Sara Crippen

Hi Samantha! I havent had personal experience with mycelium insulation, but would ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO! For this workshop in particular we will be insulating with Havelock Wool insulation which has an R value of 13, but on our next build we will definitely consider it!! Whats the r-value of mycelium insulation btw? Thanks for the rec <3

Thanks! Still figuring out how to properly post on here. Have a good one, Sara

Join us for an unforgettable end to your 2024 Summer, living and building in community on the healing grounds of CAYA Sanctuary, nestled in the foothills of Mt. St . Helen’s. In this four week workshop, we will explore different elements of natural building, design, and carpentry while completing a 180 sq ft Pallet Cob Dwelling with a reciprocal frame living roof, earthen-lime floor, cob sculptures, earthen plaster, and clay and lime paints. Click the link below or in our bio for more details on workshop content, location amenities, and how to register🙏🏼

https://www.claysandsoul.com/caya-workshop

Topics covered during hands-on work sessions and lectures include:
-fundamentals of site selection
-floor plan design essentials for a cottage to perform well in your climate
-site soil assessment and testing systems for cob, base plaster, finish plasters, and earthen floors
-foundation fundamentals
-post and beam framing
-window and door installation
-calculating, planning, and raising a reciprocal roof
-living roof systems and installation
-electrical & plumbing design and installation
-insulation options and installation
-modifying and installing a pallet wall system
-preparing pallets for receiving plaster: attaching wood lath, slip making and applying, etc.
-formulating, mixing, and application of cob, earthen base plaster, earthen finish plasters
-creating sculptures and niches with cob
-inserting bottles in walls for light and beauty
-formulating and pouring an earthen/earthen-lime floor
-earth pigment collecting and processing for making interior clay paints
-making and applying limewash

If time permits we will also cover:
-how to build a cob bench
-installing a kitchen with a vanity, sink, and shelving

The skills you will develop in this course include:
-planning and managing a build of your own
-developing intuition around assessing, selecting, and formulating successful earthen plasters
-a comprehensive range of carpentry skills, such as using a wide variety of electric and battery operated power tools, using a transit level, safety practices, tricks of the trade, etc!
-working and living in community
-building physical strength and proper body mechanics to maintain physical well-being while doing manual labor
-finding joy, freedom, and confidence through doing challenging things

Caya Sanctuary is the perfect setting for this experience, offering idyllic forest campsites, wood-fired hot tubs, refreshing river swims, saunas, cacao-fueled dance sessions, weekly community bonding circles, and an optional evening of breathwork with a soothing sound bath.  In addition to gaining the skills necessary to build your own healthy, earthen home, we will deepen our capacity for living communally, and empower each other to become better versions of ourselves.

We are so excited to play in the mud together and build a beautiful cottage in the process🙌🏼🛖🌈

Click the link below or in our bio for more details on workshop content, location amenities, and how to register🙏🏼

https://www.claysandsoul.com/caya-workshop

Follow us @claysandsoul on Instagram to stay in the loop about this workshop and other offerings

Follow our hosts, CAYA Sanctuary @cayasanctuary on Instagram to learn more about the Plant Medicine work they do and how they are building their retreat center

Join us for an unforgettable end to your 2024 Summer, living and building in community on the healing grounds of CAYA Sanctuary, nestled in the foothills of Mt. St . Helen’s. In this four week workshop, we will explore different elements of natural building, design, and carpentry while completing a 180 sq ft Pallet Cob Dwelling with a reciprocal frame living roof, earthen-lime floor, cob sculptures, earthen plaster, and clay and lime paints. Click the link below or in our bio for more details on workshop content, location amenities, and how to register🙏🏼

https://www.claysandsoul.com/caya-workshop

Topics covered during hands-on work sessions and lectures include:
-fundamentals of site selection
-floor plan design essentials for a cottage to perform well in your climate
-site soil assessment and testing systems for cob, base plaster, finish plasters, and earthen floors
-foundation fundamentals
-post and beam framing
-window and door installation
-calculating, planning, and raising a reciprocal roof
-living roof systems and installation
-electrical & plumbing design and installation
-insulation options and installation
-modifying and installing a pallet wall system
-preparing pallets for receiving plaster: attaching wood lath, slip making and applying, etc.
-formulating, mixing, and application of cob, earthen base plaster, earthen finish plasters
-creating sculptures and niches with cob
-inserting bottles in walls for light and beauty
-formulating and pouring an earthen/earthen-lime floor
-earth pigment collecting and processing for making interior clay paints
-making and applying limewash

If time permits we will also cover:
-how to build a cob bench
-installing a kitchen with a vanity, sink, and shelving

The skills you will develop in this course include:
-planning and managing a build of your own
-developing intuition around assessing, selecting, and formulating successful earthen plasters
-a comprehensive range of carpentry skills, such as using a wide variety of electric and battery operated power tools, using a transit level, safety practices, tricks of the trade, etc!
-working and living in community
-building physical strength and proper body mechanics to maintain physical well-being while doing manual labor
-finding joy, freedom, and confidence through doing challenging things

Caya Sanctuary is the perfect setting for this experience, offering idyllic forest campsites, wood-fired hot tubs, refreshing river swims, saunas, cacao-fueled dance sessions, weekly community bonding circles, and an optional evening of breathwork with a soothing sound bath.  In addition to gaining the skills necessary to build your own healthy, earthen home, we will deepen our capacity for living communally, and empower each other to become better versions of ourselves.

We are so excited to play in the mud together and build a beautiful cottage in the process🙌🏼🛖🌈

Click the link below or in our bio for more details on workshop content, location amenities, and how to register🙏🏼

https://www.claysandsoul.com/caya-workshop

Follow us @claysandsoul on Instagram to stay in the loop about this workshop and other offerings

Follow our hosts, CAYA Sanctuary @cayasanctuary on Instagram to learn more about the Plant Medicine work they do and how they are building their retreat center

Join us for an unforgettable end to your 2024 Summer, living and building in community on the healing grounds of CAYA Sanctuary, nestled in the foothills of Mt. St . Helen’s. In this four week workshop, we will explore different elements of natural building, design, and carpentry while completing a 180 sq ft Pallet Cob Dwelling with a reciprocal frame living roof, earthen-lime floor, cob sculptures, earthen plaster, and clay and lime paints.  CAYA Sanctuary is the perfect setting for this experience, offering idyllic forest campsites, wood-fired hot tubs, refreshing river swims, saunas, cacao-fueled dance sessions, weekly community bonding circles, and an optional evening of breathwork with a soothing sound bath.  In addition to gaining the skills necessary to build your own healthy, earthen home, we will deplete d our capacity for living communally, and empower each other to become better versions of ourselves.

Click this link to find more details about workshop content, site amenities, and how to register!

https://www.claysandsoul.com/caya-workshop

Feel free to send us a message (preferably on WhatsApp) to 907-650-7704 or email to
students@claysandsoul.com

We look forward to building community while learning how to build a beautiful cottage together for a project whose vision is long-term community healing and connection with the earth. Check out our hosts’ vision at:

https://cayasanctuary.com/


Pictures of CAYA Sanctuary are attached!

Hi Tricia, I hope you and yours are doing well and that your husband is recovering from his injury. I am a 33 year old woman, looking to explore the WNC area and connect with like-minded people in the hopes of establishing my own permaculture/natural building project of my own once certain resources line up for me this coming Winter 2023.  I have been in residential construction and landscaping/perennial gardening (family business!) since a kid, but fell in love with natural building and permaculture  10 years ago while living in the intentional communities of The Possibility Alliance in Missouri and Jubilee Partners in Georgia. I haveńt looked back since  I am a very independent worker and need little to no direction when it comes to animal and garden tending, as well as doing repairs on building, etc… I am interested in exploring a work exchange with you and your family for this growing season and possibly beyond if the fit is right.  My email is crippens1@yahoo.com, or let me know through email if you prefer to facetime/zoom.  I am currently in Chapel Hill, NC and could come up to visit without trouble.  Happy Spring, Sara Grace

Hi David Michael and family! Are y’all still open to visitors to explore the possibilities on your property? What reflections do you and your community have after the past year of community building? I hope your spring is going well, all the best, Sara Grace

Hi David Michael and family! Are y’all still accepting visitors who might be interested? How have the past few months been? Any reflections on the growing pain of community? All the best, and happy Spring, Sara Grace

Hi permie-peeps! I have been using the compost toilet bucket system for several months and love it! My compost is rocking and rolling and nice and hot. Within two weeks of depositing my bucket contents, my “deposits” are unrecognizable. On the other hand, for the past month I have been struggling to get rid of the fruit flies that are finding their way into My bucket! It takes me about two weeks to fill a bucket so by the time the bucket is full, the babies are hatching and it’s pretty gross looking. I know they are macro-organisms that help break stuff down but it’s not a pleasant pooping experience when you have critters landing on your bum when you are doing your duty:/ I cover with aged wood sawdust and/or sawdust that has been activated with LABs and inoculated with forest floor mycelium I reproduce for my garden. What am I doing wrong? I cover the material well, the wooden box the bucket is in is fully sealed, and I even installed a fine mesh to keep them out, but somehow they are still getting in. It’s a bit maddening and frankly embarrassing when visitors come and want to use my compost toilet. I have a permaculture and natural building project and want to show folks that there are better alternatives to shitting in potable water. But...alas the fruit flies are ruining my reputation. Any suggestions friends??

Hi Permie Friends! This is my first post! I really appreciate all of the information and ideas you have all given me over the years, now I’m finally asking a question! I am about to purchase about 200 kilos of polymerized linseed oil for sealing our earthen floor (and other projects since it’s a ridiculous amount, but the smallest amount we can get). The company sells 8 different viscosities from Z-2 to Z-9 on the Gardner Holt Scale. How does viscosity affect how the oil is absorbed into the floor and the longevity of the earthen floor? We will be waxing and buffing with electric buffer and a wax blend afterwards.

I plan on using some type of thinner obviously, so maybe it’s a moot point to bring up. If it’s super viscous maybe I add more thinner? If less viscous maybe I need less thinner? Unfortunately the factory does not sell samples, they come in these huge metal “tambos”. But the price is SO MUCH CHEAPER if I buy it in bulk. Maybe someone who is a woodworker or oil paint artist would be able to answer this question since they are more apt to have a working knowledge of polymerized linseed oil?

On a different note, but also related to earthen floors. I have made about 15 different samples for my earthen floor to check proportions/color/hardness etc....some of my samples included finely screened (1/16”) biochar and red “tezontle” volcanic sand which is found everywhere here in Morelos, Mexico. It is not fragile like pumice, but does have a lot of tiny air pockets that give it less compressive strength than normal masonry sand. Charcoal ALSO has a lot of microscopic air pockets which is great for absorbing gross smells but I wonder if these two porous materials combined in a earthen floor mix with my local clay would create a weak floor in the long run? The color is incredible, and that’s what i was going for when I threw those samples together. On the other hand, what if those two porous materials (charcoal and tezontle) coupled with the linseed oil would make a super hard floor since they can absorb MORE oil during the oiling process (obviously I won’t be running out of oil ha!)

I would so appreciate your thoughts, ideas, experiences, prayers Hahahha. We started our strawbale home on January 15th of last year and are so excited and VERY READY to be moving in by mid year! Happy new year folks!