After 5 years of traveling full-time in a tiny home, this family of 6 realized they couldn’t go back to a “normal” life—so they bought 11 acres of raw desert in Cochise County, Arizona and started building their own off-grid village from the ground up… using the dirt beneath their feet.

Jonathan and Ashley Longnecker ‪@TinyShinyHome‬ and their 4 kids are creating a natural building homestead using earthbags, hyperadobe, and superadobe techniques—one structure at a time. What’s emerging is less a single house and more a small, self-built village.

So far, they’ve built a hyperadobe bedroom, bathroom, and chicken coop, a superadobe sleeping space, and an outdoor earthbag shower. They’ve added a goat milking and kidding barn made from shipping containers, a container guest room, and a renovated 1972 Airstream Sovereign that serves as both their original tiny home and a bunkhouse for the kids.

Around these structures, they’re developing the systems that make off-grid life work: solar power, water systems, a solar pump house, and permaculture-inspired design adapted to the desert.

Now they’re working on their most ambitious project yet: what may become the world’s largest hyperadobe home—a 5,000-square-foot round house built from earth-filled bags. Along the way, they’ve refined their own approach to hyperadobe, developing a faster, more efficient building method that Jonathan describes as “almost like 3D printing” with earth.

They homeschool their kids, build nearly everything themselves, and share the process as they go—testing ideas, refining techniques, and showing what it really takes to create an off-grid life from scratch, centered on family, creativity, and self-sufficiency.

​—Their channel ‪@TinyShinyHome‬
—Their free earthbag safety class: https://tinyshinyhome.com/hyperadobe-...
—Their latest build with lavacrete • The COOLEST Alternative Building Method Yo...

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create a detailed outline of this video. make a table of the buildings created on the property, their construction methods, materials used, sizes, time to build, and uses. describe the strategy the family used in constructing the buildings. describe the hyper adobe materials and building methods.

They’ve built a small earthbag “village” plus systems and are now focused on a very large hyperadobe roundhouse; most walls are made from on‑site soil in mesh tubes with minimal purchased materials.

Detailed outline of the video

• Family background and why they settled here

  • East‑coast couple with four kids traveled full‑time in RVs (fifth‑wheel, then a gutted‑and‑rebuilt 1972 Airstream) and fell in love with remote boondocking.

  • As kids grew, the Airstream became too small; they wanted a homestead but couldn’t return to suburban life after years off‑grid.

  • They bought 11 acres of raw desert in Cochise County, Arizona, a county friendly to experimental natural building.

• First build: Earthbag Solar Shed / Guest Bedroom

  • Their first project is an earthbag “Solar Shed” that combines a solar‑power room with an attached circular hyperadobe bedroom.

  • Aesthetics intentionally mix clean, almost modern lines with clearly hand‑made earth walls, including bottle‑brick windows and a circular guest/primary bedroom pod.

  • Interior experiments include a plywood ceiling finished with linseed oil and an earthen floor sealed with multiple coats of boiled linseed oil, which has held up well.

  • The circular bedroom is 10 ft in diameter, sized exactly for a king bed with walking space and storage under a raised bed frame; morning light passes through bottle bricks, throwing prisms across the room.

• Thermal behavior and design of earthbag walls

  • Hyperadobe walls are about 16 inches thick, acting as thermal mass rather than conventional insulation, with an approximate 12‑hour lag between outside heat gain and inside temperature rise.

  • They design long south‑facing walls to benefit from winter sun and use generous roof overhangs to shade walls in summer.

  • A minisplit powered by solar handles fine temperature trim, but because of high thermal mass and good design it “barely has to work.”

• Off‑grid power and water

  • The Solar Shed houses a roughly 30 kWh battery bank, charge controllers, and inverter; solar arrays are on the shed and Airstream roofs totalling about 10 kW.

  • Early on they solved pressurized water by using an RV pump, a 12‑volt battery, and a small solar panel feeding an IBC tote, later upgraded to smarter Victron‑based monitored systems.

  • They learned to set low‑battery notifications to avoid mid‑shower pump shutdowns and have increasingly “nerdy” monitoring for all systems.

• Outdoor earthbag shower

  • They built a sculptural outdoor shower from earthbags and bottle bricks: a single wrapping wall forming a semi‑enclosed spiral.

  • A small slab drains graywater to a berm‑and‑swale system planted with about 70 trees, and a propane on‑demand heater provides hot water triggered by flow.

  • It’s private yet open to views and has become one of their favorite early projects; they tell newcomers to prioritize shade, an outdoor shower, and solar power.

• Bathroom / Laundry building

  • “Casa de Caca” began as a compost‑toilet bathhouse using recycled materials: the deck from their Airstream, reused door and glazing, and natural finishes.

  • County requirements forced them to plumb urine to a conventional septic; they later fully plumbed the building with toilet, sink, washer and dryer, and grid‑independent power and rainwater catchment.

  • The on‑site washer/dryer replaced a hand‑washer that worked in summer but was miserable in winter.

• Superadobe dome (daughter’s room)

  • A visiting builder from an Australian superadobe project led a week‑long workshop to build a 9 ft diameter Superadobe dome.

  • Superadobe uses solid woven bags with barbed wire between courses and is suited to true domes with a lancet‑arch geometry; careful math is needed so the dome is self‑supporting.

  • The dome became their oldest daughter’s bedroom, with a large bed/dresser platform, abundant bottle‑brick and stained‑glass art, a small attached hyperadobe stove dome for a woodstove, and decorative penny and bottle‑cap floor inlays.

  • Fully exposed 360 degrees to sun, it stays warm in winter via thermal mass but can overheat in summer, when they bring in a portable minisplit.

• Learning curve and strategy before tackling the house

  • Every structure before the main house is framed as practice: the Solar Shed, dome, shower, and other small builds let them learn earthbag building with low stakes.

  • Hyperadobe information online was sparse despite originating in South America decades ago, so they experimented and effectively became “the hyperadobe people,” developing their own details and best practices.

• Hyperadobe process described in detail

  • Their mix is roughly even parts clay, rock, and sand plus 5% Portland cement for stabilization, moistened to the right consistency.

  • They use netted tube bags (mesh sleeves) that, once tamped, allow the mix to “key” through the mesh; layers bond without barbed wire as the clay‑cement matrix hardens.

  • They load soil into hyperadobe tubes using two modified 5‑gallon buckets with bottoms removed; the bag is scrunched over the tall bucket collar so as they fill, the bag extrudes forward, like hand‑guided 3D printing along the wall path.

  • Sometimes the bucket hangs from a dolly so one person can pull while others fill, increasing speed.

• Building pace and labor strategy

  • Their family of six built much of the house themselves, eventually tiring after moving roughly 400 tons of material up to window‑top height.

  • To finish, they hosted a month‑long community build where volunteers camped on site and were fed; together they laid about 100 tons of material and finished the walls in 27 days at roughly a foot of wall per minute when fully staffed.

  • They emphasize that hyperadobe can be fast if you have a crew; otherwise you trade time for money and go slowly.

• Foundations and structural considerations for the roundhouse

  • Concrete contractors refused to pour a slab first, so they imported about 300 tons of aggregate (AB mix), raised grade, and cut rubble‑trench footings 18 inches deep beneath future walls, filled with about 5 inches of compacted stone.

  • The bottom four courses of bags are wrapped in vapor barrier.

  • The house has about 2,500 square feet of walkable space and roughly a 5,000‑square‑foot circular footprint, likely among the largest hyperadobe homes attempted.

• Layout and design of the hyperadobe house

  • The plan is a large roundhouse with curved load‑bearing earthbag walls and strategic straight framed walls for interior divisions.

  • The front entry leads to framed walls forming spaces such as a walk‑in pantry; interior framed walls still radiate from a central reference point, maintaining geometric coherence.

  • A long western wall holds an 11‑foot picture window oriented exactly at the mountains; they rotated the entire layout on the ground until that wall framed the desired view.

  • Over large openings (doors, windows) they use substantial steel I‑beams and lintels extending at least a foot—often two—beyond openings to carry load.

• Buttressing, geometry, and engineering “rules”

  • Curved walls inherently resist lateral forces and usually need little buttressing; long straight walls, like the one with the big window, require buttresses at least every 10 feet.

  • Buttresses interlock with main walls at corners so segments “glue” together, better distributing forces.

  • Earthbag walls diffuse compressive loads well; embedded electrical boxes survive with many courses above them without crushing.

  • They worked from earthbag design literature and the construction experience of Ashley’s father rather than formally engineered plans.

• Roof strategy and bond beams

  • The roof will be a low‑slope (about 1:12) radial system of metal bar joists arranged around the circular plan, tied together by purlins and metal sheathing.

  • Because they’re outside conventional engineering channels, it’s been hard to buy new trusses; suppliers are wary of liability without stamped plans, so they hunt for used members.

  • A continuous bond beam will sit on top of the earthbag walls; steel straps buried between bag courses wrap over this beam, using wall weight to clamp the roof system down against extreme desert winds.

• Hallway and passive‑solar details

  • A wide (a bit over 5‑ft) curved hallway branches to six rooms: four kids’ bedrooms, a bathroom, and a mudroom.

  • Bottle‑brick circles in the hallway walls will throw colored light across a flat surface; multiple operable windows plus transoms high on the wall allow hot evening air (from western sun) to vent before it reaches bedrooms.

  • The curvature prevents long stretches of direct solar exposure on the hallway walls, helping keep them cool.

• Private primary suite and views

  • Their own bedroom and bathroom occupy a more private section; a bathroom tub will face a picture window with an uninterrupted mountain view, taking advantage of their lack of neighbors.

  • They loosely considered orientation relative to sun and landscape, but prioritized the main view axis to the mountains over strict “Stonehenge” alignment.

• Climate, wind, and durability goals

  • The area experiences intense monsoon storms with hurricane‑force gusts and localized microbursts that can pick up and throw structures.

  • This motivates their focus on overbuilt earthbag walls, robust buttressing, and a heavily anchored roof, with a goal of a house that will last for generations rather than the ~70‑year expectation of typical stick‑built homes.

• Hyperadobe bench and fire pit

  • Near the house, they’ve built a circular hyperadobe bench using 18‑inch bags for seating and 12‑inch bags for the backrest, plus an 8‑inch‑bag fire pit, sized to seat about 14 people comfortably.

  • It doubles as a test of smaller‑scale circular earthbag structures and social‑space design.

• Chicken Garden (chicken coop + garden system)

  • A circular “chicken garden” combines a central chicken coop with an outer garden ring built in earthbags, with taller inner walls providing partial shade to planting beds.

  • They intentionally built around existing trees to preserve them in the harsh desert climate rather than clearing and re‑planting.

  • During the growing season, the chickens stay confined; garden waste is tossed into the coop. After the season, chickens are allowed into the beds to clean up and fertilize, and composted manure cycles back into the garden.

  • The coop roof catches rainwater; a Victron‑based solar pump pressurizes water for the coop and drip irrigation around it.

• Goat milking and kidding barn (shipping containers)

  • They crowdfunded a goat barn when their daughter wanted a better setup for milking and kidding but the family needed to focus on the house.

  • A 40‑ft shipping container was insulated and framed as a climate‑controlled milking room with solar panels and rainwater catchment on a new roof structure.

  • A second container and fenced yard form modular kidding stalls whose partitions can be reconfigured depending on herd needs, with feed storage at the rear.

  • Ashley’s father taught them to cut and modify containers and weld; Ashley became the primary welder on the project.

  • The milking area includes immediate refrigeration so goat milk can be chilled quickly, improving quality.

• Broader homestead systems and philosophy

  • They’ve raised multiple batches of meat birds and want to expand meat production, though Ashley finds it emotionally difficult; their daughter argues for ethical meat if they keep animals.

  • The family homeschools, builds together, and deliberately structures work so kids can help but aren’t forced to labor constantly, maintaining a balance with school and free time.

  • They view each build as an experiment in using trash (bottle caps, pennies, glass) as artful material and in pushing natural building techniques toward more practical, repeatable systems.

  • They have no firm completion date for the big house; progress is paced by available cash, and they consciously frame the project as multigenerational, intended to be passed on to their kids.

Buildings on the property

Note: Sizes and build times are only given when mentioned in the video; otherwise they’re left approximate or qualitative.

Structures and key properties

Where details like exact wall lengths or build times are missing, the video simply doesn’t specify them.

Strategy behind how they built the “village”

Their overall strategy is staged experimentation: start small, learn on low‑risk structures, then scale up to a complex, permanent home.

Key elements of their approach:

• Practice before committing to the main house

  • They intentionally built the Solar Shed, outdoor shower, dome, chicken garden, and smaller structures first to learn earthbag/hyperadobe techniques and system design.

  • Each project added a new layer of complexity—thermal design, plumbing, roof framing, animals, water systems—so lessons directly informed the roundhouse design.

• Iterative experimentation and refinement

  • They treated every build as an experiment: trials with earthen floors, bottle‑brick glazing, trash‑as‑art, and different wall geometries (circles, domes, benches, straight walls with buttressing).

  • Hyperadobe resources were limited, so they evolved their own workflow (bucket‑collar “3D printing” loading system, dolly‑based pulls) and refined soil mix and stabilization percentages through experience.

• Family‑centric labor model

  • Parents and four kids form a core crew, but kids aren’t forced to work constantly; their help is woven between homeschooling and daily life.

  • When the house walls nearly “broke” them, they extended the concept to a wider community, hosting a month‑long build with volunteers in exchange for camping, food, and learning.

• Design for climate and passive performance

  • They design around desert constraints: high thermal mass walls, large roof overhangs, rainwater catchment on every roof, and rubble‑trench foundations for stability.

  • Spatial layout (curved hallway, transoms, shaded garden rings, courtyard) is tuned to sun paths and summer/winter thermal behavior.

• Robustness and multigenerational thinking

  • Extreme monsoon winds and microbursts inform overbuilt buttressing, strong bond beams, steel roof structures, and redundant anchoring systems.

  • They explicitly frame the big house as a generational project meant for their children to inherit, not a 70‑year disposable building.

• Integrated systems, not isolated buildings

  • Buildings link to shared solar and water infrastructure, and animals, plants, and humans are integrated through systems like the chicken garden’s compost loop and graywater to berm‑and‑swale trees.

  • Over time, they’ve become more “nerdy” about monitoring and optimization—adding sensors, shunts, and Wi‑Fi‑connected controllers to understand usage and prevent failures.

Hyperadobe materials and building methods (as shown here)

Hyperadobe is a variation of earthbag construction using open‑mesh tubes instead of solid woven bags; this changes both material behavior and workflow.

Materials

• Soil mix

  • Roughly equal parts clay, sand, and aggregate (rock) mixed thoroughly.

  • About 5% Portland cement added by volume to stabilize the fill, especially near the mesh surface and at layer interfaces.

• Bag system

  • Netted, open‑mesh continuous tubes (“hyperadobe” tubes) rather than closed woven bags.

  • Mesh holes let soil bulge slightly through, forming a mechanical key between courses once tamped and cured.

• Stabilization and finishes

  • Moisture plus clay and cement form the “glue” binding particles and bonding between layers; they rely on this instead of barbed wire.

  • Exterior and interior surfaces are later coated with earthen plasters (often colored or two‑tone) and sometimes decorated with inset bottles or mosaics.

Basic hyperadobe method as they use it

1. Foundation and prep

   • Excavate rubble‑trench footings in the desired plan (circles, arcs, straight runs), fill with compacted aggregate, and wrap the lower earthbag courses in vapor barrier where needed.

   • Mark the geometry—often from a central point—so walls follow precise radii and alignments.

2. Mixing and loading

   • Mix soil, sand, rock, and cement to desired ratio and moisture content in batches.

   • Use two modified 5‑gallon buckets with the bottoms removed as a tall collar; pull the hyperadobe tube over the bucket collar to hold it open.

   • Shovel or scoop the mix into the bucket; as the bag fills, it extrudes along the path of the wall, guided by a person or dolly—this is their “3D printing” analogy.

3. Placing, tamping, and bonding layers

   • Lay filled tube along the wall line, shaping curves or straights as needed.

   • Once a course is laid, tamp thoroughly; the mesh allows the mix to lock through the holes, creating a rough, keyed surface.

   • Place the next course directly on top; when tamped, moist stabilized soil from both layers interlocks through the mesh, eliminating the need for barbed wire between courses.

4. Openings, corners, and buttresses

   • Over windows and doors, place stout lintels or I‑beams extending at least a foot (they often go two feet) past each side of the opening.

   • At corners, stagger overlaps so perpendicular walls interlock, improving strength against lateral loads.

   • On long straight walls, build buttresses at least every ~10 ft, tying them into the main wall via overlapped courses.

5. Vertical build and arches

   • For vertical walls with conventional roofs, they simply stack courses straight up to the designed height.

   • For arches (like hallway openings) the hyperadobe tube is started lower and carried up and over in a continuous run so its own compression closes the arch, similar to circular dome logic but applied to smaller spans.

6. Bond beam and roof anchoring

   • At the top, they will place a continuous bond beam (often concrete or heavy timber/steel) sitting on the final courses.

   • Straps embedded between lower bag courses wrap over the bond beam so the massive walls clamp the roof down, an important detail in their high‑wind desert environment.

Differences vs. Superadobe (as described)

• Superadobe

  • Uses solid woven bags (usually white) filled with soil; requires barbed wire between every course to prevent slippage, especially in domes.

  • Particularly suited for fully domed structures with lancet‑arch geometry that must follow precise mathematical rules to remain self‑supporting.

• Hyperadobe

  • Uses open‑mesh tubes where soil keys through; barbed wire is not needed because courses mechanically interlock after tamping and curing.

  • Their preference for hyperadobe is driven by its speed and suitability for mostly vertical walls with conventional roofs, which better support rainwater catchment in their water‑scarce context.

Taken together, the video shows hyperadobe as a low‑cost, labor‑intensive but highly adaptable method where a family (and occasional volunteers) can turn on‑site dirt into thick, durable walls and varied forms—from circular bedrooms and benches to a massive, multigenerational roundhouse.

Create a list of materials to build with hyperabobe. What are the steps in construction?

Hyperadobe Building

Here’s a concise, video‑based hyperadobe “bill of materials” plus the construction steps they actually describe using on site.

Materials for building with hyperadobe

Core structural materials

• On‑site soil with the right texture (roughly even parts clay, sand, and small rock/aggregate).

• Portland cement, about 5% of the soil volume, used as a stabilizer in the mix.

• Hyperadobe tubes: open‑mesh, netted tubular bags that come in continuous lengths.

• Water for moistening the soil mix so it compacts and bonds through the mesh.

• Rubble/aggregate (e.g., AB mix) for rubble‑trench foundations and grade buildup.

• Vapor barrier (plastic sheeting) for wrapping the bottom courses where needed.

Forming, handling, and mixing gear

• Shovels, hoes, or small mixers for combining clay, sand, rock, cement, and water.

• Wheelbarrows to move mixed soil to the wall line.

• Two 5‑gallon buckets with the bottoms cut off, stacked to form a tall loading “collar.”

• Dolly or cart that holds the bucket collar so one person can pull as others fill.

• Tampers (manual or powered) for compacting each course of filled tube.

Structural and architectural components

• Steel lintels or I‑beams for door and window openings, extending at least 1–2 ft past the opening on each side.

• Straps embedded between courses to wrap over the bond beam (for roof hold‑down).

• Continuous bond beam (concrete, steel, or heavy timber) at the top of the walls for roof attachment.

• Framing lumber and hardware for interior framed walls where they choose to go hybrid.

Finishes and detailing

• Earthen plaster materials (local clay, sand, fiber) for interior and exterior finishes.

• Boiled linseed oil for sealing earthen floors and plywood ceilings.

• Glass bottles and bottle bricks for light‑catching inserts in walls.

• Miscellaneous “trash‑as‑art” materials like pennies and bottle caps for decorative inlays.

Optional / system materials (not strictly wall‑related, but used with hyperadobe builds)

• Roofing: metal bar joists, purlins, and metal roofing sheets for low‑slope roofs.

• Solar gear: panels, batteries, inverters, charge controllers, wiring.

• Plumbing: PEX/PVC, valves, fixtures, etc., when integrating bathrooms, showers, or catchment.

Step‑by‑step hyperadobe construction process (their method)

This follows the sequence they describe when asked “What’s the process?” and as shown on the big roundhouse.

1. Site prep and foundations

1. Choose building location and mark geometry (often from a central point for circles/roundhouses).

2. Bring in aggregate (they used about 300 tons of AB mix for the main house) to raise grade where needed.

3. Dig rubble trenches along the wall layout, about 18 inches deep in their case.

4. Fill trenches with compressed rubble/stone (around 5 inches compacted) to form a rubble‑trench foundation.

5. Wrap the lowest several hyperadobe courses (they used four) with vapor barrier to keep ground moisture out of the walls.

2. Mix the hyperadobe fill

1. Mix soil in roughly equal parts clay, sand, and rock/aggregate.

2. Add about 5% Portland cement to the dry mix for stabilization.

3. Add water until the mix is damp enough to compact and “glue” but not soupy.

3. Load the tubes (their “3D printing” setup)

1. Stack two 5‑gallon buckets with the bottoms removed to make a tall, open cylinder.

2. Scrunch the hyperadobe tube over this collar so it stays open while filling.

3. Shovel or scoop mixed soil into the bucket; as it fills, the tube extrudes along the wall line.

4. Either hold the collar by hand or hang it on a dolly; one person pulls the dolly while others keep filling.

4. Lay and tamp each course

1. Guide the filling tube along the marked wall path (curves, circles, straights, or over arches).

2. Once a course is filled, stop and tamp thoroughly so the soil compacts and bulges slightly through the mesh.

3. This bulging through the netting and the clay‑cement “glue” create mechanical keying between courses.

5. Stack courses and form openings

1. Lay the next hyperadobe course directly on the tamped one, keeping wall thickness and alignment consistent.

2. Over doors and windows, set heavy lintels or I‑beams, extending well past the opening (they used about 2 ft per side on an 11‑ft span) before continuing higher with more hyperadobe.

3. At corners, overlap courses so intersecting walls lock together.

4. On long straight walls, build buttresses at least every ~10 ft and interlock them with the main wall to resist lateral forces.

5. For arches with hyperadobe, start the tube low, run it up and over in one continuous piece, then build adjacent courses up to it so the arch is self‑supporting under compression.

6. Build up to full height

1. Repeat mixing, loading, laying, and tamping—course after course—until you reach the design height (their house is about 12 ft at center, 9 ft at perimeter, with ~30 courses).

2. Respect wall weight: a small section of 16‑inch‑thick wall weighs hundreds of pounds, so geometry and buttressing must follow known earthbag rules.

7. Bond beam and roof anchoring

1. As you approach the top, embed straps between courses that will later wrap over the bond beam.

2. Install a continuous bond beam on top of the wall (concrete/steel/timber).

3. Wrap embedded straps over the bond beam so the mass of the walls holds the roof down (critical in their high‑wind monsoon climate).

4. Install roof structure (for them: metal bar joists in a radial pattern, purlins, and metal roofing with generous overhangs).

8. Plastering, floors, and finishes

1. Apply earthen plaster inside and out, sometimes in two‑tone or decorative patterns.

2. Set bottle bricks or glass elements where desired for light and color.

3. Pour and finish earthen floors, then seal with multiple coats of boiled linseed oil; similarly, seal plywood ceilings with oil for a warm finish.

4. Add systems (electrical, plumbing, minisplits) and interior framing as needed; many electrical boxes can be built into walls during bag stacking.

This is their field‑tested workflow; they specifically emphasize that hyperadobe is cheap in materials and safe to build, but either requires a big crew for speed or a willingness to go slowly as a small team.

Are you thinking about a small experimental hyperadobe structure (like a bench or tiny shed), or are you aiming straight at a full building?

What skills are needed to build or modify all of the types of buildings?

Each building type on their property pulls from a different but overlapping skill set: from basic dirt‑work and hand tools up through welding, solar design, and plumbing.

Big picture skill categories

• Natural building and earthbag skills

• Conventional carpentry and roofing

• Metalwork and welding

• Electrical and solar

• Plumbing and water systems

• Design, layout, and basic structural understanding

• Animal husbandry and farm infrastructure
  All of these are present in at least one of their builds (earthbag house, dome, shower, bathhouse, chicken garden, container barn, Airstream).

Natural building and earthbag / hyperadobe

Needed for: Solar Shed + bedroom, outdoor shower, hyperadobe roundhouse, superadobe dome, bench, chicken garden walls.

• Soil and materials knowledge

  • Reading your soil (clay/sand/aggregate balance), knowing when to add stabilizer (cement) and moisture.

  • Understanding rubble‑trench foundations, vapor barriers, and when to use them.

• Hyperadobe / superadobe technique

  • Loading tubes with their “3D printing” bucket system, tamping correctly, and keeping course lines true.

  • Building corners, buttresses, and arches so courses interlock and walls resist lateral loads.

  • Working safely with very heavy walls and learning the “rules” (e.g., buttressing intervals, lintel spans).

• Earthen finishes and detailing

  • Earthen plaster mixing and application, sculpting bottle‑brick openings, and integrating “trash‑as‑art” details.

  • Earthen or hybrid floors sealed with boiled linseed oil, judging when they’re cured and durable.

This is the core skill set that lets them turn free dirt into structural walls, from tiny benches up to the 5,000‑square‑foot roundhouse footprint.

Carpentry and conventional building

Needed for: Bathhouse (“Casa de Caca”), roof structures, Airstream interior, interior walls in the roundhouse, coop roof and decks.

• Framing and layout

  • Basic wall framing, understanding load paths, setting framed walls off the center point in a radial plan.

  • Building decks, platforms, and custom furniture (bunk beds, dressers‑under‑beds, built‑in benches).

• Roof carpentry

  • Working with bar joists, purlins, and metal roofing, and planning pitches (they’re doing ~1:12).

  • Designing overhangs for shade and water catchment on every roof.

• Finishing carpentry

  • Hanging doors and windows into very non‑square openings in earthbag walls.

  • Plywood ceiling installation and finishing with oil.

These skills bridge natural walls with more conventional, inspectable systems (doors, cabinets, framed partitions).

Metalwork, welding, and containers

Needed for: Shipping‑container goat barn, roof structure (used bar joists), large lintels and I‑beams over openings.

• Cutting and modifying containers

  • Safe cutting of openings in corrugated steel, reinforcing cut sections, avoiding warping.

  • Integrating new doors, windows, and a shade/roof structure over containers.

• Welding and steel work

  • Welding hinges, brackets, sliding doors, and stall frames.

  • Placing and tying together I‑beams for big earthbag openings and tying them into buttresses.

• Rust prevention and repainting

  • Prep and repaint used containers so they last in a harsh desert climate.

Without these, the climate‑controlled milking room and big window spans in earthbag walls would be very difficult to pull off.

Electrical, solar, and controls

Needed for: Solar Shed and main power system, pump systems, minisplits, container barn, house and bathhouse wiring.

• Basic electrical wiring

  • Running circuits, setting boxes into earthbag walls, understanding load and breaker sizing.

• Solar design and installation

  • Sizing and wiring PV arrays (they’re running around 10 kW on one system and ~30 kWh battery storage).

  • Mounting panels on roofs, setting inverters, charge controllers, monitors, and shunts.

• Monitoring and automation

  • Configuring RV/marine pumps, Victron devices, shunts, Wi‑Fi‑linked monitoring, and alerts.

  • Understanding failure modes like mid‑shower pump shutdowns and designing around them.

These skills turn static buildings into a genuinely off‑grid homestead that doesn’t constantly break on them.

Plumbing, water, and drainage

Needed for: Bathhouse, outdoor shower, chicken garden irrigation, rainwater catchment on multiple roofs, container barn water, future house plumbing.

• Basic to intermediate plumbing

  • Running supply and waste lines, installing toilets, sinks, showers, washer/dryer hookups.

  • Tying into septic systems and satisfying local contour‑specific code requirements (like urine diversion).

• Water systems design

  • Pressure systems with RV pumps, 12 V batteries, and solar; rainwater catchment from multiple roofs.

  • Graywater routing from the outdoor shower to berm‑and‑swale tree systems.

• Irrigation and stock water

  • Designing drip irrigation loops and livestock water points from pressurized storage.

Plumbing is a major part of making the bathhouse and outdoor shower genuinely usable year‑round.

Design, layout, and structural literacy

Needed across all builds, but especially for the roundhouse, dome, and chicken garden.

• Geometric and spatial design

  • Using a center point and “compass” layout to get perfect circles, radial hallway, and concentric chicken garden rings.

  • Aligning a long wall and 11‑foot window exactly to frame the mountain view.

• Structural “rule book” understanding

  • Knowing dome geometry (lancet vs hemispheric arches), how wide you can span with earthbag before adding big steel, and buttress spacing.

  • Respecting wall weights (hundreds of pounds per section) and designing foundations accordingly.

• Climate and passive‑solar design

  • Orienting walls and overhangs for seasonal sun, exploiting the 12‑hour thermal lag of earthbag walls.

  • Designing venting (transoms, operable windows) to dump solar gain from west‑facing walls before it hits bedrooms or hallways.

This is less “swing a hammer” and more knowing what to swing it at—and what not to try without redesign.

Animal systems, homestead operations, and soft skills

Needed for: Chicken garden, goat barn, integrating animals with gardens, and running the whole compound.

• Animal husbandry

  • Day‑to‑day care for goats and chickens, designing stalls, nesting areas, and predator‑safe enclosures.

  • Managing meat birds and considering emotional/ethical dimensions of raising animals for food.

• Permaculture‑style thinking

  • Designing loops: garden → chicken waste → compost → garden, graywater → trees, roofs → tanks → irrigation.

• Project management and teaching

  • Organizing a month‑long volunteer build, feeding people, and turning work sites into learning environments.

  • Homeschooling while building, pacing work so kids help but don’t burn out.

If you were to focus your own learning, which skill domain do you most want to develop first: earthbag/hyperadobe wall building, or systems work (solar + plumbing) to support a future structure?