A Note From The Editor (aka The Teaching Team)

Welcome to the 2021 Fall Semester Program Blog! We’ve got 10 wonderful students in the program this year, and we couldn’t be more excited. We’ll be utilizing this blog as a means to document and share what we’re learning, what we’re doing, and how we’re doing it. Two different students volunteer each week to write the post, take photos/video, and submit their records to us for publication. The written entries will be minimally edited so as to showcase each individual’s voice, their style. We hope you enjoy watching this semester unfold as much as we do.

Happy Reading,

Anastasia, Euj, and Sean

Week One

Written by Andreas

Photos by Skizzi

The week started quite swimmingly. We all got here and made a few awkward personal introductions which were friendly enough but hey, we were nervous, about to embark on a four-month journey to a destination we had no definite clue of so the nerves were intense. After we got to know each other though, things started to smooth out. After about halfway through the week the ten of us were in high spirits. We also discovered an excellent local swimming location called The Punchbowl which featured a beautiful and clean (and quite cold) river that we’ve all been enjoying nearly every day so far. So between hanging out and enjoying the good food here the group is off to a grand ole start.

Later on in the week on Wednesday after settling in and getting to know each other a slight bit we got to finally see the build site. Whelp, needless to say energy at the mention of such increased substantially once we got there. On our way we toured the Justin Smith Morril Homestead and the Strafford Meeting House for a really unique look at some immaculate timber-framing. By the end of the day we had made it to the build site for the big reveal; One of our instructors is the client. How. Freakin. Cool. Is. That. So not only do we get the course and the whole jables that come with it but, in terms of clientele preference, we literally live with it. So thanks to that we are looking forward to a buttery smooth client-worker relationship simply because Sean is already in this trade, and can professionally voice his needs and wants. Better yet- he can literally teach them to us.

So yeah on that front we’re doing quite fine. We camped out for a pleasant night at the build site which is, as of now, just a foundation in the middle of a very quaint property with a good climate and view of the mountains. That night we also swam in the Connecticut river and ate some absolutely BANGIN food from Sean’s local friends. Not like they’ve given us anything less than that back at school in all seriousness. :) After getting back we relaxed a bit and talked about concepts and whatnot for the build site along with a little attention to the constrictions of it, like local ecosystem and locations of important things, ie: septic and neighboring shallow wells. Finally for Friday we had our first real class about drawing up designs and how to properly profile the different sides and dimensions of a drawup on a single sheet of paper while keeping it all proportional- a really neat class already so we’re all extremely geared up. And that's it. The slim and shady, the short and skinny. A few other things happened but heck, I’m out of room so I’ll just catch you some other time.