About 3 months into the project, I found out I was pregnant! After making Stephen a dinner of baby back ribs, baby carrots and baby corn, he looked up at me with the most endearing teary eyes I’ve ever seen! He got it :) It was part of the plan, but the timing was interesting for us. Knowing this project wasn’t just for our well-being now, the news gave Stephen and me even more resolve to see the project through and get the units online! With our new deadline 8 months away, the whole crew banded together to make sure it would happen!
Now that we had transitioned from clearing the land to building the units, each morning we were presented with a unique challenge. We had to call several audibles and get very creative! We liked to call it “cowboying” when we would have to solve unexpected types of challenges :) For instance, a dome is round, but walls are usually square, so that was a fun one to figure out! Also ending up with extra pieces after the dome was “complete”, we never did figure out where they should go!
We often would discuss the challenges after we got a chance to rest and would brainstorm around the campfire at night together. One night after a long day while we were brainstorming, Matt said,
“You guys keep calling this a ranch, but you don’t have any animals…”
Flying over ranch when I found the listing Moving boulders with the dozer Creating 30 foot bonfires regularly
The first part of the project took one year, 16 hour days of working to the bone, with a tight knit crew of six amazing, creative and hard-working people you'll find.
Bringing Oli home to the Airstream had its challenges, so luckily our in-laws were kind enough to let us share their house until… the first dome was complete! We lived with Oli in our Morii dome for about 6 weeks and created some of my favorite memories during that time.
