Earth Oven - NASHVILLE, TN – Sat April 7 $55 -$75
Learn to build a beautiful traditional wood burning pizza oven that will bake the best pizza and bread you’ve ever tasted!
This is a project that you can easily complete at home in one day using free and recycled materials.
Workshop includes lunch and snacks. Fee is $55 paid in full two weeks in advance or $75 after that. Children are always welcome to accompany their parents. Ask about discounts for families and friends attending together.
Modern Mud Building: A Photographic Introduction - FREE - April 18, 2007 from 5:00 - 6:00pm
Stonekeepers - 111 E. Lytle St. Murfreesboro, Tennessee call 615-849-1792
A slideshow and question and answer session with Christina Ott
Cob Basics - Woodbury, TN – April 20-25 $450 - $550
Workshop fee includes meals and camping.
This workshop will be a six day hands-on building intensive. You will be introduced to all the basics of building with cob for anything from a small outbuilding to your entire house. The moderately sized project that we will be constructing during this workshop offers a chance to participate in several stages of construction. We will cover foundations, walls, windows, doors, roofs, plasters, sculptural work, electricity and plumbing. This is a good workshop to take if you are considering taking on a large outdoor project or even building a cottage.
Introduction to Using Used Cooking Oil for Fuel in a Diesel Vehicle
April 26, 2007 from 9:00am - 1:00pm
Location: Woodbury, Tennessee
Instructor: Craig Sommers
Cost: $26.00 until April 1st, $40.00 thereafter
This is not Biodiesel; we will be covering a straight vegetable oil conversion. During this ½ day workshop, we will cover the basics of collecting waste vegetable oil, filtering the oil (we will actually filter it), and look over, component by component, a truck that has been driving on vegetable oil for one year. Learn what not to do and what 'extras' can save you big money. You will receive a list of resources for acquiring the parts that you will need to do the conversion yourself and a list of shops around the country that can do the conversion for you.
To insure a spot in this workshop, email Craig at Gentleearthman@RawFoods.com
Build An Earthen Sauna! May 4-7 - Woodbury, TN - $195 ($250 after April 24th)
Workshop fee includes meals and camping.
Learn to build a unique backyard sauna with cob. This workshop will cover all the basics of constructing any small cob building, plus a few things specific to building a sauna. This is a great starter workshop for anyone interested in natural building.
Natural Building For Women - Woodbury, TN – May 12-16 (Mothers’ Day is the 13th) $375-$475
Workshop fee includes meals and camping.
This workshop will be a five-day hands-on building intensive. You will learn all the basics of building with cob for anything from a small outbuilding to your entire house. The moderately sized project that we will be constructing during this workshop offers a chance to participate in several stages of construction. We will cover foundations, walls, windows, doors, roofs, plasters, sculptural work, electricity and plumbing.
Hands-On Weekend June 25, 26, and 27 Espinola, New Mexico (30min from Taos) - $150 in advance, $200 after June 1st
Workshop fee includes meals and camping.
Learn the basics of making and building with cob as we construct a cob sweat lodge. This is a great three-day introduction to the basics of cob building. It should be a very fun workshop!
Herb walk – TBA, August
Permaculture – TBA, August
Natural paints and plasters for a healthy home - Woodbury, TN – August 18 $85
Learn to make and apply many types of natural non-toxic paints and plasters to a variety of surfaces. Applying a natural paint or plaster is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to transform your conventional home or finish your natural home. While conventional paints are based on toxic synthetic chemicals and can outgas for years, natural paints are made from materials like clay, milk, and lime. Natural paints and plasters are very fun to make and use and they can be made in virtually any color.
Natural Building Weekend for Women- Woodbury, TN – September 8-10 $250-$300
Workshop fee includes meals and camping.
This workshop is a weekend introduction to the art of natural earthen building. You will learn to make cob and then build beautiful freeform walls, niches, and sculptural details.
Owner-Builder Training - Woodbury, TN – October 5-14 $750-$900
Workshop fee includes meals and camping.
This workshop will be a ten-day hands-on building intensive designed specifically to prepare you for building your own cob home. You will have the chance to learn and practice all of the skills you’ll need to build a cob house. We will cover foundations, walls, windows, doors, roofs, plasters, sculptural work, electricity and plumbing. This is an ideal workshop to take if you are considering building your own cob home.
Straw Bale Cabin - Woodbury, TN – TBA, November
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Worktrades may be available.
Instructors are Christina Ott and Craig Sommers
To get more information or register for a workshop you can contact us by email or phone, although we generally able to respond with more detailed information by email.
Contact:
Christina Ott
(850)982-2597
Barefoot Builder
178 Birdsong Trail
Woodbury, TN 37190
Letters from Past Workshop Participants
Dear Christina,
Here it is a month after the workshop and I'm finally sending you the thank you letter that I meant to send three weeks ago. It actually works out well that it was delayed because I will be able to tell you of some recent developments in my quest to build my own cob home.
I gained so much from attending your cob basics workshop. Not only was the hands-on experience beneficial, the lectures and side conversations gave me some invaluable information.
For example, the flat area we had talked about that I was planning on building on did indeed end up being a water run off. As a result of the instruction on picking a building site, not only did I not build on that specific site, I decided against buying that property altogether. Furthermore, due to a tip you gave me, I found the land of my dreams; and for under $1,500 an acre!
I will be able to use just about every bit of knowledge I've gained from this experience; I intend to set up the "natural air conditioning" system, I redesigned my home using your functions and living spaces instead of rooms idea, and I now feel confident that I can put in an earthen floor, establish flooring for a second floor and am not as intimidated about electricity and setting up a solar system.Holly and I have been gathering rock from the creek for the stem wall for Holly's playhouse, I have talked to our neighbor about camping on her adjoining property, and I would feel very fortunate to be able to host a workshop by Barefoot Builders to raise it!
Sincerest Regards,
Diane Jennings - LaFayette, GA
Hey Guys:
I have been covered up since I got home from the courtyard walls workshop but wanted to thank you all for a wonderful experience. We touched on so many aspects of living on our planet within our world views during my stay. I apologize for not getting back sooner. My stay with your family has rejuvenated my commitment to my world, our generations to come and the absolute necessity of acting on my commitment rather than preaching it. You walk the walk and it is inspiring. May the force be with you.
- Gretchen Torrence
Dear Christina,
Our whole family had such a magnificent time at the workshop this past weekend. Huge thanks to you for so much patient and interesting instruction, to Nature for all the delicious salads & wisdoms thereabout & the stretchy-happy yoga -- and to your fabulous Mom for her cooking and gracious hostessing. It was really a special and stimulating time for us. I had thought that this workshop would be enough to get us going -- and it is -- but since we've been home, Stephen & I have been talking about cobbing nonstop. I now have a real hankering to do the longer workshop not next year but this one. The realization that your longer workshop in August happens too late for us (since Stephen'll already be teaching by then and tied down to the college) lead me to look up your earlier workshop -- and I see it's THIS WEEKEND! It would entail some intensive travelling on my part (I take Robin to the airport in Cincinnati for his flight on Thursday early evening), I would like very much to come to this workshop. I think I had an inkling of the significance of my discovery when I pulled that first book about cobbing off the library shelf, but now Stephen & I both have a strong sense --I say this entirely seriously & without exaggeration-- that we will look back & recognize our first encounter with cobbing as a life-changing experience. Thanks so much!
-Lynne
Dear Christina,
Hello! I had such a wonderful time at both workshops with you &Nature. Thank you so very much. You're of a good-energy influence onus that you can probably not imagine. We have all been talking coband natural building and raw foods almost non-stop since I returned.I think our friends are beginning to get bored with me, except for theone fabulous mom of Raphael's friend Justice who turns out to knowwhere to get gorgeous flat creekstones. Whether or not they're bored,though, we're all pretty enthused & getting planning. We found a construction site with a couple of huge piles of "filldirt" today which we promptly sampled, and we think it's prettyclay-ey. Dione and Raphael insisted as soon as we arrived home onmixing it with the sand from the sandbox (wrong sand, I know, but...)and demanded a tarp. A picture of the wee cobbers is attached.
muddily,
affectionately,
Lynne MM in IN
DEAR CHRINSTINA AND CRAIG,
JEFF AND I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR A GREAT SATURDAY. I HAVE BEEN INTERESTED IN COB CONSTRUCTION FOR QUITE SOME TIME, BUT JEFF HAS NOT. I SIGNED US UP FOR YOUR CLASS AND THEN TALKED HIM INTO GOING. ( NOT THAT IT TOOK THAT MUCH ) BUT NOW JEFF IS VERY INTERESTED. SEEING AND DOING IS BELIEVING, I GUESS. WE ARE GOING TO BUILD AN OUTDOOR OVEN OR FIREPLACE THIS SUMMER.
WE ENJOYED THE LUNCH THAT YOU PROVIDED. SALADS ARE LWAYS BETTER WHEN THEY ARE HOME GROWN!!! YOU MUST LET ME KNOW HOW YOU SEASONED THAT VEGGIE SOUP TOO! IT SMELLED SO GOOD WHEN IT WAS COOKING. AND TASTED GREAT TOO.
I HAVE BEEN READING THE BOOK THAT CRAIG WROTE. IT IS WELL WRITTEN AND I'M ENJOYING IT.
ANYHOO, I JUST WANTED TO DROP A LINE AND SAY IT WAS GREAT MEETING YOU ALL, (SORRY I DIDNT DO IT SOONER) AND THAT I HOPE WE MEET AGAIN. WE ARE INTERESTED IN TAKING THE WEEK LONG COB COTTAGE CLASS.
BEST WISHES,
LEEANN DAVIS