Build With Us Natural Building Workshop Colorado

“BUILD WITH US” Natural Building Workshop Come learn to build your own truly natural, sustainable, affordable, beautiful home at this 4-day workshop.

Acclaimed Thai organic farmer/earthen builder Jon Jandai and Coloradoan Peggy Reents will teach various natural building techniques using local, readily available materials. They have been leaders in the natural building movement in Thailand for years and are now starting a sustainable living learning center and home in Jefferson, Colorado. Learn through building yourself and creating a simple structure including all aspects of the building process from basic sustainable design principles, selecting clay, making adobe bricks, building walls from various earthen techniques, earthen plasters for earthen and strawbale walls, to natural homemade paints and finishes.... Come stay on their pristine land at over 9,000 ft elevation in the Rockies and learn building along with introduction to Thai massage, Thai cooking, and organic seed saving. Workshop runs: Thursday, July 12 to Sunday, July 15, 2007 Topics & techniques

The workshop will include:

• Introduction to our “compound”, our vision and tour of the other strawbale house onsite as well as our present project, an earthship under construction

• Basic design principles for environmental citing, climatic considerations, and aesthetics • Adobe brick making • Adobe wall construction in the building of a small bike shed (around 125 sq. ft.)

• Intros and smaller projects using other earthen building techniques including wattle-and-daub, cob, and earth bag

• Earthen plasters for earthen walls and strawbale walls

• Natural clay/starch paints, linseed oil, beeswax and other options for finishing sealants, etc

• And more Evening/afternoon activities and exchanges will also be included.

These include; an introduction to earthen building, introduction to Thai cooking, Thai massage and our work in Thailand at Pun Pun organic farm, sustainable living learning center and seed center. The Project . This building workshop will be held on our family land in the high elevation of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. In the summer of 2005 our extended family bought a piece of land with the intention of creating a so-called “family compound” where we would all come together to live for parts or most of the year together. We wanted it also to be a place which could experiment and demonstrate various sustainable building and living techniques for others to come and learn from. We have started last summer by building a strawbale home for our parents and earthen solar panel shed and in the summer of 2007 will be beginning a home for Peggy’s sister’s family which will be an earthship. We are located just outside Jefferson, Colorado which is on Highway 285 between Bailey and Fairplay.

General Schedule Morning and afternoon sessions of building will be held with an afternoon discussion session after lunch if afternoon showers persist. Evening and early afternoon discussions sessions will be held after meals. Teaching team Jon Jandai, Peggy Reents Living situation You should prepare and bring with you your own camping gear (tent, mat, sleeping bag) with the knowledge that it can get quite cold at night. If the weather should be very cold we can all bunk in the living room of the strawbale house as well. You will be able to use the strawbale house toilet and shower facilities. Meals will be shared and eaten in the strawbale kitchen, vegetarian and non-vegetarian options will be available and we will try to use the most organic vegetables as possible. Please specify if you have any dietary needs.

Fee $275 US for folks from industrialized countries Arrangements can be made for participants from less developed countries. Your contributions go toward allowing us to continue to do the work we do in Thailand with Pun Pun with peasant and farmer groups.

Registration 1) Contact Peggy Reents at pareents@yahoo.com. 2) Send in your deposit to hold your spot. A $125 US non-refundable deposit is due to us as soon as possible. The remaining fee will be due on the first day of the workshop in check or cash. The deposit check can be sent addressed to: Peggy Reents Re: Build with Us Workshop Jefferson 3405 El Caminito Loveland, CO 80537 USA Contact Peggy Reents at pareents@yahoo.com to register or for more details.