Mojave Desert Dome Build - Day 1

First day / intro day - Such an awesome day! The learning was amazing! I showed up at 9am and thankfully was far from the latest person… and pretty much right when the group was heading to go begin the intro to the build. The class I signed up for was a one dome build of 8 - 10 ft diameter and what we are finishing is two domes..

One larger 8 footer and one smaller 5 footer for a bathroom. So suuuuper stoked about that. We covered all sorts of stuff from site safety to build basics - gothic and vaulted arches, buttresses and oh how my little old soul was soooooo happy - discussed doorways, windows, plumbing, electrical, positioning, elemental considerations, Learned how to mix mixture for the bags.. the process.. the … and got a solid intro to how to lay the bags. Intro to the compassing system and also the anchor lines...

We even managed to get 3 rows of bag laid and when we started there were only 3 when we showed up. And we got extra kudos for picking up the process as a team so fast.

We also got a tour of the property and existing domes which are all just as rad as you want them to be.

Our crew is really fun too! Teachers (Kade, Jared and then the owner - Ian and Nicolette) are awesome, sweet, kind and very good at teaching by doing. And our crew is so fun and diverse with a huge ranch of professional talent. Also I was unaware of the CalEarth and Nadir Kahlili engineering and building know how that has gone into these structures.. Learned that you can do these pretty much all over the world with minimal material cost and a good team and oh how my heart soared! I can’t wait to take this knowledge and build other places.

I helped make lunch with Liwi (not how you actually spell it) and Lucas and Liwi is def my favorite so far. She’s soooo much fun and so stylish. Turns out she’s a fashion designer too! We have people from Vegas, CA, the East Coast and ages ranging from early 20’s up to older than me... and nationalities from China to Peru and most importantly… soo much good energy and really sweet, awesome people all interested in learning how to build domes!

I might have had to show up in my sparkle sweatpants (insert facepalm here) due to a not as planned night before.. not getting to sleep at the campground where all of my stuff was and having to grab gear to wear from the apartment.

I also have these terribly awesome and yellow wrap around sunglasses that I was sooo grateful for… AND that got many compliments.

Weather was great though and all in all just a blissful day. Super beat though esp after the unexpected rough start to the week so headed back to the camper and missed dinner with the group BUT made a

delish spiced honey cajun shrimp and maple bourbon salad for dinner .. and then crashed so hard. Can't wait to learn more!