the new toy

because work is play.


as most of you know, i enjoy environmentally conscientious methods of construction. my root cellar is a prime example. although i am not a hippie zealot, well, i might be deep in my soul. nonetheless i construct many things like my chicken coop out of standard materials. i confess that most of the materials for the coop were either free and recycled or seconds and very cheap.

this is the summer of the milking barn. our heifer is due in september and we have solemnly sworn that she will be milked in a barn. to that end, we need to finish the barn and we want to make it out of cob-construction. cob is like sculpting your structure out of clay, literally.

cob needs to be protected from the elements else it will eventually wash away. we plan to lime plaster our cob barn. lime plaster is messy, potentially wasteful and caustic stuff. that is why we needed a stucco sprayer. stucco is usually made from cement but lime, earth and papercrete plasters are interchangeable materials for this applicator. i wish i had this baby when i was making my ferrocrete shell for my root cellar. it would have made short work of the initial shell support structure.

my mortar sprayer arrived yesterday. this thing is elegant and seems robust. i might have to try it at bobs house first since he has a huge compressor. i want to see this thing really preform before i hook it up to my little compressor. i might have to invest in a larger compressor than i originally intend.

i can't wait to try this thing. my new label plaster sprayer will highlight it's use.