What’cha doin’ workin’ in the heat?

With these days each getting waaaay over one hundred degrees, I stop all work, and melt in the house well before noon. I melt slower indoors than out in the sun.

   We were sitting indoors, when we heard a voice call me… ‘John’

   I looked outside, and there was a neighbor from a mile up the canyon. He’d gotten his crawler stuck in some mud while making adobe, and wanted someone to help pull him out.  He’d ridden his quad-runner to our gate, then had to walk nearly a half mile in the heat uphill to get to our place.

   I took my truck over, he was was so deep into the mud, we ended up digging it out.  And my winch wasn’t working… it’s been a few years since I’ve used it. Eh, something else for me to look at fixing. To possess is to be possessed.

  He takes a pile of clay soil, and makes a hole in the center like you might with mashed potatoes, then he climbs his machine into it, and works the treads to mach the clay, mixing it with the water, and he can then add the straw or other materials, and then go about making his walls or paving.

   He impresses the heck out of me with the amount of work he does. I asked him what he is doing working when the temperatures are over one hundred. He smiled and said ‘in his machine, he’s in the shade.’