Adobe Vista – Cozy and inviting, spectacular view!

Handmade in 2002 by the Peters family of four, Ted, Peggy and two daughters, Elaine (age 17), and Terra (age 13). Everyday 180 adobe bricks were made on-site with local dirt from a ranch. That dirt was hand-sifted, mixed with gravel, 10% cement, water, and love in a giant mixer! Dumped into a wheelbarrow, it was then, poured into a handmade form that looked like a giant bread pan without a bottom, holding nine breads. With handy hoes, we tamped the thick mud several times to ensure no air pockets, and like thick cake batter it sputtered and flopped into its form. Then the tops of the form were scraped with a door threshold and the little mud around the top were cut with a butter knife so when the form was lifted it didn't take the top with it. Left to dry about 5 minutes, then the form was lifted up, which took two people pulling evenly and coming up at the same time to minimize corner damages and birth the perfect nine bricks! Morning bricks were baked enough by the Big Bend sun that by the afternoon, they were turned on their side to dry overnight before being stacked the next morning. It took 3,000 of these to make Adobe Vista. Every brick was levelled and laid. You will see the walls have alternating brick sides, one level is longwise and the next layer was laid short side. This was for added stability of the structure. The adobe is exposed both inside and outside because 10% cement was mixed into the mud, making it possible to see every brick and enjoy the earthly and immense texture of adobe.
Adobe Vista was built for Elaine and Terra to attend Sul Ross State University. Doing so, they enjoyed living there throughout college. Now, nineteen years later Adobe Vista still gives adobe hugs! It's a feeling of comfort and peace that only 18 inches of handmade- mother earth walls can give. We hope that during your stay, you enjoy some of these hugs; they're on us!