A couple of weeks off...

I've mentioned before that each week there seems to be something that hinders our construction progress. Well, these past couple of weeks, it was a health issue.

We were going to leave Abe's folks' place Sunday 12th April, after Leo's birthday, but I was feeling poorly and wanted to stay close to the toilet. I was sick all morning – a minor case of food poisoning.

My stomach hurt all day, and that night the pain dropped to my pelvis. The morning brought no relief, but I figured that whatever had made me sick would pass through my system soon. At least I no longer had an upset stomach. So we set off in the direction of home.

We had to pick something up in El Paso, Texas, but it wasn't ready, so we had a few hours to kill. Abe took Leo and the two friends who'd come with us to the zoo, while I slept in the car.

When they got back, the pain had become almost unbearable and I eventually agreed to let them take me to the hospital.

I was admitted at 5pm, doubled over with pain. I finally saw a doctor at midnight. They sent me for a CT scan, and performed a couple of excruciatingly painful internal examinations. At about 4am, the doctor came to tell me that I had PID, a sexually transmitted pelvic infection. Both Abe and I told her categorically that this was not possible, but it remained her diagnosis. I was given a shot of antibiotics, a prescription for antibiotics and pain meds. I was then released at 5am.

After sleeping the rest of the morning. we decided to try for home again, hoping that the antibiotics would kick in and help me out. At the very least, I was so drowsy and hurting that I would sleep the whole way home. Not to be. Abe called his parents before we set off, to let them know what had happened, and the hospital had called them telling them we had to return.

We went back to the hospital, where a different doctor had examined my CT scan – my appendix had burst and I needed an emergency operation. Once my blood pressure had risen a little over 90/40 they wheeled me into the operating room. The next thing I remember, I was coming to, with Abe at my side.

The appendix had burst, and I'd had an huge abscess. The drain they left in for 4 days was almost contantly running. Yum yum!

I wasn't able to keep down any food for a week after the op, but once I stopped throwing up everything I got a lot better.

We went back to Abe's folks for a week, while I got stronger. Not sure what we would have done without them. They helped Abe, who had probably had a rougher time than I did, look after Leo.

We are now back home, safe and well, and slowly getting back into the house. I feel great and have recovered very quickly, feeling almost zero pain or discomfort. Unfortunately, I have a cold now, but once that passes, I will be right as rain!!!!

Leo's Big One

After a couple of days working on the house this week, we set off to New Mexico to celebrate Leo's first birthday with his grandparents. He's getting to an age where the last thing he wants is to be strapped down in a chair for nine plus hours. However, we went with some friends, so there was always a couple of people in the back to play with him, and he didn't do too bad.

Once he'd recovered from the trip, he had a great time. After the confined space of our house, he really enjoyed the open carpeted floors of Jim and Vickie's. He got a musical ridable train, which he loves riding and pushing around. He played ball, rode on a little wagon, petted horses, reached for ceiling fans, took baths.

And he is now taking up to ten steps at a time, still between people (not quite confident enough to take off walking without anything in sight to grab hold of).

There's a bunch of photos and videos here.

First steps

Leo has taken his first steps, or should I say hurried stumbles forward?

He has been standing on his own for a while now, and for a long time. He'll be cruising around, and then, when you say "bravo", he lets go of everything and starts clapping. He also bends down to pick up toys and then stands up again with the toy in hand, all without holding on to anything. So we knew it wouldn't be long before he started walking. He's not quite there yet, still a little hesitant about walking without a crutch, but little by little he's moving forward.

He has also figured out that lifting up my shirt means that he can get to the boobies unaided, and he finds this hysterical. He starts to push my shirt up and says "boob-boob", then either pats them or puts his face up to them and laughs. A friend was holding him with his back to me, and she asked "where's mama?". Nothing. No response. "Where's boobies?" He instantly turns to find me. Well, I guess I know my place!

We have switched him over to a cup with handles, which he now drinks from on his own. He loves it, and takes every opportunity to guzzle water. You would not believe how much he has peed since being allowed total control of his own cup! He also will not allow you to feed him with his spoon. If he's eating from his spoon, he has to do it himself. If you want to feed him soup or something liquid, you have to use a different spoon! Incidentally, he ate his first canned baby food this past week. We bought a few cans for convenience, if we were super tired or running out of fresh food. He was not overly impressed. He ate it, but his expression showed that he was disappointed in us and the offering we were making!!!

His favorite game right now is chase. No matter what he's doing, if you say "I'm going to get you!", he stops everything and starts running and giggling. Unfortunately, he thinks it's even funnier if he starts to run out the door!

He still loves any kind of rough game - being thrown around, upside down, sideways. He has absolutely no fear of anything. If you put him on the bed for a second, he'll race to get to the edge, and if you weren't there, he would go over it without a second thought. He'll also sit on your lap and throw himself backwards. So far, we haven't dropped him, but one of these days...

The one downside to his development is that he is slipping backwards with the diaper free. We have a girl up here looking after him while I'm working on the house, and she doesn't put him on. So he has stopped asking. He still poops in the potty for the most part, but he rarely asks to pee anymore. Oh well, no biggie.

Photos

Roof begins!

We gave up waiting on the wind and decided to start the roof anyway. We are beginning with the roof on the building we're living in. (photos)

We did it in sections, 8 foot at a time.

We lay 2 layers of 4" polystyrene down. The wind caused less problems than we had thought, although several pieces did fly off and down the hill! We then covered this with black plastic, and put remesh over the whole thing, tying it into the gutters. At this stage, it was all held down really well and the wind ceased to be a problem.

We put bits of polystyrene under the parts of the remesh that touched the black plastic and poured a concrete slab over it all. The concrete was a 3:1 sand/cement mix with fibers and a waterproofing agent added. We will later put another layer over the whole thing once the gutters are done. 3 of us got 16 foot doone in a day, a tiring day!

It has begun!

We have already noticed the difference in temperature inside the room.

Bits and pieces

While waiting for the wind to die down, we filled our time by doing some odds and ends.

Abe prepped the roof of the room we are living in for the roof by tying rebar and lathing to the gutters, as they have to be lengthened to allow for the insulation. (photos)




I did a little more work on the flowers beds. (photos)




We then poured the backing and shelf behind a bench we'll be making in the living room. (photos)

Little by little...

It seems like each week there's a new obstacle to slow us down. This week was super strong winds, which meant we couldn't advance on the roof, as we have to put polystyrene down first, then black plastic, and finally reinforced concrete. Instead we worked on other projects inside the shell.

Abe wired the house (photos). We have AC and DC plugs, while all the lights are wired with DC (more efficient for an off grid power system, as no inverter is needed).

I finished the bottle wall (photos) and did another fabric formed post, this time criss-crossing rope on the outside of the plastic form to embed a pattern in the concrete (photos). We also did some finishing details on the walls.

After that we started on the south wall flower beds (photos). In the dining room and living room, the whole of the south wall is window. At the base of that window, we are building flower beds for year-round growing. They will be fed by the grey water from the bathroom and kitchen. We dug out the dining room bed, lined it with black plastic and made the rebar/remesh/lathing frame. We then concreted the base, using a waterproofing additive.

Tractor

We just bought a 1965 Model 1010 30 HP John Deere tractor!!!! Abe had planned to build us a tractor later down the line, but this one was for sale in the village for $800 and we just couldn't pass it up! We'll have to replace the brakes, but other than that it is in great condition. Abe did a little work on it yesterday and then he drove it up to our property. Just look at how happy he is....

We'll add more photos here as we get attachments and do things with it.