Incredible Cob! Complete shelter Workshop

Dates: May 14 - 24 and August 13 - 23, 2008

Workshop starts with Wednesday supper and ends after Saturday lunch.

Cost: $850. All meals and camping provided.

Curriculum
Daily Schedule
About Our Site
What to Bring
Register for a Workshop
About Bringing Children

General outline of the workshop

This workshop offers an incredibly rich learning experience. Participants leave the workshop confident that they can design and build their own natural home. Mornings are packed with hands-on cob building and the afternoons and evenings are filled with lectures and demonstrations on a wide variety of natural building and appropriate technology topics (see curriculum). We will be building a project from the ground on up. This way, participants get to experience all the aspects of building a house with earthen materials from start to finish. Through the process of building with sand, straw and clay, (the ingredients of cob), everyone gets an excellent sense for how these materials work and how to use them under a great variety of circumstances. By the end of the workshop, participants will not only understand the materials, they will also easily integrate them with other forms of natural construction, such as straw bale, light-straw-clay, adobe brick, natural plasters and floors, round wood and more. The workshop provides an excellent preparation for a world with fewer fossil fuels available. We emphasize using local materials, building in community, using simple hand tools, taking care of our bodies, laughter and singing. We are aware that not everyone is in the position to build their own natural cottage. However, almost all that is taught during the workshop is relevant to make the most of your existing home. Through “natural renovation”, the knowledge acquired during the workshop can turn conventional homes into non-toxic, energy efficient, well designed natural homes.

Curriculum

During the mornings, we will be constructing our cob cottage, where participants learn the following:

• Making cob by foot
• body mechanics
• how you can use a tractor or mortar mixer
• Rubble trench foundations
• Stem walls out of recycled concrete (”urbanite”), earth bags, and stone
• Natural sub-floors for earthen floors
• The materials sand, straw, and clay: How they work, what to look for, where to find them
• Wall building: tapering, keeping it plumb, trimming, shaping
• Electricity: How to put in wires, how to build a circuit
• Plumbing: Water and gray water systems
• Windows, doors and hanging cabinets and other things on cob walls
• Hybrid buildings: The interfaces of cob with other materials
• Earthen floors
• Earthen finish plasters.

The afternoon curriculum will less building and more lectures and demonstrations:

• The economy of building
  
• Passive solar design
• Natural design part 1 (introduction, basic principles, small home design)
  
• Natural design part 2 (”the pattern Language”)
• natural design part 3 (model making)
• Composting toilets from $10 to $10,000 and how they work!
• Solar hot water from $10 to $10,000, and how it works!
• Solar electricity and how to reduce our energy dependency
  
• Codes, hybrid buildings and natural renovations
• Straw bale construction, a complete hands-on primer
• Light straw clay, a complete hands-on primer
• Waddle and daub, a complete hands on primer
• Adobe bricks, a complete hands on primer
• Roofs and roof insulation
• Simple living and community, how to get started.

In addition to these topics, we will present you with multiple slide presentations to explain technical concepts as well as familiarize you with our previous projects around the world and the greater community of natural building. Believe it or not, there will also be time for taking afternoon naps, singing and an occasional walk in the woods.

Daily schedule

Here is a basic idea of the daily schedule, which changes regularly, depending on the weather, the progress on the building site and the topics of discussion:

• First thing -- light snack, coffee, tea, juice
• Then: morning cob mixing
• Breakfast
• Cob construction and curriculum
• Lunch and afternoon nap time
• Afternoon presentation #1
• Snack and afternoon presentation #2
• Dinner

Evening programs will vary, depending on people’s energy. Sometimes we just hang out and socialize, other times there will be slide shows and/or short discussions.

About the site

This workshop will be held on our homestead near Jacksonville, OR.  There are several natural buildings as well as a beautiful garden, composting toilets and many different solar technologies. The setting is a serene pine and doug-fir forest in the mountains of Southern Oregon, just 30 minutes away from both the Medford airport and Ashland, and 15 minutes from the historic town of Jacksonville. Camping on site is provided along with delicious vegetarian meals (vegan options available), with lots of produce from our own garden. People need to provide their own tent/bedding. In May, the weather in may can fluctuate widely, with temperatures varying between 45 at night and and 75 during the day.  Rain is possible this time of year. In the month of August is is usually hot and dry, although we do get an occasional thunderstorm. Click here to read more about our homestead.

What to bring to the workshop

• Tent
• sleeping bag/pad, pillow
  
• Enough clothing to last for the workshop (clothing will get dirty, small hand-washings mid-week are possible, closest laundromat is a 20 minute drive)
  
• Protection from the sun (hats, sunscreen, etc.)
  
• Water bottle
  
• Pictures, drawings, plans, ideas, questions
• A 6' x 8' woven polypropalene (”blue”) tarp for mixing cob. Larger is fine, we will cut it to size.
  
• Lotion or cream for dry hands and feet
  
• Bathing suit and towel (we may go for an occasional dip in the nearby river)
  
• Work gloves.  We like the cloth ones with rubberized palms (One brand is called "Atlas").
• Musical instruments
  
• For sensitive feet (optional): An old pair of sneakers, duct tape or diving booties. We will be mixing cob by foot. To toughen up your feet a little, we highly recommend that you walk bare foot as much as possible before the workshop starts. You will find that this will also bring you great health benefits.

Registration

To secure your spot in this workshop, go to the registration page and follow the simple instructions. We require a $200 non-refundable deposit per person, which can be paid with a check or money order. The balance is due at the time of the workshop and can be paid on site in cash or with a check/money-order. Click here to register for a workshop

About bringing kids

Almost without exception, children and youth have enjoyed being a part of our workshops. Our youngest participant was 6 months old at the time! Depending on their age and interest, kids build, listen and observe, play with the sand and clay, read, etc. They often also team up with other kids on the homestead, notably Julian (11) and Rosie (8). We see a lot of good in exposing your children to natural building and community living and like to think that we can make a difference in the way they see life. This is also a great way to enjoy the workshop as a family and to prepare your family for being at a building site together. Needless to say that you will lose some workshop time while you are attending to the needs of your child; We can not provide day care for you. The cost for children is: 0- 4 years old: Free (we are counting on you bringing breast milk and or baby food) 4 - 12 years old: $15 per day (just covering our food and infrastructure cost) 13 - 17 years old: half price. These prices may not apply to all workshops. Please check with us in order to make special arrangments. We want to make it possible for you!