House Alive News, January 2008
Greetings!
The days are already getting longer, and even though it still feels like
the last building season just ended we're busily planning for the next
one. We've got a few new workshops this year, and some of the old
classics too... information is below.
It has been a pleasant and relaxing fall. Both James and Coenraad
presented at the Natural Building Colloquium in Texas. James gave a
presentation about his experience building a cob library in Zipolite,
Mexcio, and Coenraad talked about the difference between
"House" and "Home," and how to make your house feel
more alive (and thus become a "Home").
In other news, you can see us on TV! It seems that the Discovery channel
is still showing re-runs of the filming of one of our workshop on the
show "Dirty Jobs." It will show again on February 8th at 5
p.m. If you haven't seen it already, don't miss it!
Also, the upcoming issue of the CobWeb (a quarterly cob newsletter
produced by Michael Smith) will feature an article and pictures by James
about natural building in Mexico.
2008 Workshop Information:
This year Coenraad will be working with Mira Costa College in San Diego
to teach a 5 day cob course. This is the first time that we've
teamed up with an "Official" academic organization, and it
looks to be a great project. The workshop will go from 8.30 a.m. until
4.30 p.m. and will focus on building an outdoor cob courtyard with help
from the art department students and community members. The aim is for it
to be a permanent fixture on the campus.
Also for the first time, James will be teaching the 6-week apprenticeship
not on the House Alive homestead, but rather at nearby Full Bloom Farm.
He will be building a cob cottage for one of the families at this new
community. There is still space for a few applicants.
Here are the rest of our workshops:
April 21 - 25 All About Cob, at the campus of Mira
Costa college in Southern California. $250
May 14 - 24 Incredible cob! Complete shelter. Jacksonville,
OR. $850 (waiting list for this one already!)
June 15 - July 26 Natural Building Apprenticeship.
Jacksonville, OR. $2,000.
July 16 - 20 All About Cob. Jacksonville, OR. $425
July 23 - 27 Earthen plasters, earthen floors.
Jacksonville, OR. $425
August 13 - 23 Incredible Cob! Complete shelter ,
Jacksonville, OR. $850
To find out more about these workshops, go to www.housealive.org and
click on "workshops". Our "Incredible Cob! Complete
Shelter" workshop in May is already full, so don't wait too long to
sign up.
The Grose family, Eric, Janet, Alexis and Conner have moved in at the
homestead. They are looking forward to a year of learning about
natural building and helping us enlarge our food production. Eric and
Janet will help with the workshops that take place on the land. We don't
see our kids much anymore as they are mostly hanging out with Alexis and
Conner, building forts, writing secret letters and dreaming about
"High School Musical 2."
Within 6 months we hope to open our "Cob-inn," 2 cob cottages
each with a queen sized bed and a fire place. Guests will also have
access to another cottage that has a natural building library and a small
kitchen, our straw bale sauna and soak tub, food from the garden, and
unlimited petting of our dogs and cats. We hope to be able to provide a
comfortable retreat place displaying simple forms of appropriate
technology and natural building. We will update you with more information
soon!
Right before I was going to send out this newsletter I got some tragic
news from my friend Dominique in Nicaragua. She is an old student of
House Alive (Mexico, 2004) and works with the poor. She is planning to
build a cob library with the help from one of our apprentices, Carey
Lien, but ran into some funding difficulties. I suggest that the people
from this newsletter send her a few dollars in cash in order to
help her out with the project. As she wrote, $5 or $10 will go a long
way. You can read her email at the bottom of this newsletter.
Best wishes for the New Year,
Coenraad and James
Here is the introduction to this issues' article. You can read the whole
article by visiting
http://www.housealive.org/news/current-article.html
Soft Materials
It is important to consider the characteristics of the materials you
bring into your house. By understanding how they effect you, you can then
choose to use materials that will make your living condition more
pleasant, harmonious, functional, and healthy. These very important
considerations are mostly overlooked in the conventional building
industry.
Hello everybody,
As many of you know I was preparing a fund-raising evening event on
the 7th of December for the building of the little library for the
children of Jicaro, Nicaragua. On 3d December the phone rang at the Blue
Cottage and I learned that my father was in a critical state. Matt and
Emma had left just a few minutes before the call, having finalised the
last of the details for the fundraising evening. We have always had a
gift for ironical timing in the family…
My dad died on the 4th and my beautiful little mum a few days
later. Fundraising ideas evaporated out of my life. It felt really
strange to gaze at my diary, week beginning 7th of January: on one page
is jotted what had to do be done just before closing the door on my
parents house, on the other what would be done in the weeks preceding the
building of the little Jicarillo library.
One thing is certain… The non-happening of the fundraising event
means we’ll have to work on an impossible budget. That will not stop us
starting to build and in Nicaragua the impossible always turns into some
amazing experience…
It would of course be great if we could get a little more money to help
with materials, food etc… For example, If ten of you who were going to
come and support us on that night, sent a cheque for five pounds we could
pay a lad to help on the site for a month. Any amount would be
gratefully accepted. Please send any donation at the following
address:
Mrs Dominique
Olney,
c/o Leatside, Lake Lane, Dousland, Yelverton, Devon, PL20 6 NH
Cheques should be made to: Peace and Hope Trust/Jicaro
The Peace and Hope Trust is a registered charity who is very
active in Nicaragua. Although they have no involvement with the
Jicaro project, they kindly allow me to bank with their
organisation.
Please can you forward this email to all those who were going to come
and participate and whose emails I do not have.
I attach the letter I sent around several months ago explaining the
project as some of you may not have received it. An up to date newsletter
will soon follow: the foundations are being dug at the moment and the cob
team will start raising the walls at the very beginning of
February...
Thank you in advance, Dominique
To unsubscribe, simply reply to this email and write
"unsubscribe" in the subject line.