Site Preparation The house won’t be happening until next building season; though, they did finally get the road built: 4 meters across to allow for truck deliveries of water and gas. They also made sure to keep the natural ditch for the mountain’s water drainage, with a plan to build in a concrete bridge. (See how far up the road has come? And this just from the switchback!) Smaller Ash -Ocatillo - trees were saved for use as roof joists. (These are dried for a few days, de-barked, then stood up so the bugs won’t get to ‘em.) Meanwhile, we’ve measured the layout of the house and dug out the trench for the rubble trench foundation - being careful to avoid a 200 year old Ebony tree. The house plan takes the shape of a hexagon, with each wall at 3.5 m in length and 30 cm in width. When transferring the layout from the plan to the site, choose your center point and let that be the benchmark by which to measure all other points. This benchmark should never move and be very clearly marked. When all stakes are in, connect them with line: this represents the inside wall. We dug the trench 20 cm into the ground twice the width of the walls (For 30 cm walls, dig 15 cm inward and 45 cm outward so that the entire width of the wall will be centered.) Natural Building: Abroad Friday, February 15, 2008 The Building Site for Bridget’s eventual house follows this road up the side of the hill, then turns up to the top.