Number of Students: up to 12

Cost: $1750

The Building Project

During this TWELVE day workshop we will build a beautiful garden wall and an earthen bread/pizza oven. Within the garden wall, we will incorporate all the features of a wall in an earthen house: windows, doors, electricity, plumbing, arches, niches, and artwork. The extra two days will be dedicated to more finish work including plasters and sculpting.

(We don’t start a whole building in a shorter workshop, as attractive as that may sound; it will have people do too much of one thing [mixing cob and wall building] while not being able to learn the other important aspects of natural building in a meaningful way, such as roof variations, natural plasters, earthen floors and design.)

The Building Projects

During each of our ten day workshops we will build a beautiful garden wall and an earthen bread/pizza oven. Within the garden wall, we will incorporate all the features of a wall in an earthen house: windows, doors, electricity, plumbing, arches, niches, and artwork.

(We don’t start a whole building in a shorter workshop, as attractive as that may sound; it will have people do too much of one thing [mixing cob and wall building] while not being able to learn the other important aspects of natural building in a meaningful way, such as roof variations, natural plasters, earthen floors and design.)

Overview

This is one of the most comprehensive natural building workshops you can find. Together, VersaTerra instructors have decades of experience on four different continents. This has helped us design rich learning experiences giving students the tools they need to become confident earthen builders.

Earth is the mother of all building materials. For millennia, and all over the world, people have used earth to build beautiful, simple, efficient and inexpensive homes. It’s plentiful, ecological, and non-toxic. Plus, it can’t burn, won’t rot and is much simpler to build with than conventional construction.

We will teach you how to use clay-soil to build just about everything: from strong structural walls (cob and adobe) to beautiful floors, plasters and light-straw-clay walls. Because the materials are fireproof, they are ideally suited to sculpt ovens, fireplaces and cook stoves.

The essence of your learning experience will revolve around developing a deep understanding of how to process and combine a few simple materials: clay-soil, sand, and straw. How you apply that in your building adventures is then up to you, but you will find the possibilities endless and exciting. 

What you will learn

After this workshop, you will feel confident that you can

• Design and build yourself a cob cottage

• Remodel or renovate an existing home, using natural materials

• Build and use an earthen oven

• Use cob to create garden walls and hot tubs

• Teach a one-day natural building event yourself!

Specifically, you will get hands-on experience and skill development in the following areas:

• Foundation systems, rubble trench, stem walls, earthbag construction (as a stem wall)

• Identifying the right materials, screening, processing, testing, costs, amount calculations

• Mixing cob efficiently

• Making adobe bricks and using straw bales (“balecob”) and cordwood cob

• Building with cob: strong sculptural walls, arches, windows and doors, niches, and sculptural artwork

• Electricity and plumbing, how to install wires and pipes in the walls

• Roof attachment and roof design

• Light-straw-clay: this is an infill technique perfect for code-approved buildings and natural renovations of existing homes. You will learn how to make the right materials and how to install them

• Natural plasters, tools, making your own plasters and paints, colors, applications, how to apply it on earthen walls, drywall, wood, concrete

• Tamped floors, finish earthen floors in natural buildings, earthen floors in existing homes on plywood, oriented strand board, and concrete

• Earthen ovens: from start to finish and how to use them (pizza party!)

• Different design strategies, natural design essentials, passive solar, using cob to make models

• Building codes, how they work, how to work with and around them

During every workshop we make time for specific issues related to individual situations. This usually includes a careful look at different climates and regions, living with families or in communities, dealing with the building code, physical and financial challenges, appropriate technologies and more.

Kyle’s book, “Build it with Earth: the Cob Pizza Oven” and Conrad’s, “House of Earth” are both included with the workshop and will be mailed before we being. They will serve as guidebooks for the workshop.

About the Site

The Big Indian Farm is a picturesque 72 acres nestled in the gently rolling hills of the Indian Valley region of Floyd County Virginia. The farm is so named after the Big Indian Creek, which is a bold clear water creek that runs year round through the entire property.

Your hosts and owners are Adrienne Davis and Earl White, and their 3 boys Myles, Oliver, and Zephyr. Earl and Adrienne are both professional musicians who moved to Floyd with a vision/goal of creating a space that fosters a sustainable lifestyle through music, art, and educational opportunities – somewhat like an Eco-village for people seeking to learn more about sustainable life practices. Big Indian Farm also hosts the annual Fiddler’s Jam.

The farm is currently home to a flock of Icelandic and Katahdin sheep, chickens, and numerous garden plots for growing organic vegetables. One of our main goals as stewards of the land is advocating for clean food in our community. Thus, our sheep are 100% grass fed and, well, the chickens are ultra free range and do what chickens do best while keeping insect pests at bay.

The farm is also home to the Big Indian Farm Artisan Bakery, which is a local source for wholesale/retail organic sourdough breads, pastries, and bagels in our community and beyond. The bakery opened in 2017 and has become a needed and highly desired asset to our community. We make every effort to locally source product sources as available.

Floyd County has a rich art, music and cultural history. Home to the Floyd Country Store and the Friday night jamboree, the town of Floyd attracts a worldwide audience. The area also has many outdoor amenities suited for bikers, hikers, and river rafters.

~ Earl and Adrienne

Lodging

We have tent spaces, parking areas for RVs and camper vans, and cabins for anyone seeking such comforts (at extra cost).

Pickup and Dropoff

Airport pickup and drop off is available from the Roanoke Airport only the Monday morning before the workshop starts and Saturday afternoon after the workshop ends.

Registration, Payment, & Refunds

This workshop requires a $500 deposit to hold your space. When a deposit is made, Kyle will reach out to you, welcome you to the course, and get you in the email loop with all the details.

Go here to make a Venmo deposit or send a check for $500 made out to Cobitat and mailed to 2055 McCloud Avenue, Reno, NV 89512. Full payments are also gladly accepted.

Deposit is refundable (minus $50 for books and mailing cost if they’ve already been shipped to you) until 6 weeks before the start of the class. If you cancel with less than six weeks before the start of the class and your spot can be filled, we will issue a refund minus book costs. If it can’t be filled, your deposit will not be refunded.

Full payment is requested by two weeks before the start of each class.

Instructors

Jonathan Vocke started natural building with a VersaTerra course years ago and has since built and taught with us in India, Mexico, and Nevada and on his own in his hometown of Baltimore. When not slinging mud he’s a professional musician and music teacher and an avid traveler and adventurer. Every workshop he’s a part of benefits from his musical talents, his energy, and his skill as a teacher.

Kyle Isacksen has been building with earth since 2010 and teaching natural building since 2011 with House Alive and the Be the Change Project. Kyle has a background in construction, teaching, and simple living.  He’s worked as a framer, carpenter, and commercial roofer and recently finished building a “green” conventional house in his neighborhood in Reno. He was a science teacher for 7 years, is a frequent speaker on sustainable living, and is a contributing writer for Mother Earth News magazine and blog. Kyle enjoys basketball, hiking, reading, and martial arts.