Archive for June, 2009

Davidsonville, MD

Instructor: Steve Kemble and Mollie Curry

http://mudstrawlove.com

Tuition: Paid stipend of $200/week

This apprenticeship has already begun, and we have room for more good folks like you! There is plenty of time left for learning all the steps.
WE want people who are serious about learning and practicing strawbale building techniques in the context of a real job setting.
Steve Kemble and Mollie Curry of MudStrawLove LLC out of Asheville, NC will lead the program. They have 35 years of combined experience with straw bale and other natural building techniques (see their website at www.mudstrawlove.com). Steve and Mollie will be teaching all the techniques associated with the bale wall assembly, including stacking, securing, shaping and prepping bales for plaster, cobbing, window and door details, electrical, mixing and applying interior earthen plasters. There may be opportunities for learning lime plastering techniques as well. You will be working with the strawbale team 40 hours/week (Tues-Saturday) on the construction of a straw bale house in Davidsonville, Maryland. In addition to learning and practicing strawbale construction methods, you will apply your newly acquired knowledge by helping train and lead volunteer crews each Saturday.

The project is a two-story house that incorporates other green features such as passive solar design, locally harvested and milled lumber, photovoltaics, and geothermal heating/cooling as well as straw bale and local clay plasters. The foundation and roof will be completed prior to your arrival. Apprentices can live on site, either in their own tent, or in a shared 3 bedroom (partial strawbale) house. The farm on which the house is situated has a pool, a tennis court, miles of trails, and an organic herb-growing operation, and is located near Annapolis, the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore, and DC.

The apprenticeship includes housing (limited) or tent site and a $200/week cash stipend. Full or part-time (paid) employment is possible after the apprenticeship to complete the plastering. Apprentices are expected to be strong workers committed to learning about strawbale construction.

Please contact MudStrawLove to set up a telephone interview at  (828)775-4823.

John Day, Oregon

Instructor: Bernhard Masterson

http://www.solwest.org

Tuition: $450

Construct a shelter out of cob and other earthen and natural materials. The building will have architectural features including a window, roof, built-in shelving, fireplace and bench. These features will allow participants to see how a full-fledged cottage or home is constructed. Issues and techniques to be covered include: mixing, application, materials, test
bricks, and how to connect cob to other parts of a structure. Lectures and labs
will cover foundation, drainage, siting, passive solar, bale cob (a hybrid of insulation and thermal mass), roofs, and tools.

It’s the sixth year that the PeaceWeavers have hosted this family-friendly event at the Thunder Mountain Retreat Center near Bath, New York, offering very full days of teaching, learning, building, and networking. Top experts, authors, educators, innovators, designers, and builders offer hands-on experience and educational presentations with “close to the earth” building materials and lifestyle choices.

But in the end, there’s one really important thing that makes these events amazing. Sure, there’s all kinds of new, fun, valuable things to learn — tactile, hands-in-the-mud stuff that you just don’t get from the books or the internet. Sure, people can pick up tricks and tips to save precious days and months of misdirected time and effort, as well as thousands of dollars of misspent money, on their own projects and in their lives. Sure, there’s the great food, the beautiful natural setting, the music, and so much more. But in the end, the most rewarding and inspiring thing is the rare privilege of being with so many talented, smart, caring, willing, extraordinary people… some of whom just happen to be world-class natural builders, sustainable thinkers, and do-gooders. It’s the people — all of them — who come together at Thunder Mountain that are the best thing of all.

Website: http://www.peaceweavers.com/bws/

Thailand

Instructor: Peggy Reents and Jo Jandai

http://www.punpunthailand.org

Tuition: $475 US/person, $900 US/couple

A personal study trip exchanging and staying
with leaders in the sustainability movement in Thailand including a grassroots look at organic
farming, earthen building, fair trade, traditional medicine, community
empowerment, and self-reliance.

Northeastern to Northern Thailand Trip: March 8-17, 2010

Through our work in earthen building, organic farming, and community living we
have established strong relationships with various groups at the forefront of
this movement in Thailand. Each group is diverse in its target and
implementation, yet all hold a common vision of empowering people to become
self-reliant and sustainable. We invite you to come to learn from each of them
by joining us on this study tour. Continue Reading…

Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand

Instructor: Jon Jandai, Peggy Reents, Justin Sahibdeen, and Nathan Reents

http://www.punpunthailand.org

Tuition: $1,400

An in-depth experience in hands-on earthen building, organic gardening,
seed saving, and community living

Pun Pun Organic Farm, Seed Center,
and Sustainable Living Learning
Center

This year Pun Pun will be offering a 7-week internship program to
individuals interested in getting a hands-on experience in organic gardening
including seed saving, earthen building, and community living.

Continue Reading…

COLORADO, USA

Instructor: Peggy Reents & Jon Jandai

http://www.punpunthailand.org

Tuition: $300/person, $450/couple

“BUILD WITH US”

NATURAL BUILDING WORKSHOP

COLORADO, USA

Come learn to build your own truly natural,
sustainable, affordable, beautiful home at this 4-day workshop.

Thai organic farmer/earthen builder Jon Jandai
and Coloradoan Peggy Reents will teach various natural building techniques
using local, readily available materials. They have been leaders in the natural
building movement in Thailand for years and are now starting a family
compound based on sustainable techniques in Jefferson, Colorado.

Learn through building yourself from basic sustainable design principles,
selecting clay, making adobe bricks, building walls from various earthen
techniques, earthen plasters for earthen and strawbale walls, to making and
applying natural homemade paints and finishes.

Come stay on their pristine land at over 9,000 ft elevation in the Rockies and learn building along with introduction to
Thai massage, Thai cooking, and organic seed saving. Continue Reading…

Peace Justice and the Environment semester abroad program in Israel

Press release 18 June 2009

We are proud to present a special scholarship opportunity for students wishing to participate in the Living Routes 2009 Fall Semester program in Israel: Peace Justice and the Environment. In an effort to make the program available to a diverse group of people from around the world we are offering a special scholarship to qualifying students. If you are an International Student (from somewhere outside the USA), if English is not your native language (but you are fluent enough to participate in the course, which is run in English), or if you are a student returning to studies after a significant absence you may qualify.

Kibbutz Lotan’s Center for Creative Ecology offers two intensive eco-design and training programs:

1. The Living Routes Environmental Studies and Sustainability semester abroad: a 14 week, 16-credit fall semester program accredited by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Living Routes students explore the connections between new forms of ecological identity and stewardship, social justice and community in Israel while working alongside Palestinian-Arab, Bedouin and Jewish Israelis who are striving for a just and lasting peace. Students gain hands-on experience in ecological design, green building and sustainable agriculture and put permaculture into action in a Bedouin Village in the Negev Desert. The 2009 dates for this program are August 31-December 8. There are still places available.  Find out more information from the Living Routes website: http://www.livingroutes.org/programs/p_lotan.htm

2. The Green Apprenticeship Ecovillage and Permaculture Design course unlocks potential and opens minds. It is an intensive 7-week work/study experience designed for students and professionals committed to learning sustainable skills and practices.  Practical skills are developed through hands-on work in our environmental education center, organic garden, and alternative/natural building projects, and complemented by classroom sessions in such topics as ecological design, permaculture, gardening theory, and community building. Participants are also interwoven into the daily life of our kibbutz, a comprehensive community based on the principles of liberal, egalitarian Judaism. The program is limited to 14 participants per session each winter-spring. 2009-2010 dates and details are posted on our web site; www.kibbutzlotan.com under the Green Apprenticeship section.

A short video about the programs can be viewed at www.youtube.com/kibbutzlotan

El Sobrante, California

Instructor: Kevin Rowell, Darrel Deboer

http://www.thenaturalbuilders.com

Tuition: $160

Offered by the Solar living institute:
register here:

http://www.solarliving.org/store/product.asp?catid=13&pid=2070

As wood becomes scarcer and energy costs skyrocket, bamboo is becoming more and more valued as a cheap, easy, renewable, and accessible building material. It is one of the fastest growing plants on the earth, adaptable, beautiful, easy to harvest, alternately flexible or stiff, and extremely strong. During this hands-on workshop, you will learn about: benefits of bamboo; cultivating and harvesting of various species; treatment and preservation of bamboo poles; traditional and contemporary construction methods; integrating bamboo with other building methods; bamboo troubleshooting; and further resources to get your project underway.

Students will get their hands on bamboo and learn about joinery, tools and structural strategies as they have the opportunity to work on a project, building a hooch, that will reinforce their newly found skills.