Wellsville, Colorado

For the past 3 weeks I've been working on an Earthship build just outside of Salida, Colorado. I have one week left and the build will be done (we're not doing finishing work though). Over the past few weeks I have furthered my knowledge about Earthships and got hands on experience working on various facets of the house. I've also got to meet and hang out with so many cool people from all over the country and the world. In this post I'll focus mostly on the build and the next post I will write about all the extraneous adventures I've been on since being here. 

The Earthship on the first day I arrived

The roof on the first day of work

For the first two weeks I worked on the roof under Rory's supervision along with a few others. I worked on making can walls up to the vigas, stapling down roofing paper, screwing down insulation, attaching gutters, bending metal for the gutters and vent boxes, and more. 

Cutting gutter supports with Abbey

Rolling out the roofing paper

Attaching the gutter with Vera and Abbey

Screwing down insulation

Bending metal with Vera

For the past week I've been working on metal flashing on the second level patio under Phil's supervision.

Cutting metal

We did the metal flashing under the windows and vent boxes

 Now for around the site...

Kirsten working on a glass bottle wall

Rafael putting plants above the garage arch

Front of the house

Aspen and Anna working on the can staircase

Side view of the house

What the Earthship looks like now

We start work at 8, have an hour lunch at 12, and then start cleaning up at 4. At 4:30 the client provides everyone with beer and we all sit together after a hard day's work. Most of the volunteers camp on site. We have kitchen and campfire areas in our tent city.

After work relaxing

Friends after work

Bunch of dirty hippies

Becky & Tal

Hanging out by the fire in camp

View of tent city from the roof

The weeks have flown by. Working all day and there seems to always be something going on after work, either going into town for trivia or the pool, going to a neighbor's for a cookout, or having a fire in camp. It's a lot of hard work but it's so neat to see how everyone is working on different things and it's all coming together.

Next: Post on Salida adventures