Plaster prep

We are back at it after a two week break. We have wraped all exposed
wood that plaster might touch with roofing paper. This is to stop the
moisture in the plaster from soaking into the wood. Here is what I
would do different next time. Wrap your wood before you put the straw
bales in. That would make the job way easier. Then we put burlap over
the tar paper so the plaster will stick to it better.
We made some test patches of adobe with different ratios of materials
to see what worked best with our sorce of clay. We mixed up a batch
and put our first mud on the wall!
We are having a plaster party tomorrow. We've invited several friends
over to help plaster the walls. We rented a mortar mixer for the job.
We tried a cement mixer, but it didn't seem to mix well enough. We'll
see how the mortar mixer does tomorrow.
We have food and drinks lined up and we are ready to get muddy. We
will see how far we get though as the heat index tomorrow is supposed
to feel like 118 degrees. The heat just won't let up this summer.