An Introduction to Ecological Building Techniques Including Rubble Trench and Rock Foundation, Wattle and Daub, Earth Bags, Cob, Natural Plasters, and Rocket Mass Heaters! May 18th — May 25th, 2019 Intro to Ecological Construction For thousands of years, people have been building their homes out of the dirt beneath their feet. Natural and vernacular building techniques have roots in every culture around the world, but share the distinction of using local materials, being energy efficient, and having a low ecological footprint.…

Want to take your natural building curiosity to the next level? If so, join The Year of Mud for our 4 day introductory Natural Building Essentials Workshop. In this course, you’ll get hands-on experience building light clay straw walls, mixing and applying various natural plasters, and stomping and sculpting cob. In addition, we’ll tour several beautiful natural homes in the local community. If you’ve been inspired by natural building and need a jump start, this is the course for you. Here is some…

We will build a cob outdoor kitchen under an existing roof structure. Students will build a stone foundation and cob walls that will support a countertop, cob benches, and construct a cob bread/pizza oven from start to finish. We will spend time learning about and working with earth and lime based plasters and paints also. We will have led discussions/presentations on oven design, foundations and site planning, wood framing, and roofing. What to expect: Our days will be spent engaged…

Dates: June 3 – June 7, 2019 Location: Athens, Tennessee   Come and join us in the beautiful foothills of Athens, Tennessee for our 2019 Cob Building Workshop! We will be constructing a cob house in this workshop. A perfect project for beginners and experts alike! You will get the knowledge to be able to build cob projects scaling from smaller things, such as cob ovens and benches, up to large projects like homes and buildings. This workshop is a…

$800 Earliest Bird Rate (register before March 21st, 2019) $875 Early Bird Rate (register before May 9th, 2019) $950 Regular Rate *10% additional discount for family/friends participating together   Join us as we add onto one of our strawbales cottages in the woods! We will be extending the footprint of the building with a strawbale-insulated bedroom, as well as a slip-straw insulated bathroom. Earthen and lime plastering work can be done on both of those wall systems during the week.…

In this course, we’ll work on finishing an existing straw-bale and cob hybrid building. Students will gain a thorough understanding of building with earth in various forms. Including building cob walls, earthen floors, making and applying earth plaster finishes. In addition we will learn about green roofs by installing the drainage and soil layers of our building’s roof. What to expect: Our days will be spent engaged in hands-on building and learning with natural materials. Expect a rich week of…

Ever wonder what it’s like to build a timber frame from the ground up? Join The Year of Mud this June for a 7 day Timber Frame Workshop near Berea, Kentucky. In this totally hands-on introductory workshop, students will use timeless techniques and traditional hand tools to lay out and join a beautiful timber frame pavilion. Learn valuable new carpentry skills in a gorgeous mountain homestead setting, and discover what it takes to build a long-lived timber structure using mortise…

PROJECT This will be the very first workshop hosted on this beautiful new sacred land purchased in January 2019.  The only existing building on the land is a 30m2 agricultural support structure made of clay bricks/blocks.  While the plan is to develop a small Ecovillage community, the first officially habitable building will not be built until November/December as there is a permit process that I am choosing to adhere to.  Thus the first structures we will build in this 4-week…

(The workshop start with dinner on the first day and end with lunch on the last day) ​Fee: $1275 Maximum class size: 16 students ​     Included in the fee: Instructions camping spot 3 vegetarian meals, Coffee, tea, water Our book “House of Earth” VersaTerra Certificate Transportation from Medford airport or bus station. Instructor Conrad Rogue and Kyle Chandler-Isacksen ​Overview This is the most comprehensive workshop you can find. Decades of teaching on four different continents has helped us design this rich learning experience,  giving students the tools…

All of our Natural Building Workshops are led and facilitated by the builder of a 900 sq.ft. split level Cob Home.  This home was built in 5 months during 2016.  About 80% of it was built by one person – your workshop instructor – on his own.  He had help putting up the floor and roofing beams as well as the giant windows and skylights, but 90% of the cobbing was done alone.  That’s the power of this technique that…

Dates: July 8 – July 12, 2019 Location: Athens, Tennessee   Come and join us in the beautiful foothills of Athens, Tennessee for our 2019 Cob Building Workshop! We will be constructing a cob house in this workshop. A perfect project for beginners and experts alike! You will get the knowledge to be able to build cob projects scaling from smaller things, such as cob ovens and benches, up to large projects like homes and buildings. This workshop is a…

All of our Natural Building Workshops are led and facilitated by the builder of a 900 sq.ft. split level Cob Home.  This home was built in 5 months during 2016.  About 80% of it was built by one person – your workshop instructor – on his own.  He had help putting up the floor and roofing beams as well as the giant windows and skylights, but 90% of the cobbing was done alone.  That’s the power of this technique that…