Have you ever built a home before?
Nope, I've never built a dwelling. I'm eager to begin.

Is it sloped?
Both. Often land has flat areas and slopes. Sloped land has the advantage of being cheaper.

How much rain falls there?
The winter is dry. Summer is wet (rains 3-4 times a week in mid-summer), but the land quickly drinks up the water. There is very good natural drainage here. However, I would not count on our past weather patterns. Someone told me that Iowa is going to be tropical in the near future.

Is it located in a seismic area?
No seismic activity worth mentioning.

How are the seasons? What are the average temperatures?
In winter the temperature can go below zero. This year I arrived here at the end of winter and there were days where it was uncomfortable indoors without heating. My feeling is that a well insulated house with a passive solar heating setup would be adequate to get through winter. Last night I visited a friend who built her own house out of cob and she has north facing windows. She said that in winter the sun keeps her house warm through most of the day. This last winter there was 1 day when it snowed for a few minutes. Summers are usually very hot with the temperature sometimes reaching 40C.

Is there any solar access to the building site?
Solar access? Do you mean electricity in the form of solar power or do you mean sunshine. The sites that I have looked at all receive good sunlight throughout the day and all accessible via some form of road. Most did not have electricity.

How big are you building?
We don't have building plans. The idea is to stay small. I imagine 3 sizes. Singles, couples and families. All of them using minimal space. Communal areas will be much bigger. But as far as the first satellite base camp is concerned, we are looking at smaller dwellings. 5-6m/15-20ft diameter dooms with an attached smaller dome for bathroom and a half loft for bedroom.

Will you use heavy machinery?
No heavy machinery unless absolutely necessary for moving things to the site. I'm all for generator powered pneumatic and electric equipment for speeding things up. I would love for us to have a small flow battery charged by panels, wind and water, as the central energy storage bank.

Is it in a flood zone?
It's not a flood zone

What is the soil composed of? sand/clay/silt ratios
I don't have soil ratios. The sand is dry and grainy in some parts and a mixture of rich loamy soil with pockets of grainy sand. There are lots of rocks. The site that we favor has year round water supply, rich dark soil after you dig a little, large areas of flat land and a huge section with a slope that has a flat area on top (and an amazing view of Uritorco). There are also pockets of more clay type earth and sections of grainy river type sand. The friend who built her house with cob, said the earth on her land was the perfect ratio for cob. I went around her entire house testing the walls (un-plastered). They are rock solid and sturdy. There is an abundance of cactus here, the juice of which is used in the cob mix. So the cob mix is fairly water proof without plaster. Her walls are in perfect condition, un-plastered after 4 summers. I remember reading about doing a soil test with water in a glass jar. I'll have a go at that.

How many people are going to help you build?
I don't know how many people will help to build. I know a few people who I would hire to work on the project. Our work team would be a group of volunteers and reliable hired help. The thought I have is that the building process would take the shape of workshops, where we would get a professional or someone with good experience like yourself to teach while building. That would be a win win situation for everyone.

Have you spent a whole year observing the building site?
mmm, no. I have spent very little time at the actual site mainly because technically we don't have the site...yet.

To sum up, there is a quiet sense or feeling I have within that everything is taken care of. When I look at the land, I clearly see how things will take shape. From the soil to the resources to the people. The vision is there. It's only a matter of time before it all comes together.

Thank you for taking the time to reply to the questions Jeff.

I'll definitely look for opportunities to volunteer on a earth-bag building project and meanwhile go through all these resources you've shared.

One Love