What an incredible ride these past five months have been. Indy and I have put 9,000 miles on my poor van- from California up to Canada, then down to Oregon, Colorado, and finally to Taos, New Mexico for the Earthship Academy. She had been to Taos once before but it was my first time and I had no idea what to expect. In my mind, I was there to do a one-month course and then I’d hit the road and likely never return. Instead, I was instantly struck by the natural beauty and the abundant outdoor activities there. For years I’d thought excitedly about the Earthship Academy and all of the learning to take place, but oddly enough that seemed like an afterthought to my experience falling in love with a town I had no intention of liking. There’s a local folklore that the Taos mountains either accept or reject a person, and it appears that the mountains accepted us with open arms. I felt it calling to me, saying “Settle. Calm those wandering legs.”

A few days before the month was over, Indy and I signed on eight acres of land right by the Rio Grande and the gorge. Knowing that we’d want to build a house come spring made a lot of the information discussed in classes feel a lot more relevant and I think I was a better student because of that. A good deal of the information was review for me, since I’ve got a decent understanding of construction and building systems, but it was a great way to boost my confidence that building a home is within our reach.

During our time in Oregon for the eclipse festival build, we brainstormed several workshops that we could offer in natural building, organic agriculture, and plenty of other sustainable practices but we didn’t know where we could offer these courses. Little did we know that less than two months later, we’d be holding the deed to land in New Mexico. She and I will spend the winter working and saving up money, as well as planning out a workshop schedule for 2018. We plan to offer earthbag/superadobe workshops, one on Earthship-style building systems, some on growing food, and a handful of other topics that will be relevant to our projects on the land. If you’d like to stay updated on these courses, I encourage you to follow along with Build Good Things on Facebook and Instagram, as well as subscribing to this blog. We’ll be posting dates and details once we’ve got a better understanding of our timeline for the build.