I’ve been terribly neglectful on the blog-front, I know. Busy, busy, hot, hot… you know- the life of a natural builder. Temperatures have been hitting between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius for a little over a month now, yesterday hit 40, and I admit to dragging my ass. I can get approximately half the work done in the same amount of time once temperatures reach about 25 so it’s slow going right now but it’s going.
I’m fitting lighter work in between bags. I’ve already had heat stroke a couple of times in the last week (in addition to falling off a wall- again, taking a nail through the foot, and bruising the right side of my body in an attempt to save myself from falling) so it seems a not bad idea.
Yesterday I worked on the arched nooks we built into the structure. You can see in the pictures below that I used rigid foam board (found, can’t remember where), chicken wire, and some staples. It came together relatively easily and I’ve applied the first plaster coat. I’m looking forward to seeing the finish product once we move forward with interior plaster. I think the spaces will be really neat.
arch form removed
rigid board & chicken wire
first coat plaster
now the wall needs plastering
Canadian Dirtbags 
Nooks are always useful. You’ll probably wish you made more!
Nice nooks – we’re very much looking forward to doing things like that (which are one of the primary attractions of thick walls for us) as well.
On the heat front, we’ve pretty much decided that our building season will be about the reverse of yours and focused in late fall through early spring. In our area of northeast Georgia, it’s seriously unwise to do heavy outside work for much of the day during the summer months.
Do be careful about the heat exhasution; I’ve read that once you’ve had it, your body can actually become more susceptible to it.
Doug