Great news! Digging was the hard part. Everything now feels like a breeze comparatively. Even the central volume of earth is easy to remove now that the depth is established. Digging forward is much easier than digging down.
My walls are at ground level, an impressive amount of work to have been done already. Over 400 bags so far! Unfortunately it's not completely apparent since most of it is underground. But once the walls grow higher, progress will be much easier to see. About 5 full days of laying bags brought me this far. That's very encouraging. I could have all the bags laid in a matter of weeks, but I won't because that would be strenuous and unnecessary. I have the whole summer at my disposal. No need to rush.
On the outside of the walls is a coat of pond liner. Perhaps it isn't completely necessary, but it brings me peace of mind to know that water won't be touching the sub-terranian walls of my home. That stuff is not cheap and should be well worth the cost.
I'm choosing to use standard sized bags rather than the long tubes that are used at Cal-Earth. This is because I'm doing construction mostly alone and, although the long bags are more efficient, they are best used with a team of at least 2 people. As an lone builder, small bags are the most practical.
Also, those cardboard tubes you see - those are to hold the bags open while I fill them. They're incredibly helpful.
This is hard work, that's for sure. Backbreaking work. I grunt like an old man when I get out of bed in the morning. But I'm toughening up to it. My body is acclimated to the labor and it's becoming more mundane, and that's not a bad thing. Because the more I work, the less strenuous it becomes. I'm starting to do it automatically without much thought. By the end, I hope that my body can effortlessly recite the motions while my mind rests at ease, turning it into a zen exercise, and watch my home take shape as if it's growing on its own.
