Day 1 on the earthsip building site, I was excited to get building for once instead of just sitting in an office cerebrating. Dylan and our “Earthship Tower” housemates went off to replace the plastic glazing on Bris’ Simple Survival with double glazing. By the end of the day it was airtight, but someone (*cough* Sam) accidentally cut off the water and power, she was good natured about it, but we owed her showers for the next week.

I volunteered to be on carpentry squad with Enrique under the stern watchful gaze of Mick. At first we thought Mick was a little disgusted with our lack of power tool experience, but after a day realised it was just his quiet, get ‘er dun kind of way. He was the kind of guy whose compliments mean a lot because you know he doesn’t waste words with false praise.

We began making door stops, the drop saw had a piece of timber shoved in where a button used to be, the table saw’s lock didn’t really work…it kept us alert. I enjoyed using the drop saw, but the table saw freaked me out a bit, but as Dylan says it’s good to be afraid of power tools, it’s the guys who have worked with them for twenty years who end up losing a thumb by being complacent. By the end of the day we had both door stops in with weatherstrip and phew on inspection the doors actually closed. It was slow going, but we’d get into our groove eventually, and fun, I can’t wait to build more when I get home, perhaps Chook Mansion 2.

After knock off we bundled in cars to go to the Taos Mesa Brewery (there is no getting around without one). Our waiter went around the table charming and insulting patrons in turn. On discovering we were Australian he waxed lyrical about how he has a friend n Australian who wants his to manage his nightclub so badly he’d pay for his air fare over, he’d go but he has kids and two ex-wives in the States and there is no way he is flying them over. He plied the table with beer and me with ice tea as he buzzed by, the only waiter in the packed place, he noted that we were in an earthship with tires under the dance floor, repurposed CD racks fro ceiling panels and off cuts for acoustic decoration. We had sweet potato fries an burgers while a jazz duo sang and strummed throaty warbling melodies, a nice night to remind us that the internship was as much about meeting like-minded people as learning to build.