Becoming Masons

In this episode we explain why learning some masonry skills has been really important for us!

Hi - We are Douglas and Keri! In May of 2022 we quit our jobs and sold our home in Denver, Colorado to move to our 36 acre off grid homestead property in Cochise County, Arizona. Follow along with us as we build our homestead from scratch!

Since the chicken coop is officially done, we now started 3 new projects including the house...yay!!! We are currently working on our off-grid bathroom, a small storage shed, and the attached greenhouse portion of the house!

Most of you know we have TONS of free rocks on our property and has been such a blessing. We probably would have spent tens of thousands to bring all these rocks in. Doug is going to show you all about dry stone stacking and the different types he has incorporated into our building.

We just finished a small spiral based garden bed right outside of the chicken coop. This is an example of dry stone stacking without using shaped rocks. This can be unstable, but is fine for holding a planter box and it doesn't need to be super strong. If a rock falls off, we just fix it as needed.

Hugelkultur: We have used Hugel mounds extensively when we lived in Colorado to help build soil structure and we are using them here too. This plantar box is filled with local sticks, twigs, and small rocks. This will break down over time and will give us better soil. It will also help the area to retain more water and the planter placement will also help with water control next to the driveway.

Gabion baskets: We have used these all around our property. It's a simple cylinder made from fencing material and then filled with rocks. They are great in lieu of a traditional T-post in areas where you can't drive a post in and we think they look really beautiful too.

We love the history of how stones have been used in ancient structures many of which are still standing, or partially standing, today. You'll see many instances of stone mentioned in the Bible. One of the greatest structures ever built using stone was Solomon's Temple. The Temple was built by an estimated 3600 Master Mason's, 80,000 hewers of stone, and 70,000 laborers who were not masons.

We have a WINNER for the "name our unexpected baby goat contest" and it is @Anthrit !!! The name we chose is "Valentine" because little girl goat was born on Valentine's Day and @Anthrit was the first one to suggest this name. CONGRATULATIONS and we also want to thank @Anthrit for being long-term subscribers to our channel and following our journey :) Please email us your shipping address at: tworebelsoffgrid(at)gmail.com and we will get your prize sent out :)

See you all soon!

Check out our Cochise County Resources page at TwoRebelsOffGrid.com

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DISCLAIMER: Douglas and Keri are not contractors and the information contained in this video is for entertainment purposes. Please make sure to do your own research!

Once again, thanks for following along with us and we hope to inspire you to live your best life, whatever that might mean for you!

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