Well I survived. Glad I did not get injured and glad I signed up.
Camping in the car for 7 days was not as fun by the end, but I really did enjoy it.
Some things I learned:
- Wear PPE, and buy the cool helmet as its better than getting a hammer on your head.
- Bring a solar panel as you never know if you will need to charge up a phone more.
- Straw bale construction is alot of manual work. Perhaps more work than typical construction, but alto less materials wasted.
- I think I want to build a small prefab straw bale wall for a small house/cabin.
- I am not as afraid of plaster as I thought I would be.
- I would like a earthen floor.
- I want a cob interior.
- I still want a organic pool.
- Have people build your house as a learning opportunity, and so you can get cheaper labor.
I have learned alot from mistakes:
- Use older work gloves and not newer ones.
- Ask to use all the power tools.
- Do sign up for more workcamps in the future.
- Ask people more how they are financing the project
- Study more of the online materials before camp starts.
- Post daily videos to Insta of things I did and learned.
- Buy land earlier.
- Travel around Colorado more.
- Start planning the house so you know the goals better.
- Do test pannels so I can learn how to make SIPs faster.
Overall I need to update Coorie Home and write about the experience more and include more photos.
But, I will say that I am on the right path and that I do want to do this more in the future and hopefully allow me to travel to Scandinavia for these projects.