Roundhouse RUMBLE: Help Us Finish our Earthbag Walls

All right, friends. The Roundhouse Rumble has officially begun. >> As you can see behind us, there is a boom lift. It is here. It is happening. We are inviting our community to help us finish the Hyper Adobe Roundhouse walls before the end of the year. [music] >> Is this crazy? >> Yes, it is. >> But you know what it does mean? It means that we get to share a ton of updates all throughout December as we [snorts] race towards the end of this huge milestone. >> Keep watching. We have a lot more information on how all of this is going to work and we have a sneak peek of our progress so far. [music] >> Here's where we left you in the last roundhouse video. >> I believe we were working on course 21. >> Yes. And so course 21 took forever because we had to build all of the lentils and then we had to set and install all of the lentils and then we had to lay the bag around the lentils. How many how many lentils? [music] >> Uh 36 >> 36 lentils. It was nuts. And then after that, we needed to do what I called the great equalizer, which was like a half course of 12-in HyperDubby bag because [music] we wanted the height of the lentils and the height of our bags to be as close as possible. And there's a reason for that. >> We're calling this course 21 and a half. [laughter] >> The half course was important because [music] if you look at the design of our house, almost every wall has a break in it. Whether that's a door or [music] a window, there's a lot of breaks. And so our walls have been broken [music] for like 15 layers up to this point. And so this layer that's going over top of the lentils is like super important. It's kind of like a reset for everything. It ties everything back together. We wanted long, unbroken, level layers as we continue up. >> Now, in complete transparency, we are so tired of laying bags. And I'm sure you're [music] tired of watching us lay bags. Our kids are tired of laying bags, it was time to ask for some help. >> Yeah, guys, we we hit the dip pretty pretty hard. Even though like it felt like a big a big milestone to get the lentils in, [music] we were just like like it's so tall now. It's gotten infinitely more complicated. is taking way longer to lay horses. [music] And so, yeah, we're really bad at asking for help, but I think we realized around October that [music] we needed some help. >> It was time. >> Um, and and part of that is people, which we'll get to in a minute, but the other part is equipment, right? So, we looked at all [music] sorts of stuff, different scaffoldings, um, augers, >> conveyor belts, >> conveyor belts, uh, lifts, like all these different things. And for various reasons, we couldn't find anything that would work in this house because it has [music] so many weird areas that you have to get to and it's not deep enough in some areas. And then we have door forms. [music] And the trust us, we thought a lot about I know you guys left a bunch of comments with a bunch of suggestions. The only thing that we could come up with that would [music] actually work for us is an articulating boom lift. Not a straight boom lift, which they tried to send us. And I was like, "Nope, I need the articulating one because I have to go up and over and down for certain walls." It's complicated. You're going to see all of this eventually. But yeah, we we decided to rent this thing for a whole month, but we also realized we needed more hands. [music] >> A lot more hands. >> A lot more. It didn't The lift is great, but we need more hands to move more dirt to actually get this thing done in a reasonable amount of time. So, we have rented this boom lift from November 7th through December 5th, 2025. We've invited members of our local and online community. Some of them are camping with us. We're feeding them each day. [music] We're building each day. And we are we're making progress. >> Now, if you are like me and looking at your calendar and thinking, "Hey, it's well past November 7th," you are correct. We are well into this roundhouse rumble, [music] >> but we are too busy right now to share it with you. >> It is It's a lot. [music] >> Yeah, >> it's a lot. We're going to get to that in a minute, though. [music] [music] >> So, what's the plan? >> It's a great question. I'd love to tell you. Um, [laughter] we have a lot of milestones that we are hitting as we are laying these final bags on this house. [music] You got to remember there are four circles. The inner circle will be the tallest at about 12 ft and the living room circle is the largest diameter and the furthest out. So, it'll be the shortest at about 9 ft. The last layer of these walls is actually going to be a concrete bond beam that our roof is going to attach to. [music] >> We are not focusing on that as part of the rumble. We're just focusing on bags, but it's important to know that because the last bag that we lay needs to [music] mechanically bond to that >> bond beam >> bond beam bond. Lots of bonds. So, just keep that in mind. We're focusing on earth bags. We'll get to the bond beam later. Cool. >> Cool. The big living room circle is the closest to being finished. We've already added hurricane straps, so it's just a matter of laying three more courses to get [music] it to the right height. The big kitchen window is going to need its lentil on top of course 22. So, we'll be installing metal I-beams to support that span. >> The bedroom circle is next. It needs five more courses and hurricane straps installed on the top of course 22. The hallway circle needs eight more courses and straps on 25. >> And the inner courtyard circle is the most complicated circle of all of them because we're going to be adding transom windows above the three [music] windows and the door. The transom windows will be on top of course 23. And in between these forms, we're going to be adding hurricane straps down low on course 23 and [music] then above them on course 27. In total, this wall needs nine more courses. It's the tall one. Remember, it goes 12 ft high. You might be wondering about the straight walls that intersect these circles because they're all different heights. Well, that basically just means that [music] on the high side that connects to the high circle, it will gradually step down. So each layer will get shorter and shorter and shorter or taller and taller and taller depending on which way you're going. But we'll get to all that during the rumble. >> Now we know this is a ton of earth bags. It's a ton of dirt. It's a ton of work. And you might be asking, are we even going to be done by December 7th? >> So based on our current progress, I would say no. We're not going to be fully finished with the walls by December 7th. But at that point, we should be able to decide, do we rent the lift longer? Do we approach it a different way, which we might be able to because by that point we should only be working on the two inner circles, we should have most of the outer stuff done. >> I do think that if we keep working on it the way we are right now, we should be able to finish those walls by the end of December, but we're going to need some help. And that's where you come in. now. Like we said, we're well into the Rumble. We've had a bunch of people already sign up and so unfortunately we're having to close the applications for what we'll call phase one of the Rumble that ends on December 7th. We just we don't want too many people here. We figured out the right amount and we're good. >> Now, there is a chance that we will extend the rental and this Rumble well into December, but if we do that, we will let you know when that application is open if you would like [music] to come help. >> And in the spirit of being better at asking for help, we are going to open up the opportunity [music] to donate cuz if you can't come physically, we have a lot of people to feed. The lift is expensive [music] to rent. Um, we have a lot of materials we're having to buy as we're moving through these [music] pieces of the process really quick. So, over at tinyshinyhome.com/rumble, there's a button to donate through PayPal. If you want to help us get through this a little faster, we'd really appreciate it. >> And the reason that we're opening this donation is because so many of you have reached out and asked, "How can you help? You can't physically be there, but you want to be a part of this [music] house." So, this is a way for you to do that. So, we will be posting daily videos [music] Tuesday through Saturday through most of December, starting early December, which means next Saturday there will be no video because we've got to get organized. We got to get caught up. We're still laying Earth. It's a whole thing. We just need a little more time. >> Who would have thought that we'd be doing daily videos in the middle of the holiday season? [laughter] >> Not us. >> Merry early Christmas. While we started this month deep in the dip of earthbag exhaustion, I can say that the last couple of weeks with everybody here showing up every [music] day and helping us has really re-energized me. I don't know about you. >> Well, I am tired. >> Well, yeah, like we're physically exhausted, but I think like our [music] excitedness about the build has been reinvigorated. >> That's true. Like these walls when you walk in here, they're so much taller. [music] It feels more like a house and it's very encouraging to think that one day soon these walls are going to be done. >> Uh, and we just have to say like thank you so much for >> sticking with us, >> sticking with us through this crazy, insane, massive project and watching us lay earth bags >> for years, >> a year and a half up to this point. And like we're really we really want to bring this part home for you and like get you excited and get us excited and like reach [music] this milestone together. >> By the time we're laying these earth bag walls, we will have close to a million pounds of material [music] in this house. >> What is wrong with us? >> Hey, it's a great way to end 2025, I think. >> Agreed. So remember, daily videos Tuesday through Saturday starts early December. You can help donate to help us finish this thing at tiny shinyhome.com/rumble. And we did promise a sneak peek, didn't we? >> We did. >> We did. So, here's what's coming up. 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