and practically are used in some of the desert ranches along the Colorado
River. The principal difference in construction between the one shown in
Figs. 50, 53, and 57 and the one in Fig. 55 is that in the sod house the
sod is held in place by chicken-coop wire, while in the ranch-house (Fig.
55) the dirt or adobe is held in place by a number of sticks.
Fig. 50. Fig. 51. Fig. 52. Fig. 53. Fig. 54. Fig. 55. Fig. 56.
[Illustration: A house of green growing sod and the Colorado River
adobe.]
Fig. 50 shows how the double walls are made with a space of at least a
foot between them; these walls are covered with wire netting or
chicken-coop wire, as shown in Fig. 53, and the space between the walls
filled in with mud or dirt of any kind. The framework may be made of
milled lumber, as in Fig. 50, or it may be made of saplings cut on the
river bank and squared at their ends, as shown by detailed drawings
between Figs. 50 and 52. The roof may be made flat, like Figs. 54 and 56,
and covered with poles, as in Fig. 54, in which case the sod will have to
be held in place by pegging other poles along the eaves as shown in the
left-hand corner of Fig. 54. This will keep the sod from sliding off the
roof. Or you may build a roof after the manner illustrated by Fig. 49 and
Fig. 51, that is, if you want to make a neat, workmanlike house; but any
of the ways shown by Fig. 52 will answer for the framework of the roof.
The steep roof, however, must necessarily be either shingled or thatched
or the sod held in place by a covering of wire netting. If you are
building this for your lawn, set green, growing sod up edgewise against
the wire netting, after the latter has been tacked to your frame, so
arranging the sod that the green grass will face the outside. If you wish
to plaster the inside of your house with cement or concrete, fill in
behind with mud, plaster the mud against the sod and put gravel and stones
against the mud so that it will be next to the wire netting on the inside
of the house over which you plaster the concrete. If you make the roof
shown in Fig. 54, cover it first with hay and then dirt and sod and hold
the sod down with wire netting neatly tacked over it, or cover it with
gravel held in place by wire netting and spread concrete over the top as
one does on a cellar floor. If the walls are kept sprinkled by the help of
the garden hose, the grass will keep as green as that on your lawn, and if
you have a dirt roof you may allow purple asters and goldenrod to grow
upon it (Fig. 62) or plant it with garden flowers.