Cob Cottage Company

Cob Cottage Company's 2008 Apprenticeships

• Director (Natural Builder): Linda Smiley, co-Director Cob Cottage Co. and North American Retreat Center for Natural Building
• Director (Ecological Gardener): Ianto Evans, co-Director Cob Cottage Co. and N.A.R.C.N.B.

Concerned about the world's state of affairs? Wish you could make a change?  Yes, you can!  Begin now, start with home.  Two programs to guide you in making changes in your lifestyle, consumerism, health and well-being, career and livelihood, based on ecological values and Natural Building principles and practices.  This is designed to support you into creating a life that you, your family and community can feel proud of.

We now offer 2 new custom-designed training programs for persons looking for a lifestyle and career change. You will have support in adjusting your lifestyle to fit your conscience and to meet the new conditions of the 21st century.

• The Natural Builder program will help you become skilled as a professional Natural Builder or teacher, and will enable you to build your own Natural Home. The 2008 program will run in July through early September – See workshops schedule for details.
• The Ecological Gardener is a new and experimental program to jump-start you in a lifetime of understanding food production and raising healthy food. See the workshop schedule for details

A Cob Cottage Company apprenticeship is a 2-4 month program, including training at the North American Retreat Center for Natural Building. You will receive upon completion, a certificate, following which we give support and guidance in your new career. We will help you find appropriate paid work within the Natural Building or ecological food production movements, or possibly could offer you a position with The Cob Cottage Company.

We have decades of experience, gradually refining a more ecological way of living. Much of our food we grow, and you could be involved in that work. The NARCNB is independent of public power, water supplies, or sewage. We have our own gravity-fed water system, composting toilets, and we buy solar electricity from our neighbors. We teach not only technical skills but a whole approach to living well in a world of fewer resources.

The Natural Builder Program:

Covers all aspects of building cob and natural homes using a range of earth building techniques and other natural materials - wood, both milled and roundwood, stone, lime, clay, straw, together with creative use of industrial and commercial waste and surplus.

We'll work on all phases of a house - walls, floors, roofs, etc., helping complete buildings already in progress at the school and beginning new buildings elsewhere.  Mostly you will work alongside a professional/instructor on a one on one basis.  Instructors include Linda Smiley, Betty Seaman, Coenraad Rogmans, Chip Boggs, Ianto Evans, Kiko Denzer and a host of nationally known professionals.  You have access to all the fascinating visitors. Natural Builders are based at the North American Retreat Center for Natural Building in Coquille, Oregon.

Cost:

The $4800 fee for Natural Builders covers instruction and meals. Ask about accomodations when you call. You are expected to assemble your own tool kit, but initially CCC can lend out some specialist tools. Some courses we teach are available to you without further fees; you'll be in the privileged position of assistant. You will be expected to fund your travel to other building projects in May and June, though we will help you make your travel arrangements.

Preparations That Could Help You:

• Visit Natural Building sites (and conventional building sites).  Ask questions, observe how buildings are put together, asking yourself exactly how each part is attached and why. Help out anyone who is building anything with any kind of materials. Get to know technical terms; expand your building vocabulary.
• Take a basic ecology course, read up on woodland ecology and forest management, study soils and clays. Spend time digging holes, cutting down trees, hauling rocks around. Particularly, get in the habit of examining and testing soils (see The Hand Sculpted House Chapters 5 and 8) wherever you go. Get to know the differences. Make test bricks, observe how well they hold together, if they crack, etc.
• Prepare your tool kit. At the minimum you'll need:
  1. A builder's level, preferably 4' long
  2. A machete
  3. A good sharp pocket knife
  4. A 6" or 8" flat file
  5. A shovel
  6. A 16' to 25' measuring tape
  7. A hammer
  8. A sharp hatchet
  9. A mattock/Pulaski for excavation
  10. A handsaw
• Also very useful are:
  1. 5 gallon buckets
  2. A wheelbarrow
  3. A blue tarp, 8' x 10' minimum size
  4. A glasscutter
  5. An old saw for trimming cob
  6. A cordless drill/driver
  7. A pool float for flooring

Have the basic kit upon arrival, but if you're flying, larger tools can be bought locally when you arrive.

Read The Hand Sculpted House thoroughly, and as much as possible on Natural Building and general construction. Here's a brief suggestion list (other good books are listed on the Reader's back page):

• The Hand Sculpted House. Ianto Evans, Michael Smith and Linda Smiley. Chelsea Green, 2002. Available from CCC for $30 cash, $50 for two.
• Earth Building and the Cob Revival: a Reader, Cob Cottage Co., 1996
• Homing Instinct: Using Your Lifestyle to Design and Build Your Home. John Connell, 1993 Warner Books.
• The Owner-Built Home. Ken Kern, 1975. Charles Scribner's Sons.
• Places of the Soul. Christopher Day, 1990. Aquarium Press.
• A Pattern Language. Christopher Alexander et al, 1977. Oxford University Press.
• The Art of Natural Building. Joseph Kennedy et al, editors, New Society, 2002.
• Shelter. Lloyd Kahn, 1973. Shelter Publications.
• Homework. Lloyd Kahn, 2004. Shelter Publications.
• Rocket Stoves to Heat Cob Buildings, Ianto Evans with Leslie Jackson. Cob Cottage Co., 2004.

* Many of these titles are available from Cob Cottage.  Refer to our book order page for details.

The Ecological Gardener Program

A practical apprenticeship focused on providing a diversity of food year round for the school.  Decisions are made based on careful observation of soils, microclimate, light, weather, our own eating habits and the ecology of each food plant, all competitors and every ally. Ecological Gardeners will be mostly in our two organic gardens, at Cottage Grove and Coquille.

At the School we will be expanding the quarter acre garden, pioneering cultivation on land which has never before been dug; we'll test a wide variety of edible and display plants, both herbaceous and hardwooded, including many not normally grown in Oregon.

In Cottage Grove, we have refined the 1/4 acre organic garden over 12 years, protecting tender plants with cob walls and a cob greenhouse.  Ianto has gardened in the Willamette Valley since 1973, breeding varieties suited to Western Oregon and adjusting to local soils and microclimates. We grow many unusual vegetables and fruits not normally seen here such as citrus. Apprentices will be involved in every stage, from cultivation to seed to table, including saving seed, propagation, crop storage, drainage, irrigation, soil amendment, garden structures and the experimental design of food polycultures.

The fee for the Ecological Gardener program will be $4800, payable in advance, to cover the first 3 months.  Months 4 through 6 will be on a trade basis and the balance of your time there could be a small stipend, depending on productivity. Your work will be with Ianto mostly, though you will need to be resourceful and self-motivated for the periods he's out of the country. Gardens need constant attention and vigilance. We will take two or three Ecological Gardeners so you have a support team. Workshops held at the Center will be open at 50% discount or trade.

Read everything you can find on ecological gardening; you'll have to hunt, most of it's buried. Specifically, we recommend:

• Growing Food West of the Cascades. Steve Solomon, 1981. Sasquatch Books. Probably the best bioregional gardening book in N. America.  Buy this one.
• Your Kitchen Garden, George Seddon. Mitchell Beazley, 1975. A (thoroughly) English comprehensive gardening guide. Buy the U.S. Edition if possible.
• Ecology. Odum. The basic college text, still really valuable. Find 2nd hand or at a library.
• Territorial Seed Company Catalog. Send a couple of bucks to TSC, Cottage Grove, OR. 97424
• Gaia's Garden. Toby Hemenway, 2001. Chelsea Green. Library. Note especially 2 pages on Ianto's system of polyculture.
• The Lost Language of Plants. Stephen Harrod Buhner. Insightful and well researched. Highly recommended. .
• The Botany of Desire. Michael Pollan, 2001. Random House. Thought provoking and thorough, a viewpoint on cultivated plants. .
• Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties. Carol Deppe, 1993. Little Brown. Specialized but inspiring. She has a section on Ianto's work with favas.
• Cornucopia. Stephen Facciola, 1990. Kampong Publications. Unbelievably thorough catalog and sourcebook of the world's edible plants. Unique and irreplaceable. You may have to buy it if you're a serious gardener.
• The Oxford Book of Food Plants. Masefield, et al, 1969. Oxford University Press. All the world's major crop plants, color drawings, origins, history, ecology. Hard to find.

How To Apply To Each of the Apprenticeships:

First, phone to make sure we still have an opening. If we have, we'll ask for a Letter of Intent that should include:

1. your skills and history
2. what you plan to do with this experience
3. what your other options are.

Also, in the letter, please explain how you expect this apprenticeship to affect

1. Your personal development
2. Society in general
3. The global ecosystem

We'd like phone numbers of two references with whom you have worked and lived.  Then, we'll talk with you by phone.  If you're accepted you will need to send $1500 deposit within 24 hours.  We do not accept checks or bank drafts, or cashier's checks.  Please contact us directly for payment options..  The remaining money will be paid on arrival at the Center.  Phone us to confirm you have mailed your deposit.  We're well known and get many applicants but this year we'll take only 3 for each program.

We will schedule a trial month and will evaluate at the end of the 1st month. If this placement in not in the best interests of both student and Center we will refund your fee minus the Non Refundable Deposit of $1500. We will not give you any refund after the 1st month.

Normally you will work a 5-6 day week, 7am to dark, long hours, often with a long lunch break. We expect you to be focused and productive and take interest in every aspect of life at the Center. You're expected to help cook, maintain buildings and grounds, give tours, run errands, do repairs, etc. Self-motivation and good listening skills are important.

Site:

Our campus is the North American Retreat Center for Natural Building, located in the native rainforest of the southern Oregon coast, half an hour from spectacular beaches. Work began on the raw site in 2001. We now have five cob, rock and strawbale buildings sculpted into the landscape, roofed but still unfinished. During the 2008 season we'll complete these buildings and begin others. We're hoping by late 2008 to complete several small cabins, a meeting room, and bathhouse, office and kitchen/dining area. Our land is remote and rustic. We wheelbarrow materials to the sites, up steep hills and across flimsy bridges. Don't expect city facilities; Eugene is 150 miles away, San Francisco is 500. Coquille (pop. 5000) is close, 4 miles, with a bank, small natural food store, hardware store, etc.

Local people are nice, conservative and very astute. Access passes close to the houses of several neighbors, so for their sakes we'll limit total town trips to one per day for all our needs. Expect all weather except snow. It is always cool at night.

Food:

3 meals a day, mostly vegetarian and organic. Your fee pays for involvement and some instruction, not gourmet specialties, so expect basic nutritious fare, nothing fancy. We can't cater to special diets yet there will be a range of options at most meals. Our policy is to use bulk supplies rather than buy packaging, buy local whenever possible, and avoid animal fats, products from distant producers and food with poisons on it. We all help with cleanup and food preparation.

Health:

Make sure you're fit and healthy.  Are you at a healthy weight? Do you easily tire?  We work long days and the site is demanding. Toughen your feet by walking barefoot a lot, up to a month in advance.

Instructors:

• Ianto Evans is a landscape architect, applied ecologist, inventor, writer and teacher with experience on six continents. He is the author, with Linda Smiley and Michael Smith, of The Hand Sculpted House. Cob is traditional in Wales, his homeland. He teaches ecological building and food production and has consulted to USAID, World Bank, Peace Corps and several governments. Ianto has gardened organically for more than 50 years, gradually developing a unique approach to food production, which has been extensively published.
• Linda Smiley, master cobber, writer, therapist and environmental educator. Her workshops include intuitive design, sculpting sacred spaces and finishing touches (earthen floors, plasters and cob sculptural details), and cob for kids. She is a co-author of The Hand Sculpted House.
• Michael Smith, teaches, builds, writes and consults on cob, Natural Building and permaculture.
• Betty Seaman, cob builder and teacher, artist and illustrator, lives in a cob house.
• Gail Haddow, is a lime specialist and restoration plasterer working in Wales.
• Kiko Denzer is an artist, author of several books including Build Your Own Earth Oven, and teacher who has worked with earth and ovens for 10 years.
• Dennis Kuklok, landscape architect, natural builder, book designer, cartoonist and international consultant.
• Chip Boggs, neighbor and sponsor, experienced in homestead construction, permaculture, off-grid living and solar electrics, manages his 360 acres of native rainforest as a preserve and demonstration of eco-forestry.
• Luzy Mantilla is a Mexican interior designer, and artist who practices in Mexico and Vermont.
• Ernie Wisner is a Natural Builder, inventor, chef and is caretaker of the North American Retreat Center for Natural Building.
• Jack Stephens teaches and consults sustainable business practices, writes, and gardens.

Contact Us:

If you are interested in an apprenticeship with us in 2008 or 2009, please contact us at your earliest convenience. We can be reached by phone during office hours (Monday thru Friday 7am-2pm Pacific) (541) 396-1825, or in evenings after 5 p.m. and by mail:

Cob Cottage Company PO Box 942 Coquille, OR 97423