Teaching and Advocating for Natural Building through workshops, testing and practice
We believe that housing is a human right and that it can be climate-resilient and dignified for all.
We teach, construct, and advocate for Natural Building practices, encouraging people to engage with our built environment. Natural Building is the art and practice of building structures with local natural materials. Natural building is not new, but it is revolutionary. We blend the practices gathered from traditions around the world, remembering that every one of us come from ancestors who built their own shelter with local materials, with modern day building practices. The common techniques we employ are cob, light straw clay, adobe, earthbag, and strawbale, using them to build houses, garden walls, wood fired earthen ovens, earthen plasters, and earthen floors.
Fall 2026 Offerings
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Intro to Cob and Earthen Building Materials
Sept. 25th, 26th & 27th
Willits, CA
Join us for an immersive 3-day natural building experience. There are many ways of working and building with earth to create everything from homes to ovens to garden walls to finishes on existing structures. In this class we will use the same basic materials; clay, sand and fiber, to create a variety of different types of earthen building systems, including cob, adobe and earthen plaster.
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Cob Oven Workshop
Oct. 3 & 4
Willits, CA
We’ll build a cob oven from start to finish, using clay soil, sand and straw. Through the process of building a cob oven, we also cover a wide variety of earthen building techniques that can employ these and other natural materials in other systems of building. All of our ancestors built homes with local natural materials, and cooked food in a variety of different ways using fire, but today we so rarely have an opportunity to use the basic element of fire to cook our food.
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Interested in Hosting a Workshop?
Do you feel your land would be a good place to host a workshop? We often teach workshops on other peoples land, if we feels its a god fit all around. Priority goes to past students, but reach out regardless.
-Workshops we offer include:
-Cob Oven
-Introduction to Earthen Building
-Natural Plasters
Fill out this form if you are interested, or have questions!
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Build Outside the Box - On a Budget
THIS IS A NEW COURSE- REGISTER ANYTIME AND ACCESS CONTENT IMMEDIATELY.
This is an online course.
If you are planning to build for yourself and are looking to keep costs down while building, this course is for you! With instructors teaching on different topics, you will gain expert insights to help you avoid common pitfalls, save money, and plan for success!
Cost is $147 Use discount code COB100 and receive 20% off!
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Rocket Stove Workshop
TBD 2027
Potter Valley, CA
3 day workshop exploring, building and firing various Rocket Stoves
Join myself and rocket stove expert Kirk (Donkey) Mobert for a 3 day deep dive into learning about Rocket Stoves and an intro to building with earthen materials. In this workshop we will be building various types of Rocket Stoves. We will be learning through building, taking apart and rebuilding. We will not be constructing one finished product, but rather exploring many different ways of using the rocket stove principles to create mass heaters as well as cook stoves.
2027 SCHEDULE
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Cob Oven Workshop
DATES- TBD
Willits, CA
We’ll build a cob oven from start to finish, using clay soil, sand and straw. Through the process of building a cob oven, we also cover a wide variety of earthen building techniques that can employ these and other natural materials in other systems of building. All of our ancestors built homes with local natural materials, and cooked food in a variety of different ways using fire, but today we so rarely have an opportunity to use the basic element of fire to cook our food.
-
Rocket Stove Workshop
DATES-TBD
Potter Valley, CA
3 day workshop exploring, building and firing various Rocket Stoves
Join myself and rocket stove expert Kirk (Donkey) Mobert for a 3 day deep dive into learning about Rocket Stoves and an intro to building with earthen materials. In this workshop we will be building various types of Rocket Stoves. We will be learning through building, taking apart and rebuilding. We will not be constructing one finished product, but rather exploring many different ways of using the rocket stove principles to create mass heaters as well as cook stoves.
JOIN US FOR A WORKSHOP
We offer both in person and online workshops. When we started teaching online we thought it was going to be temporary, but we have come to love the accessibility it offers. What a privilege to offer support to people all over the world who can’t travel to join us in person, as well as parents that cant travel easily.
Earthen Shelter
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