The Adobero Yard Grant was awarded much faster than the CDBG Grant. Soon it took a life of its own by people who knew about adobes, which I did not, so I spent a few days bending over in the hot Arizona sun working the clay, sand, and water mix, along with sweat, with a small amount of asphalt to help repel water and pouring it into the wooden molds. Then to stack them. First sideways to dry for a few days and then in piles on pallets for transport. An open land commercial site was chosen on the border of the Neighborhood. Any “start-up” business has its rough spots, and we had plenty, but it made sense to make adobes in the heart of the populated adobe residencies, even if the bulk of new buildings would be spread out in the foothills.
Next to a government housing project, a block from our Barrio, the yard experienced constant vandalism and theft, including the poisoning of the two guard dogs we hired to help protect the site. Then we hired as a worker a rough resident of the Project and all vandalism stopped.
Some criticism by adobe-making competition was felt, like a restaurant complaining of another opening next door, but in fact, more could, and did, be gained by mutual inroads into the market, if you have good quality product. Our adobes received praises for their good consistent quality. We did make a better product.
While I was away from Tucson for a year, the Adobero yard closed for a while. I am unfamiliar with the factors leading to the closure. It did get reopened.
We benefitted from the wise compilation of our interactive assets, such as the tool library, local expertise, local rehab clients by the truckload, building seven new homes by people doing their own adobe blocks, etc.
The yard soon stabilized itself and became independent and self-sufficient. Adobe is a high-volume with low margin for profit, with back-breaking labor, but it was a start-up, and a training fountain. Making adobes requires a close and personal attention at the start of a product that will build mansions. The demand for adobe in Arizona is high.
Week after week, as you are working long sweaty hours under the blistering sun, doing mundane chores of mixing, molding, and turning over blocks of mud by the thousand, it is hard to think that you are involved in an incubator activity with much value. Here is where the mind is king. There is an optimum sense of timing, using it well, which differs from individual to individual, and this time can be well spent, not as a life goal, but as a step up to the next level. No mundane task is devoid of the potential for improved wisdom. This is not an excuse to use labor. This is the reality of life. Just don’t get stuck in a dead-end rut, your choice. An entry level job at a MacDonald is the same thing, use it well. Adobe was the physical core of this Barrio, hands on immersion on it at any age was a plus for any future development and maintenance of the surroundings. It’s your brain that can be shackle by an albatross or liberated and propelled by the applied experience.
As karate students know, tedious work now and then can be a fertile ground for an active brain, if time is well used.
What experiences in life, and how early, can lead to a maximum self-realization as an adult? Entry jobs in the employment market are critical for healthy work ethics more than for quick richness.
