Courtyard adobe wall goes up

Our sons Forrest (foreground) and Cameron help pour the concrete bond beam that caps the adobe wall.

Cameron and I leveling the concrete

Filling in the forms with concrete up over the entry. Lyle (not visible in this photo hoisted over 5,000 lbs of dry concrete mix over the course of the day. He wasn't tired until I shared this info with him.

Me, the entry gates and a lot of snow.

Entry gates looking from the outside of the courtyard.

The Courtyard wall
In late June we began work on the courtyard wall. We had enough 7" blocks from the house build to complete this project. Lyle stayed on to construct the wall and to help with the bond beam. Our sons came for a visit in July and we put them to work on the bond beam as well. The wall was complete (less iron work and entry gate) by mid August. Jenny went straight to work planting the courtyard to get things started before the cold weather arrived.

The Energy Tour
In September, we volunteered to put the house on a tour of homes that demonstrated low carbon footprint energy use.  The geothermal heat pump, adobe thermal storage, passive solar design, CFL lighting, and energy star appliances throughout were the story for our presentation. It was a fun event...but exhausting!

The entry gates
I designed and built the entry gates through the winter and installed them in February. With just a vague initial idea of what they should look like, they took on a life of their own. We were pleased with the results.