Just over a decade ago I had the opportunity to to go to Williamsburg, VA with my family. One of the fun memories I have was of the brickyard. Of course, after hours of searching among all of our photo albums, both physical and those on the computer (and give me credit... I booted up three different computers to look at stored photos!), I can't dredge up the picture of me and my boys mixing the clay in this pit, with our feet! But... we were there. Trust me! We were stomping clay and fibrous material that would be used to make bricks.
The simplified recipe for brick making is that you take clay and various fibers; plant matter and/or hair, and after mixing them you let them bake; either in the sun or in an oven. The result will be strong blocks that we call bricks, which are used for building.
We are trying the same approach here. Our 'soil' is basically clay. With our winter thaw we now have access to clay. We can mix that with fibers, as you can see here: I'm seeing some sticks, some grass and some hair. If we mix these, and then let them dry in the sun, we will have our very own homemade bricks!
The only problem is.....
I don't want to make bricks here!
Ewwww. what a mess!
Yeah, that would be a problem. I have very, very sandy soil. This spring will be a real test of wills as I try to create a garden!
ReplyDeleteCourtney
Oh my gosh!! That's a horrible place to bake bricks!
ReplyDeleteROTFL!
ReplyDeletePoor Doc! He wanted to help with baking bricks!
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should think of it as therapeutic..you know like a fancy mud bath:)
ReplyDeleteOh my!
ReplyDeleteI'm testing firefox, and look! I can comment!
Bahahahaha! Horses. ~Gotta love them!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what you call that black clay where you live, but here, they call it "gumbo."
ReplyDeleteHaha, no, you don't want to do that at home. :) cute. Looks like a lot of fun making the bricks in VA and I do give you credit for all the photo hunting, I feel for you!
ReplyDeleteI'm just sure I could make some sarcastic remark about baking and a rump roast (but I won't *laugh*).
ReplyDeleteChamp looks an awful lot like that, except that his mud is head to toe. I think maybe there was a spa day in the pasture or something...no idea ;o)
That had to be a great experience! I'd love to go there and get to do those things as well. It sure makes us appreciate our ancestors and all of the hard work they had to do to accomplish small tasks...those small tasks weren't so small.
ReplyDeleteLana
Haha :-)
ReplyDelete