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May 2017: Log-Earthen Cabin Workshop

posted 8 years ago

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Log-Earthen Cabin Workshop: May 13-26 for $390!!
Price reduced! $390 for two weeks

Hop onto our job site, powered by solar power and hand tools. We are building an earth bermed, roundwood structure, with light straw insulation. Most of our materials come from a quarter mile radius. The cost of construction is ~$2 per square foot. Learn our techniques and get hands on experience this May!

Learning topics covered:
-Post and Beam Framing
-Foundation
-Earth berming
-Green roofs
-Passive solar design
-Drainage
-Excavation
-Insulation
-Earthen plasters
-Light clay/straw
-Cob
-2 story construction
-Fastenerless joints
-Slip and chip

Week 1: Post Frame Construction
Learn to fell a tree and strip off the bark. Prepare post holes and place a level post. Trim posts level on top and fit a beam to it. Join post and beam with metal fasteners.

Week 2: Slip Straw Infill and Earthen Plasters
Slip straw is a time tested insulation method. At nearly R2 per inch it is effective too. A regional expert is being brought in to teach this segment with Kai.

Instructors:
From Ant Village will be
Jim: built an oehler style house
Kai: Built a cob house

Guest Instructors
Erica Wisner: Erica will be teaching two segments during week #2 of the course. The topics will be earthen plasters and slip straw.
Paul Wheaton: Paul is creator of the Wofati design. Paul will be giving a guest lecture in his own wofati on the lab.
More regional experts may be brought in for day lectures.

What's Included
Campsite and kitchen will be provided. Organic meals may be available for purchase.

The campsite will be on the lab and equipped with a composting toilet, drinking water, and solar shower. Open camp fires should be allowed at this time of year. ATT and Verizon get cell service.

If flying into Missoula, a shuttle can be coordinated.

Last year we ran a workshop to help build Janet the Ant's house!

Worktrade:
Participants who arrive 4 weeks before the workshop begins can attend for free!
Reduced cost for arriving 1 or 2 weeks early.
Work traders will be prepping materials:
peel logs, gather straw, gather clay, and getting the structure demonstration ready
$85 cost to cover organizational aspects
Maximum of 4 work trade participants.

Cost:
$390 cost! (price reduced)
~~$750~~ regular price
Paypal payment and more information:
[email protected]

COMMENTS:

paul wheaton

author and steward

Posts: 54216

Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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posted 8 years ago

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This is Jim's workshop.

He and I have been planning it for a long time. There are a few details still being hammered out.

I think he will be having two guest instructors - amazing guest instructors ... I think everything has been arranged, but we need the final handshake with each of them.

This the exact two week slot just before the 2017 permaculture design course.

paul wheaton

author and steward

Posts: 54216

Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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posted 8 years ago

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Jim has elected, at this time, to not call this a "wofati" workshop because of a slight design difference. I hope that within a couple of days this workshop will be renamed to be a wofati workshop.

Sean Pratt

Lab Ant

Posts: 63

Location: Rensselaer New York

posted 8 years ago

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Jim and Kai are good friends so this might sound bias but i have to say they are great teachers. i knew next to nothing when i showed up and could hardly hit a nail with a hammer. a big part of the reason i own a house for around 700$ now is the fact that Jim and Kai are really easy to ask questions to and always eager to help. had the people in ant village been anything but humble open minded teachers with a good work ethic i doubt i would have built a house so quickly ! i highly recommend this course for people intimidated by building who doubt they could accomplish a cabin in the woods on a budget.

paul wheaton

author and steward

Posts: 54216

Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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click on the thumbs up for this post if you would be more likely to buy a ticket to this workshop if it were a wofati workshop.

paul wheaton

author and steward

Posts: 54216

Location: missoula, montana (zone 4)

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posted 8 years ago

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click on the thumbs up for this post if you would be less likely to buy a ticket to this workshop if it were a wofati workshop.

Dean Howard

Posts: 162

Location: NE ARIZONA, Zone 5B, 7K feet, 24" rain

posted 8 years ago

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This course looks awesome folks!
If we didn't care what you called it... Would there be an attempt during the course to explain both, and the benefits of each, for say 10-15 minutes???

~ Permaculture is enriching...Farming... is just scratching the surface ~

jim forster

Lab Ant

Posts: 64

Location: montana

posted 8 years ago

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Hey Dean, I have just talked to Paul about this. He will now be giving a 2 hour lecture on the wofati design during the workshop! This lecture will take place in the latest wofati 0.8 known as Cooper Cabin.

This is a new addition to our guest instructors; more soon to be announced.

woodstead.org

jim forster

Lab Ant

Posts: 64

Location: montana

posted 8 years ago

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Announcing Erica Wisner as a guest instructor! Erica will be teaching plastering and slip-straw segments during the earthen week. Erica has a long history of working with and teaching about science, cob, rocket mass heaters, and more.

woodstead.org

Sean Pratt

Lab Ant

Posts: 63

Location: Rensselaer New York

posted 8 years ago

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are you thinking of starting a whole new building or just working on your existing cabin?

jim forster

Lab Ant

Posts: 64

Location: montana

posted 8 years ago

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Hey Sean, we will be building a new building, but debating where still.

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Sean Pratt

Lab Ant

Posts: 63

Location: Rensselaer New York

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Sounds like a smart idea to me! I have a few buildings i have been dreaming up while away from the lab. One is a structure something like Kai's. Maybe jointed together like timber frame from milled 4x4 or larger. I was thinking slip straw would be perfect to make it go fast. also depending on the purpose of the building i could beef up the post size to make the forms wider for the slip infill to gain more insulation. i think with a few people and some materials already gathered it would go up pretty fast all things considered. just a thought ! i can't wait to see what you guys cook up! Another idea i like is a foundation thats 1 part concrete 12 parts dirt or less. its well below 1 10th the concrete of standard organic and could keep our posts away from the moist earth . i found that in the bare foot architect . Hope everything is going well and the sap starts flowing soon to make your log peeling job easier!

jim forster

Lab Ant

Posts: 64

Location: montana

posted 8 years ago

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We just reduced the workshop price to $390. We had been planning to bring on one more timber framing expert but did not pull it off. Since we don't need to pay them, we have the ability to make the workshop a lot more affordable

woodstead.org

Devin Lavign

pollinator

Posts: 1121

Location: Pac Northwest, east of the Cascades

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posted 8 years ago

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Darn this would have been great to attend but by May I will hopefully already be starting on building my house, or at least doing the infrastructure to get started on the house.

It is too bad this wasn't offered last fall, that would have been a perfect time for me. I suspect offering this in spring makes it tough for a lot of people as spring tends to mean a lot of work needs doing.

Of course I can understand why you would hold this in spring, if for no other reason than easier log peeling during the spring sap flow time.

"Where will you drive your own picket stake? Where will you choose to make your stand? Give me a threshold, a specific point at which you will finally stop running, at which you will finally fight back." (Derrick Jensen)

jim forster

Lab Ant

Posts: 64

Location: montana

posted 8 years ago

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Evan drew up this sketchup design for what we are thinking about building. It is not done yet, but thought I'd share

Hi Devin, we had a workshop in the fall helping build Janet's house, maybe we didn't get the word out enough. If you have free time before our workshop now, we are taking on worktraders and already starting the build prep.

sketchup.png

woodstead.org

jim forster

Lab Ant

Posts: 64

Location: montana

posted 8 years ago

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This week we have a worktrader here, Jeremy, helping prepare for the workshop. Yesterday we collected about ten carts of straw from the field for the slip straw walls. Later this week we will put a demonstration slip straw wall together so that we can do some of the later stage work on it during the workshop.

Still have space for a few more participants in the workshop!

IMG_20170430_131135_DRO.jpg

woodstead.org

jim forster

Lab Ant

Posts: 64

Location: montana

posted 8 years ago

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We are working on the demo wall in Ben's house. We built a dry stack stone foundation, mixed up a lot of clay slip, and built up half the wall.

We will be doing all this and more at the workshop in a week

IMG_20170504_161614_DRO.jpg

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woodstead.org

jim forster

Lab Ant

Posts: 64

Location: montana

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We've also been building up a sawmill to mill squared off timbers.

During the workshop we will be practicing mortise and tenoning 6x6's

IMG_20170504_152137_DRO.jpg

woodstead.org

jim forster

Lab Ant

Posts: 64

Location: montana

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Slip straw wall!!

IMG_20170505_164933_DRO.jpg

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woodstead.org

Jesse Grimes

Lab Ant

Posts: 274

Location: Orange County, CA

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posted 8 years ago

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Hi Jim. This looks like it is going to be a sweet workshop. I will be returning to the ant village for a couple weeks starting around the 18th, with the goal of closing in my house. I am going to be doing a type of pallets and cob wall system which I learned from "Sir Cobalot" while at Sacred Stone camp. So, if any of your workshop participants are interested in staying another week after your workshop, they will have the opportunity to learn one more type of cob wall system.

Good luck with the workshop, and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

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