Sept. 25th – 29th
cost is $500
Early bird discount:
Register by Sept. 9th $450
Register with a friend and get 10% off
Cob building combines clay sediment, sand, fiber, and water, and is hand sculpted to form walls, benches, ovens, and fireplaces. Cob building makes use of readily available, affordable, non-toxic materials to build beautiful, organic structures.
The course is appropriate for both first-time builders and for professionals in the building trade who are interested in natural materials. In this five day cob workshop, we focus on the characteristics of the natural materials most commonly used in construction: clay soil, sand, and fibers. Our main focus will be cob, though we will touch on various other building techniques that utilize the same materials, including adobe block, light straw-clay, wattle and daub, and plasters. We will discuss how to find and choose appropriate soil for construction, how to create various mixes, how to attach wood to earthen walls, and how to use earthen materials to build walls, sculpt niches, shelves, and furniture.
This course is primarily a hands on course, where we learn by doing. We will be building a small structure from start to finish. As a complement to the hands-on portion of the course, we will include slide shows and discussions of the theoretical aspects of natural building. Subjects include building design and siting, passive solar design, foundations and drainage, earthen floors, appropriate roof design, and wiring and plumbing for natural structures.
cost is $500
Early bird discount:
Register by Sept. 9th $450
Register with a friend and get 10% off
Cob building combines clay sediment, sand, fiber, and water, and is hand sculpted to form walls, benches, ovens, and fireplaces. Cob building makes use of readily available, affordable, non-toxic materials to build beautiful, organic structures.
The course is appropriate for both first-time builders and for professionals in the building trade who are interested in natural materials. In this five day cob workshop, we focus on the characteristics of the natural materials most commonly used in construction: clay soil, sand, and fibers. Our main focus will be cob, though we will touch on various other building techniques that utilize the same materials, including adobe block, light straw-clay, wattle and daub, and plasters. We will discuss how to find and choose appropriate soil for construction, how to create various mixes, how to attach wood to earthen walls, and how to use earthen materials to build walls, sculpt niches, shelves, and furniture.
This course is primarily a hands on course, where we learn by doing. We will be building a small structure from start to finish. As a complement to the hands-on portion of the course, we will include slide shows and discussions of the theoretical aspects of natural building. Subjects include building design and siting, passive solar design, foundations and drainage, earthen floors, appropriate roof design, and wiring and plumbing for natural structures.
This 6-week program is chance for up to 4 people to gain more experience with a variety of natural building techniques. It is designed for people with some natural building experience who want to deepen their skills in a lightly mentored environment. We will be working on a variety of projects, with a focus on a very small structure that you will partake in start to finish. You will get to assist and partake in the cob building workshop, as well as an oven-building workshop. There will be the opportunity to engage in the process from start to finish.
Prerequisites:
This opportunity is for people who have had some experience with natural building. This prerequisite is less for the skills you will bring, as it is for the knowing that it is something you want to be doing. As you will know, natural building is fun and rewarding, as well as a huge amount of physical work, and its imperative for this experience that you know this is a path you want to follow.
When:
Sept 16th - Oct 25th
We will mostly work a roughly 9 – 5, Monday through Friday schedule. Some of this time will be working with Sasha Rabin, and some of the time working with other builders.
Other details:
This internship is designed for people who are self-motivated, and can take responsibility for being on time. Although there will be a lot of learning, as well as teaching, this is not a workshop.
Meals:
Part of the experience is the integration into a community, and meals are an important part of that experience. We will all share in the cooking and cleaning.
Cost:
$800 for the 6 weeks. This includes food and fuel costs, inclusion in the two natural building workshops, and the oversight of the program.
Oct 19th & 20th - Southern CA
Cost is $250 ($225 if paid by Oct. 1st)
Learn to build your own earthen bread and pizza oven using natural materials from your backyard.
This Cob Oven Building workshop is designed to teach you the skills needed to build your own oven in your backyard, as well as encouraging a new way of relating to our food and the process in which it is cooked and created. The weekend will be catered with food cooked in the two already existing wood fired cob ovens we have on site. As we go through the process of building an oven throughout the weekend we will also be engaging in the process of cooking in one and sharing and feasting on some of the myriad of things that can be cooked in them, including a pizza dinner saturday night, frittatas, roasted vegetables, sourdough bread, granola, and yogurt. The process of building as well as cooking in a wood fired oven encourages us to redevelop our relationship to the way we eat and cook, encouraging us to engage in the journey of the creation of a meal.
Using clay, sand and straw, we will explore the entire construction process from foundation to roof. The class is primarily hands on, involving building an oven from start to finish. We will also go over all the other aspects of the building process, including soil analysis, options for variations on the oven design, moisture protection, heating and insulation for the oven, as well as how to fire and cook in the ovens.
Dec. 7th & 8th
cost is $250
Early bird discount:
Register by Nov 7th, Cost is $225
Register with a friend or register for multiple workshops in the series and get 10% off
In this workshop students will learn how to build (and use) a barrel oven from the ground up!
THE “BARREL” OVEN is a very practical and wood-efficient oven which can be built at very low cost using mostly natural and recycled materials. The oven is sometimes also called a “mixed” oven because the heat generated by the wood burned cooks both by directly transferring heat into the cooking chamber as well as by retaining heat in the oven’s mass and slowly returning that heat to the inside of the oven. For these reasons, this oven is much more practical to use and requires much less wood to do the same amount of baking as in the retained-heat mass ovens and traditional domed earthen ovens. It allows for quite a bit more spontaneity too since you can be baking just 15 minutes after lighting your fire. The firebox and the inside of the oven are sealed off from each other so the baking chamber is always clean of ash and carbon-black.
For more information on Barrel Ovens, go to: www.firespeaking.com
January 24th-27th, 2014
Starts with an evening presentation Friday night, and goes through Sunday afternoon, with an option of staying through Monday.
cost is $270 for the weekend, and $350 for three days.
Early bird discount:
Register by Dec 7th, Cost is 10% off
Register with a friend or register for multiple workshops in the series and get 10% off
Rocket mass heaters (RMH) are a super efficient wood fired masonry stove that is very appropriate for many climates and lifestyles for a comfortable heat source that uses local fuel and doesn't need an electrical grid connection. Known as the "people's masonry stove", RMH's are simple, affordable to self build, use mostly simple local materials and offer the advantage that they can usually be retrofitted into cabins and small homes with minor structural reinforcing.
This workshop will be taught by Lasse Holmes:
Lasse is a passionate natural builder, consultant and teacher residing off the road system in a timber frame, straw bale, and clay/fiber home heated by a rocket mass heater. About twelve years ago after almost a decade of commercial and residential construction on the lower Kenai he began to “break out of the box” and research and experiment with local natural materials for healthier lower embodied energy buildings that resonate with people and their surroundings. In 2010 he founded the Canyon Arts School of Natural Building.
Introduction to Cob building
Cob building combines clay sediment, sand, fiber, and water, and is hand sculpted to form walls, benches, ovens, and fireplaces. Cob building makes use of readily available, affordable, non-toxic materials to build beautiful, organic structures.
The course is appropriate for both first-time builders and for professionals in the building trade who are interested in natural materials. In this six day cob workshop, we focus on the characteristics of the natural materials most commonly used in construction: clay soil, sand, and fibers. Our main focus will be cob, though we will touch on various other building techniques that utilize the same materials, including adobe block, light straw-clay, wattle and daub, and plasters. We will discuss how to find and choose appropriate soil for construction, how to create various mixes, how to attach wood to earthen walls, and how to use earthen materials to build walls, sculpt niches, shelves, and furniture.
This course is primarily a hands on course, where we learn by doing. We will be building a small structure from start to finish. As a complement to the hands-on portion of the course, we will include slide shows and discussions of the theoretical aspects of natural building. Subjects include building design and siting, passive solar design, foundations and drainage, earthen floors, appropriate roof design, and wiring and plumbing for natural structures.
Introduction to Cob Building
January 18- 24, 2015
Laikipia, Kenya
To register, and for more detailed information regarding lodging, cost, etc.... click here for the PRI Kenya website.
The location:
Laikipia Permaculture Centre is a 1.6 hectare farm located on the Laikipia Plain, north of the Rift Valley in Central Kenya. Founded in 2012 by permaculture teacher Joseph Lentunyoi and Permaculture Research Institute Kenya, the project aims to illustrate how regenerative agricultural practices can improve local food security and community health while preserving and rehabilitating precious ecological resources impacted by overgrazing and other unsustainable use patterns. As a demonstration site for water harvesting and conservation strategies, soil fertility building, holistic pastoral management, natural building and many other sustainable practices, LPC is developing a model with far-reaching potential for Laikipia, Kenya and East Africa as a whole.
The Workshop:
Our course in January aims to be a part of the revival of natural building in Kenya; to help revitalize an ancient art and incorporate new techniques learned through past decades as natural building has gained traction internationally. Benefits to participants and the local community will include acquisition of the skills necessary to build climate-controlled, sustainable, non-toxic, affordable housing without acquiring substantial debt. The artisanal and ancestral skills of natural building have largely been lost through the 20th century. Commercial materials and conventional building styles have benefited from industry biased-regulations and are now largely associated with status and prestige. This is the case in Kenya, a country that is integral to the history of natural building and that still contains communities reliant on natural housing.
The course is appropriate for both first-time builders and for professionals in the building trade who are interested in natural materials. In this seven day cob workshop, we focus on the characteristics of the natural materials most commonly used in construction: clay soil, sand, and fibers. Our main focus will be cob, which combines these readily-available materials to hand-sculpt beautiful walls, benches, ovens, and fireplaces. We will also touch on various other building techniques that utilize the same materials, including adobe block, light straw-clay, wattle and daub, and plasters.
We will discuss how to find and choose appropriate soil for construction, how to create various mixes and plasters, how to incorporate timber and stone, and how to use earthen materials to build walls, sculpt niches, shelves, and furniture.
This course is primarily a hands-on course, where we learn by doing. As a complement to the hands-on portion of the course, slide shows and discussions of the science and theory of natural building will bring deeper understandings and answer any questions. Subjects include building design and siting, passive solar design, foundations and drainage, earthen floors, appropriate roof design, and wiring and plumbing for natural structures.
Natural Building Internship
March 16th – April 13th 2015 - Two apprentices will be accepted this session.
Overview: This 4-week program is chance 2 people to gain more in-depth experience with a variety of natural building techniques. It is designed for people with some natural building experience who want to deepen their skills in a lightly mentored environment. We will be working on a variety of projects, with a focus on a very small structure that you will partake in building the foundation and walls. You will get to assist and partake in the natural building workshop.
Focus of Internship: During these 4 weeks the interns will be working mostly with Sasha Rabin, working on a variety of different projects. Four days a week will be working on set projects, and one day a week will be open to self guided research, ones one project, or working with a variety of other people on other projects. The projects of focus will be doing the prep work for the building we will be working on during the one week intensive workshop which includes building an earth bag foundation, making adobe blocks, and some woodwork. We will also be doing sone finish work in already existing buildings. All together, there will be at least a little hands on experience with all the main aspects of building a basic earthen structure.
What is needed from Interns: A desire to learn and to be of service, adaptability, mindfulness, desire to live & work mostly in the outdoors, a non-judgmental approach, a sense of humor, self-care, ability to listen and to speak from the heart, a sense of wonder. You should also be able to handle hard physical labor and rising early in the mornings, manage independent study time and be willing to engage in the mundane, for example screening dirt for building.
What we provide to Interns: Hands-on skill building, mentoring, meaningful work, camping space (with your own gear), nourishing food, hundreds of acres of beautiful wilderness, a lively community atmosphere of all ages, and what many apprentices have deemed a treasured life-changing experience.
INTERNSHIP LOCATION: Farm based in Cuyama Valley, California.
INTERNSHIP SESSION DATES & LENGTH: March 16th, 2015 to April 13th (four weeks)
Fees for internship: The $1200 fee covers food, camping, facility use, and staff mentoring. Payment can be made online, by check or cash, and is due in full by the start of the internship. A $150 non-refundable deposit is required to secure your space in the program. All fees are non-refundable upon payment and are not pro-rated. If something comes up and an apprentice cannot complete the program, payment may be applied to a future session.
A little about our farm:
Our goal on the farm is to provide the daily food throughout the year for staff, students and visitors to Quail Springs Farm, as well as for our food-giving animals. The farm currently has a 12 goat herd with 7 milking does, a mixed poultry flock of 117 chickens and ducks including approximately 85 laying hens, 7 roosters, and 25 dual purpose poults, 6 rabbits for meat and hides (breeding stock), a thriving bee colony kept with the top bar hive method, 2 farm cats, 2 predator control dogs (Great Pyrenees), and a small school of goldfish in the current Aquaponics system trial, being expanded fall of 2015. Some of our staff include the sourdough culture for our breads in the livestock category as well.
Prerequisites:
This opportunity is for people who have had some experience with natural building. This prerequisite is less for the skills you will bring, as it is for the knowing that it is something you want to be doing. As you will know, natural building is fun and rewarding, as well as a huge amount of physical work, and its imperative for this experience that you know this is a path you want to follow.
When:
Sept 16th - Oct 25th
We will mostly work a roughly 9 – 5, Monday through Friday schedule. Some of this time will be working with Sasha Rabin, and some of the time working with other builders.
Other details:
This internship is designed for people who are self-motivated, and can take responsibility for being on time. Although there will be a lot of learning, as well as teaching, this is not a workshop.
Meals:
Part of the experience is the integration into a community, and meals are an important part of that experience. We will all share in the cooking and cleaning.
Cost:
$800 for the 6 weeks. This includes food and fuel costs, inclusion in the two natural building workshops, and the oversight of the program.
Oct 19th & 20th - Southern CA
Cost is $250 ($225 if paid by Oct. 1st)
Learn to build your own earthen bread and pizza oven using natural materials from your backyard.
This Cob Oven Building workshop is designed to teach you the skills needed to build your own oven in your backyard, as well as encouraging a new way of relating to our food and the process in which it is cooked and created. The weekend will be catered with food cooked in the two already existing wood fired cob ovens we have on site. As we go through the process of building an oven throughout the weekend we will also be engaging in the process of cooking in one and sharing and feasting on some of the myriad of things that can be cooked in them, including a pizza dinner saturday night, frittatas, roasted vegetables, sourdough bread, granola, and yogurt. The process of building as well as cooking in a wood fired oven encourages us to redevelop our relationship to the way we eat and cook, encouraging us to engage in the journey of the creation of a meal.
Using clay, sand and straw, we will explore the entire construction process from foundation to roof. The class is primarily hands on, involving building an oven from start to finish. We will also go over all the other aspects of the building process, including soil analysis, options for variations on the oven design, moisture protection, heating and insulation for the oven, as well as how to fire and cook in the ovens.
Dec. 7th & 8th
cost is $250
Early bird discount:
Register by Nov 7th, Cost is $225
Register with a friend or register for multiple workshops in the series and get 10% off
In this workshop students will learn how to build (and use) a barrel oven from the ground up!
THE “BARREL” OVEN is a very practical and wood-efficient oven which can be built at very low cost using mostly natural and recycled materials. The oven is sometimes also called a “mixed” oven because the heat generated by the wood burned cooks both by directly transferring heat into the cooking chamber as well as by retaining heat in the oven’s mass and slowly returning that heat to the inside of the oven. For these reasons, this oven is much more practical to use and requires much less wood to do the same amount of baking as in the retained-heat mass ovens and traditional domed earthen ovens. It allows for quite a bit more spontaneity too since you can be baking just 15 minutes after lighting your fire. The firebox and the inside of the oven are sealed off from each other so the baking chamber is always clean of ash and carbon-black.
For more information on Barrel Ovens, go to: www.firespeaking.com
January 24th-27th, 2014
Starts with an evening presentation Friday night, and goes through Sunday afternoon, with an option of staying through Monday.
cost is $270 for the weekend, and $350 for three days.
Early bird discount:
Register by Dec 7th, Cost is 10% off
Register with a friend or register for multiple workshops in the series and get 10% off
Rocket mass heaters (RMH) are a super efficient wood fired masonry stove that is very appropriate for many climates and lifestyles for a comfortable heat source that uses local fuel and doesn't need an electrical grid connection. Known as the "people's masonry stove", RMH's are simple, affordable to self build, use mostly simple local materials and offer the advantage that they can usually be retrofitted into cabins and small homes with minor structural reinforcing.
This workshop will be taught by Lasse Holmes:
Lasse is a passionate natural builder, consultant and teacher residing off the road system in a timber frame, straw bale, and clay/fiber home heated by a rocket mass heater. About twelve years ago after almost a decade of commercial and residential construction on the lower Kenai he began to “break out of the box” and research and experiment with local natural materials for healthier lower embodied energy buildings that resonate with people and their surroundings. In 2010 he founded the Canyon Arts School of Natural Building.
Introduction to Cob building
Cob building combines clay sediment, sand, fiber, and water, and is hand sculpted to form walls, benches, ovens, and fireplaces. Cob building makes use of readily available, affordable, non-toxic materials to build beautiful, organic structures.
The course is appropriate for both first-time builders and for professionals in the building trade who are interested in natural materials. In this six day cob workshop, we focus on the characteristics of the natural materials most commonly used in construction: clay soil, sand, and fibers. Our main focus will be cob, though we will touch on various other building techniques that utilize the same materials, including adobe block, light straw-clay, wattle and daub, and plasters. We will discuss how to find and choose appropriate soil for construction, how to create various mixes, how to attach wood to earthen walls, and how to use earthen materials to build walls, sculpt niches, shelves, and furniture.
This course is primarily a hands on course, where we learn by doing. We will be building a small structure from start to finish. As a complement to the hands-on portion of the course, we will include slide shows and discussions of the theoretical aspects of natural building. Subjects include building design and siting, passive solar design, foundations and drainage, earthen floors, appropriate roof design, and wiring and plumbing for natural structures.
Introduction to Cob Building
January 18- 24, 2015
Laikipia, Kenya
To register, and for more detailed information regarding lodging, cost, etc.... click here for the PRI Kenya website.
The location:
Laikipia Permaculture Centre is a 1.6 hectare farm located on the Laikipia Plain, north of the Rift Valley in Central Kenya. Founded in 2012 by permaculture teacher Joseph Lentunyoi and Permaculture Research Institute Kenya, the project aims to illustrate how regenerative agricultural practices can improve local food security and community health while preserving and rehabilitating precious ecological resources impacted by overgrazing and other unsustainable use patterns. As a demonstration site for water harvesting and conservation strategies, soil fertility building, holistic pastoral management, natural building and many other sustainable practices, LPC is developing a model with far-reaching potential for Laikipia, Kenya and East Africa as a whole.
The Workshop:
Our course in January aims to be a part of the revival of natural building in Kenya; to help revitalize an ancient art and incorporate new techniques learned through past decades as natural building has gained traction internationally. Benefits to participants and the local community will include acquisition of the skills necessary to build climate-controlled, sustainable, non-toxic, affordable housing without acquiring substantial debt. The artisanal and ancestral skills of natural building have largely been lost through the 20th century. Commercial materials and conventional building styles have benefited from industry biased-regulations and are now largely associated with status and prestige. This is the case in Kenya, a country that is integral to the history of natural building and that still contains communities reliant on natural housing.
The course is appropriate for both first-time builders and for professionals in the building trade who are interested in natural materials. In this seven day cob workshop, we focus on the characteristics of the natural materials most commonly used in construction: clay soil, sand, and fibers. Our main focus will be cob, which combines these readily-available materials to hand-sculpt beautiful walls, benches, ovens, and fireplaces. We will also touch on various other building techniques that utilize the same materials, including adobe block, light straw-clay, wattle and daub, and plasters.
We will discuss how to find and choose appropriate soil for construction, how to create various mixes and plasters, how to incorporate timber and stone, and how to use earthen materials to build walls, sculpt niches, shelves, and furniture.
This course is primarily a hands-on course, where we learn by doing. As a complement to the hands-on portion of the course, slide shows and discussions of the science and theory of natural building will bring deeper understandings and answer any questions. Subjects include building design and siting, passive solar design, foundations and drainage, earthen floors, appropriate roof design, and wiring and plumbing for natural structures.
Natural Building Internship
March 16th – April 13th 2015 - Two apprentices will be accepted this session.
Overview: This 4-week program is chance 2 people to gain more in-depth experience with a variety of natural building techniques. It is designed for people with some natural building experience who want to deepen their skills in a lightly mentored environment. We will be working on a variety of projects, with a focus on a very small structure that you will partake in building the foundation and walls. You will get to assist and partake in the natural building workshop.
Focus of Internship: During these 4 weeks the interns will be working mostly with Sasha Rabin, working on a variety of different projects. Four days a week will be working on set projects, and one day a week will be open to self guided research, ones one project, or working with a variety of other people on other projects. The projects of focus will be doing the prep work for the building we will be working on during the one week intensive workshop which includes building an earth bag foundation, making adobe blocks, and some woodwork. We will also be doing sone finish work in already existing buildings. All together, there will be at least a little hands on experience with all the main aspects of building a basic earthen structure.
What is needed from Interns: A desire to learn and to be of service, adaptability, mindfulness, desire to live & work mostly in the outdoors, a non-judgmental approach, a sense of humor, self-care, ability to listen and to speak from the heart, a sense of wonder. You should also be able to handle hard physical labor and rising early in the mornings, manage independent study time and be willing to engage in the mundane, for example screening dirt for building.
What we provide to Interns: Hands-on skill building, mentoring, meaningful work, camping space (with your own gear), nourishing food, hundreds of acres of beautiful wilderness, a lively community atmosphere of all ages, and what many apprentices have deemed a treasured life-changing experience.
INTERNSHIP LOCATION: Farm based in Cuyama Valley, California.
INTERNSHIP SESSION DATES & LENGTH: March 16th, 2015 to April 13th (four weeks)
Fees for internship: The $1200 fee covers food, camping, facility use, and staff mentoring. Payment can be made online, by check or cash, and is due in full by the start of the internship. A $150 non-refundable deposit is required to secure your space in the program. All fees are non-refundable upon payment and are not pro-rated. If something comes up and an apprentice cannot complete the program, payment may be applied to a future session.
A little about our farm:
Our goal on the farm is to provide the daily food throughout the year for staff, students and visitors to Quail Springs Farm, as well as for our food-giving animals. The farm currently has a 12 goat herd with 7 milking does, a mixed poultry flock of 117 chickens and ducks including approximately 85 laying hens, 7 roosters, and 25 dual purpose poults, 6 rabbits for meat and hides (breeding stock), a thriving bee colony kept with the top bar hive method, 2 farm cats, 2 predator control dogs (Great Pyrenees), and a small school of goldfish in the current Aquaponics system trial, being expanded fall of 2015. Some of our staff include the sourdough culture for our breads in the livestock category as well.
Introduction to Cob Building April, 2015
Quail Springs, CA
Quail Springs, CA
Natural Building Internship
March 16th – April 13th 2015 - Two apprentices will be accepted this session.
Overview: This 4-week program is chance 2 people to gain more in-depth experience with a variety of natural building techniques. It is designed for people with some natural building experience who want to deepen their skills in a lightly mentored environment. We will be working on a variety of projects, with a focus on a very small structure that you will partake in building the foundation and walls. You will get to assist and partake in the natural building workshop.
Focus of Internship: During these 4 weeks the interns will be working mostly with Sasha Rabin, working on a variety of different projects. Four days a week will be working on set projects, and one day a week will be open to self guided research, ones one project, or working with a variety of other people on other projects. The projects of focus will be doing the prep work for the building we will be working on during the one week intensive workshop which includes building an earth bag foundation, making adobe blocks, and some woodwork. We will also be doing sone finish work in already existing buildings. All together, there will be at least a little hands on experience with all the main aspects of building a basic earthen structure.
What is needed from Interns: A desire to learn and to be of service, adaptability, mindfulness, desire to live & work mostly in the outdoors, a non-judgmental approach, a sense of humor, self-care, ability to listen and to speak from the heart, a sense of wonder. You should also be able to handle hard physical labor and rising early in the mornings, manage independent study time and be willing to engage in the mundane, for example screening dirt for building.
What we provide to Interns: Hands-on skill building, mentoring, meaningful work, camping space (with your own gear), nourishing food, hundreds of acres of beautiful wilderness, a lively community atmosphere of all ages, and what many apprentices have deemed a treasured life-changing experience.
INTERNSHIP LOCATION: Farm based in Cuyama Valley, California.
INTERNSHIP SESSION DATES & LENGTH: March 16th, 2015 to April 13th (four weeks)
Fees for internship: The $1200 fee covers food, camping, facility use, and staff mentoring. Payment can be made online, by check or cash, and is due in full by the start of the internship. A $150 non-refundable deposit is required to secure your space in the program. All fees are non-refundable upon payment and are not pro-rated. If something comes up and an apprentice cannot complete the program, payment may be applied to a future session.
A little about our farm:
Our goal on the farm is to provide the daily food throughout the year for staff, students and visitors to Quail Springs Farm, as well as for our food-giving animals. The farm currently has a 12 goat herd with 7 milking does, a mixed poultry flock of 117 chickens and ducks including approximately 85 laying hens, 7 roosters, and 25 dual purpose poults, 6 rabbits for meat and hides (breeding stock), a thriving bee colony kept with the top bar hive method, 2 farm cats, 2 predator control dogs (Great Pyrenees), and a small school of goldfish in the current Aquaponics system trial, being expanded fall of 2015. Some of our staff include the sourdough culture for our breads in the livestock category as well.
March 16th – April 13th 2015 - Two apprentices will be accepted this session.
Overview: This 4-week program is chance 2 people to gain more in-depth experience with a variety of natural building techniques. It is designed for people with some natural building experience who want to deepen their skills in a lightly mentored environment. We will be working on a variety of projects, with a focus on a very small structure that you will partake in building the foundation and walls. You will get to assist and partake in the natural building workshop.
Focus of Internship: During these 4 weeks the interns will be working mostly with Sasha Rabin, working on a variety of different projects. Four days a week will be working on set projects, and one day a week will be open to self guided research, ones one project, or working with a variety of other people on other projects. The projects of focus will be doing the prep work for the building we will be working on during the one week intensive workshop which includes building an earth bag foundation, making adobe blocks, and some woodwork. We will also be doing sone finish work in already existing buildings. All together, there will be at least a little hands on experience with all the main aspects of building a basic earthen structure.
What is needed from Interns: A desire to learn and to be of service, adaptability, mindfulness, desire to live & work mostly in the outdoors, a non-judgmental approach, a sense of humor, self-care, ability to listen and to speak from the heart, a sense of wonder. You should also be able to handle hard physical labor and rising early in the mornings, manage independent study time and be willing to engage in the mundane, for example screening dirt for building.
What we provide to Interns: Hands-on skill building, mentoring, meaningful work, camping space (with your own gear), nourishing food, hundreds of acres of beautiful wilderness, a lively community atmosphere of all ages, and what many apprentices have deemed a treasured life-changing experience.
INTERNSHIP LOCATION: Farm based in Cuyama Valley, California.
INTERNSHIP SESSION DATES & LENGTH: March 16th, 2015 to April 13th (four weeks)
Fees for internship: The $1200 fee covers food, camping, facility use, and staff mentoring. Payment can be made online, by check or cash, and is due in full by the start of the internship. A $150 non-refundable deposit is required to secure your space in the program. All fees are non-refundable upon payment and are not pro-rated. If something comes up and an apprentice cannot complete the program, payment may be applied to a future session.
A little about our farm:
Our goal on the farm is to provide the daily food throughout the year for staff, students and visitors to Quail Springs Farm, as well as for our food-giving animals. The farm currently has a 12 goat herd with 7 milking does, a mixed poultry flock of 117 chickens and ducks including approximately 85 laying hens, 7 roosters, and 25 dual purpose poults, 6 rabbits for meat and hides (breeding stock), a thriving bee colony kept with the top bar hive method, 2 farm cats, 2 predator control dogs (Great Pyrenees), and a small school of goldfish in the current Aquaponics system trial, being expanded fall of 2015. Some of our staff include the sourdough culture for our breads in the livestock category as well.