Join us as our special guest at the North American School of Natural Building and get involved in the work we do! We will be demonstrating cob construction, natural building and a natural, sustainable lifestyle.
Our daily work may include any of the following projects:
- Ongoing finishing and maintenance of cob and natural building structures including: fine finishes and earthen and lime based plasters, burnished frescos, tadelakt finishes, natural paints, tile and wooden mosaic, wood working, earthen floors and living roofs.
- Reconstruction of our outdoor kitchen and pantry.
- Construction of a cob power house to store batteries for our solar voltaic system.
- Creating a woodworking shop in our tool library.
- Various projects in our huge organic garden and greenhouses.
- Preparing building materials from the forest and meadow.
- Transporting firewood from the forest to the woodshed, and splitting and stacking wood.
- Trail building and maintenance.
- Maintenance of our composting system.
- Rebuilding and servicing wheelbarrows.
- Maintaining the garden and orchard drainage system.
This is a spectacular site in a rain forest with huge trees. There are great views up the mountain and along our whitewater creek. Every day there will be a magical nature walk led by Linda and Ianto, the people who brought cob building to the USA and founders of the North American School of Natural Building, the FIRST natural building school in North America.
If this is your first time at Cob Cottage Company, we ask for a $100 donation for the work party overheads, half of which can be applied to the deposit for a workshop this year. Alumni and returning work party helpers are always welcome at no additional cost. Attendees must commit to a minimum of 3 whole working days. We try to keep attendance down to about ten people, so we'll prioritize those who are able to be here for at least 5 full days.
This is an inexpensive way to visit and learn from us. You can sleep in a cob cottage and spend time in other cob buildings for long enough to refine your own plans for building or redesigning your existing home/office/studio. You'll meet interesting people on the same quest, some from all over the world. We will eat gourmet food from our garden (which we all help to prepare), enjoy evenings together with fires and sometimes music.
Your stay here can be life-changing. It's good work and a party too!
Visit our workshop calendar (click on the menu to the left) to see the next upcoming WorkParty dates.
Please give us a call if you are interested in or planning to come to one of our workparties, a minimum of 3 full working days is required to attend and those that participate 5 days or more will receive a special gift and indoor accommodations if they are available.. We insist that all cars come full to workparties so let's coordinate carpooling together. Much of the food we eat will be from the garden and food preparation will be one of the tasks shared during the workparty.