Today Chloe and I started a secret project which we will surprise Gail and Kenji with on their next visit to Alta. The idea came from our stay at the spa at Asamushi. The spa had an outdoor tub made of smooth river stones. When I stepped in, it was still raining from the storm that had caused us so many problems. It was dark out, and the light rain falling into the rotemburo, the wet black rocks and steam rising out of the tub was beautiful and relaxing. I decided that we should try to build something like it, but on a much smaller scale in Alta. I knew the perfect location too: right next to the river so that you could compose Haiku, sip sake and wait for inspiration while the water flowed in front of you.
The engineering of it was another matter however. I didn't want to have to spend the same amount of time designing it as with the other tub, but one major advantage we had was that we already had a source of hot water: Tub #1! In fact, we already had a hose running down from the first tub to the site where I wanted to build the rock tub. In theory, all we would need to do would be to fill the other tub to the very top, get it very very hot, and drain it down into the rock tub. It remains to be seen whether that will work or not!
As far as the tub, as usual we under estimated the amount of mortar we would need and only bought two 80 pound bags initially. On the first day we dug a hole in the ground, which turned out to be back breaking work. The soil is full of stones and required a lot of hands-and-knees-cursing work, but we eventually had a hole that was big enough (notice a selection of the stones that we had to pull out by hand at the lower left):
Next came the mortar, the carrying and mixing of which also turn out to be back breaking work. We poured a ~1.5 inch floor and pressed smooth river stones into it, and were able to build a row of rocks before we ran out of mortar.
Exhausted and dirty, we took baths in the working rotemburo on the deck. I used our new Hinoki bathing stool and bucket to wash off japanese style before getting in the tub. It's a beautiful time of year to be up there, and even more enjoyable to be in a deep bath! We grilled sausages for dinner and walked up to the oak forest to see the light in the trees
The next day after bouldering we went back to Hills Flat Lumber in Colfax for FIVE eighty pound bags or mortar. Let me tell you, it was no picnic getting these down to the river. We built up the walls, and got a lot better at choosing rocks and mortaring. It's a shame there weasn't some way we could have practiced beforehand, because the bottom is a lot sloppier than the top. Oh well.
The real questions now are a) is it big enough and b)will it leak. As I said, the bottom wasn't done all that well. I guess we'll find the answers to both questions next weekend. We might have to build it up a little higher, but we have the mortar to do that. All in all it was pretty inexpensive: ~$40 for the mortar, the stones were free, and $18 for a small stainless steel drain pipe. I managed to get some mortar into the drain so I'm hoping that it isnt clogged! I don't imagine Drain-O can dissolve concrete.
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, then went back to Alta for baths and dinner.
