First Light On Narrow Pond in Ant Village

Slip Straw
hillbilly style:
 dip in clay, throw into double sided forms, and tamp with boards

suspected better R value given lower clay content.
faster?  dipping seems to take less time but twice the time building double sided forms.


new style:
mix in gorrilla cart by layering with thick muddy clay on, then straw layer, then dribble more thick creamy clay infinitum or until cart is full. mix until no dry straw is visible. use one sided form with moving knee board. place and stamp with hands.

dries to much harder and denser wall;
more uniform and looks cleaner on form side;
molds around and adheres to odd shapes without gaps.

...mixing takes time on the new style. so find a faster way to mix with less clay and still use only one sided forms, this would be the fastest

On ground and tree squirrel relations:
things I am not sure I needed to know....
A tree squirrel got stuck in the serpentine belt of a truck when I started it.

Two loud thumps and then my generator light came on.

Tree squirrels are tough and the serpentine belt came completely off so I wasn't sure the little critter was really dead.

Instead of skinning it, cracking its skull for brain, tanning its hide, and offering the meat to Caleb I threw the little critter in the mouth of the den of a ground squirrel.

Came back a little while later and _WTF_ a ground squirrel had torn one of the tree squirrel's lungs out and was eating it.

Now ground squirrels will come sit on my foot and the tree squirrels will yell at them when they do.

Enough gossip about neighborhood drama. This summer is the Summer of Interruptions.

So while the walls of First Light have made height progress, they are not finished.