Interested in deconsumerizing your life and outsmarting the recession? Join us for our Off the Treadmill! workshop where we will be opening a toolbox of practical skills to live more freely. Another upcoming opportunity to join us is our Hand Tools: Use, Choice and Maintenance course where you will learn skills such as: using the right tool for the job, sharpening everything from a garden shovel to a kitchen knife, making your own handles, planing wood to perfection, and so much more. See our course list and apprenticeship information for a full list of activities happening this year.
We encourage those of you who live nearby to visit us for one of our workparties or once-a-month tours and potluck, which happen the first Saturday of every month. Call us if you are interested in attending! You can reach us at (541) 396-1825; our winter office hours are Monday, Wednesday or Friday between 8am to 1pm PST.
Workparties are a great way for us to get to know each other better and for those who are interested in what we do at the school to get first-hand experience with us. We get stuff done and get to share good meals, conversation, and celebrate together.
Workparty Calendar:
February 6-8
March 13-15
April 10-12
Please give us a call if you are interested in or planning to come to one of our workparties. We insist that all cars come full to workparties so let's coordinate carpooling together. Accomodations are generally camping although we may be able to arrange other accomodations. Much of the food we eat will be from the garden and food preparation will be one of the tasks shared during the workparty.
We greatly appreciate any and all contributions that aid the Cob Cottage Company's mission of sharing our knowledge of natural building and ecological living. Give us a call if you or someone you know is trying to get rid of some things. Chances are we might be able to find a use for them. Some items that we are always generally in need of, include:
Building Supplies: urbanite, sand, straw, wood (nearly all kinds), metal barrels, stove pipes, duct, tarps, EPDM (pond liner), sheep's wool, horse hair, buckets, glass, glass doors, multi-pane wood windows, styrofoam insulation, solar panels,
Tools: wheel barrows, hammers, machetes, drills, shovels, pick axes, metal screens, gardening cans or hoses,
Cooking Materials: Juicer, stainless steel pots and pans, cast iron pans, electric grain grinder.
Camping Materials: tarps, tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads.
Specialty Items: water filters
Office Materials: scrap paper, large padded envelopes, flattened boxes, stamps
Cob Cottage Company is located on a lovely 350-acre Nature Preserve in a rare example of Coast Range temperate rain forest. We were the first natural building school in North America and now have about a dozen cob and natural buildings. We’d like to invite you to come tour our garden, buildings, and learn about our way of life.
During the tour we will walk leisurely through the meadow and explain the history of the buildings and materials used, and attempt to answer questions. If scheduling permits we might invite you to share a meal with us.
We ask for a $50 fee. This fee goes towards supporting the school. If you take a workshop with us within a year, we will deduct the fee amount from your registration fee. We are also interested in bartering. Please take a look at the 'Needs List'; if you have something we might be able to use, call and see if there's a possibility of making a trade. We always enjoy chocolate and fruit.
In an effort to encourage visitors to car pool we ask that you call us at least a week in advance to see if there’s any one else interested in coming from the area you are traveling through. You may have a lot in common with them.
We hope to see you soon.
We are looking for a skilled site manager with experience in cob, foundations, natural building maintenance and light forestry. Any combination of these skills would be helpful, all of them would be delightful. This is a voluntary position, and you can contact us for information regarding compensation. Most of our workshops are held on site and you will have access to all trainings offered. Please contact us at 541-396-1825 if you are interested in joining us in a busy summer season.
More than a second edition to the groundbreaking Rocket Stoves to Heat Cob Buildings, the new book Rocket Mass Heaters, Superefficient Woodstoves You Can Build (And Snuggle Up To) is the most comprehensive book available on the subject of Rocket Stoves.
Here's a superefficient wood fired heater you can build for yourself in a weekend for less than a hundred dollars. This book explains in detail exactly how to build one, then how to use it in a range of applications.
We discuss materials, where to find them, what to pay and how to make use of found and recycled parts. The section on fire and fuels is thorough but simple, we tried to keep away from numbers whenever possible.
There are success stories, case studies, references and where to find further information, all heavily illustrated and with four full pages of color photographs. Home heating can be expensive both in capital equipment and in running costs. If we heat by gas, oil or electricity we're supporting a big corporation and impoverishing ourselves.
New woodstoves are no longer craftsman-made locally. When we buy them, we are paying a distant corporation which sometimes ships them in from Europe. Wood for heating usually supports the local economy and is a completely renewable resource.
By building an extra efficient heating system you will be one more big step off the treadmill and your move to self-sufficiency and true wealth. Good luck with your stove!
To order, please visit the Cob Cottage Company products page.
We're happy to send a review or promotional copy to anyone you suggest. We'd like to get this information out.
The Hand Sculpted House, new printing available. Buy a full box of 16 books for only $320 and save $240 off the cover price! That's a discount of more than 40%! If you are teaching or hosting a workshop this season, stock up now. Half a box is only $180, 2 books for $50, or 1 for $30. List price is $35, so whenever you buy directly from us you will save! Contact Cob Cottage Company for more details.
Cob Cottage Company is looking for talented, experienced Natural Builders who would love to teach at the with us. We are a group of friends who really like one another, who work together like a theater company. We put on magical acts about natural building and sustainable living that entertain and inspire the public. We take on people we really like, then figure out how to get the work done, so there are lots of interesting projects that we share according to abilities.
If you're interested in getting involved in our work, contact us at 541-396-1825, P.O. Box 942, Coquille, OR 97423. The best time to call is Monday thru Friday 4 PM to 8 PM PST. Keep checking our website, www.cobcottage.com, for more details as our new plans evolve.