I guess you could say I’ve reached my breaking point. I’m referring to that literally. As those of you who have read my blog from the beginning know, I suffer from permanent injuries from an accident when I was a firefighter. Well I have reached the point where I just did way too much and now I need time to heal.
So in my last post I showed the rebuilding of the cement mixer. Having to weld and grind leaning over at those angles really aggravated my back. So when I was done with the cement mixer I was pretty sore and I should have stopped and rested, but I didn’t. As you can also see from my last post I decided to move and stack all of bricks that we had made. I needed moved so I could have the space to make and lay down more.
Well, let me tell you what a mistake that was. Ok let me explain. Rather than picking up a few bricks at a time and making a hundred plus trips to move the bricks I decided to use my garden cart. Now when you lift a brick that is between 8 and 10 pounds you don’t think about the weight much but, when you get a cart loaded with 40 – 50 bricks it turns out to be really heavy. Somewhere between 400 to 500 pounds. Well a normal healthy adult could handle moving that cart all afternoon and just be sore the next day. Me on the other hand, well I knew I was hurting after the second cart full but, I had more to move so I kept going. Being stubborn does have some advantages but, it also has some disadvantages. One disadvantage is that now I have to take time heal.
My injuries are essentially the whole right side of my body, my back, neck and my head. I know that sounds like a lot but, it is and it’s painful. Most of the time I just control myself and deal with the pain to get things done but, when I push it like I did with moving the bricks my body pushes back. I’m sure some of you out there can understand that. So I just take some time, maybe a few days to a week, to recover and let the pain level come back down so I can get back to work.
Ok I’m sure someone’s asking by now, “Why is this guy talking about this? What does this guy hurting have anything to do with building the kitchen?”. Well I’ve talked to a lot of people about my kitchen project and they are surprised and astounded at what I’m doing. Most of them, who are in much better shape than I am, don’t believe that they can do anything like that and are shocked and amazed that I’m able to build this kitchen. I want people to understand that I’m working on things a little bit at a time. Yes sometimes I do a little too much and I have to recover from it but, once I recover I’m back at it. I want people to understand that if as injured, messed up and as out of shape as I am that if I can work with these materials and build this kitchen then just about anyone can.
Yes I said just about anyone can do this! Let me say that again, just about anyone can do this! We live on, around and in earth so why not work with that earth. This whole process builds out of a mixture of clay earth, sand and water. This is just an advanced form of playing in the mud. Only now when we play in the mud it has purpose. The wonderful thing about playing in the mud is that you can always come back to it, get it wet and play with it some more. As you’ve seen on this blog my kids have been involved and been able to do this. At this point the youngest child to get their hands in the mud was 10 years old and I’m in my 40’s disabled with permanent injuries. So like I said just about anyone can do this and I want to encourage others out there to go for it. Don’t be afraid and think that you can’t do it, if you can play in the mud then you can make bricks, benches, walls, floors, ovens, fireplaces, planters, saunas, even houses and whatever else you can think of.
Ok there are always those people who say well what if I mess up? It’s mud, get it wet and do it again until you get what you want. There are also those people who say well I’m not artistic or creative. So what? Since when did you have to be artistic or creative to play in the mud? The best thing that I can tell you is to get out of your head and stop thinking about what you can’t do. Just think about what you want, maybe make some sketches to work from or draw more detailed plans if you like. Some people don’t draw anything and just go for it. Whatever works for you just go for it. If you can think it you can build it.
One quick note about building with earth. I hear people say things like how poor people live in dirt houses. When I hear that stuff all I can say is that I want to live in a dirt house. People build with materials for several reasons. They use what’s available, what they’ve been convinced to use or they use materials for prestige. Believe it or not in the “Modern Countries” (in quotes because I don’t think the ideas of not beings honest with the countries populace or finding ways to keep people down in order to make money from their misery are modern ideas) the last 2 reasons are the most common. Building with earth is not for the poor it’s for the most responsible. It costs the least, is the most ecological way to build and is available to everyone. It’s also fire proof folks. What more could we ask for? So don’t be afraid to play in the mud.
I’ll be posting more after I take a little time to heal.