I’m telling you this now because when the machine is running it’s so loud conversation is impossible. Big Pappy and I are mixing mud and filling wheel buggies with adobe for blocks. Pappy’s arms are as big around as my legs. Those protruding dimples rubbing the chassis make rotating the hopper to dump mud a two-man operation. We push so hard we nearly tip the machine on its side. Big Pappy nods, which I take to mean push harder. It doesn’t. The handle slams Pappy upside the head and he gives me a murderous look. “What the hell are you doing? I told you to stop.” I’ve only been on the job an hour and I’m already injuring my coworkers.
Buggies full of the sticky clay, sand and straw mixture that makes up an adobe block are dumped into 2-block forms and smoothed by hand. We have plenty of willing helpers because this is a New Mexico Humanities Council program created to teach the traditional ways of adobe construction (nmhumanities.org). After 2 full days of class a student will come away with a sore back and respect for the ones that came before.
We make adobe block after adobe block. Pat Taylor, our maestro of mud has more than a little Tom Sawyer in him as he makes the hard work of mixing and pouring adobe seem like fun. Several hundred blocks later we have filled up much of the parking lot. After a month of baking in the sun the blocks will be so hard that it takes a solid blow from a hammer to fracture them.
Amazingly, we make a pretty decent looking wall. The lime plaster hides all manner of sin and if you can keep the rain off of your adobe wall the thing will last several centuries.
The mortar, the blocks, the plaster, everything except the lime was made from a mixture of clay, sand and straw. Only the ratios varied depending on what you were using it for. And they didn’t vary all that much. Adobe uses the simplest building material, dirt, and combines it with human muscle to fashion living spaces. It’s the oldest building material yet adobe techniques will likely see use in future human settlements anywhere dirt is plentiful, the land is inhospitable and a Home Depot is far, far away.
By Joe Berk I'm not a Glock guy and it's not likely I'll ever own…
By Joe Berk A.J. Baime writes a weekly "My Ride" column for the Wall Street…
By Joe Berk Very few (if any) final scenes have sparked as much discussion and…
By Joe Berk I've been a motorcycle guy nearly all my life and I've owned…
By Joe Berk This is the first of several book reviews to follow in the…
By Joe Berk The destination on this fine day was Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, part…