Well I think I got a little over a week to cover now, so I'll try to make it concise without missing too much:
Last monday our class started Insulation week. We learned a lot about the basic insulation techniques of natural building: strawbale, woodchip clay, straw-clay, and cellulose. All have good R-values (insulative value of material), but strawbale works the best and can be significantly better than fiberglass material. The entire week we worked on "the cube" which is a structure here that represents a small home with many different types of framing: there is a double stud wall, timber frame wall, and single stud. We used 5 different methods of insulation installation on the 3 walls. Learned how to customize shapes of strawbales with packing material and chain saw so it would fit perfectly in place. We learned proper airfin installation and moisture control in specific climates. Learned how to make clay slip for the woodchip clay and straw-clay, which I became really good at. Got to be known as "sir mix alot" for awhile. That is a very very brief overview of what I learned this past week and I can't wait to practice and share my knowledge afterward. This coming week we are working on mass wall systems.
Anyway so monday afternoon I went and "played" ultimate frisbee with a bunch of people from here. I know I have a broken foot, so I was kinda limping/hopping on one foot; probably not the best thing, but I can't stand lazying around.
In between touring more awesome homes, which I'll eventually upload picture for, our class stopped at a farm which also produces its own maple sugar/syrup makes maple creemees. Maple creemees are a popular dessert in vermont, it is basically soft serve (arguably creamier) and maple sugaring added to ice cream, which makes for a really unique, mouth watering treat (Graham, you would love this). Also trying more things Vermont, I had the legendary local beer, a Heady-Topper, a double pale ale brewed by the alchemist in waterbury. If you want detailed info go here. But it was really flavorful, strong, yet smooth. (Matt, I'm enticed to ship it to you, but shipping to Australia is just too much for me right now, definitely recommend though).
Friday a bunch of us played bocce ball all around campus after dinner up until it got dark. Then we moved the games inside and played pictionary on only one large sheet of paper for 3 hours. So it made the game more challenging and humorous to find space to draw the words. Saturday I continued to work on my drafting drawings that I have been working on. Just some ideas for a design for a family home, with an attatched green house, made out of natural material, has an open floor format, and right now is about 26'x26'. Keeping it small, yet efficient. Once again, pictures in 3.5 weeks. So just working on that for fun collaborating with all the brilliant and innovative minds here as much as possible before i leave. Saturday night a lot of us went salsa dancing, our teacher plays the sax for a salsa band, so it was fun to see him play and salsa dance for the second time in my life. Special thanks to Shishi showing me how. And right across the street was a burlington block party going on. Total hippy vibe, cuz it's burlington. My favorite part was this folk band from new orleans came which had a washboard, banjo, fiddle, and everything stereotypical southern hick instrument. And they played some awesome folk/hick songs.
And Sunday I finally saw the new batman. I liked.
After seeing a lot of vermont, it is really a very beautiful state. There aren't a whole lot of people, the capital-montpelier, is like a very small city and has kept its old look and actually as a zoning ordanance dowtown where no chain stores can be built. The mountain ranges seem to go on forever and the whole community being more wholesome.
That's the past week summed up. I'm loving it here. I get to learn all day, go swim (suit optional), get fed, camp out, converse with awesome people and elders. Man it's going by fast.
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