General Workshop Information
Typical Day
Meals
About the Site
Getting to House Alive
Southern Oregon Weather
What to Bring
About Bringing Children
Registration

General Information on Our Workshops

All of our workshops are hands-on, with about six hours a day devoted to building. We feel that the best way to learn is by doing!  Having said that, everyone does what they can, and there is no pressure to do more than you feel comfortable with. No previous building experience is necessary for any of our workshops. What we do is completely different from conventional construction. We accept all ages.

We value your time and we want to do everything we can to give you the best learning experience possible. Please bring all your questions! We like to answer individual questions and like to tailor the workshop to the needs and interests of the students. All the projects we work on are real buildings; they will be used and may out last all of us! We plan projects to suit the needs of the students, and tend to keep them small so that many stages of the building process can be experienced in a short amount of time.

The workshops are about more than just learning how to build. We strive to provide a retreat experience, with good food, laughter, some relaxation, community spirit and singing. We hope that you leave the workshop feeling better and more hopeful about the world.

Our classes are small. We usually have no more than 14 students and generally have at least one instructor for every 10 students. Tuition includes all the meals and a place to camp!  Our workshops almost always fill up to capacity. Don’t wait too long with sending in your registration.

Typical Day

The workshop days are long and fulfilling! We start at 7:30 am and are sometimes still talking at 9 p.m. However, we usually take a long afternoon break.

Here is a basic idea of the daily schedule, subject to changes depending on the weather, the progress on the building site and the topics of discussion:

• First thing — light snack, coffee, tea, juice
• Then: morning cob mixing
• Breakfast
• Construction and curriculum
• Lunch and afternoon nap time
• Afternoon presentation, lecture, demonstration
• Afternoon building session
• Dinner

Evening programs will vary, depending on people’s energy. Sometimes we just hang out and socialize, other times there will be slide shows and/or short discussions.

Meals

Workshop participants often say that meal time is one of the highlights at the House Alive Homestead.  We take great pride in providing delicious home-cooked meals, which are made with care and quality ingredients.  Our food is vegetarian, out of care for animals, the world and ourselves. We do provide options for vegans. Most of the food is organically grown and a portion of it comes from our own gardens. If you feel you need meat, we are not insulted if you bring some with you. We always have eggs, cheese, soy, and other high protein food items available. Please let us know if you have any other special food needs or allergies.

About the Site

This workshop will be held at the House Alive homestead near Jacksonville, OR. We have about a dozen natural buildings on site, including a code approved strawbale/cob hybrid, a strawbale sauna, an earthen oven and various cob cottages. We also have a swimming pond and hiking trails. We produce all our own electricity from solar panels and use composting toilets, grey water systems and many other solar/ecological techniques.  For everyone’s comfort, reliable hot showers are available, and in the case of inclement weather we will move to an indoor teaching space.

The setting is a serene pine and doug-fir forest in the mountains of Southern Oregon, just 30 minutes away from Medford and Ashland, and 15 minutes from the historic town of Jacksonville.  We are surrounded by BLM land and have easy access to wilderness areas.

Getting to House Alive

House Alive Homestead is located about a half an hour from the city of Medford.  If need be, we can pick you up from the Medford bus station or airport at no cost.  If air or bus schedules make it necessary to arrive a day early or depart a day late, we are happy to accommodate you.  If driving, directions will be sent to you once we have received your deposit.  We encourage carpooling and can assist in making connections between workshop participants.

Southern Oregon Weather

Spring is generally mild and pleasant with occasional cold and wet periods.  Mornings and evenings can be crisp.  Late spring and summer temperatures can be moderate to hot and very dry. Rainstorms are rare.

What to Bring

Please make sure you bring the following items:

• Tent
• Sleeping bag/pad, pillow, towel
• Enough clothing to last for the workshop (clothing will get dirty, small hand-washings are possible)
• Layers and rain gear (especially in the Spring)
• Protection from the sun (hats, sunscreen, etc.)
• Water bottle
• Bathing suit and towel for dips in the swimming pond
• Pictures, drawings, plans, ideas, questions
• A 6′ x 8′ woven polypropalene (”blue”) tarp for mixing cob. Larger is fine, but will have to be cut to size.
• Lotion or cream for dry hands and feet
• Work gloves. We like the cloth ones with rubberized palms (One brand is called “Atlas”).
• Musical instruments
• For sensitive feet (optional): An old pair of sneakers, duct tape or diving booties. We will be mixing cob by foot. To toughen up your feet a little, we highly recommend that you walk bare foot as much as possible before the workshop starts.

About Bringing Children

We welcome children for all the one-week workshops.  Almost without exception, children and youth have enjoyed being a part of our workshops. Our youngest participant was 6 months old at the time! Depending on their age and interest, kids build, listen and observe, play with the sand and clay, read, etc.  They often also team up with other kids on the homestead. We see a lot of good in exposing your children to natural building and community living and like to think that we can make a difference in the way they see life. This is also a great way to enjoy the workshop as a family and to prepare your family for being at a building site together.  Needless to say that you will lose some workshop time while you are attending to the needs of your child; We can not provide day care for you.

The cost for children is:  0- 4 years old: Free (we are counting on you bringing breast milk and or baby food), 4 – 12 years old: $20 per day (just covering our food and infrastructure cost), 13 – 17 years old: half price.  These prices may not apply to all workshops. Please check with us in order to make special arrangements. We want to make it possible for you!

Registration

To secure your spot in this workshop, go to the registration page and follow the simple instructions. We require a $200 non-refundable deposit per person, which can be paid with a check or money order. The balance is due at the time of the workshop and can be paid on site in cash or with a check or money-order.  Once we receive your deposit we will send you more information about how to get to the site and how to prepare for your workshop.  Workshops tend to fill up quickly; don’t wait too long to sign up!  Register now!