Adobe Workshop at TBSI

Last fall, Dana Echohawk and I took the adobe restoration class at the Traditional Building Institute at Snow College. This is the interior wall of the TBSI house that we worked on during the three-day workshop taught by Doni Kiffmeyer. 

This is Doni's book. He was an excellent instructor and the entire group came over to the house after the class. He has been kind enough to give me some recommendations for proceeding with our preservation work.

This set-up for sifting sand is called a "grizzly". Here's Dana doing the shoveling.

We made our mud plaster by digging a pit in the TBSI yard, sifting out the large rocks, and then adding water, straw, and sand to make a stable mud plaster. It's a lot of work, to be sure, but isn't it amazing to think about what our ancestors created with the skills they had and the limited resources they had access to? Lets not forget the Indigenous peoples whose resources became even more limited.

Look at this gorgeous crop of wild plums from the trees by the creek. Dana and I picked all that we could reach and then she took them back to Colorado to make jam, and then she brought several jars back to Ephraim for Memorial Day for everyone to try!