I just got back from an incredible trip to Cochise County, Arizona, where I helped build a 13-foot diameter Superadobe Earthbag dome for my friend Rich. This experience was not just about stacking bags of dirt—it was about community, empowerment, and the kind of world we could be building if we prioritized collaboration over consumerism.
I originally met Rich at a Superadobe Earthbag Dome workshop in October, hosted by the Mojave Center, an educational nonprofit that also just acquired a property in Cochise County called Casa Zata. Since then, he’s wasted no time—he bought land, designed his project, and rallied a community of volunteers, including locals, family, friends and five of us from that same October workshop, to help him build his first dome. Seeing how quickly he turned his vision into reality was deeply inspiring.
The Power of Community & Mutual Aid
The experience was a perfect example of why mutual aid is the key to making Earthbag Dome dreams a reality. When you start building, people show up. Not just because they believe in your project, but because they want to learn, connect, and contribute. Cochise County has a surprisingly strong natural-builder community already built in, having long attracted natural builders with its owner-builder opt-out permit which allows landowners to build their own homes unpermitted. You can imagine the people who move into the desert to build their homes and the skills and community they've developed.
We had an amazing crew, some simply rock-climbing or backpacking friends of Rich's, as well as a ton of people from all over the country with dreams of building their own homes one day, including Jonathan and Ashley from the Tiny Shiny Home YouTube channel, who are building their own off-grid homestead nearby. On one day of the build we had over twenty-five people there helping out at once and we were flying. Even more than surrounding myself with people who also care about sustainable building, these really felt like my people in so many other ways. They're intelligent, compassionate, introspective, often spiritual and interested in personal growth and development. All my life it's felt like I'm trying to fit in places I don't belong, but when you're in the middle of nowhere with strangers from all over the world, it felt like home. The more we build, the more we find our people.
It’s also worth noting that Rich’s build camp was incredibly well-organized—a heated communal tent for comfortable downtime, an RV with warm showers, three prepared meals a day for volunteers, grid-power, well-water, and clear tasks that kept morale and productivity high. This made a huge difference. When people are comfortable, fed, and inspired, they work harder and enjoy the process more.
Resisting Consumerism & Reclaiming Our Lives
This trip really hammered home how broken and alienating mainstream capitalist society is. So many of us are stuck in meaningless 9-to-5 jobs, making barely enough to survive, trapped in cycles of consumerism that keep us isolated and unfulfilled. But when you step outside that system and start working with your hands, building for and with others, something shifts.
Instead of spending our lives working for corporations that don’t care about us, or struggling so hard just to keep our heads above water that we don’t have the energy to focus on relationships, what if we built homes, communities, and food systems together? What if we rejected the idea that we have to buy our way to happiness and instead created the world we actually want to live in with people who want the same things?
Finding Your People & Following Your Calling
For years, I fantasized about an off-grid, self-sufficient, community-based lifestyle. I watched the Youtube videos, I took online courses, I even bought land several years ago in a moment of inspiration—but then I held back out of fear. Fear of failure, fear of judgment, fear of taking that leap, choosing a path, and possibly having other doors close. But the second I committed, doors started opening. You attract what you put out into the world. If this lifestyle speaks to you, start surrounding yourself with it—follow natural builders online, engage with their content, seek out workshops and volunteer opportunities. Embrace your tribe doing the same things and wish their dreams true for them. Train your algorithm to show you the life you want to live. The more you engage, the more your people will find you. I was blown away by how down to earth, generous, and collaborative everyone was despite their incredible differences.
The Future: More Domes, More Community
Rich’s dome is just the first of an eventual five-dome complex. I’ll be returning to help with future builds, continuing to hone my skills, which will include different natural building methods and permaculture landscaping projects as well as simply contributing to community organizing and outreach. This trip has only solidified my own dream of building a high desert cooperative eco-village, Happy Castle Art Camp, in New Mexico. It's a huge challenge logistically, getting a fully functional dome building camp on my land, but knowing the community exists and the possibilities it unlocks, my goal is to start building my first dome before the end of this year—a communal dining space to bring future builders together and make my dome camp a bit more livable for the people that show up for me at future builds. From there, the project never ends as I dedicate my life to the movement of building these eco-villages. I've taken a break from working on our website lately, but all week I was alight with inspiration.
Take the Leap & Start Building
If you’ve been dreaming about this lifestyle but haven’t taken action yet—just go help someone build. CalEarth and the Mojave Center are incredible educational tools, well worth the money, that I’m going to continue to draw from, but gaining experience is accessible to everyone who’s willing to put in the work. So whether it’s an in depth workshop or a single drop in day of volunteering, take steps towards realizing the life you want. You’ll gain hands-on experience, make invaluable connections, and see firsthand that this crazy beautiful life is possible, even more so with every one of you that gets involved. We don’t have to wait for institutions to change—we can start transforming the world right now through direct action and community collaboration.
Imagine a world where we’re not working 40+ hours a week for a paycheck that barely covers rent, but instead building sustainable homes, growing our own food, owning our labor, and supporting each other. That world is within reach—but we have to choose it.
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