Before the lake turns cold
An Actual Coding Camp
Code in the morning. Lake time in the afternoon. Campfire at night.
Summer is not over yet. Spend a week learning how technology actually works, at a real farm, with a real dog, a lake for the afternoons, and a fire when the sun goes down.
Why there are no dates on this page yet: our founder Judy, the camp’s instructor and guide, had unexpected surgery this summer. We think there is time for one more session before the lake turns cold and the paddleboards are put away. The next session will run for beginners or for experienced coders, whichever waitlist fills up first. Add your name below and you will be the first to hear the dates.
I have spent decades building software for big companies. Here is what I learned: this stuff is not magic, and it was never meant to be locked away from you.
For years I planned and delivered new-hire training programs for Fortune 100 companies, helping computer science and computer engineering grads, and people with no tech background at all, bridge the gap between scholarly knowledge and what it actually takes to work as a software engineer. Some started at zero. Some had years of unlearning to do. The goal was the same: become productive in a real coding environment.
Now I share that same training expertise with you, and you can do with it what you will. Go corporate: folks I have trained in classrooms and on teams have gone on to work at Amazon, Facebook, and Google. I ask just one thing. Whatever soul-spark good feelings you find at camp, take them with you. Spread positive energy. Some of my students are helping nonprofits now. Some are launching their own apps. And some, well, some may just join us here at Desk Ready.
Here is the other thing I learned, from years of teaching: breakthroughs happen not only at the screens, but on the breaks. At the water cooler. In the break room. Ten minutes after someone gave up and walked away, the answer showed up on its own. Your brain needs cycles of not thinking about code for things to really sink in. So I kept asking myself: why not a lake? Why not on a kayak?
Everyone calls these things code camps. Let’s make it an actual camp.
For five mornings, I will teach you the foundations that make everything else make sense. What a website really is. What the command line really does. How to talk to AI tools with enough background to know when they are wrong. The things we who built this industry had to learn the hard way, without the hard way.
Then, every afternoon, we close the laptops and let the cooler water do its work. See what I did there?
How a day at camp goes
| 9:00 | Coffee, tea, juice, and breakfast on the deck, with questions from yesterday |
| 9:30 | Morning session: hands-on, laptops open |
| 12:30 | Lunch together at the farm |
| 1:30 | Lake time: paddleboard, kayak, swim, walk, nap, pet the dog, or keep coding if you cannot stop |
| 3:30 | Optional office hours: bring me your stuck thing |
| Evening | Campfire, optional and unhurried: trade stories, and ask the questions that only come out after dark |
No sessions after lunch. That is not a gap in the schedule. That is the schedule. Your brain does its best learning while you float.
What we cover
Here is the thing about this camp: it is not one fixed syllabus. Some cohorts arrive brand new to code. Some arrive with years of experience. Before camp, we hold a short intake interview with everyone, then gear the week to what your cohort actually needs. The rhythm never changes, mornings at the keyboard, afternoons at the lake. The content meets you where you are.
A typical beginner week:
- Monday: 20,000 feet. What is going on with modern development today: websites, servers, email, databases, the internet itself.
- Tuesday: Hands on the keyboard. The command line without fear, and your first real code, with source control and backups in place from the very first file.
- Wednesday: Nothing you make is ever lost. Going deeper with version control, backups you can trust, and putting your work somewhere real.
- Thursday: AI with your eyes open. Use AI tools to build faster, with enough background to read what they give you and catch them when they are wrong.
- Friday: Your thing. Build something small that is actually yours: a page, a script, an automation. Leave with it working and a written plan for what comes next.
A typical senior-level week:
- Monday: 35,000 feet, broader view as you know more. The state of the modern stack, the AI tooling landscape, and what owning your infrastructure looks like today.
- Tuesday: Workflows under review. Sharpen your environment, your habits, and your source-control practice. Unlearning is on the syllabus.
- Wednesday: Own your infrastructure. Deploys, backups, self-hosting, and moving off the platforms you rent.
- Thursday: AI-assisted development in depth. Directing coding agents, reviewing what they produce, and knowing when not to trust them.
- Friday: Ship your thing. An app or automation built with real users in mind, and a plan to keep it alive after camp.
Total beginners and twenty-year veterans both belong here. The intake interview is how we make sure you will not be lost, and you will not be bored.
What’s included
- Five days of small-group instruction (capped at 20 people, so ask your questions)
- Breakfast and lunch every day at the farm
- All course materials, yours to keep
- The lake, the kayaks, the paddleboards, the campfire, the deck, the dog and the cats
- A follow-up call two weeks after camp to keep you moving
What to bring
- A laptop (any kind: Mac, Windows, Linux, or a hand-me-down)
- A bathing suit, if the lake calls to you. Work-life balance is on the syllabus; the water is optional but persuasive.
- Sunscreen and a hat
- No experience. Really. None.
The details
- When: one more late-summer session, Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 3:30 pm, with an evening campfire for anyone who wants to linger. Dates announced to the list below the moment they are set.
- Level: beginner or experienced, whichever waitlist fills up first. Either way the intake interview gears the week to the people in the room.
- Where: the farm, Confluence, Pennsylvania. We train in the studio building; the lake, the deck, and the animals are steps away. Full address sent after registration.
- Staying over: you can stay on the property, or rentals are available nearby. We can discuss what fits when you call. The farm is nestled among some of the best hiking, kayaking, and bike trails in southwestern Pennsylvania.
- Cost: $500, everything included
- Spots: 20. When they are gone, they are gone. (That keeps the class focused on you; it is not a marketing countdown.)
Join the waitlist for your level
No payment now, no obligation. Pick your waitlist, beginner or experienced, and tell us a bit about you. We run the next session at the level whose list fills up first, and the dates land in your inbox before they land anywhere else.
Questions you might have
I am a total beginner. Will I be lost?
No. Cohorts are geared to the people in them, and beginner cohorts start at the true beginning. If you can send an email, you have all the prerequisites.
I have been coding for years. Will I be bored?
No. The intake interview shapes the week, and senior cohorts go deep: infrastructure you own, AI-assisted development with judgment, and the unlearning that a decade of habits usually calls for.
I can’t swim / don’t want to swim.
The afternoons are yours. Shade, deck, hammock, walking the property, or an afternoon nap all count as camp activities.
Can I keep coding in the afternoon instead?
Yes, and I will be around for office hours at 3:30. But I will also gently point you at the water at least once.
What about dietary restrictions?
The registration form asks. Tell me and lunch will work for you.
I’m allergic to animals.
The dog and the cats live on the property, but they do not go in the studio building where we train. You will meet them outside if you want to, and only if you want to.
Is there a refund policy?
Full refund up to two weeks before camp. After that, you can transfer your spot to a friend or apply it to a future camp or the Guided Path program.
I am doing this because I think the people who care about doing things right, the nonprofits, the small businesses, the stubborn independents, deserve to understand their own tools. Big Tech is betting you will never look under the hood. Come spend five late-summer days proving them wrong, with us.
Join the waitlist →