Exciting things are taking place!

I've had a couple of meeting since my last post. Yesterday, Phil, Jessa and I had an impromptu meeting to hammer out some details with the workshops and specific things that need to be completed before starting the workshops. I don't feel like I contributed too much, but I listened attentively.

Today, I woke up early, (said goodbye to Adam, who left today) and went with Phil and Jessa to meet Michelle at the codes office. Michelle had her two kids with her- a baby strapped to her chest and a hyper boy who really wanted some attention- cute as anything. She got her building permit (from the same guy who approved John's- he seemed friendly and fairly excited about the buildings. It was nice to see who the others had been working with for so long.) Her permit was not near as hard to get as John's, since she will have a timber-frame to support her structure. I got to look at the official floorplan for the studio and I think it's going to be beautiful. (For a reminder, Michelle has the strawbale and cob studio. John had the earthbag dome house.) Jessa took a picture of Michelle with her permit, so maybe I can get my hands on that and post it as well.

After going to the codes office, Phil and I met up with John to discuss his house some more. Phil had plans drawn out on his computer, which I think helped me to understand and visualize the house much better. I felt like this was a very good meeting- I understood and felt up to speed with the others. I might owe my cup of Mocha Jo a thanks. I think John's house is going to be wonderful and unique to look at and I really hope that he opts to put bottle in his wall somewhere. I want to put bottles in a wall.

I just typed up a list of things that need to be done before our first workshop at John's on the 16th. I now need to type up short descriptions of each of the workshops so that Jessa can start advertising. I'm not entirely sure how well I will do on this, but I'm going to go give it a shot. Once Jessa posts the schedule and descriptions somewhere, I will post it on here. I don't want to falsely advertise.

I'm feeling good about this. I'm looking stuff up in books and becoming familiar with the terminology and processes. Phil let me look through his tools that he ordered for the summer, so I now know what I need to buy. I'm looking forward to this.

First Day

Hi folks. I haven't been around my computer lately and I haven't wanted to post without being on my own computer.

I had a meeting with Jessa, Phil and John (owner of the earthbag project) on Friday (I think.) A lot was said to finalize plans on John's house. A lot of what is said was technical, design stuff and I didn't feel like I could contribute so much to that part of the conversation; I think I will be far more helpful when we actually start building.

John got a building permit.
This is an amazingly good thing. The entire time I have been involved with this internship, the others have been pushing for the codes office to give John a building permit. There are no earthbag residencies in this region, so codes officials were extremely hesitant about giving the permit. Now, as long as everything goes well in the building process, people who want to build with earthbag should have a much easier time getting their permits. Groundbreaking stuff, kids.

Carol's cob house has been moved outside my internship. She doesn't feel that she will be ready to build until late August/early September, which is past the internship end. I was looking forward to the round cob house, but I will have an opportunity to build with cob when I work on Michelle and Rob's studio.

My internship officially starts today, although I don't think that there's anything for me to be doing today. I'm a little in the dark right now about what I'm supposed to be doing- I'm just waiting for Phil or Jessa to tell me to do something.

In other news, Adam (boyfriend) is visiting for a few days, so I've been playing with him lately. He likes the SENS house and, hopefully, will help me get a bed into the room I'm wanting to move into. Then I can unload boxes.

I have a giant fear that I'm going to kill all my friends' plants that they left with me for the summer.