A successful work party

Last Saturday we were fortunate to host a work party to help us get the 6th lift complete and get the walls to 12 feet tall.  We started the day with help from Matt Jolley and his son, Sebastian, on the wall and the mixers at sunup. 

The sun is rising and Jeremy and Matt are already putting rocks in the wall

Jacob and Sebastian ran the 2 mixers for the morning.  Jeremy and Matt stayed on the wall.  We had another family come help around 9:30, the Wards (Nancy, Mark, Stewart and Electa), and the 4 of them divided up between helping get materials on the wall, sand around rocks and filling buckets of materials for the mixers.  Susan Pauls arrived a little later and jumped right in too!  We kept a good system going and managed to finish the rest of the west wall and all of the south wall in a little over 3 hours!

Electa and Stewart on the left, Jeremy in the middle, Mark and Matt on the right.  Everybody on the South wall!!

Unfortunately, after our lunch break around noon, the Wards had to leave.  We scaled down to 1 mixer and Amber started mixing.  Susan was a huge help until she had to leave at 3 or so and we finally finished the East wall as the sun was setting. 

Susan filling sand buckets for the mixer (Amber)

Putting the finishing touches on the East wall.

As a bonus (that I forgot to take pictures of), my cousin Jessica Bartlett came up to visit too!  It was amazing to get to see her again.  I only wish I'd had more time to talk and catch up.

We are officially 12 feet tall!  The process of moving forms up for the final full layer has already begun and continues all this week.  We are racing cold weather and pushing to get the stonework done!