The first day of our workshop kicked off with a brief tour of our (mostly) complete strawbale cottage. It was hilarious to see so many people crammed into the tiny space. While everyone was looking around, I turned on our stereo and asked for requests. Almost immediately, Jess piped up with "Brick House." Instant dance party!
After that, it was down to the workshop for the class introduction—a meander through all things strawbale, with a free-form question and answer session on everything from pouring foundations to finish plastering.
After the Q&A, we focused on the bales themselves. We started by hauling them out from under their protective tarp, testing them for moisture, chainsawing to flatten their edges, and re-stacking them by quality level. Once we got to the baling, chainsawing continued in order to make a plethora of notches to slide around our window framing.
Meanwhile... Tara cooked, baked, dish-washed, and set up all the meals. Thanks honey!
It's incredible to me how eager and willing everyone is to do just about anything that needs to be done. On some deep (mostly unexplored) level, it feels really powerful to be in a large group of people working effectively toward a shared goal. Being the introverted person I am, I expected I'd find most of this workshop completely exhausting, both physically and emotionally.
At the moment, I feel totally energized by everyone's company. We've accomplished so much already, I can't wait for tomorrow!