For the Love of Cob... We *Finally* Figure Out Our Next Move!

So... as you all know, our "big adventure" started last summer with a big misadventure, courtesy of the Solar Ark.  Instead of spending somewhere between one and six months there, learning everything from solar energy to water catchment to natural building and living nearly cost-free, we spent a week there cleaning and working in the garden and realizing we were not going to get any sort of education in return... and then fled!

As it turns out, fleeing is very costly.  :(

After six months of loosely stringing together one backup plan after another, spending time, money, and effort every step of the way (see all previous posts, for reference), we ultimately ended up renting a Colorado cabin for the winter, to give ourselves six months of geographical stability and time to figure out the answer to the question that has plagued humans since the dawn of time: "What next?"

Well, at last, gentle readers, we have the answer!

We pack ourselves and the cats back into Baba G, some time in April, and drive to Bandon, Oregon!

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As you have certainly noticed, we will be backtracking east quite a bit {*sigh*} at the start of the trip... because there is no way we can get Baba G up and over Wolf Creek Pass, without risking a major catastrophe: think brake fires and blown transmissions.  Besides, we would like to spend a little time around Denver and Boulder before we leave Colorado, and we are pretty sure we'll enjoy the scenery in Wyoming and Idaho (green) more than Utah and Nevada (brown).

So, why Bandon?  

Well, we have spent many many many hours googling, considering options as disparate as:

(1) Summer jobs at Yellowstone resorts: Hmm... handling screaming kids and toxic cleaning products for minimum wage?  Pass.

(2) RV camp hosts, working 20 hours per work each in exchange for full hookups.  Yeah, so let's do the math here: 160 man-hours per month for electricity, water, and sewer... hmm... that might work out to $1 an hour.  Pass.

(3) Natural building work exchanges (though we are still pretty gun-shy since the Solar Ark).  After taking some time to really think through our goals with this whole crazy move-across-the-country-start-a-sustainable-building-school thing, we realized our biggest frustration with the journey so far has been that we have not done any hands-on natural building yet.  Enter: Bandon.

Following a link from a page from a link from a page from a link... {well, you get the idea}... I found an advertisement for an RV site for rent in Bandon, Oregon.  Cheap!  But why would we rent a site, rather than try for a free one somewhere?

Because the site is at a renovated 1930s motel facility which is hosting a 9-day "cob intensive" workshop in July, has six cob cabins that need finishing, and they specifically advertised the RV site for people who want to do some hands-on... natural building!  In response to my emailed inquiry about the site and the natural building, we received an emailed reply from Tammy, saying we should call her at home to discuss particulars.

[As an aside, cob was the first natural building material I became interested in: cob is soil, straw, and water, pounded together and formed into a large loaf.  It is an ancient building technique that is inexpensive, simple, and structurally sound: it is essentially like hand-sculpting a house!  For more about cob, check out this link.  And check out some really beautiful cob homes here.]

We called that same night, and talked with Tammy for about an hour (maybe more...), happily discovering that (1) the kitties were welcome, (2) our arrival date of April-May was acceptable (amazing, since the ad only mentioned a site available February 1st!), and (3) Tammy is a wealth of knowledge about natural building methods, and is also the hub for the entire natural building community in the Pacific Northwest... and beyond.

We have finally found our way into natural building!

Our journey has purpose, once again!

Up Next: Road Trip to Gunnison, Colorado