Cob Workshops

🪨 Dry-Stacked Stone Foundations for Drainage & Erosion Control in Chattanooga, TN
2025-08-25 - 2025-08-28 | Talking Water Nature Retreat, Chattanooga, TN, United States
🪨 Dry-Stacked Stone Foundations for Drainage & Erosion Control📅 August 25–28 (4 days)💰 $480
Ready to build stone walls that are beautiful and built to last?
Join us this August at Talking Water Nature Retreat in Chattanooga, TN for a hands-on deep dive into dry-stacked stone foundation work. This workshop is designed for anyone who wants to combine aesthetic, long-lasting walls with smart water management—whether you’re planning a cob, cordwood, or hybrid structure.
We’ll be working on two real-world applications:
🔹 50′ perimeter mortared stone foundation (for cob walls)

Trenched gravel base with runoff tubing

Classic stacked stone wall techniques for vertical builds

🔹 65′ linear mortared stone retaining wall (for cordwood walls)

2–3 ft high with 6 ft load-bearing buttress supports

Water management with landscape fabric, French drains, and compacted gravel

You’ll learn how to:
✅ Select and balance stones
✅ Frame for openings like doors and transitions✅ Build with long-term structural integrity
✅ Create 100-year walls that manage water like pros
✅ Use simple tools and techniques that honor tradition and function
This workshop is part of our Fall Earthbuilding Series, a collection of focused weekend intensives at our family-run nature-based retreat, Talking Water, on Suck Creek Mountain—just 15 minutes from downtown Chattanooga and next to Prentice Cooper State Forest.
🌿 Pricing includes:

All tools and materials

Daily breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks

One homemade, healthy group dinner

🏕️ On-site camping available: $20 per tent🏡 Discounted cabin rentals available (while they last!)
This is for the builders, the land-lovers, the folks who want to do it right from the ground up. Whether you’re just getting started or bringing years of experience, you’re welcome here.
📩 Questions? Reach out: Bobbie@TalkingWaterTN.com🔗 More info & full workshop schedule: talkingwatertn.com🔗 Facebook share link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1H1dgCprih/
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This workshop is part of a series of workshops constructing a bluff-top amphitheater from the ground up. Topics include:
🪨 Dry-stacked stone foundations for drainage & erosion control

August 25 to August 28 (4 days)
$480

🪞 Bottle-log windows for beauty & light diffusion

August 30 to August 31 (2 days)
$315

📐 Load-bearing cordwood walls

September 13 to 14 (2 days) OR September 20 to 21 (2 days)
$315

🌀 Scultpural cob walls

September 5 to September 14 (10 days)
$815

🪷 Natural plasters with breathable, weather-ready finishes

September 24 to September 28 (5 days)
$580

🏡 Reciprocal green roof for thermal mass & elegant structure

October 12 to October 16 (5 days)
$580

🌿 Performance meets creativity. Function meets nature. And you meet a community of hands-on learners ready to build the future together.

🪞 Windows & Bottle-Logs – Cutting & Installing Colorful Light Features
2025-08-30 - 2025-08-31 | Talking Water Nature Retreat, Chattanooga, TN, United States
🪞 Windows & Bottle-Logs – Cutting & Installing Colorful Light Features📅 August 30 to August 31, 2025💰 $315
Want to bring color, light, and artistry into your walls? This hands-on workshop is all about bottle-log windows and floating window frames – techniques that make natural buildings glow.
We’ll dive into every step, from sourcing bottles to installing frames that will last for ages.
What we’ll cover:

Sourcing, selecting, cutting, and disinfecting bottles

Drying and taping techniques for bottle-log assembly

Creating custom window frames that work with cob and cordwood walls

Prepping for proper flashing and weatherproofing

Installing and floating frames in unbuilt walls for a seamless, artistic look

You’ll get the full picture: how to marry design, light, and durability with plenty of time for hands-on cutting, prepping, and building.

This workshop is part of our Fall Earthbuilding Series at Talking Water Nature Retreat in wild Chattanooga, TN, where we’re creating a mini forest amphitheater using cob, cordwood, and stacked stone. It’s beginner-friendly, creative, and full of muddy magic, healthy meals, and forest camping.
🌿 Pricing includes:

All tools and materials (yes, bottles are provided!)

Daily breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks

One homemade, healthy group dinner

Discounts available: 10% off for group sign-ups, 15% off for attending multiple workshops

🏕️ On-site camping: $20 per tent🏡 Discounted cabin rentals available (limited spaces)
Bring your ideas, your hands, and maybe a few bottles you’ve been saving for something special.

📩 Questions? Email: Bobbie@TalkingWaterTN.com
🔗 Details & sign-up: talkingwatertn.com
🔗 Facebook share link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1H1dgCprih/
📍 Chattanooga, Tennessee – next to Prentice Cooper State Forest, just 15 minutes from downtown

🛠️ Fall 2025 Earthbuilding Workshop Series at Talking Water
Each workshop is a hands-on, focused session. Join just one—or come for the whole journey.
🪨 Dry-Stacked Stone FoundationsFor drainage & erosion control📅 August 25–28 (4 days)💰 $480
🪞 Bottle-Log WindowsFor beauty & light diffusion📅 August 30–31 (2 days)💰 $315
📐 Load-Bearing Cordwood Walls📅 September 13–14 or September 20–21 (2 days)💰 $315
🌀 Sculptural Cob Walls📅 September 5–14 (10 days)💰 $815
🪷 Natural PlastersBreathable, weather-ready finishes📅 September 24–28 (5 days)💰 $580
🏡 Reciprocal Green RoofThermal mass & elegant structure📅 October 12–16 (5 days)💰 $580

Cob Sauna Workshop (5-day) Montana 15% off groups
2025-08-30 11:00 - 2025-09-03 17:00 (America/Denver) | SpiritWood Natural Building, Victor Montana, Victor, MT, 59875, United States
During this five day immersion workshop you will learn all about different natural building materials while helping to construct a small earthen sauna.
​
Participants will get hands on experience building using the pallet/cob technique popularized by Miguel Elliott founder of Living Earth Structures. Using a combination of pallets, straw, clay and lime we will build an earthen sauna.
​
Participants will also receive a tour of four complete structures; a balecob home, strawbale workshop, balecob guest studio, and pallet cob chicken coop. Included in the tour are 3 Rocket Mass Heaters (batch and J-style) for winter heat, earthen floors, and many other natural elements for discussion. Learn how you can build a home for less than a year of rent and still be comfortable and warm.
​
A first come first serve guest cottage (sleeps 2) and pop up camper (sleeps 4) is available to rent on upon request on a first pay first serve basis. Camp sites are available at no cost. Please inquire ahead about availability for parking live in vehicles. Composting toilet and an outdoor shower are available for use.
​
An outdoor kitchen is available for community use with meals and staples provided (rice, bread, sugar, tea, coffee, etc.) as well as many greens from the garden. Join us as we have community around our wood fired pizza oven!
​
Those joining us are welcome to explore the 5 acre property, forage (many berries), swim in the ponds, and walk to the frisbee golf course just down the road.
​
We love animals, but unfortunately no pets are allowed.
Space is limited to 12 participants.
​
Approximate Schedule:
Day 1: Tours of existing structures, discussion of building elements, pallet wall construction
Day 2: Cob, doors, and windows
Day 3: Waddle Daub, bottle windows, sculpture and walls
Day 4: Living roof
Day 5: Earthen Renders and Lime Plasters
​​
Date: August 30-September 3, 2025
Start Time: 11am, August 30
Cost: $950
15% discount for family + friends participating together
Location: SpiritWood Natural Building, Victor, MT

🌀 Sculptural Cob Walls: Shape, Structure, and Soul
2025-09-05 - 2025-09-14 | Talking Water Nature Retreat, Chattanooga, TN, United States
🌀 Sculptural Cob Walls: Shape, Structure, and Soul📅 September 5–14 (10 days)💰 $815
Want to build with your hands, your heart, and a big pile of mud?
In this extended, hands-on workshop, we’ll guide you through the entire process of building load-bearing cob walls (from base to bond beam) with a focus on strength, creativity, and flow. This is where function meets sculpture, and you’ll leave with the confidence to build something truly your own.
Cob is tactile, forgiving, expressive, and strong. Perfect for cabins, studios, garden walls, and structures that feel alive.
What we’ll cover:

Soil testing and mixing cob by hand and foot

Foundation-to-wall transitions

Cob wall building, shaping, and structural sculpting

Incorporating curves, niches, benches, shelves, and arches

Thermal mass and wall thickness

Embedding bottles, stones, wood, and window frames during organic construction

Daily hands-on practice with expert guidance

We’ll be working on a real structure in a forest setting, with plenty of time for both technical learning and creative expression.

This workshop is part of our Fall Earthbuilding Series at Talking Water Nature Retreat, our family-run forest retreat on Suck Creek Mountain in Chattanooga, TN. Together, we’re building a bluff-top amphitheater using natural and repurposed materials, each element teaching skills you can take home.
🌿 Pricing includes:

All tools and materials

Daily breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks

One homemade, healthy group dinner

💸 Discounts available:

10% off for group sign-ups

15% off for attending multiple workshops

🏕️ On-site camping: $20 per tent🏡 Discounted cabin rentals available (limited availability)
📩 Email: Bobbie@TalkingWaterTN.com🔗 Sign-up & workshop info: talkingwatertn.com📍 Suck Creek Mountain – Chattanooga, TN (15 mins from downtown, next to Prentice Cooper State Forest)🔗 Facebook share link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1H1dgCprih/

🛠️ Fall 2025 Earthbuilding Workshop Series at Talking Water
Each workshop is a hands-on, focused session. Join just one or come for the whole journey!
🪨 Dry-Stacked Stone FoundationsFor drainage & erosion control📅 August 25–28 (4 days)💰 $480
🪞 Bottle-Log WindowsFor beauty & light diffusion📅 August 30–31 (2 days)💰 $315
🪵 Load-Bearing Cordwood Walls📅 September 13–14 or September 20–21 (2 days)💰 $315
🌀 Sculptural Cob Walls📅 September 5–14 (10 days)💰 $815
🪷 Natural PlastersBreathable, weather-ready finishes📅 September 24–28 (5 days)💰 $580
🏡 Reciprocal Green RoofThermal mass & elegant structure📅 October 12–16 (5 days)💰 $580

🪵 Load-Bearing Cordwood Walls – Strong, Simple, and Beautiful, 1st weekend
2025-09-13 - 2025-09-14 | Talking Water Nature Retreat, Chattanooga, TN, United States
🪵 Load-Bearing Cordwood Walls – Strong, Simple, and Beautiful📅 September 13–14 (2 days)💰 $315
Ready to stack wood and mortar into something that stands for generations?
In this hands-on workshop, we’ll teach you how to build load-bearing cordwood walls that are structurally sound, weather-conscious, and full of natural charm. Whether you’re building a full structure or a garden wall, you’ll walk away with the know-how to do it right.
This method is approachable, sturdy, and perfect for cabins, saunas, studios, or integrating with cob and timber frames.
What we’ll cover:

Site prep and base layer setup

Mortar mixing and ratio basics

Log selection, trimming, and stacking

Key techniques for leveling, spacing, and alignment

Load-bearing integration and buttress reinforcement

Managing shrinkage, air gaps, and water flow

We’ll be working on a real build, using local, repurposed cedar and hardwoods—learning the small details that make cordwood walls beautiful and strong.

This workshop is part of our Fall Earthbuilding Series at Talking Water Nature Retreat, our family-run forest retreat on Suck Creek Mountain in Chattanooga, TN. We’re building a bluff-top amphitheater using all natural and repurposed materials, and this is one of the central elements.
🌿 Pricing includes:

All tools and materials

Daily breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks

One homemade, healthy group dinner

💸 Discounts available:

10% off for group sign-ups

15% off for attending multiple workshops

🏕️ On-site camping: $20 per tent🏡 Discounted cabin rentals available (limited availability)
📩 Email: Bobbie@TalkingWaterTN.com🔗 Sign-up & workshop info: talkingwatertn.com📍 Suck Creek Mountain – Chattanooga, TN (15 mins from downtown, next to Prentice Cooper State Forest)🔗 Facebook share link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1H1dgCprih/

🛠️ Fall 2025 Earthbuilding Workshop Series at Talking Water
Each workshop is a hands-on, focused session. Join just one—or come for the whole journey.
🪨 Dry-Stacked Stone FoundationsFor drainage & erosion control📅 August 25–28 (4 days)💰 $480
🪞 Bottle-Log WindowsFor beauty & light diffusion📅 August 30–31 (2 days)💰 $315
📐 Load-Bearing Cordwood Walls📅 September 13–14 or September 20–21 (2 days)💰 $315
🌀 Sculptural Cob Walls📅 September 5–14 (10 days)💰 $815
🪷 Natural PlastersBreathable, weather-ready finishes📅 September 24–28 (5 days)💰 $580
🏡 Reciprocal Green RoofThermal mass & elegant structure📅 October 12–16 (5 days)💰 $580

Rocket Mass Heater Workshop -- Montana
2025-09-13 10:00 - 2025-09-14 16:30 (America/Denver) | SpiritWood Natural Building, Victor Montana, Victor, MT, 59875, United States
Rocket Mass Heater Build (2 Day)

In this two day workshop you will learn how to build a batch Rocket Mass Heater. Learn about the principals behind creating these high temperature, beautiful, and efficient wood burning stoves.
This hands on class is located at Spiritwood Natural Building, in Victor Montana. Attendees will join Katherine and Daniel Ray of Spiritwood Natural Building to build a rocket mass heater in an existing earthen sauna.
This class will demonstrate the materials and tools needed to build your own stove. Participants will gain hands on experience building a batch box rocket mass heater.
​
Participants will also receive a tour of four complete structures; a balecob home, strawbale workshop, balecob guest studio, and pallet cob chicken coop. Included in the tour are 3 Rocket Mass Heaters (batch and J-style) for winter heat, earthen floors, and many other natural elements for discussion. Learn how you can build a home for less than a year of rent and still be comfortable and warm.
​
A first come first serve guest cottage (sleeps 2) and pop up camper (sleeps 4) is available to rent on upon request on a first pay first serve basis. Camp sites are available at no cost. Please inquire ahead about availability for parking live in vehicles. Composting toilet and an outdoor shower are available for use.
​
An outdoor kitchen is available for community use with meals and staples provided (rice, bread, sugar, tea, coffee, etc.) as well as many greens from the garden. Join us as we have community around our wood fired pizza oven!
​
Those joining us are welcome to explore the 5 acre property, forage (many berries), swim in the ponds, and walk to the frisbee golf course just down the road.
​
We love animals, but unfortunately no pets are allowed.
Space is limited to 10 participants.
Date: September 13-14, 2025
Start Time: 11am, September 13
Cost: $230
5% discount for family + friends participating together
Location: SpiritWood Natural Building, Victor, MT

Cob Building Workshop
2025-09-13 11:30 - 2025-09-14 11:30 (America/Denver) | CA
Cob/ Natural building workshop. Meet other like-minded folks in a peaceful retreat-like setting. Learn hands-on practical skills building a small dome like structure, Temazcal/Inipi. Inipi ceremony will be offered (a way to cleanse the body, mind, and spirit) camping, along with delicious meals. Some cabins available upon request for additional fee.

Intro to Cob and Straw Workshop – East Tennessee
2025-09-15 - 2025-09-19 | Greeneville, Tennessee, Greeneville, TN, 37743, United States
Dates: September 15 – September 19, 2025 (YES. We are still having the workshop as scheduled.)

Location: Greeneville, Tennessee

Come and join us in beautiful eastern Tennessee for our next Introduction to Cob and Straw Workshop! We will be constructing both a cob building and a straw-clay building. This workshop is perfect for beginners and experts alike! You will get the expert knowledge to build with cob and straw! Either for small-scale structures or large-scale projects like homes and buildings.

This workshop is a great experience to learn how to build with cob and straw, and to get a broad learning overview of natural building techniques. You will get a solid foundation in natural building fundamentals. You will learn the advantages of high thermal mass cob versus high insulation straw materials. We will be constructing the walls on a new cob building and a straw-clay building, mixing and applying lime plaster, and studying Natural Building together each day. You will also get to see living examples on-site of a completed cob building and straw-clay building. These are excellent examples that you can learn a lot from! After this workshop, you will have the basic experience and confidence to design and build your own cob and straw constructions or buildings.

Hands-On Work Topics:
– How to make cob (learn how to make cob with the tarp method and with machinery)
– How to build cob walls using traditional hand-sculpting and using innovative slipforms (learn all the great advantages of building cob walls with forms)
– How to make straw-clay (also known as light-straw-clay)
– How to build highly insulating straw-clay walls (learn how to frame and pack the walls)
– Selecting and testing soils for cob and straw-clay (learn several ways to test your soil composition)
– Lime Plaster Finishing (learn how to mix and apply lime plaster finishes to your walls)
– Creating window and door frames in cob walls (learn how to install frames into cob walls)

Classroom and Discussion Topics:
– Site selection and design (includes Passive Solar design principles)
– Materials and tools (covers traditional and modern cob building toolset and materials)
– Building Solid Foundations (learn all about constructing proper building foundations)
– Building codes and how to successfully get building permits for cob homes and straw homes.
– Best practices for building a healthy, non-toxic home.
– Basic Electrical and Plumbing integration for cob homes and straw homes
– Installing windows and doors
– Roofing and Bond Beams. Proper roof ventilation practices!
– Natural plasters and finishes (Vapor Permeable / “Breathable” finishes)
– Overview of all Natural Building materials, and how to hybridize them!

This workshop is a unique experience for people to learn about building cob homes and light-straw-clay homes, and to get an overview of Natural Building. Not only are there plenty of hands-on lessons to learn from, but we will also have ample discussion and informal classroom time. Most cob workshops and strawbale workshops don’t cover this many topics. But here, you will learn all the core lessons needed to start building from this one workshop!
Plus – there will be many hours of discussions about building cob homes and natural building throughout the workshop. Its a great way to get your questions answered and brainstorm your building ideas!

The workshop will be held at a private property in Greeneville, Tennessee.
Each day will begin at 9:00 AM, and the days will include hands-on building, classroom sessions, discussions, and learning activities related to cob, straw, and natural building topics. We will break for lunch between 12:00 to 1:00 PM, and we will complete each day at around 4:00 PM. They will be full-packed days! Worth your every penny!
Teacher

The workshop will be taught by Alex Sumerall, an east coast Earth Building Mason who has a focus on creating earthen structures that are healthy, aesthetically pleasing, and functional for modern life. He is the owner of This Cob House, which is dedicated to teaching people about cob and earthen building techniques. Alex has been practicing earthen building since 2011. He graduated from the Aprovecho School of Natural Building in 2013 in Cottage Grove, Oregon, and continues to teach, present, consult, and construct.

Alpaca Farm Tour!
As an added bonus to the workshop, we also offer a free alpaca farm tour at my neighbor’s Two Roots Farm. They have over 50 friendly alpacas, alpaca infrastructure, and a gift shop! We usually go on this tour Wednesday after class.

Listen to the great things that our workshop participants are saying!

“The cob workshop was a life-changing experience. I learned a lot about natural building, not only from Alex’s instruction, experience and demonstrations, but from interacting with people from different backgrounds who were a great source of collective knowledge. The hands-on experience was priceless!”

Tony Romo, Texas

“The Cob Building Workshop was a great investment of my time! It was well organized, extremely inspiring, and FUN! Alex was able to explain construction basics to neophytes like me, yet he could also answer the complex questions asked by the more experienced workshop attendees. I can’t wait until the next workshop!”

Marybeth Babos, Tennessee

“We thoroughly enjoyed and benefited tremendously from our Building With Cob workshop experience with you. Workshops that are fun, informative and full of practical application and guidance through hands-on experiential learning like this are a real joy.
As an instructor we found you to be knowledgeable, well organized and flexible addressing the needs and questions that came up. We appreciated your careful considered responses to every one of the many and varied questions our group threw your way. And the pace and mix of lecture and activity was just right for us.
Thank you Alex for a workshop that did all you said it would do, and more!”

Wes Shattuck, New Hampshire

Lodging
There are two options for lodging: free camping on site, or making reservations at one of the local hotels or AirBnBs. Hotels are available in the neighboring towns of Greeneville, Newport, Parrottsville, and Hot Springs.
Nearby is the Briggs Brother’s Ranch in Parrottsville, TN (highly recommended), and the Hot Springs Resort in Hot Springs, North Caolina.
Campers will have access to a private portable toilet and a private outdoor shower.
The workshop location has running water available, and an electrical hookup to charge phones and small devices.

Food
Meals will not be included in this workshop so participants will need to provide their own food and drinks. There are several local restaurants and grocery stores nearby the workshop site. We even have an amazing corner-store within a walkable distance from the workshop site!
Each student is responsible for their own meal preparation. An hour for lunch is provided, allowing adequate time for food, a quick nap, or trip into town. There is no official kitchen on site yet. Coolers are welcome and encouraged!
Recreation & Surroundings
Greeneville is located near the edge of the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Tennessee. It is a beautiful area, and there are many scenic places to visit nearby. You can also travel to places like Gatlinburg, TN or Asheville, NC within a one hour driving time from the workshop site.
Family & Group 10% Discounts
Ask about the 10% discount. We encourage group & family activities because it enhances learning among your support group. Email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com for custom group/family invoice.
Teens accompanying a parent/guardian are half price. Children under 13 accompanying a parent/guardian are free.
Children/young people of any age are welcome to join in and learn. Please be aware that some areas are under construction, as is the purpose of this workshop, but it is generally child-safe.
Please email me to register with the group/family discount. For normal registration, please sign up below.

If you have any other questions about the workshop, please feel free to email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com

Price: $499
Click here to Register: https://www.thiscobhouse.com/intro-to-cob-and-straw-workshop-tennessee-september-2025/

Clay Plasters, Paints, and Sculpting
2025-09-19 - 2025-09-21 | Rosewater Ranch, 30 minutes north of Reno, Nevada, Reno, CA, United States
Clay Plasters, Paints and Sculpting

Number of Students: 10
Cost: $400 (includes all meals and camping)
​Overview of the Three-Day Weekend
This is a hands-on class designed to get you comfortable with basic clay plasters so you can take on projects in your conventional home, a natural building, or for art projects. You’ll learn how to source, mix, make, and properly apply base and finish coat plasters from local/native sources as well as purchased materials including fine clays and pigments. We’ll also make and use clay paints and lime/clay plasters and use special mixes to make sculptural and decorative elements on the recently completed sauna.
About the Site
Rosewater Ranch sits on 130 acres of high desert steppe and coniferous forest 30 minutes north of Reno, NV. It features permacultured grounds, organic gardens, dairy goats, a mushroom business, a small community of residents, Prema Farm, a new earthen sauna we built in July, and a cob cabin from our 2021 workshop. The property borders expansive national forest with miles of trails and offers stunning vistas and sunsets.
Lodging and Food
Campsites, van and RV sites are available at the site and are included with the workshop. Guests are welcome to arrive during the afternoon of Thursday, September 18th. Class ends the afternoon of Sunday, September 21st. Hot showers are on-site.
Delicious home-cooked meals, coffee and tea are provided and will be vegetarian with occasional meat options.
The Daily Schedule
We are aware that students make a big investment in a workshop like this. We honor your time and do the best we can to share our knowledge and experience. Expect long days with lots of building and learning. On some evenings we will show slides and films featuring our previous projects and that of other people and cultures. Believe it or not, we also still like to make time for a campfire and some music. We always strive to make the workshop itself a comfortable, memorable and fun experience.
We start Friday Morning, September 19th with breakfast at 7:30, and end with lunch on Sunday, September 21st.
7:30 breakfast
8:30 plaster session 1
1:00 lunch
2:30-6:00 plaster session two, lectures, discussion
7:00 Dinner
8:00 lectures/slideshows/campfire/free time
Instructors
Lead instructor 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.
Katy Chandler is the co-founder of the Be the Change Project and has lived in and worked with natural building materials for many years. She is a prolific gardener, certified permaculture designer with over 12 years of hands-on implementation, urban garlic farmer, and math teacher. She loves to dance, laugh, and pore over seed catalogs while cozied up to the wood stove on long winter nights. Kyle and Katy also have two teenage sons.
Registration, Payment, & Refunds
This workshop requires a $150 payment to reserve your spot. Once a payment 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 pay with Venmo or send a check for $150 made out to “Cobitat” and mailed to 2055 McCloud Avenue, Reno, NV 89512.
Payment is refundable until 2 weeks before the start of the class. If you cancel with less than two weeks before the start of the class and your spot can be filled, we will issue a full refund. If it can’t be filled, we’ll issue a partial refund or put your payment towards a future workshop.

🪵 Load-Bearing Cordwood Walls – Strong, Simple, and Beautiful, 2nd weekend
2025-09-20 - 2025-09-21 | Talking Water Nature Retreat, Chattanooga, TN, United States
🪵 Load-Bearing Cordwood Walls – Strong, Simple, and Beautiful📅 September 20-21 (2 days)💰 $315
Ready to stack wood and mortar into something that stands for generations?
In this hands-on workshop, we’ll teach you how to build load-bearing cordwood walls that are structurally sound, weather-conscious, and full of natural charm. Whether you’re building a full structure or a garden wall, you’ll walk away with the know-how to do it right.
This method is approachable, sturdy, and perfect for cabins, saunas, studios, or integrating with cob and timber frames.
What we’ll cover:

Site prep and base layer setup

Mortar mixing and ratio basics

Log selection, trimming, and stacking

Key techniques for leveling, spacing, and alignment

Load-bearing integration and buttress reinforcement

Managing shrinkage, air gaps, and water flow

We’ll be working on a real build, using local, repurposed cedar and hardwoods—learning the small details that make cordwood walls beautiful and strong.

This workshop is part of our Fall Earthbuilding Series at Talking Water Nature Retreat, our family-run forest retreat on Suck Creek Mountain in Chattanooga, TN. We’re building a bluff-top amphitheater using all natural and repurposed materials, and this is one of the central elements.
🌿 Pricing includes:

All tools and materials

Daily breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks

One homemade, healthy group dinner

💸 Discounts available:

10% off for group sign-ups

15% off for attending multiple workshops

🏕️ On-site camping: $20 per tent🏡 Discounted cabin rentals available (limited availability)
📩 Email: Bobbie@TalkingWaterTN.com🔗 Sign-up & workshop info: talkingwatertn.com📍 Suck Creek Mountain – Chattanooga, TN (15 mins from downtown, next to Prentice Cooper State Forest)🔗 Facebook share link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1H1dgCprih/

🛠️ Fall 2025 Earthbuilding Workshop Series at Talking Water
Each workshop is a hands-on, focused session. Join just one—or come for the whole journey.
🪨 Dry-Stacked Stone FoundationsFor drainage & erosion control📅 August 25–28 (4 days)💰 $480
🪞 Bottle-Log WindowsFor beauty & light diffusion📅 August 30–31 (2 days)💰 $315
📐 Load-Bearing Cordwood Walls📅 September 13–14 or September 20–21 (2 days)💰 $315
🌀 Sculptural Cob Walls📅 September 5–14 (10 days)💰 $815
🪷 Natural PlastersBreathable, weather-ready finishes📅 September 24–28 (5 days)💰 $580
🏡 Reciprocal Green RoofThermal mass & elegant structure📅 October 12–16 (5 days)💰 $580

10 day natural building techniques
2025-09-20 16:00 - 2025-09-30 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Cob hill natural building school, hughes springs, TX, 75656, United States
This action-packed, hands-on/feet-on workshop is for adults and youth ages 12+ accompanied by parents who intend to build their own cob home! Test your grit during 10 days at Cob Hill Natural Building School, as Cat Taylor teaches the techniques and skills from the foundation to the roofing system. We will learn about various building styles: cob; bale cob; palletable cob. We will also cover many other natural building concepts like: site placement and preparation; dig a rubble trench; stack a stone stem wall; tamp subfloors; set windows; build up our walls and of course cob, cob, cob! Hands on experience covering soil testing, foundations, dig a rubble trench, pier and beam, stack a stone stem wall (dry stacking), cob building, bale cob, palletable cob, timber framing, windows and doors, roof designs, living roofs, roof sheathing, tree felling, log peeling, log milling (saw mill), Shou Sugi Ban(Japanese art of waterproofing wood).
Primitive tent camping sites are available near the build including access to hot showers, plus 3 plant-based meals a day are included in your tuition! You will need to bring your own camping gear. (See FAQ section of naturalbuildingorg.com) Prospective attendees, please be advised that we are unable to accommodate guests, unregistered children under 12 or pets on site for the duration of the workshop; however, there are nearby lodging options available for them including Daingerfield State Park, as well as two boarding options within 30 minutes of Cob Hill. $1165 tuition includes a $200 non-refundable deposit to secure your spot. Only if NaturalBuildingOrg has to cancel the workshop for some unforeseen reason will this deposit be refundable. Save $100 automatically if your registration includes two or more people. Active duty military personnel and honorably discharged veterans with valid ID or DD214 may select the appropriate tuition tier to receive 20% off, and eligible Cob Hill Lifetime of Learning (L.o.L.)

🪷 Natural Plaster - Clay & Lime Finishes for Earth Walls
2025-09-24 - 2025-09-28 | Talking Water Nature Retreat, Chattanooga, TN, United States
🪷 Natural Plaster – Clay & Lime Finishes for Earth Walls📅 September 24–28 (5 days)💰 $580
Ready to turn raw earth walls into polished works of art?
This hands-on workshop will teach you to create breathable, durable, and beautiful finishes using natural materials like clay, lime, sand, straw, and pigments. Whether you’re going for sleek and subtle or sculptural and expressive, you’ll learn how to apply functional, artistic plasters for cob, cordwood, or hybrid structures.
What we’ll cover:

Mixing clay, sand, straw, and natural pigments

Base coats, finish layers, and prepping different surfaces

Burnishing, tooling, and adding texture

Intro to lime plasters for weather resistance

Sculpting, patching, and blending repairs

No prior experience needed – we’ll guide you from the trowel up!

This workshop is part of our Fall Earthbuilding Series at Talking Water Nature Retreat, a family-run gathering place on Suck Creek Mountain in Chattanooga, TN, where we’re building a bluff-top amphitheater using all natural and repurposed materials.
🌿 Pricing includes:

All tools and materials

Daily breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks

One homemade, healthy group dinner

💸 Discounts available:

10% off for group sign-ups

15% off for attending multiple workshops

🏕️ Camping available for $20 per tent🏡 Discounted cabin rentals (limited availability)
📩 Email: Bobbie@TalkingWaterTN.com🔗 Sign-up & full workshop details: talkingwatertn.com📍 Suck Creek Mountain – Chattanooga, TN (15 mins from downtown, next to Prentice Cooper State Forest)🔗 Facebook share link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1H1dgCprih/

🛠️ Fall 2025 Earthbuilding Workshop Series at Talking Water
Each workshop is a hands-on, focused session. Join just one—or come for the whole journey.
🪨 Dry-Stacked Stone FoundationsFor drainage & erosion control📅 August 25–28 (4 days)💰 $480
🪞 Bottle-Log WindowsFor beauty & light diffusion📅 August 30–31 (2 days)💰 $315
📐 Load-Bearing Cordwood Walls📅 September 13–14 or September 20–21 (2 days)💰 $315
🌀 Sculptural Cob Walls📅 September 5–14 (10 days)💰 $815
🪷 Natural PlastersBreathable, weather-ready finishes📅 September 24–28 (5 days)💰 $580
🏡 Reciprocal Green RoofThermal mass & elegant structure📅 October 12–16 (5 days)💰 $580

Cob Oven Workshop
2025-09-26 09:00 - 2025-09-28 14:00 (America/Denver) | CA
This workshop is a great introduction to natural building materials and methods. We will build a wood-fired cob bread/pizza oven from start to finish. Students will build the stone foundation, firebrick hearth, cob structure, and finish the oven with earthen plasters. We will also build an attached straw bale and cob wall and a cast in place concrete countertop. You will learn the skills to go home and build your own oven, as well as take on other building projects with natural materials! The class is very hands-on but there will be time for focused discussions/presentations on a range of natural building topics.

What to expect:
Our days will be spent engaged in hands-on building and learning with natural materials. Expect a rich weekend of natural and community building with the group. We’ll work, learn, eat, and relax with each other in a positive, hard-working, fun atmosphere. Conversation on natural building will provide constant background chatter throughout the weekend. Evenings are typically unscheduled so folks have time to enjoy the site, explore nearby towns, or relax around the fire.
We will make time for a few focused discussions on related natural building subjects such as straw-bale construction, passive solar design, wood framing, roofing, permits and codes, and more. Michael may give an interesting slideshow presentation.

The Site:
Our site is the Mones homestead, a beautiful rural property with opportunities for hiking and exploring in the fields and woods. The property includes a house with toilet and shower facilities, a fire pit gathering area, and abundant camping space. The address will be provided upon registration.

Meals/Food preferences:
We will serve meals from lunch on Friday through lunch on Sunday, cooked on-site by staff. The food will be healthy and filling cuisine. Vegetarian and vegan options on request. Many of the ingredients will be sourced from local farms. Please indicate any food allergies upon registration.

Schedule:
The workshop will begin at 9am on Saturday the 26th. We will break for lunch around 1pm and work again until 5pm. The evening is informal and unscheduled, although a campfire hang-out will be available. Breakfast will be served at 8am with the workshop to follow. Camping participants may arrive Thursday evening to set up camp, but no meals will be provided until lunch Saturday.
Instructor:
Michael McDonough is a Troy, NY based building contractor, designer, and educator. His work can be found at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Oxmoor Farm, and a number of happy homesteads around the east coast and upstate NY. He has taught over 20 natural building workshops.

What to bring:
* Camping equipment including tent, sleeping bag, flashlight
* Work clothes and shoes. Slip on/off shoes are recommended, such as crocks, sandals, etc.
* Work gloves
* Sunscreen, bug spray, hat, water bottle, rain gear
* Notebook, building plans or sketches to discuss

To Register:
Tuition is $550 and includes the camping fee, workshop experience, and all meals. There is an early enrollment discount. If tuition is paid in full before September 5th, Tuition is $490.

Please contact Michael via email, text, or phone call if you’d like to register. We accept paypal, venmo, cash, or checks.

You may register via paypal by sending the tuition to michael@risingearthbuilding.com
Or venmo at @Michael-McDonough-140

Or mail your tuition cash/check to the address below and we will confirm your registration via email.

Rising Earth Natural Building
403 3rd St.
Troy, NY 12180
Call or email with questions:
(518) 217 5592
michael@risingearthbuilding.com

Clay and Lime Plaster Over Hempcrete
2025-10-06 08:00 - 2025-10-10 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
✨ Join Us for a Natural Plaster Workshop in Parkdale, OR! ✨
We’re excited to announce the first session in our two-part natural plaster workshop series happening October 6th–10th at a beautiful 2,000 SF hemp-lime home, the first permitted of its kind in Hood River County.
This hands-on workshop will focus on applying the base coats of clay and lime plaster: the essential foundation for achieving durable, flat, and beathable walls that set the stage for refined finish coats in spring 2026. Led by internationally recognized plaster specialist James Henderson, participants will learn mixing, application, and leveling techniques while exploring how natural plasters integrate beautifully with hemp-lime construction to create healthy interiors.
👉 Cost / Compensation:
• Beginners (limited experience): $600
• Moderate experience (1–2 years): Free
• Experienced plasterers (2+ years): Compensated based on skill level
• Experience level and cost/compensation will be determined after a brief call.
✨ Bonus: Register for this workshop and get 70% off the second workshop (spring 2026 finish coat session).
Project designer John Hutton of Next Genesis Design will be on-site to answer questions about hempcrete, design, and building systems.
📌 Spots are limited: reserve yours today! 🔗 Register & learn more: https://www.nextgenesisdesign.com/plaster-workshop-info

🏡 Reciprocal Green Roof: Structure, Geometry, and Living Roof Design
2025-10-12 - 2025-10-16 | Talking Water Nature Retreat, Chattanooga, TN, United States
🏡 Reciprocal Green Roof: Structure, Geometry, and Living Roof Design📅 October 12–16 (5 days)💰 $580
Curious about building a self-supporting roof system that’s both elegant and engineered to last?
Join us for this hands-on deep dive into reciprocal green roofs, led by the talented Josh and Sarah of Clay Sand & Soul, skilled natural builders known for their thoughtful design, precise joinery, and living roof expertise.
We’ll focus on the math, mechanics, and materials behind reciprocal roofs: spiral-framed structures celebrated for their strength, symmetry, and ability to support living systems.
Whether you’re dreaming of a garden pavilion, ceremony space, or green-roofed retreat, this workshop will give you the confidence and skill to build it right.
What we’ll cover:

Reciprocal roof geometry and load-bearing calculations

Timber selection, angle cuts, and center joinment

Framing on cob and cordwood wall systems

Tension distribution and structural stability

Layering systems for green roofs: waterproofing, drainage, insulation, and soil

Intro to roof planting and long-term maintenance

You’ll walk away with a full understanding of how to engineer, frame, and finish a reciprocal roof that’s both functional and stunning.

This workshop is part of our Fall Earthbuilding Series at Talking Water Nature Retreat, a family-run gathering space on Suck Creek Mountain in Chattanooga, TN. Together, we’re building a bluff-top amphitheater using only natural and repurposed materials—this roof will be its crown.
🌿 Pricing includes:

All tools and materials

Daily breakfast, lunch, snacks, and drinks

One homemade, healthy group dinner

💸 Discounts available:

10% off for group sign-ups

15% off for attending multiple workshops

🏕️ On-site camping: $20 per tent🏡 Discounted cabin rentals available (limited availability)
📩 Email: Bobbie@TalkingWaterTN.com🔗 Sign-up & workshop info: talkingwatertn.com📍 Suck Creek Mountain – Chattanooga, TN (15 mins from downtown, next to Prentice Cooper State Forest)🔗 Facebook share link: https://www.facebook.com/share/1H1dgCprih/

🛠️ Fall 2025 Earthbuilding Workshop Series at Talking Water
Each workshop is a hands-on, focused session. Join just one or come for the whole journey!
🪨 Dry-Stacked Stone FoundationsFor drainage & erosion control📅 August 25–28 (4 days)💰 $480
🪞 Bottle-Log WindowsFor beauty & light diffusion📅 August 30–31 (2 days)💰 $315
🪵 Load-Bearing Cordwood Walls📅 September 13–14 or September 20–21 (2 days)💰 $315
🌀 Sculptural Cob Walls📅 September 5–14 (10 days)💰 $815
🪷 Natural PlastersBreathable, weather-ready finishes📅 September 24–28 (5 days)💰 $580
🏡 Reciprocal Green RoofThermal mass & elegant structure📅 October 12–16 (5 days)💰 $580

Intro to Cob and Straw Workshop – East Tennessee
2025-10-13 - 2025-10-17 | Greeneville, Tennessee, Greeneville, TN, 37743, United States
Dates: October 13 – October 17, 2025 (YES. We are still having the workshop as scheduled.)

Location: Greeneville, Tennessee

Come and join us in beautiful eastern Tennessee for our next Introduction to Cob and Straw Workshop! We will be constructing both a cob building and a straw-clay building. This workshop is perfect for beginners and experts alike! You will get the expert knowledge to build with cob and straw! Either for small-scale structures or large-scale projects like homes and buildings.

This workshop is a great experience to learn how to build with cob and straw, and to get a broad learning overview of natural building techniques. You will get a solid foundation in natural building fundamentals. You will learn the advantages of high thermal mass cob versus high insulation straw materials. We will be constructing the walls on a new cob building and a straw-clay building, mixing and applying lime plaster, and studying Natural Building together each day. You will also get to see living examples on-site of a completed cob building and straw-clay building. These are excellent examples that you can learn a lot from! After this workshop, you will have the basic experience and confidence to design and build your own cob and straw constructions or buildings.

Hands-On Work Topics:
– How to make cob (learn how to make cob with the tarp method and with machinery)
– How to build cob walls using traditional hand-sculpting and using innovative slipforms (learn all the great advantages of building cob walls with forms)
– How to make straw-clay (also known as light-straw-clay)
– How to build highly insulating straw-clay walls (learn how to frame and pack the walls)
– Selecting and testing soils for cob and straw-clay (learn several ways to test your soil composition)
– Lime Plaster Finishing (learn how to mix and apply lime plaster finishes to your walls)
– Creating window and door frames in cob walls (learn how to install frames into cob walls)

Classroom and Discussion Topics:
– Site selection and design (includes Passive Solar design principles)
– Materials and tools (covers traditional and modern cob building toolset and materials)
– Building Solid Foundations (learn all about constructing proper building foundations)
– Building codes and how to successfully get building permits for cob homes and straw homes.
– Best practices for building a healthy, non-toxic home.
– Basic Electrical and Plumbing integration for cob homes and straw homes
– Installing windows and doors
– Roofing and Bond Beams. Proper roof ventilation practices!
– Natural plasters and finishes (Vapor Permeable / “Breathable” finishes)
– Overview of all Natural Building materials, and how to hybridize them!

This workshop is a unique experience for people to learn about building cob homes and light-straw-clay homes, and to get an overview of Natural Building. Not only are there plenty of hands-on lessons to learn from, but we will also have ample discussion and informal classroom time. Most cob workshops and strawbale workshops don’t cover this many topics. But here, you will learn all the core lessons needed to start building from this one workshop!
Plus – there will be many hours of discussions about building cob homes and natural building throughout the workshop. Its a great way to get your questions answered and brainstorm your building ideas!

The workshop will be held at a private property in Greeneville, Tennessee.
Each day will begin at 9:00 AM, and the days will include hands-on building, classroom sessions, discussions, and learning activities related to cob, straw, and natural building topics. We will break for lunch between 12:00 to 1:00 PM, and we will complete each day at around 4:00 PM. They will be full-packed days! Worth your every penny!
Teacher

The workshop will be taught by Alex Sumerall, an east coast Earth Building Mason who has a focus on creating earthen structures that are healthy, aesthetically pleasing, and functional for modern life. He is the owner of This Cob House, which is dedicated to teaching people about cob and earthen building techniques. Alex has been practicing earthen building since 2011. He graduated from the Aprovecho School of Natural Building in 2013 in Cottage Grove, Oregon, and continues to teach, present, consult, and construct.

Alpaca Farm Tour!
As an added bonus to the workshop, we also offer a free alpaca farm tour at my neighbor’s Two Roots Farm. They have over 50 friendly alpacas, alpaca infrastructure, and a gift shop! We usually go on this tour Wednesday after class.

Listen to the great things that our workshop participants are saying!

“The cob workshop was a life-changing experience. I learned a lot about natural building, not only from Alex’s instruction, experience and demonstrations, but from interacting with people from different backgrounds who were a great source of collective knowledge. The hands-on experience was priceless!”

Tony Romo, Texas

“The Cob Building Workshop was a great investment of my time! It was well organized, extremely inspiring, and FUN! Alex was able to explain construction basics to neophytes like me, yet he could also answer the complex questions asked by the more experienced workshop attendees. I can’t wait until the next workshop!”

Marybeth Babos, Tennessee

“We thoroughly enjoyed and benefited tremendously from our Building With Cob workshop experience with you. Workshops that are fun, informative and full of practical application and guidance through hands-on experiential learning like this are a real joy.
As an instructor we found you to be knowledgeable, well organized and flexible addressing the needs and questions that came up. We appreciated your careful considered responses to every one of the many and varied questions our group threw your way. And the pace and mix of lecture and activity was just right for us.
Thank you Alex for a workshop that did all you said it would do, and more!”

Wes Shattuck, New Hampshire

Lodging
There are two options for lodging: free camping on site, or making reservations at one of the local hotels or AirBnBs. Hotels are available in the neighboring towns of Greeneville, Newport, Parrottsville, and Hot Springs.
Nearby is the Briggs Brother’s Ranch in Parrottsville, TN (highly recommended), and the Hot Springs Resort in Hot Springs, North Caolina.
Campers will have access to a private portable toilet and a private outdoor shower.
The workshop location has running water available, and an electrical hookup to charge phones and small devices.

Food
Meals will not be included in this workshop so participants will need to provide their own food and drinks. There are several local restaurants and grocery stores nearby the workshop site. We even have an amazing corner-store within a walkable distance from the workshop site!
Each student is responsible for their own meal preparation. An hour for lunch is provided, allowing adequate time for food, a quick nap, or trip into town. There is no official kitchen on site yet. Coolers are welcome and encouraged!
Recreation & Surroundings
Greeneville is located near the edge of the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Tennessee. It is a beautiful area, and there are many scenic places to visit nearby. You can also travel to places like Gatlinburg, TN or Asheville, NC within a one hour driving time from the workshop site.
Family & Group 10% Discounts
Ask about the 10% discount. We encourage group & family activities because it enhances learning among your support group. Email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com for custom group/family invoice.
Teens accompanying a parent/guardian are half price. Children under 13 accompanying a parent/guardian are free.
Children/young people of any age are welcome to join in and learn. Please be aware that some areas are under construction, as is the purpose of this workshop, but it is generally child-safe.
Please email me to register with the group/family discount. For normal registration, please sign up below.

If you have any other questions about the workshop, please feel free to email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com
Click here to register: https://www.thiscobhouse.com/intro-to-cob-and-straw-workshop-tennessee-october-2025/
Price: $499

Bioconstruction Natural Building Techniques Workshop SW Louisiana
2025-11-15 08:30 - 2025-11-23 20:30 (America/New_York) | Snow White Sanctuary, 1636 Arledge Road, Vinton, LA, 70668, United States
Join us for Phase 2 of our Bioconstruction Workshop series November 15 – 23, 2025.
Please register HERE
Description: 9 days on a 24-acre 68-animal Farm and Nature Sanctuary as we learn bioconstruction techniques, material science, and alternative ways of building together.
What you learn:

Basics of mixing & installing cob, light clay straw, and bousillage
Mixing and applying earth-based and lime-based finishing plasters
Making and installing bottle bricks
Benefits of clay walls and material science
Basics of building envelope construction
Hands on building experience
Material sources and circularity
Material carbon embodiment and decarbonization tactics

Project: With Habitat Recovery Project, we are creating a hexagonal Earth Church as a spiritual beacon. We will be expanding upon the structure that was built in our Phase 1 Bioconstruction Workshop.
This course is for you if… you want a holistic perspective on alternative building techniques and processes
What’s Included:
✓ hands-on experience in various bioconstruction techniques
✓ hands-on education in tool use and maintenance including lumber mill
✓ one-on-one guidance from experienced female builders
✓ presentations for local environmentally-rooted community members
✓ three meals a day
✓ free tent camping onsite
✓ Internet access
Habitat Recovery Project
Snow White Sanctuary
Vinton, LA, 70668
FAQs
Lodging in Vinton
– AirBNB Glamping tents available onsite https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/46553986
– Delta Downs Racetrack & Casino
– Cobblestone Inn
Closest Airports
– Lake Charles, Louisiana (30 min, we can provide pickup)
– Houston, TX (2 hours drive, can take a FLIX bus to Beaumont or Lake Charles for pickup)
– New Orleans (4 hours drive, can go to Mardi Gras and take a FLIX bus to Lake Charles for pickup)
Lunch & Water: Provided on site
Available the farm:
Farm Fresh Eggs, Gulf Coast Shrimp & Oysters straight off the boat, Small outdoor stove available, Animal Experiences, Goats, Horses, Pigs, Bees and more!
There’s a few nearby restaurants in our town of Vinton for close and affordable meals. If you’re a foodie it’s worth driving out of town to experience the exquisite food Louisiana is known for.
In Vinton:
Amazing Sausages
Jenn’s Southern Kitchen
Restaurants at Delta Downs Racetrack
Arby’s Fast Food
Orange, TX Options:
Olde Orange Cafe
The Hut BBQ
Barry’s Greek Grill
Mi Casa Mexican
Tia Juanita’s
Sulphur:
Village Coffee House
Joe’s Italian Pizzeria
El Tapatio Mexican
Lake Charles:
Coffee:30
Restaurant Calla
121 Bistro
Pujo St Cafe
+ so many more!
Highly recommended nearby attractions to check out (and they’re FREE!):
-Shangri La Botanical Garden
-Stark Museum of Art
-Delta Downs Racetrack
Also help plan your visit to SWLA with this resource:
https://www.visitlakecharles.org

A Complete Introduction to Natural Building (Cob, Wattle and Daub, and Natural Plasters)
2025-11-16 16:00 - 2025-11-23 08:00 (America/Denver) | Clouds of El Pital Eco-Tourism Cooperative, El Pital Mountain, San Ignacio, Chalatenango, 503, El Salvador
Come and experience our natural building oasis, agroecology farm, and ecotourism project in the cloud forests of El Salvador´s highest mountain range! Our next natural building workshop is planned for November 16th to November 23rd, 2025.

This workshop is being hosted by the Nubes del Pital (Clouds of El Pital) agroecology farm and ecotourism project. Over the past ten years, we have collectively built 15 different cob houses, restaurants, and cabins to host tourists in the beautiful El Trifinio Biosphere on the slopes of El Salvador´s highest mountain. The nearby cloud forest offers a beautiful site to learn about natural building techniques, permaculture, agroecology, and sustainable living. Besides participating in the actual building workshop, you will also be staying on a beautiful permaculture farm offering the opportunity to learn about regenerative homesteading, organic farming, and different ways to integrate earthen structures into the landscape.

During this workshop, we will be building a new cob wattle and daub restaurant in a food forest and ecotourism project, including a cob pizza oven. The workshop site is surrounded by a beautiful pine and cedar forest, along with coffee, avocado, and other fruit trees. Participants will have the opportunity to experience and learn about all aspects of the building process, from rubble trenches and rock foundations, building cob, wattle and daub, and cordwood walls, timber framing, installing doors and windows, incorporating recycled materials/bottles into the structure, plastering, natural clay-based paints, and more.

This workshop also offers you the opportunity to see, experience, and live in several different naturally built structures on our farm. Besides staying in beautifully furnished cob and timber-framed cabins with fantastic views of El Salvador´s highest mountain, you will also have plenty of hands-on experience to learn a wide variety of natural building techniques.

The six full-day workshop costs $650 USD per person, and includes:

• 7 nights of lodging in private cob/wood cabins (check out the AirBnb links below to see where you´ll be staying)• 3 locally-harvested meals a day• All the coffee, tea, and water you can drink• Local transportation from the cabins where you will be staying to the build site on the coffee farm.• The workshop learning experience• Several free e-books on cob and natural building• A half-day hiking trip to visit the mystical cloud forest of El Pital• We will also be visiting different cob and wood homes that have been built in our community to learn how natural building positively impacts local communities.

For more information or to sign up and secure your place (we have a maximum of 15 participants for our workshops) you can send us an email at: tobiasroberts20@hotmail.com, or contact us via Whatsapp at +503 7952-9979

Again, we have a maximum of 15 spots available for this workshop, so contact us today with any questions you might have!

AirBnb links for cabins where you will be lodged during the workshop:

El Trigal: https://es.airbnb.com/rooms/21275949…Rosa de Montaña: https://es.airbnb.com/rooms/21276181…El Colibrí: https://es.airbnb.com/rooms/21239316…La Libélula: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/857860869520040145?guests=1…El Roble: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/682837356124333465?guests=1…El Abeto: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/683176565394719587?guests=1…

Cob Pavillion with Living Reciprocal Roof in Puerto Rico!
2026-01-18 17:00 - 2026-02-22 17:00 (America/Puerto_Rico) | Montana Manati, United States
January 18-February 22, 2026 Manatí, Puerto Rico
Clay Sand Soul invites you to come warm up and get muddy this winter at Montaña Manatí, a permaculture retreat center located minutes from Puerto Rico’s idyllic North Shore beaches.
In this 5-week Natural Building workshop, you will learn:

How to analyze local Clay for making Cob and Plaster
How to formulate Cob for load bearing wall construction
How to sculpt, embed glass bottles, and insert windows and doors into Cob walls
How to formulate warm interior clay plasters and protective exterior lime plasters
How to attach a roof to a Cob Wall
How to plan, design and build a Reciprocal Frame roof
How to plan, design, and build a cheap Living Green Roof to insulate and beautify your Cob building
How to formulate, pour, and finish a beautiful Earthen Floor
How to calculate materials for your own Natural Building building project
How to properly use tools like Drills and Saws
How to trust your own hands and build intuition with earthen materials
How to live in community for 5-weeks while creating functional art together and sharing each others struggles and successes!

Workshop tuition covers 5 weeks of hands-on building instruction, daily classroom lectures, 3 locally sourced healthful meals per weekday, and camping accommodations on Montaña Manatí’s beautiful land. There are rooms for rent on site if you would prefer that option.
Pricing (special rates for PR locals and work/trade available upon inquiry)
Early Bird Tuition-paid by October 1 2025 $2000
Normal Rate-paid by November 1 2025 $2250
Last Minute Rate-paid by January 18 2026 $2500
For more information and to register, contact us here:
Email students@claysandsoul.com
Instagram: @claysandsoul
Website: www.claysandsoul.com

Tasmania Advanced Cobber “Full Build” Certification
2026-02-08 16:00 - 2026-03-15 16:00 (Australia/Sydney) | Stefan's Place, Nubeena, Tasmania, Australia
THE PROJECT

Eugi from Argentina bit by the Cob Bug and ready for more in 2026!

The 5-week Advanced Cobber Certification Workshop students will be building the first COB structure on the Land. Until now Stefan and guests have been living in the caves, and camping, so this will be the first earthen shelter. We are honored he has chosen COB, to be built in an intimate, sacred and soulful way and created, as always, with 12-15 pairs of loving and passionate muddy hands and feet. Starting with the “boots”, the stone foundation, to the “hat”, our indestructible trademark reciprocal green roof, we will cover everything in between! You will leave confident, transformed, inspired, motivated, excited, and ready for more. Be prepared for a total life makeover, and a new strength and empowerment to fearlessly lead a life TRUE to yourself! We see this in every workshop year after year. It’s called “Cob Therapy”!
We will be building a 14m2/150ft2 round building (final size is always dependent on class number). The breathtaking reciprocal roof structure we build in all of our workshops is the strongest roof there is, due to its interlocking spiral structure which holds itself up with no outward pressure on the monolithic round wall of the building. In addition, it mirrors the horizontal social structure favored in indigenous societies, who meet under these types of roofs for council circles, as we will do weekly.
Students in this Advanced Cobber Certification training will, as always, learn all the steps to

Mission Accomplished in Aubange, Belgium in August 2025…One More Time!!!! What a Team!

Daniela, a local, shining after he first earthen sculpting experience in Costa Rica!

building a complete Cob Building from scratch. In week 1, we dig the rubble trench and fill it with a sturdy 30cm-wide aesthetic stone foundation to support the wall and roof, and finish the week off by pouring the first layer of adobe/cob floor on a layer of insulation underlain by a gravel base for drainage. In weeks 2 & 3, we build the monolithic cob wall, layer by layer, with all its detailed insertions and finish week 3 off with 2 days of relaxed sculpting. In week 4 we plaster our beautifully-decorated and solid wall with an earthen-manure mix for 4 days. On Friday we begin the Reciprocal Roof structure and in week 5 we complete the structure and cover it with a Green Roof. On the final days we will finish the top of the wall as well as the second floor coat, ready for Graduation and the Celebration on Saturday evening. Sunday morning is our Closing Circle before the public Open House on the final Sunday, when the final project is revealed to the outside world!

Bree followed the Call from Tennessee to Costa Rica in 2025 and is now sharing what she learned with her community…

We encourage non-White and multiracial students who are curious or already interested and passionate about earthen construction to come learn the art and technique of cob building with CCG. We want a workshop that feels comfortable for non-white students, and aim for a healthy balance of races, cultures and languages. CCG has taught in many countries of the world and our mission is to create access to everyone interested, especially the local people, so we can create international cob building families where all students grow and learn on a personal and interpersonal level. We aim to create intercultural and interhuman bonding experiences through our Cob building workshops to heal the world one Cob house at a time. So please follow your Heart & Soul, listen to the Call, and come and embark on a life-changing adventure in 2026!

DETAILED WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

Aubange, Belgium Workshop Build in Summer of 2025

The Cob Family after 5 weeks is a result of commitment, dedication, hard work, self-care, fun and alot of love!

Finish Floor on Day 25…an amazing feeling of relief and satisfaction…the end is near!

The 35-day Advanced Cob Building Workshop consists of 25 days (Monday through Friday) of learning & construction for 4 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon with theoretical instruction (lectures with graphics) on most Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons to complement the hands-on experience. Students arrive on Sunday between noon and 2pm and settle in. The Workshop begins at 4pm and ends on a Sunday, 5 weeks later, after the morning Closing Circle & Brunch, around 2pm. Students can arrive a day or two before to acclimate and settle in (please let us know) but will need to cover their own food  needs, unless a work trade or meal fee is approved by Host (to be decided closer to the date). The Opening Circle begins promptly at 4pm, followed by a Host Site Orientation at 5pm, Dinner at 6pm and an Introduction to the Project by the Instructors at 7pm. We require that students arrive Saturday before dark or Sunday by 2pm AT THE LATEST!!! We need to begin ALL TOGETHER, as the most important information for the success and smooth-running of the workshop and the well-being of the students will happen on Sunday between 4pm and 8:30pm. It is very inconvenient for students, Host, Instructors and the group, when someone arrives late and misses any of the opening sessions. Please be punctual because Monday morning at 9 am we begin digging the trench for our Cob Building and students need to be prepared and ready to go!!!!
Following Breakfast from 7:30-8:15am, the morning learning/building session begins at 8:30 am and lasts until 1pm with a 20-minute snack pause at 11am. Lunch break is from 1pm to 2:30pm, which includes a rest time before the 3-hour afternoon session begins, from 2:30pm-5:30pm. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays there is a 60-minute lecture at 2:30pm, followed by construction time. Tuesdays and Thursdays students begin building again right after the rest time. After class in the afternoon there is a 90-minute break before dinner (served from 7pm to 8pm), in which s

Alot of Joy during each phase of the workshop! Belgium,2025

tudents are encouraged to stretch, do some type of relaxation/movement practice, go swimming, walking and just relax.
There is sometimes a work trade student officially or informally leading yoga and movement practice in the mornings or afternoons (depending on student preference). There will also be 3-4 evenings (once a week) after dinner for showing slides, videos and having Course-related discussions. Other evenings are mostly free and sometimes students offer informal courses in their specialties and passions. Tuesdays are reserved for our weekly Council Circle, where we do a deeper sharing and listening to attend to the inner worlds of our students, staff & Host(s) during this intense experience.
On weekends students are free to explore the area, rest onsite, and even continue building, subject to Instructor approval. All weekend meals are provided by students who are welcome to use the kitchen. Host and/or other students can carpool into town for weekend food provisions.
The 35-day Course will offer practical learning by building a complete 15m2 curvilinear building from foundation to roof, as  described in the “Project” section. Those who complete the 35-day Workshop will receive an Advanced Cobber Certificate of Completion for Foundation, Cob Walls (which includes Door, Windows, Shelves, Art, Electrical Housing & Plumbing preparation), Floor, Plaster & Roof.
DAILY SCHEDULE
The daily schedule (subject to slight modifications due to climate/time of year) will be:
7:30-8:15 Breakfast
8:30-1:00 Class
1:00-2:30 Lunch
2:30-5:30 Class (Lecture on MWF’s)
5:30-7:00 Rest/Yoga
7:00-8:00 Dinner
8:00-9:00 Slides/Videos/Discussion (once a week)
Students are expected to be on time and participate in all sessions and required activities as the goal of building a full construction depends on the whole group working together!
COURSE CONTENTS
Students will learn every phase of building a cob building from foundation through the reciprocal roof in hands-on building and lectures/theory. In addition to the lectures, slideshows and videos will be shown to support and enhance their understanding of cob materials, cob building, design, geography, budgeting, business options and legal issues.
Our hands-on practice will include:
digging foundation trench
pouring gravel and inserting drainage pipe (if applicable)
building foundation stemwall
analyzing soils and materials
making test bricks
deciding on correct mixture
deciding on best location
making cob w/ partner and solo building with cob
preparing and inserting the door
preparing and inserting fixed and opening windows
preparing and inserting shelves
inserting bottle windows, glass and other objects
inserting electrical housing and outlet/switch boxes (when applicable)*
insert PVC pipe for plumbing in walls (when applicable)*
sculpting
preparing and applying earthen plaster (1 coat)
pouring an earthen floor (2 coats)
preparing walls for roof connection
building reciprocal roof frame
putting on roof sheathing and other elements
installing green roof
making small-scale cob designs of future projects, time permitting
In addition to Cob Building practices, the Course material also includes:
legal cob construction practices & the international cob code (Appendix AU in the IRC)
cost analysis
creating a cob business (building/teaching)
assisting, interning and teaching with CruzinCobGlobal
*While the insertion of electrical housing and one or more outlet/switch boxes and PVC pipes to hold plumbing are always included in the workshops, the simplicity or complexity depends on the host’s design and preferences. There will be no electrical wiring or plumbing pipes installed during workshop. That is beyond the focus of this course and requires professional experience and certification/licensing.
TO REGISTER AND FOR MORE DETAILS PLEASE VISIT SITE: https://cruzincobglobal.org/events/tasmania-full-build-cob-cottage-workshop-near-nubeena/

COB OVEN + BENCH | INTENSIVE | TAPALPA, MEXICO
2026-03-14 - 2026-03-22 | Via Nativa, Tapalpa, Jalisco, Mexico
Súmate a este workshop intensivo de cob teórico y práctico! Durante 8 días construiremos un horno de barro completo con banca de cob, de inicio a fin.
En este workshop certificado, aprenderás a analizar tierras arcillosas y cómo estabilizarlas para la construcción en tierra, explorando los principios del cob como técnica constructiva, y entendiendo las propiedades de la tierra como material de construcción. Durante esta experiencia práctica, construirás un horno y bancas de cob completo – desde las fundaciones hasta los revestimientos finos.
El objetivo es dotar a los alumnos de los conocimientos y herramientas necesarios para analizar y evaluar suelos arcillosos, así como comprender cada uno de los pasos necesarios para construir con cob. El curso consistirá en un
70 % de práctica y un 30 % de teoría, en el que se profundizará en diferentes técnicas de construcción natural, todo lo relacionado con los hornos de cob, los principios de las fundaciones de piedra, las ventajas de la construcción con tierra, cómo preparar y aplicar los revestimientos de tierra, cómo esculpir con cob y mucho más.
Una vez completado el workshop, tendrás todas las herramientas para construir tu propio horno de cob, y también tendrás las nociones básicas para construir muros de tierra cruda en tu proyecto. No necesitas experiencia previa!
Únete a esta experiencia intensiva y sé parte de la comunidad TIERRAMIGO, obteniendo acceso al chat de la comunidad para conectar con otros, saber sobre workshops con accesos preferenciales, y adquirir el libro Manos al Barro: una guía práctica de bioconstrucción por un precio especial!
Qué es un horno de cob?
Es un horno tradicional construido con una mezcla de arcilla, arena, paja y agua. Su funcionamiento se basa en la retención y liberación gradual del calor por parte de sus gruesas paredes de barro.
Se caracterizan por su alta eficiencia en cuanto a retención de calor, llegando a altas temperaturas, en donde el calor cocina los alimentos por tres mecanismos físicos: radiación – del calor del fuego y de las paredes calientes del horno a los alimentos, convección – del aire caliente circulando dentro del horno, y conducción – mediante la transferencia directa del calor desde la superficie caliente hacia el alimento (el “suelo” el horno).
Así, estos hornos son capaces de retener calor de forma gradual por horas, siendo muy prácticos y versátiles para cocinar distintos alimentos: desde pizzas al instante, hasta estofados, carnes, vegetales, e incluso en el final y con el calor residual se puede aprovechar para fermentar yogurt, deshidratar alimentos y leudar pan.
El cob es una técnica de construcción con tierra cruda muy inclusiva, orgánica y creativa, que nos permite moldear los muros, trabajando curvas con gran facilidad. De esta manera, podremos esculpir en torno al horno y la banca, transformándolo en una obra de arte colectiva.

CONTENIDO

Entendiendo la arcilla y sus propiedades
Como testar y estabilizar el suelo arcilloso para la construcción
Beneficios de la tierra como material de construcción
Introducción a las técnicas de bioconstrucción
Qué es y cómo preparar cob
Pasos para diseñar y construir un horno de cob
Construcción de una banca de cob
Principios de las fundaciones de piedra
Revoques de tierra: cómo prepararlos, analizarlos y aplicarlos.
Revoques de cal y ciclo de la cal
Cómo esculpir con cob y cómo construir muros.

Si tienes cualquier consulta, puedes hacerla! Estamos aquí para ayudar.

Intro to Cob and Straw Workshop – East Tennessee
2026-04-20 - 2026-04-24 | This Cob House, Greeneville, TN, 37743, United States
Dates: April 20 – April 24, 2026 (YES. We are still having the workshop as scheduled.)

Location: Parrottsville, Tennessee

Come and join us in beautiful eastern Tennessee for our next Introduction to Cob and Straw Workshop! We will be constructing both a cob building and a straw-clay building, and pouring an earthen floor! This workshop is perfect for beginners and experts alike! You will get the expert knowledge to build with cob and straw! Either for small-scale structures or large-scale projects like homes and buildings.
This workshop is a great experience to learn how to build with cob and straw, and to get a broad learning overview of natural building techniques. You will get a solid foundation in natural building fundamentals. You will learn the advantages of high thermal mass cob versus high insulation straw materials. We will be constructing the walls on a new cob structure and a straw-clay building, mixing and applying lime plaster, and studying Natural Building together each day. You will also get to see living examples on-site of a completed cob building and straw-clay building. These are excellent examples that you can learn a lot from! After this workshop, you will have the basic experience and confidence to design and build your own cob and straw constructions or buildings.

Hands-On Work Topics:
– How to make cob (learn how to make cob with the tarp method and with machinery)
– How to build cob walls using traditional hand-sculpting and using innovative slipforms (learn all the great advantages of building cob walls with forms)
– How to make straw-clay (also known as light-straw-clay) and hempcrete!
– How to build highly insulating straw-clay and hempcrete walls (learn how to frame and pack the walls)
– Selecting and testing soils for cob and straw-clay (learn several ways to test your soil composition)
– We will be pouring an earthen floor in this class. A very unique experience!
– Lime Plaster Finishing (learn how to mix and apply lime plaster finishes to your walls)
– Create your own Dorodango – polished earth sphere! A fun project that you can take home with you.
– Creating window and door frames in cob walls (learn how to install frames into cob walls)

Classroom and Discussion Topics:
– Site selection and design (includes Passive Solar design principles)
– Materials and tools (covers traditional and modern cob building toolset and materials)
– Building Solid Foundations (learn all about constructing proper building foundations)
– Building codes and how to successfully get building permits for cob homes and straw homes.
– Best practices for building a healthy, non-toxic home.
– Basic Electrical and Plumbing integration for cob homes and straw homes
– Installing windows and doors
– Roofing and Bond Beams. Proper roof ventilation practices!
– Natural plasters and finishes (Vapor Permeable / “Breathable” finishes)
– Overview of all Natural Building materials, and how to hybridize them!

This workshop is a unique experience for people to learn about building cob homes and light-straw-clay homes, and to get an overview of Natural Building. Not only are there plenty of hands-on lessons to learn from, but we will also have ample discussion and informal classroom time. Most cob workshops and strawbale workshops don’t cover this many topics. But here, you will learn all the core lessons needed to start building from this one workshop!
Plus – there will be many hours of discussions about building cob homes and natural building throughout the workshop. Its a great way to get your questions answered and brainstorm your building ideas!

The workshop will be held at Little Hills Farm in Parrottsville, Tennessee. Enjoy the workshop in this natural environment on a small, health-conscious farm.

Each day will begin at 9:00 AM, and the days will include hands-on building, classroom sessions, discussions, and learning activities related to cob, straw, and natural building topics. We will break for lunch between 12:00 to 1:00 PM, and we will complete each day at around 4:00 PM. They will be full-packed days! Worth your every penny!
Teacher

The workshop will be taught by Alex Sumerall, an east coast Earth Building Mason who has a focus on creating earthen structures that are healthy, aesthetically pleasing, and functional for modern life. He is the owner of This Cob House, which is dedicated to teaching people about cob and earthen building techniques. Alex has been practicing earthen building since 2011. He graduated from the Aprovecho School of Natural Building in 2013 in Cottage Grove, Oregon, and continues to teach, present, consult, and construct.

Listen to the great things that our workshop participants are saying!

“The cob workshop was a life-changing experience. I learned a lot about natural building, not only from Alex’s instruction, experience and demonstrations, but from interacting with people from different backgrounds who were a great source of collective knowledge. The hands-on experience was priceless!”

Tony Romo, Texas

“The Cob Building Workshop was a great investment of my time! It was well organized, extremely inspiring, and FUN! Alex was able to explain construction basics to neophytes like me, yet he could also answer the complex questions asked by the more experienced workshop attendees. I can’t wait until the next workshop!”

Marybeth Babos, Tennessee

“We thoroughly enjoyed and benefited tremendously from our Building With Cob workshop experience with you. Workshops that are fun, informative and full of practical application and guidance through hands-on experiential learning like this are a real joy.
As an instructor we found you to be knowledgeable, well organized and flexible addressing the needs and questions that came up. We appreciated your careful considered responses to every one of the many and varied questions our group threw your way. And the pace and mix of lecture and activity was just right for us.
Thank you Alex for a workshop that did all you said it would do, and more!”

Wes Shattuck, New Hampshire

Lodging
There are two options for lodging: free camping on site, or making reservations at one of the local hotels or AirBnBs. Hotels are available in the neighboring towns of Greeneville, Newport, Parrottsville, and Hot Springs.
Nearby is the Briggs Brother’s Ranch in Parrottsville, TN (highly recommended).
Campers will have access to a private composting toilet and a private outdoor shower.
The workshop location has running water available, and an electrical hookup to charge phones and small devices.

Food
Meals will not be included in this workshop so participants will need to provide their own food and drinks. There are several local restaurants and grocery stores nearby the workshop site.
Each student is responsible for their own meal preparation. An hour for lunch is provided, allowing adequate time for food, a quick nap, or trip into town. Coolers are welcome and encouraged!
Recreation & Surroundings
Parrottsville is located near the edge of the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Tennessee. It is a beautiful area, and there are many scenic places to visit nearby. You can also travel to places like Gatlinburg, TN or Asheville, NC within a one hour driving time from the workshop site.
Family & Group 10% Discounts
Ask about the 10% discount. We encourage group & family activities because it enhances learning among your support group. Email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com for custom group/family invoice.
Teens accompanying a parent/guardian are half price. Children under 13 accompanying a parent/guardian are free.
Children/young people of any age are welcome to join in and learn. Please be aware that some areas are under construction, as is the purpose of this workshop, but it is generally child-safe.
Please email me to register with the group/family discount. For normal registration, please sign up below.

If you have any other questions about the workshop, please feel free to email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com
Price: $499
Click Here to Register

COB OVEN + ADOBE THERMAL MASS HEATER | INTENSIVE | GRÂNDOLA, PORTUGAL
2026-05-01 - 2026-05-10 | CA
Join us for a theoretical and hands-on workshop focusing on earthen building through the techniques of cob and adobe. In this 10-day intensive workshop, we will build a complete cob oven with a built-in grill and working table, as well as a full adobe mass heater inside an ongoing Earthship project.
In this certified workshop, you’ll learn how to analyze and stabilize clay-soil mixtures for earthen building, exploring the principles of adobe and cob as building techniques. Through this hands-on experience, you will build a full cob oven—from foundations to finish plasters—and a thermal mass heater, from preparing the adobe bricks all the way to completion.
The aim is to equip students with the knowledge and tools to test and analyze clay soils, and to understand each step involved in building a cob oven and a thermal mass heater. We will have 70% hands-on practice and 30% theoretical learning, diving into different natural building techniques, everything about cob ovens, stone-foundation principles, the benefits of earthen building, how to prepare and apply earthen plasters, how to sculpt with cob, and much more!
Once the workshop is completed, you will have the skills to build your own cob oven and/or thermal mass heater, and you will also be able to begin building your own earthen walls for your projects.
Join us for this intensive experience and become part of the TIERRAMIGO community, gaining access to the community chat to connect with others, learn about additional trainings with discounts, and get the Earthen Hands book for a special price!

What is a cob oven?
It is a traditional oven built with a mixture of clay, sand, straw, and water. Its operation is based on the retention and gradual release of heat by its thick earthen walls. These ovens are known for their high heat-retention efficiency, reaching very high temperatures, where the heat cooks food through three physical mechanisms: radiation – heat from the fire and the hot walls toward the food, convection – hot air circulating inside the oven, and conduction – the direct transfer of heat from the hot surface to the food (the oven floor).
Thus, these ovens are capable of gradually retaining heat for hours, making them very practical and versatile for cooking different foods: from instant pizzas to stews, meats, vegetables, and even—at the end, using the residual heat—for fermenting yogurt, dehydrating foods, and proofing bread.
Cob is a very inclusive, organic, and creative earth-building technique that allows us to shape walls freely, working with curves very easily. In this way, we can sculpt around the oven and its bench, turning it into a collective work of art.

What is an adobe thermal mass heater?
The principle behind this stove is thermal mass: since it is built with adobe bricks, they are able to store the heat from combustion and retain it for a longer time, gradually releasing it into the environment.
The stove features double combustion, making the burning of firewood more efficient and making better use of the resource. Secondary combustion allows for cleaner burning and better utilization of the wood. This is achieved by introducing more air in a second stage. It enables a more efficient use of the fuel, minimizing the toxic effects generated by burning wood.

CONTENT

Understanding clay and its properties
How to test and assess clay soil for building
Introduction to other natural building techniques
Benefits of earth as a building material
How to prepare adobe, from the forms to final sun-dried brick
Cob oven steps and how to design and build your own
Adobe mass heater steps and how to design and build your own
Stone foundation principles
Earthen plasters: how to test, stabilize and apply fine plasters
Lime plasters and lime cycle
Sculpting with cob

Feel free to ask questions throughout – we are here to help!

Intro to Cob and Straw Workshop – East Tennessee
2026-05-18 - 2026-05-22 | This Cob House, Greeneville, TN, 37743, United States
Dates: May 18 – May 22, 2026 (YES. We are still having the workshop as scheduled.)

Location: Parrottsville, Tennessee

Come and join us in beautiful eastern Tennessee for our next Introduction to Cob and Straw Workshop! We will be constructing both a cob building and a straw-clay building, and pouring an earthen floor! This workshop is perfect for beginners and experts alike! You will get the expert knowledge to build with cob and straw! Either for small-scale structures or large-scale projects like homes and buildings.
This workshop is a great experience to learn how to build with cob and straw, and to get a broad learning overview of natural building techniques. You will get a solid foundation in natural building fundamentals. You will learn the advantages of high thermal mass cob versus high insulation straw materials. We will be constructing the walls on a new cob structure and a straw-clay building, mixing and applying lime plaster, and studying Natural Building together each day. You will also get to see living examples on-site of a completed cob building and straw-clay building. These are excellent examples that you can learn a lot from! After this workshop, you will have the basic experience and confidence to design and build your own cob and straw constructions or buildings.

Hands-On Work Topics:
– How to make cob (learn how to make cob with the tarp method and with machinery)
– How to build cob walls using traditional hand-sculpting and using innovative slipforms (learn all the great advantages of building cob walls with forms)
– How to make straw-clay (also known as light-straw-clay) and hempcrete!
– How to build highly insulating straw-clay and hempcrete walls (learn how to frame and pack the walls)
– Selecting and testing soils for cob and straw-clay (learn several ways to test your soil composition)
– We will be pouring an earthen floor in this class. A very unique experience!
– Lime Plaster Finishing (learn how to mix and apply lime plaster finishes to your walls)
– Create your own Dorodango – polished earth sphere! A fun project that you can take home with you.
– Creating window and door frames in cob walls (learn how to install frames into cob walls)

Classroom and Discussion Topics:
– Site selection and design (includes Passive Solar design principles)
– Materials and tools (covers traditional and modern cob building toolset and materials)
– Building Solid Foundations (learn all about constructing proper building foundations)
– Building codes and how to successfully get building permits for cob homes and straw homes.
– Best practices for building a healthy, non-toxic home.
– Basic Electrical and Plumbing integration for cob homes and straw homes
– Installing windows and doors
– Roofing and Bond Beams. Proper roof ventilation practices!
– Natural plasters and finishes (Vapor Permeable / “Breathable” finishes)
– Overview of all Natural Building materials, and how to hybridize them!

This workshop is a unique experience for people to learn about building cob homes and light-straw-clay homes, and to get an overview of Natural Building. Not only are there plenty of hands-on lessons to learn from, but we will also have ample discussion and informal classroom time. Most cob workshops and strawbale workshops don’t cover this many topics. But here, you will learn all the core lessons needed to start building from this one workshop!
Plus – there will be many hours of discussions about building cob homes and natural building throughout the workshop. Its a great way to get your questions answered and brainstorm your building ideas!

The workshop will be held at Little Hills Farm in Parrottsville, Tennessee. Enjoy the workshop in this natural environment on a small, health-conscious farm.

Each day will begin at 9:00 AM, and the days will include hands-on building, classroom sessions, discussions, and learning activities related to cob, straw, and natural building topics. We will break for lunch between 12:00 to 1:00 PM, and we will complete each day at around 4:00 PM. They will be full-packed days! Worth your every penny!
Teacher

The workshop will be taught by Alex Sumerall, an east coast Earth Building Mason who has a focus on creating earthen structures that are healthy, aesthetically pleasing, and functional for modern life. He is the owner of This Cob House, which is dedicated to teaching people about cob and earthen building techniques. Alex has been practicing earthen building since 2011. He graduated from the Aprovecho School of Natural Building in 2013 in Cottage Grove, Oregon, and continues to teach, present, consult, and construct.

Listen to the great things that our workshop participants are saying!

“The cob workshop was a life-changing experience. I learned a lot about natural building, not only from Alex’s instruction, experience and demonstrations, but from interacting with people from different backgrounds who were a great source of collective knowledge. The hands-on experience was priceless!”

Tony Romo, Texas

“The Cob Building Workshop was a great investment of my time! It was well organized, extremely inspiring, and FUN! Alex was able to explain construction basics to neophytes like me, yet he could also answer the complex questions asked by the more experienced workshop attendees. I can’t wait until the next workshop!”

Marybeth Babos, Tennessee

“We thoroughly enjoyed and benefited tremendously from our Building With Cob workshop experience with you. Workshops that are fun, informative and full of practical application and guidance through hands-on experiential learning like this are a real joy.
As an instructor we found you to be knowledgeable, well organized and flexible addressing the needs and questions that came up. We appreciated your careful considered responses to every one of the many and varied questions our group threw your way. And the pace and mix of lecture and activity was just right for us.
Thank you Alex for a workshop that did all you said it would do, and more!”

Wes Shattuck, New Hampshire

Lodging
There are two options for lodging: free camping on site, or making reservations at one of the local hotels or AirBnBs. Hotels are available in the neighboring towns of Greeneville, Newport, Parrottsville, and Hot Springs.
Nearby is the Briggs Brother’s Ranch in Parrottsville, TN (highly recommended).
Campers will have access to a private composting toilet and a private outdoor shower.
The workshop location has running water available, and an electrical hookup to charge phones and small devices.

Food
Meals will not be included in this workshop so participants will need to provide their own food and drinks. There are several local restaurants and grocery stores nearby the workshop site.
Each student is responsible for their own meal preparation. An hour for lunch is provided, allowing adequate time for food, a quick nap, or trip into town. Coolers are welcome and encouraged!
Recreation & Surroundings
Parrottsville is located near the edge of the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Tennessee. It is a beautiful area, and there are many scenic places to visit nearby. You can also travel to places like Gatlinburg, TN or Asheville, NC within a one hour driving time from the workshop site.
Family & Group 10% Discounts
Ask about the 10% discount. We encourage group & family activities because it enhances learning among your support group. Email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com for custom group/family invoice.
Teens accompanying a parent/guardian are half price. Children under 13 accompanying a parent/guardian are free.
Children/young people of any age are welcome to join in and learn. Please be aware that some areas are under construction, as is the purpose of this workshop, but it is generally child-safe.
Please email me to register with the group/family discount. For normal registration, please sign up below.

If you have any other questions about the workshop, please feel free to email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com
Price: $499
Click Here to Register

Intro to Cob and Straw Workshop – East Tennessee
2026-06-22 - 2026-06-26 | This Cob House, Greeneville, TN, 37743, United States
Dates: June 22 – June 26, 2026 (YES. We are still having the workshop as scheduled.)

Location: Greeneville, Tennessee

Come and join us in beautiful eastern Tennessee for our next Introduction to Cob and Straw Workshop! We will be constructing both a cob building and a straw-clay building. This workshop is perfect for beginners and experts alike! You will get the expert knowledge to build with cob and straw! Either for small-scale structures or large-scale projects like homes and buildings.

This workshop is a great experience to learn how to build with cob and straw, and to get a broad learning overview of natural building techniques. You will get a solid foundation in natural building fundamentals. You will learn the advantages of high thermal mass cob versus high insulation straw materials. We will be constructing the walls on a new cob structure and a straw-clay building, mixing and applying lime plaster, and studying Natural Building together each day. You will also get to see living examples on-site of a completed cob building and straw-clay building. These are excellent examples that you can learn a lot from! After this workshop, you will have the basic experience and confidence to design and build your own cob and straw constructions or buildings.

Hands-On Work Topics:
– How to make cob (learn how to make cob with the tarp method and with machinery)
– How to build cob walls using traditional hand-sculpting and using innovative slipforms (learn all the great advantages of building cob walls with forms)
– How to make straw-clay (also known as light-straw-clay) and hempcrete!
– How to build highly insulating straw-clay and hempcrete walls (learn how to frame and pack the walls)
– Selecting and testing soils for cob and straw-clay (learn several ways to test your soil composition)
– Lime Plaster Finishing (learn how to mix and apply lime plaster finishes to your walls)
– Create your own Dorodango – polished earth sphere! A fun project that you can take home with you.
– Creating window and door frames in cob walls (learn how to install frames into cob walls)

Classroom and Discussion Topics:
– Site selection and design (includes Passive Solar design principles)
– Materials and tools (covers traditional and modern cob building toolset and materials)
– Building Solid Foundations (learn all about constructing proper building foundations)
– Building codes and how to successfully get building permits for cob homes and straw homes.
– Best practices for building a healthy, non-toxic home.
– Basic Electrical and Plumbing integration for cob homes and straw homes
– Installing windows and doors
– Roofing and Bond Beams. Proper roof ventilation practices!
– Natural plasters and finishes (Vapor Permeable / “Breathable” finishes)
– Overview of all Natural Building materials, and how to hybridize them!

This workshop is a unique experience for people to learn about building cob homes and light-straw-clay homes, and to get an overview of Natural Building. Not only are there plenty of hands-on lessons to learn from, but we will also have ample discussion and informal classroom time. Most cob workshops and strawbale workshops don’t cover this many topics. But here, you will learn all the core lessons needed to start building from this one workshop!
Plus – there will be many hours of discussions about building cob homes and natural building throughout the workshop. Its a great way to get your questions answered and brainstorm your building ideas!

The workshop will be held at a private property in Greeneville, Tennessee.
Each day will begin at 9:00 AM, and the days will include hands-on building, classroom sessions, discussions, and learning activities related to cob, straw, and natural building topics. We will break for lunch between 12:00 to 1:00 PM, and we will complete each day at around 4:00 PM. They will be full-packed days! Worth your every penny!
Teacher

The workshop will be taught by Alex Sumerall, an east coast Earth Building Mason who has a focus on creating earthen structures that are healthy, aesthetically pleasing, and functional for modern life. He is the owner of This Cob House, which is dedicated to teaching people about cob and earthen building techniques. Alex has been practicing earthen building since 2011. He graduated from the Aprovecho School of Natural Building in 2013 in Cottage Grove, Oregon, and continues to teach, present, consult, and construct.

Alpaca Farm Tour!
As an added bonus to the workshop, we also offer a free alpaca farm tour at my neighbor’s Two Roots Farm. They have over 50 friendly alpacas, alpaca infrastructure, and a gift shop! We usually go on this tour Wednesday after class.

Listen to the great things that our workshop participants are saying!

“The cob workshop was a life-changing experience. I learned a lot about natural building, not only from Alex’s instruction, experience and demonstrations, but from interacting with people from different backgrounds who were a great source of collective knowledge. The hands-on experience was priceless!”

Tony Romo, Texas

“The Cob Building Workshop was a great investment of my time! It was well organized, extremely inspiring, and FUN! Alex was able to explain construction basics to neophytes like me, yet he could also answer the complex questions asked by the more experienced workshop attendees. I can’t wait until the next workshop!”

Marybeth Babos, Tennessee

“We thoroughly enjoyed and benefited tremendously from our Building With Cob workshop experience with you. Workshops that are fun, informative and full of practical application and guidance through hands-on experiential learning like this are a real joy.
As an instructor we found you to be knowledgeable, well organized and flexible addressing the needs and questions that came up. We appreciated your careful considered responses to every one of the many and varied questions our group threw your way. And the pace and mix of lecture and activity was just right for us.
Thank you Alex for a workshop that did all you said it would do, and more!”

Wes Shattuck, New Hampshire

Lodging
There are two options for lodging: free camping on site, or making reservations at one of the local hotels or AirBnBs. Hotels are available in the neighboring towns of Greeneville, Newport, Parrottsville, and Hot Springs.
Nearby is the Briggs Brother’s Ranch in Parrottsville, TN (highly recommended), and the Hot Springs Resort in Hot Springs, North Caolina.
Campers will have access to a private portable toilet and a private outdoor shower. The outdoor shower features a beautiful rammed earth wall and timber framed enclosure.
The workshop location has running water available, and an electrical hookup to charge phones and small devices.

Food
Meals will not be included in this workshop so participants will need to provide their own food and drinks. There are several local restaurants and grocery stores nearby the workshop site. We even have an amazing corner-store within a walkable distance from the workshop site!
Each student is responsible for their own meal preparation. An hour for lunch is provided, allowing adequate time for food, a quick nap, or trip into town. There is no official kitchen on site yet. Coolers are welcome and encouraged!
Recreation & Surroundings
Greeneville is located near the edge of the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Tennessee. It is a beautiful area, and there are many scenic places to visit nearby. You can also travel to places like Gatlinburg, TN or Asheville, NC within a one hour driving time from the workshop site.
Family & Group 10% Discounts
Ask about the 10% discount. We encourage group & family activities because it enhances learning among your support group. Email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com for custom group/family invoice.
Teens accompanying a parent/guardian are half price. Children under 13 accompanying a parent/guardian are free.
Children/young people of any age are welcome to join in and learn. Please be aware that some areas are under construction, as is the purpose of this workshop, but it is generally child-safe.
Please email me to register with the group/family discount. For normal registration, please sign up below.

If you have any other questions about the workshop, please feel free to email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com
Price: $499
Click Here to Register

Intro to Cob and Straw Workshop – East Tennessee
2026-07-20 - 2026-07-24 | This Cob House, Greeneville, TN, 37743, United States
Dates: July 20 – July 24, 2026 (YES. We are still having the workshop as scheduled.)

Location: Greeneville, Tennessee

Come and join us in beautiful eastern Tennessee for our next Introduction to Cob and Straw Workshop! We will be constructing both a cob building and a straw-clay building. This workshop is perfect for beginners and experts alike! You will get the expert knowledge to build with cob and straw! Either for small-scale structures or large-scale projects like homes and buildings.

This workshop is a great experience to learn how to build with cob and straw, and to get a broad learning overview of natural building techniques. You will get a solid foundation in natural building fundamentals. You will learn the advantages of high thermal mass cob versus high insulation straw materials. We will be constructing the walls on a new cob structure and a straw-clay building, mixing and applying lime plaster, and studying Natural Building together each day. You will also get to see living examples on-site of a completed cob building and straw-clay building. These are excellent examples that you can learn a lot from! After this workshop, you will have the basic experience and confidence to design and build your own cob and straw constructions or buildings.

Hands-On Work Topics:
– How to make cob (learn how to make cob with the tarp method and with machinery)
– How to build cob walls using traditional hand-sculpting and using innovative slipforms (learn all the great advantages of building cob walls with forms)
– How to make straw-clay (also known as light-straw-clay) and hempcrete!
– How to build highly insulating straw-clay and hempcrete walls (learn how to frame and pack the walls)
– Selecting and testing soils for cob and straw-clay (learn several ways to test your soil composition)
– Lime Plaster Finishing (learn how to mix and apply lime plaster finishes to your walls)
– Create your own Dorodango – polished earth sphere! A fun project that you can take home with you.
– Creating window and door frames in cob walls (learn how to install frames into cob walls)

Classroom and Discussion Topics:
– Site selection and design (includes Passive Solar design principles)
– Materials and tools (covers traditional and modern cob building toolset and materials)
– Building Solid Foundations (learn all about constructing proper building foundations)
– Building codes and how to successfully get building permits for cob homes and straw homes.
– Best practices for building a healthy, non-toxic home.
– Basic Electrical and Plumbing integration for cob homes and straw homes
– Installing windows and doors
– Roofing and Bond Beams. Proper roof ventilation practices!
– Natural plasters and finishes (Vapor Permeable / “Breathable” finishes)
– Overview of all Natural Building materials, and how to hybridize them!

This workshop is a unique experience for people to learn about building cob homes and light-straw-clay homes, and to get an overview of Natural Building. Not only are there plenty of hands-on lessons to learn from, but we will also have ample discussion and informal classroom time. Most cob workshops and strawbale workshops don’t cover this many topics. But here, you will learn all the core lessons needed to start building from this one workshop!
Plus – there will be many hours of discussions about building cob homes and natural building throughout the workshop. Its a great way to get your questions answered and brainstorm your building ideas!

The workshop will be held at a private property in Greeneville, Tennessee.
Each day will begin at 9:00 AM, and the days will include hands-on building, classroom sessions, discussions, and learning activities related to cob, straw, and natural building topics. We will break for lunch between 12:00 to 1:00 PM, and we will complete each day at around 4:00 PM. They will be full-packed days! Worth your every penny!
Teacher

The workshop will be taught by Alex Sumerall, an east coast Earth Building Mason who has a focus on creating earthen structures that are healthy, aesthetically pleasing, and functional for modern life. He is the owner of This Cob House, which is dedicated to teaching people about cob and earthen building techniques. Alex has been practicing earthen building since 2011. He graduated from the Aprovecho School of Natural Building in 2013 in Cottage Grove, Oregon, and continues to teach, present, consult, and construct.

Alpaca Farm Tour!
As an added bonus to the workshop, we also offer a free alpaca farm tour at my neighbor’s Two Roots Farm. They have over 50 friendly alpacas, alpaca infrastructure, and a gift shop! We usually go on this tour Wednesday after class.

Listen to the great things that our workshop participants are saying!

“The cob workshop was a life-changing experience. I learned a lot about natural building, not only from Alex’s instruction, experience and demonstrations, but from interacting with people from different backgrounds who were a great source of collective knowledge. The hands-on experience was priceless!”

Tony Romo, Texas

“The Cob Building Workshop was a great investment of my time! It was well organized, extremely inspiring, and FUN! Alex was able to explain construction basics to neophytes like me, yet he could also answer the complex questions asked by the more experienced workshop attendees. I can’t wait until the next workshop!”

Marybeth Babos, Tennessee

“We thoroughly enjoyed and benefited tremendously from our Building With Cob workshop experience with you. Workshops that are fun, informative and full of practical application and guidance through hands-on experiential learning like this are a real joy.
As an instructor we found you to be knowledgeable, well organized and flexible addressing the needs and questions that came up. We appreciated your careful considered responses to every one of the many and varied questions our group threw your way. And the pace and mix of lecture and activity was just right for us.
Thank you Alex for a workshop that did all you said it would do, and more!”

Wes Shattuck, New Hampshire

Lodging
There are two options for lodging: free camping on site, or making reservations at one of the local hotels or AirBnBs. Hotels are available in the neighboring towns of Greeneville, Newport, Parrottsville, and Hot Springs.
Nearby is the Briggs Brother’s Ranch in Parrottsville, TN (highly recommended), and the Hot Springs Resort in Hot Springs, North Caolina.
Campers will have access to a private portable toilet and a private outdoor shower. The outdoor shower features a beautiful rammed earth wall and timber framed enclosure.
The workshop location has running water available, and an electrical hookup to charge phones and small devices.

Food
Meals will not be included in this workshop so participants will need to provide their own food and drinks. There are several local restaurants and grocery stores nearby the workshop site. We even have an amazing corner-store within a walkable distance from the workshop site!
Each student is responsible for their own meal preparation. An hour for lunch is provided, allowing adequate time for food, a quick nap, or trip into town. There is no official kitchen on site yet. Coolers are welcome and encouraged!
Recreation & Surroundings
Greeneville is located near the edge of the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Tennessee. It is a beautiful area, and there are many scenic places to visit nearby. You can also travel to places like Gatlinburg, TN or Asheville, NC within a one hour driving time from the workshop site.
Family & Group 10% Discounts
Ask about the 10% discount. We encourage group & family activities because it enhances learning among your support group. Email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com for custom group/family invoice.
Teens accompanying a parent/guardian are half price. Children under 13 accompanying a parent/guardian are free.
Children/young people of any age are welcome to join in and learn. Please be aware that some areas are under construction, as is the purpose of this workshop, but it is generally child-safe.
Please email me to register with the group/family discount. For normal registration, please sign up below.

If you have any other questions about the workshop, please feel free to email me at alex@thiscobhouse.com
Price: $499
Click Here to Register
