Entrance plaster perfection, Door not so much

Where was our spirit animal today? Coyote ran across the street as we were leaving. Or was it rabbit? Or was it Roadrunner? Meep Meep! He he he. It was a 2 bag plaster day. I was readying the drill to install the door while Raquel pondered (pontificated) the increased difficulty pouring the final layer of the cement floor if the door was installed. As I was fumbling with the extension cord, Raquel suggested we hold off installing the door until the slab was poured, and without any good reason to the contrary, I just said, "Well I guess we're just going home then!" I had forgotten to buy or bring shims to set the door properly, so in a way I would be avoiding doing a bad job by waiting till the floor is done. Raquel pointed out that we had 3 leftover bags of La Habra 100 from last week and a couple of hours of daylight. I found it tough to switch gears, but after wheelbarrowing through the evermore softening sand path to the car and back with the 90 pound bag of stucco, I was back into the plaster groove. We covered quite a bit of bag today and are on track to complete the La Habra Stucco phase of the Baño Dome on the next build day!

Its getting cold in the Mojave in December.

Finished interior plaster in Baño Dome

Plaster done inside the bathroom. Epic Sunset, time for bed.

supermoon, Midnight oil

No matter how early we wake up, we still end up getting to the job site later than we want. The short days, long commute from the desert cabin to the dome and stopping and getting supplies slows us down. But rather than run out the door and grab diner fare, we enjoy the morning and cook breakfast and make coffee. Today, we weren't gonna let the dark chase us away. We doubled down on new batteries for the work light and a new led lantern. Along with the super moon rising, working a few hours after dark was beyond manageable, and mostly fun. The only bummer was our hose spray gun attachment has been slowly unhinging and releasing an unfortunate stream in the opposite direction as the gun points. The high winds made the wet shirt less comfortable, but inside the cozy dome, the thermal mass was slowly releasing the stored warmth of the days desert sunshine. Although I have no pictures today, to prove this, any reader of this blog knows we see impressive and awe inspiring animals out here on the regs. I asked Raquel what her spirit animal was going to be today, and she said hawk. As we parked, we didn't realize we were right under a large hawk who flew from the power line above us, to the one a hundred yards away when I shut the car door. I could see as plain as day, the large brown and white bird of prey was unmistakable.

We have been here for 15 minutes, the sun is going down.

I was sure this was a scorpion.

Supe

Testing the door fit, it is sooooooo nice.

Gorgeous Lady of Plastering (Glop)

Entrance Plaster in the Dark

We gotta get up earlier. We end up working in the dark. I could only get 2 rows inside the dome, scrambling up the step ladder before it was too dim to see and safely scramble up aforementioned stepladder. We settled on focusing the last bag and a half on the entrance rows. It's looking good and we got up over head.