Making the Adobe Bricks

So, exciting news... the roof is about 1/2 way done! We just need to put up the tiles and skylights to finish up. I will put up pictures later. Please continue to pray for God's provision as we move forward to finish our home!

Today, I want to share a little bit of what I learned about the process of making adobe bricks. I am no expert... just sharing what I saw and learned as I asked questions.

Truly, making adobe bricks is demanding and time-consuming in many ways, but it is a cost effective way to build a house. Especially in many third-world countries.

After weeks of watching these men make hundreds of adobe bricks to build our home and the staff housing... I have a lot of respect and admiration towards these men. They work hard and do their job well!

It takes a small team of men to build several hundred adobe bricks at a good pace. When they first started making bricks for our home back in January... they were making up to 100 bricks a day!

To start off, they made a mixture of mud/clay, pine needles and water... yep, just three ingredients. They mix it and mix it and mix it some more until it holds together just right.

They don't use measurements or anything like that... it is all simply mixed together by feel and how it looks. It is much like cooking without a recipe  ;)

Because of the thickness and the importance of mixing everything together well... they would get in that pile of mud and use their hands, feet and a shovel. One guy chose to work with his mud boots and a shovel while the other younger guy worked with bare hands and feet.

After watching them, it is much easier to work with your bare hands and feet! I didn't try, but I think feeling mud between my toes would feel pretty interesting. HA!

Next, they would fill up wheel barrows full of the mud mixture and wheel it to the end of the long line of adobe bricks set out to dry out in the hot sun. Those wheelbarrows are really heavy with the mud, but they were thankful to use them... most men use plastic buckets to carry the mud back and forth.

Then a simple, wooden frame is used to make two bricks at a time to make the process go a bit faster. The young guy in the red shirt fills one side at a time by packing it down firmly with both his hands and feet (sorry, didn't get a picture of him using his feet to pack down the bricks). We were told that it is very important to make sure the bricks are packed down tightly to prevent cracks and breaks. Makes sense!

After packing it down for several minutes and smoothing out the bricks with water, he carefully lifts up the frame and moves over to do all over again....

That's really all it takes! Yes, it is fairly simple, but it still takes skill to get everything just right for the adobe bricks to last and to build a solid home. Thank God for these skilled workers!

Once dried, these bricks are HEAVY! One brick weights between 20-30 pounds! I lifted up a finished brick to get an idea and I can't imagine trying to lift those bricks up as the house goes up. Talk about a back-breaking workout, but these men are strong!

If you are wanting more information on how to make adobe bricks... here's a couple links to start off with:

• Making Adobe Bricks - Mother Earth News
• How To Make Adobe Bricks

There are tons of videos and simple tutorials out there... just google around!

Thanks for stopping and reading. Do you think you would ever try building adobe bricks to make a house or wall or something?? Would be a fun DIY project!

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Building Our Mud House

Yep, you read that right… we are building a mud house.

Really, it is a house made of adobe bricks.

For those who might not be familiar with adobe bricks… they are basically bricks made from a mixture of mud and some form of dry matter like straw or leaves, but here they use pine needles.

In Honduras, building a house of adobe is much cheaper and more efficient then wood or concrete. Especially when built the right way. I will share, with pictures, later on how they make the adobe... it is a very interesting process!

It has been exciting and overwhelming building our new home.Exciting because we are now making our home here in Honduras permanent. Overwhelming because we have never built a house before... especially a mud house!!

Thankfully, my dad was here for two months to help start the building process for the house. He has almost 30 years of experience with building homes in the USA. Even though building with adobe has been a new learning-curve for him… he has been so valuable with helping us make decisions and being our middle man between us and Pasito, our foreman.

But he is back in the states now.... Waahh!  Thankfully, he will be back in June to help finalize our house (hopefully!).

Because of his absent, it has been more challenging doing it all.. the ministry, our family, the house, the calls, the decisions, etc... but we are trusting in the Lord and so thankfulthat my dad is simply a phone call away when we need to ask questions or make sure things are going the way they are supposed to happen.

Every Saturday afternoon, we head over to our home and look over everything the men have done the past week, make sure everything is done the way we want and discuss different projects for the next week. We go there at least once or twice during the week in the mornings to talk to the men, but I enjoy going Saturday afternoons because everything is quiet... peaceful... and I am able to drink in the views surrounding our new home.

So soothing and breathtaking!

My husband, Jon, has been pulled, stretched and challenged beyond anything he has experienced with the building of our house. At least three times a week he has been calling my dad, updating him on the house, asking questions and being the middle man between my dad & our foreman. Going back and forth in English & Spanish and trying to keep it all straight in his head. He often says he has no idea what he is doing and if he is doing things right and hoping that he is doing things right, but...

I am moved by his efforts to do the best he can do with what little he knows about building a house. His efforts makes me pray for him all the more and love him all the more!

Making phone calls is one of his least favorite thing to do, but he makes those phone calls for me... knowing that I would do it if I could.

I would love to take this responsibility off his shoulders, but all I can do it stand next him and help him carry the burden to the best of my ability.

I know God is using this time... this season... to make my husband a stronger man for the future of Rancho Oasis. Please pray for him when you think of us!

As for me, it has been a challenge to be flexible with how I want my house to look.

I have all kinds of ideas, dreams and specifications of how I want my first (and hopefully last) house to be build. I even have a board on Pinterest dedicated to everything I would love in my "future" home!

I am very thankful that my mom helped draw up the plan for our house. She patiently drew up plan after plan after plan until we were finally satisfied with the layout of everything.

Honestly, I was super nervous when we started the foundation of our house before my dad arrived back in February. I did not want a repeat of mistakes that happened to the house we tried to build on the current property that we are living on at the moment.

So far, things have gone well and I pray that it will continue to go well till the very last detail.

Through it all... I have been challenged to be flexible and content. Especially when a change or two has to be made when a detail doesn't work out the way I hoped it would.

As you can see from the pictures... our home is pretty big, but for a couple good reasons.

I wanted an area where we would be able to host meals for large groups/teams in my home or somewhere around my home and my parents suggested a courtyard in the center of the house.

I loved the idea, but struggled to make a decision because I didn't want to have a large house... especially when our neighbors live in very small and simple homes. I didn't want to be viewed as a rich gringo family with a huge house, but in their eyes... we are rich, no matter how small and simple we try to live.

Through much prayer, we decided to go with the bigger house and courtyard for two reasons... one, to have plenty of space for our ministry partners to eat meals with us and to do Bible studies together as the ministry grows and two, to exercise my gift of hospitality by having teams & visitors in my home for meals.

Many of you know I love to cook. I enjoy cooking up good food for teams (usually have anywhere from 10 to 30 people at once!) that come alongside us for a week or two... so, it made more sense to use our home rather than build a separate building for meals with teams and large groups.

Now, I have to share with you a fun thing we are doing around the house.

Wine bottles in the walls.

Yep, you read that right. Let me explain...

Look at the picture above... see the small windows on the right wall and the 3 skinny windows straight ahead? Those windows will be filled with wine bottles of all colors. Pretty cool, right?

In the two pictures below, you will see bottles in the walls. When the afternoon sun hits it just right.

Does it look awesome?!

Well, they look pretty cool right now, but I will for share pictures later once the walls are done and the light is hitting the bottles just right. Then, they will be pretty awesome  :)

I have a love for glass bottles... especially wine bottles. No... I don't drink a lot of wine, but I do like to enjoy a nice wine once in a while. Haha! Anyway, I enjoy looking at them even more and using them to decorate my house with flowers or just simply as it is.

You are probably wondering what method I use to cut the bottles.

After trying all the different ways to cut a wine bottle... my dad found a method that consistently cut through the glass with very little cracks. 

My dad made a simple frame that we stick my heavy duty glass cutter in and roll the wine bottles on it just below the neck area, then we do a careful combination of heat and cold for the neck part to fall off. Next we tape two bottles of the same width together. I will have to show you guys step-by-step pictures later... when my dad comes back in June.

Please keep us in prayer as we move forward to complete our home. We are trusting in the Lord for His provision to be able to pay the men and buy materials needed to complete the house.

Our home is providing consistent jobs for several men who were not able to find work for several months before we came along. Many of these men are Christian men, including the foreman... who is a pastor of a local Baptist church.

Every time we go over there... there are smiles on these men's faces and gratefulness in their eyes for the jobs they have to provide for their families.

Unfortunately, we recently had to let some men go because we are not able to pay them. We are praying and waiting on the Lord's provision to be able to put those men back to work!

Please pray along with us!

I am excited to be sharing all this with you. I was so encouraged by the responses to my previous post and truly believe that they are confirmations from the Lord that I am on the right track!

I hope you are equally encouraged and blessed! Have a wonderful week celebrating the resurrection of our Lord!

Until next time...

"Where thou art, thou is home"

Emily Dickinson

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