Check out the beginnings of our Rumford fireplace at sustainabullies
and check where we are now. Cool, eh?

Many roads to the top of the mountain

Forget cobbing, what a birthday, amazing.

I woke up with mangoes in my oatmeal.

Mike gave me some of his ration of chocolate.

Rachel and I cobbed a whole city in the morning.

Yadi, our mexican chef and entertainer extraordinaire made potatoes with a Mole sauce, and then I got to break open a Pinata (fortunately there were kids there to swipe up all of the chile mango flavored lollipops).

Topei and Rowan baked an amazing vegan birthday cake.

We cobbed some more.

Rachel gave me hand knit socks made from bamboo (feels like silk, comfy and amazing).

Dinner was stir-fry heavy.

We all sat around an aesthetically pleasing fire

Then I come to find a whole lot of love in my email inbox, I truly appreciate it. Thanks y'all

Cobbing Day 6

So after a brief hiatus, I've come back to give you the update of the hour, perhaps even the day.

Today brought more coffee, truckride, cobbing, fresh grapefruit, cobbing, an excellent authentic Mexican lunch, theory, cobbing, cleanup, truckride, rustic dinner, fire, and now blogging. That's pretty much the schedule of the days, except yesterday, which was our day off and needed it was. I think I took 3 naps total throughout the day trying to fight off an impending cold, and I stayed in the tent when I wasn't sleeping to avoid the ferocious wind. I'm glad I'm not a sea man because the open ocean seems to really frighten me. The wind on shore is enough to make me stay back, although the ocean water in the Sea of Cortez is always especially refreshing after a long day of cobbing. It's awful magical when it's totally calm too. The ocean is untamed beast loved for it's beauty and feared by all for the several thousand years, many books have been written on the thoughts I'm regurgitating now.

In other news, we got to go to a hotel for rich tourist last night and soak in the hot tub, because it's the off season and man do they need the bar business. Tourist seasons are strange in warm climates. I'm never really sure when the occur. Is it always in the summer? Or is it a more tolerable time, like the spring. The hot tub was nice though, it was a strange link to back to the states. Everyone in the hot tub who was staying at the hotel was American and they were in Mexico under much different circumstances than we find ourselves, being builders of mud and all.

Everything seems to be under much reversed circumstances for Rachel and Me right now. We are Americans, we currently pay to work(we pawn it off as learning), we ride in the back of a pickup to and from our site everyday, and we are building a house for Mexicans in Mexico. For me, it's an opportunity, that I chose with my own free will, because I think at least I'm trying to learn a decent way to live on the planet. But change the circumstances, and put the Mexican in America, and it's much different, it's about getting your family ahead, or looking for opportunity(or the streets paved in gold). It's interesting the circumstances and meaning we apply to our everyday life. Going to Mexico is a good way to get a grip on it.

Cobbing Day 2 and 3

Rachel has a really good update on the events of the last two days. You can her sustainabullies blog.

The only thing I would add is that the food keeps getting better both here and at the ranch where we are doing our building. Rachel and I did food prep for Lunch today in Yadi's (Our beautiful host) kitchen. Making guacamole in an unlit outdoor kitchen for 30 people while watching the host of dogs pick through the avocado skins in the compost puts you in a good place.

For dinner tonight the vegans and vegetarians were blessed with a flame kissed veggie burger with ridiculous fixings. It's alright, I've gained 12 pounds while I've been here.

Cob Say 1 Day 1

Los Barriles Camp: First Day of Cobbing, We work for Enron!

It’s been an adventure here in the desert so far. The airport brought our tent the second day we were here and we immediately put it up before it got dark. We slept comfortably the first night, but realized that during the day our tent was just a big kite if it wasn’t fastened down properly. Rachel and I made quick use of the rocks around the site and placed them on top of our deeply buried stakes and in the corners of our tent. This was a major improvement. Now we just need to figure out how to add a few more inches of air under our thermarests and then we’ll be set.

The campsite is pretty amazing, specifically, our rustic kitchen. We have tons of propane, two camp stoves, massive bags of all sorts of beans (coffee beans included) and a wide array of organic vegetables from a local farm. Good planning by our hosts (Pat and Kit from Mayne Island, British Columbia and their two twin boys Ethan and Brody) has made for a very welcoming stay so far, and all of the other folks who are participating in the workshop bring a wide array of backgrounds and robust personalities.

But the coolest thing is the cobbing! We had our first day at the site today and repaired a hurricane damaged cob building from a past project (unfortunately the owners were unable to get the outside finished and protected from the elements). Cob is a very versatile and tough building material and we were told that this was not typical of cob structures, but with 25 hands the repairs to the outer wall went quickly with our simple sand and clay amendment. It was a tiring day but it’s amazing how much was accomplished and how much independence mixed with instruction we were given just on the first day. Rachel, myself and everyone else were mixing and applying cob from the get go. Playing in the mud never seemed so easy.

Let’s just say Mexico is still Mexico, it makes a mean tortilla.