The trip started off at 10am Saturday morning. Car Packed, snacks in the front, and 17 hours in front of me. I stopped at like 10:30 that night in some podunk town in Kansas, but rest was totally welcome. Got up at 10 the next morning and set off again. Southwest Kansas, Oklahoma, and northwest New Mexico all suck. Boring! Pulled into Robert Laporte's compound at 6 o'clock and was greeted by his intern Andrew who let me know the schedule and stuff. I slept in the West wing of the shop like I did on the road trip back in March.
Woke up at 7 and got some coffee at the market down the hill and geared up for the first day. There are about 12 of us, 8 guys, 4 girls. All ages, but I'm the youngest. Robert had us sharpen our chisels all day, sharp tools is the first step to a well constructed house. The nugget of the day had to of been flat is sharp, if the chisel is so flat you can see your reflection as clear as a mirror it is ready for timber action!
Tuesday-Thursday were all dedicated to the creation of the timbers used to frame the would be 99 sq. ft. "hummingbird," almost identical to the one on Robert's Property that the interns sleep in. Lots of mortises and tenons, those being the main joints that will hold the house up, since no nails will be used in the main construction. I used chain mortises, skill saws, belt sanders, all types of angles, Japanese pull saw, my handy chisel, and many other sweet tools.
Friday we ventured to the site, about 25 miles North of Tesuque. It is located down a long back road, and place 60 feet up a 45 degree slope, with no easy path up. We spent the first 3 hours flattening the slope til it was super level. Then came the part of getting the heavy 2x4 and ply wood foundation up the hill. It took 8 guys on all corners and some serious foot slippage, but we got it up in place. We decided that we wouldn't try and erect the posts that day because it would take too long and we had already had two 10 hour days on our hands, so we decided to finish up monday.
Robert is a master. It is so inspiring to work with him and he has so much to offer. I look up to him a whole lot. This is a life changing experience and I am having the time of my life here. Even with my tent breaking, me sleeping in my car, and me locking myself out of my car twice now, I am having such a great time and learning so much! Everyone is really cool and nice. Meeting new people and expanding horizons.
The first picture is of the site we are working on the rest are of other econests we visited.





This week was all about the walls. Mon-Thurs, we built Larson Trusses to support the clay/straw in the walls, and help span the timber framing together. We began with erecting the timber frame we had created the week before. It really helped my understanding to put it all together, because seeing all the separate pieces was slightly confusing. We christened the house with a branch of pine that will stand erect on the roof until it dies or the building process is complete.
The process of building Larson Trusses is quite simple if you have a jig to help out. So Tuesday we knocked out like 15 of them. Wednesday we brought them all out to the site along with 4 hoppers of clay/straw mix to fill the walls. The morning was spent putting the trusses up and the afternoon we began filling walls. Thursday was all wall filling. It is such an easy process a 5 year old could do it, making it a fantastic community project, but it is labor intensive, so it takes a long time. It took 10 of us about 12 hours to fill a 100 sq. ft. house with 6 inch walls. But now the house looks like a house, but still no hat(roof). Long hours pay off.
Friday was clay plaster and Keim session. Charles we met on our road trip, but he came back to do this workshop. So much fun working with earth plasters, but i dont think it would work in Iowa with all the horizontal driving rain we get. The plaster would just melt off. We plastered the wall we made on the road trip and it looks really great.
So here comes the best answer ever! ??? Keim is a silicate paint that hardens so that clay plaster can work with water. It is breathable and pretty cool, but expensive and Im not sure how a wall repair would work if need be. So that's questionable.
Saturday this weird guy came to do a lime workshop, another natural alternative that would work in Iowa. Instead of turning me onto it he made it sound so complicated that I dont want to use it. So now Im thinking wood siding with an air barrier between the clay/straw walls and the wood panels is going to be the best answer to my needs in building my house.
We had a party with everyone Saturday night. We grilled veggies, pinapple, chicken, salmon, elk, made guacamole, fruit salad, bread, brownies, and later on smores around the fire. To top it off we finished the sauna at the top of the hill and christened it with some late night sweating.
Today, Sunday, is my one and only day off so I've taken full advantage by resting and exploring the city!


The last week was dedicated to building the roof. It is an important step and will be a key part of the houses longevity. Monday was really slow because there are so many beginners here. You have to cut everything perfect or else it has to be taken down and re-fit. Tuesday was more of the same, but much more productive. We built the rafters that the metal roof will sit on when it is put on.
Wednesday we fit the plywood onto the roof an began putting in some T&G into the exposed undersides of the back of the building. The skilled carpenter/builders tried to figure out how to attach the roofs at the corner hips where two different sloped roofs met. They said it was not that difficult but it took a really long time to finish. There was a lot of placing and re-cutting and repeating.
Thursday was my last learning day in New Mexico. We were told that we would learn about how he does rain water catchment but apparently we worked too slow and he took the whole day to finish up what we could on the roof. I got my part of the T&G done and it looked really nice. It absolutely started pouring at about 1:30 and we all kind of huddled inside the house with Sam, the neighbors dog, working while their was a dry spell. It was fulfilling being sheltered by the house we were building. It was nowhere near done, had a lot of leaks, but felt really nice. We all got our shirts and birthday ice cream cake for a guy who lived in Virginia.
We all went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant and had a great time. I really enjoyed all the people there and Robert & Paula were fantastic (Paula made us lunch everyday and it was the best Vegan food I have eaten).


I would recommend this course to pretty much anyone who wants to learn more about natural building. Robert sources his materials as locally and environmentally conscious as he can. He teaches with a stories, jokes, and personal attention. He is extremely talented at what he does, and knows his job inside and out. All of this makes up for a very rewarding and educational class that is well rounded and enjoyable for anyone. I had a blast and would love to do it again.

Working with natural materials like wood, straw, and clay all add to the experience. The fun factor goes way up and I always had a smile on my face. The hours were long but not grueling, the food was tasty, the people were kind and cool, and the most important thing was that the workshop was intended to not only build the building but the builder as well.

Robert asked me the first day what SCI principle I thought related to sharpening my chisel and I thought for a while and came up with "Thought leads to....... Fulfillment." He incorporates SCI into everything he does, not making it blatant that what he is teaching comes from the Veda, but m ore so from a deeper truth of life. I give the experience an "A."