First 2015 Earthship Workshop Weekend- May 2-3, 2015

We've pinned down a weekend for our first earthship build workshop of 2015! We will be hosting the first of several more "formal" workshop weekends on Saturday, May 2, 2015 and Sunday, May 3, 2015 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM each day. The cost will be $25 per person for the WHOLE weekend and mainly covers the cost of food and making copies of any material handed out. We will provide breakfast and lunch both days (meat and veggie friendly) and camping is available upon request. While we will host more informal, FREE work and skill building weekends every other weekend throughout the building season (April 2015- October 2015), the workshop weekends will be more informative, will include much more time for question asking and answering and we will be providing some handouts outlining the information we plan on covering.

 The first workshop weekend (May 2-3, 2015) will cover the "Tire Foundation" portion of building an earthship. We've refined our process throughout the past year and would like to pass on our tips and tricks of making progress swifter and less physically taxing. Thus, this first workshop will cover the following topics:

• Site preparation
• Obtaining building materials and obtaining special permits through the EPA 
• Overall costs of building an earthship
• "Pounding" a tire by hand 
• "Pounding" a tire with a pneumatic tamper
• Installing drainage
• Building the berm
• Compaction tests via geotechnical engineers
• Constructing a half-tire, etc.

While there will be portions that will be discussion and Q&A, a great deal of the weekend will be physical in nature as we've learned best by doing and feel this is the best way to obtain a realistic view of what it is like to build an earthship home.

We ask that all participants are over the age of 16 and that those between 16 and 18 years of age attend with a parent or guardian. Be dressed to get dirty and if you have any of the following items, please bring them with you (marked with your name):

• Gloves 
• Protective eyewear 
• Boots 
• Shovels 
• Sledgehammers 
• Hand-tampers 
• Buckets
• Wheelbarrows
• Water Bottle- We will have drinking water available on-site but please bring a water bottle with you if you have one handy to save on having to use plastic cups.

If you'd like to camp the whole weekend, let us know and we will ensure you have a suitable place to do so!

You can secure your spot for the workshop via PayPal (see below) or you can send a $25 check to: Lauren & Zachary Craig, 2687 S. River Rd., Cedarville, OH 45314. Once we receive payment, we will send you a confirmation email with any updated information. PLEASE NOTE: If the weather doesn't cooperate (i.e. too much rain), we will plan on holding the workshop the next weekend (May 9-10, 2015).  We will contact you via email and/or telephone to confirm date change should  inclement weather arise.

Do you plan on camping on-site?

Here are some pictures from our build last year!  We finished up the year with 5 courses of 9 complete and our goal is to have the tire wall done by Summer 2015... come on out, learn truly beneficial skills, meet like-minded people and help us reach our goal!