francis De Asis Church In Ranchos De Taos, N.M.-Part 1

The day we were leaving Taos I happened to notice in the paper 

that the annual mudding of the San Francisco de Asis Church 

in the Rancho de Taos Plaza was taking place.

We had to stop by.

Inside La Santisima Trinidad Church In Arroyo Seco, N.M.

On our recent visit to the church we were fortunate to run into the caretaker,

 Manuel, who graciously offered to show us the inside of the church.

This is the fourth and last post on La Santisima Trinidad Church:

La Santisima Trinidad Church In Arroyo Seco, N.M. from last year,

The Cross At La Santisima Trinidad Church In Arroyo Seco, N.M.,

and More On La Santisima Trinidad Church In Arroyo Seco, N.M.

Please take a look at the earlier posts.

More On La Santisima Trinidad Church In Arroyo Seco, N.M.

This is the third post on La Santisima Trinidad Church:

La Santisima Trinidad Church In Arroyo Seco, N.M. from last year,

and The Cross At La Santisima Trinidad Church In Arroyo Seco, N.M.

from the previous post.

Please refer to the earlier posts.

Stephen Kilborn's Solar Heated Adobe Pottery Studio In Pilar, N.M.

One of our favorite stops in northern New Mexico,

 right along the Rio Grande River, 

is the Stephen Kilborn Pottery Studio in Pilar.