Archive for May, 2009

Online

Instructor: Ann Edminster

http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2009/5/16/LEED-for-Homes-Tips-for-Successful-Projects

Tuition: FREE

Who could be more qualified than one of the principal authors of LEED for Homes to provide insight on the best ways to make the program work?

“LEED for Homes, like other rating systems, is an assessment tool. This means that while it provides some ‘how-to’ information (at the level of individual strategies or ‘credits’), it doesn’t offer any guidance for how to approach the design and construction of a high-performing home differently than a conventional project. Ann Edminster will offer some of that missing guidance in this webinar.”

It gets better. Not only do you not have to jet off to some city to sit in some auditorium during some high-priced conference to take this in… it’s free. Just sign up and it’s yours for the taking on June 2, at 2:00 pm Eastern (1:00 pm Central, noon Mountain, 11:00 am Pacific), right on your computer. A gift from GreenBuildingAdvisor.com.

The presenter, Ann Edminster, is a longtime green building mover and shaker. In addition to being one of the main people who developed LEED for Homes (she was its co-chair through most of the early days), she’s also a past member of the LEED Steering Committee, and a member and past co-chair of the USGBC’s Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group. She co-authored Efficient Wood Use In Residential Construction: A Practical Guide to Saving Wood, Money, and Forests, has written bunches of technical papers and articles, and has been an invited speaker at dozens of regional, national, and international green building conferences over the past 15 years. She’s the founding principal of the environmental design consulting firm Design AVEnues.

Ithaca, NY

Instructor: Erica Ann

http://dayonedesign.org

Tuition: $75

Amending your soil with Bio-Char is the next big thing in terms of carbon sequestration and increasing crop yields. Using a 55-gal drum, clay, sand and straw, you can learn to build your own Bio-Char Kiln. This hands-on two day workshop will go through the entire process of building the kiln (using cob and adobe techniques) for producing your own charcoal. The following Tuesday there will also be a workshop covering the process of preparing your charcoal for addition to your garden and all the benefits of using Bio-Char. Some experiment with us!

http://www.mamaroja.blogspot.com

Tuition: $825

We will be offering an 8-week in-depth internship program to individuals interested in getting hands-on experience in organic gardening, natural food production, earthen and natural building, seed saving, and community living.

This will be an opportunity for personal growth through shared learning in which interns will cooperate in the different aspects of a dynamic sustainable community. The internship will be a chance to take responsibility for providing for ones basic needs in a positive working environment of like-minding people.

Topics of Focus:
Organic Gardening:
Composting and Soil Amending, Bed-Making, Planting, Seed Saving, Companion Planting, Natural Pesticides, Harvesting, and more…

Natural Building
We will be building a small Earthen Cottage from start to finish: Adobe Brick-Making, Foundation, Design Principles, Wall Construction, Plaster and Painting, Roofing, and creative use of site-found and salvaged materials…

Extended Sustainable Ideas:
Food Product Making, Jarring and Preserving, Alternative Refrigeration, Milk-Product Creating, Fermentation and Cultivating Micro-organisms, Animal Husbandry, Alternative Energies, Reforestation, and there will also be plenty of space to explore projects of personal interest and intrigue.

Also, there will be opportunities for practicing Yoga, Meditation, Massage (Thai and Swedish), Medicinal Plant Searches, Nature Hikes, Waterfall and River Swimming…

Finished Colloquium Project. Orella Ranch, CALIF. – 9 May 2009 – Many hands and hearts joined together before, during and after the Natural Building Colloquium last October. Guner Tautrim has posted photos of the completed multi-unit Watson Wick toilet project that so many of you participated in.

Thanks to all the good people who supported Orella Ranch on this project – and thanks to Guner for sharing these photos!
View Photos here »

Whidbey Island, Wa

Be part of history!This will be the FIRST code approved and permitted cob structure in Island County to date.
Spend 9 days in a beautiful location learning one of the simplest building methods on the planet. In this workshop, participants will learn the art of building with the earth and will leave with the confidence to build their own natural home or shelter. Mornings will be packed with hands on building, and afternoons will be a mix of more building, tours and relaxing. In the evenings there will be presentations and time to enjoy good food, music and the exploration of ideas with new friends. We will be building an 80-100 square foot cob vegetable stand from the ground up using a variety of techniques from foundation to roof. In this way, everyone will gain a sense of integrating the materials of sand, clay, soil and straw into the whole building process. We will be using local, abundant materials and discussing how to find these materials in most any location. We will also emphasize using human powered building techniques so participants will know what to do when oil and gas are scarce.We will work as a community team, taking care of our bodies and having fun.This workshop will be a key component in a world with fewer fossil fuels. Through this experience, participants will walk away with a sense of empowerment to build in a natural way.

Cost  $850

$25.00 discount if paid in full by June 15.
$25.OO if two or more people sign up together. (Each person receives discount.) Total possible discount $50.00 per person.

Teens 12-18 $400.00

Children 5-11 $150.00

Questions?Please email: ancientearth@whidbey.com or call: 360-331-7621

Bolinas, CA

Instructor: Michael “Meka” Bunch

http://artisanbuilderscollective.org

Tuition: $135

Hello Fellow Permiculture and Natural Building Folk-
I am offering two cob oven workshops this Spring in Bolinas, CA (On the coast, 45 min. North of the Golden Gate Bridge in West Marin Co.).

BoTierra Farm
May 30 & 31
Sat. 9am-

6pm, Sun. 9am-
$135

Gillyflower Nursery
June 27 & 28
Sat. 9am-6pm, Sun. 9am-
$135 Continue Reading…

Emerald Earth Sanctuary, Boonville, California

Instructor: Tom Shaver, Liz Schroeder, Michael G. Smith

http://www.emeraldearth.org/

Tuition: $360

Learn basic skills needed to frame a house and to realize your own
carpentry projects of any size. This is a hands-on class designed to
develop your skills in layout, cutting and assembly by practicing on
real projects, including building a deck, a picnic table, and a stud
frame wall. Starting with safety considerations, you will learn to use
hand and power tools, to select the right fasteners for the job, and to
understand the forces that act on wooden structures. The last day of the
class will be an introduction to framing with unmilled round poles.
Class size is limited to 8 to ensure a high instructor-student ratio.

Boonvile, CA

Instructor: Michael G. Smith, Darryl Berlin, and friends

http://www.emeraldearth.org/

Tuition: $760

*Cost:* $760 includes camping and 3 delicious organic meals per day. 10%
discount for full payment by June 29 and for Mendocino County residents.

This comprehensive workshop will give you hands-on experience in up
to 10 different natural building techniques including cob, straw bale,
slipstraw or light straw-clay, slip-and-chip, clay wattle, earthen
plasters, hand-made paints, and more. The workshop aims to familiarize
students with the basic family of natural building materials: clay or
earth, straw, wood, and stone, and what can be accomplished with each
alone and in combination with the others. At least half of each day is
spent in hands-on building with a high ratio of experienced instructors.
Lectures and discussions cover passive solar and other design principles
for energy-efficient, compact natural homes. There will also be an
extensive tour of the most complete natural building demonstration site
on the West Coast, with an emphasis on ecological materials harvesting,
off-grid electrical generation, greywater reclamation, composting
toilets, and more. Evening slide presentations and videos, a sauna and a
dip in our pond, and wood-fired pizza from our earthen oven round out
this 8-day intensive experience.