wofati workshop July 2014

An 800 square foot wofati house will be built over a period of four weeks.

When the workshop starts the site will already be cleared and a few poles will be in the ground. Most of the wood will have already been cut and peeled at a previous workshop.

On this house, some new techniques will be used in an attempt to reduce the cost of the structure.

The site has been selected and over the next few months there will be designs created and posted in this thread.

This workshop will be videoed with some thought to possibly creating a dvd some day.

The workshop will be led by Paul Wheaton (design), Tim Wheaton (foreman), Tim Skufca (architect), Matthew Beckman, Emily Aaston and Anthony Aiuppa.

There is a limit of 12 students. There will be times when the group will be divided into six students per group to work on an aspect. And the groups will change tasks to make sure everybody gets to experience everything.

week 1: june 30 to july 5
week 2: july 7 to july 12
week 3: july 14 to july 19
week 4: july 21 to july 26

One week: $960
Two weeks: $1600
Three weeks: $2100
Four weeks: $2400

Includes access to a camping spot on the laboratory. A bunk at basecamp will be extra.

Work trade is possible - more about that later in the thread.

To reserve your spot(s) send payment via paypal to paul at richsoil.com.

I feel the wofati design is well thought out and by what I can tell should work well. However, there has only ever been one actually built, and that one is not yet finished as the builders would like. There are plans to uncover and dry out the covering earth. Also, there has not been time to see how well the "fly wheel" effect of the earth mass works, nor how well the drainage works during spring thaw/rain. I expect this building to pass both of these tests. I also expect there will be found areas where tweaks will be needed/wanted to make it even better. In other words, those attending this workshop are helping with the experiment. The cost doesn't seem out of place for what is being provided, but for sure there are no (yet) experts on wofati building/designing. However, I do believe that many things were learned so far as construction itself is concerned.

If it could be arranged, an essay/article of the residents of the first wofati giving their feelings/experiences/measurements with it would be nice. A printed or podcast interview would be a close second for me (I like to be able to reread things, audio is heard and forgotten too quick... just the way I work). There was lots of stuff about it while it was being built, then people moved in and no more has been said. Did it fail in some way? Or has life just been to busy? It is very easy for someone to sit on the outside and ask these questions and I realize they may very well just be brushed aside. Thats ok too. I think it would be helpful to the overall Permies mission (of taking over the world) to have this info out there though.

Hey Paul!

Are meals and lodging included in this workshop?

Good question, Chantelle. Food is not considered part of the price of the workshop, however, workshop participants will be invited to dine with Paul. We'll be dining together three meals a day Mon.-Sat. during the wofati workshop weeks.

More general workshop info in the new workshop FAQ's.

My name is Matt, I am one of the instructors for the Wofati workshop. I had my wife edit some photos to throw around for advertisement. Here they are. There will be more to come through out the next few weeks.

For work trade on this workshop ...

All work trade is done before the workshop begins. To secure your spot, you still need to put down a deposit.

If somebody works here for four weeks, they can take the four week workshop for free.

If somebody works here for two weeks, they can take one week of the workshop for free.

Mostly, I am thinking that there is a lot of time/resources in getting somebody started here. Plus, I am thinking that once somebody has been here four weeks, they really understand how we do things and they can be trusted with running point on tasks. So they will be a much bigger asset during the workshop.

If somebody wants to do something that is kinda like this, but not exactly this, then ask in this thread.

This work shop sounds like what I want to go to but I might not be able to get off work for the full workshop. Will there be a breakdown of what will be covered each week?

We are new enough at building wofatis that it is tough to tell how far along we will be. Plus our velocity for each week will be greatly influenced by the number of students and the velocity of each student.

In Paul's daily'ish email he wrote:

In yestereday's daily-ish email I announced an uber deal for folks on this list. I thought that within 24 hours we would sell half the tickets. We sold zero. Interesting. Maybe the workshop model is not the way to roll. More thinking required.

The price is fair. The topic is excellent. I humbly submit the time is the killer. While I have the means to get to Montana for a week, or four, I don't have the time. I suspect I am not alone. Granted I am still working for the man and I have not yet achieved financial Independence (defined as passive income meets expenses) so shame on me for that. And I don't have a really good answer because I know it takes time and labor to assemble that many logs. So in lieu of a really good idea here are my other ideas;

What would be best for me thinking: Have a workshop in my area! I could probably juggle a week or two an make a meaningful contribution. Clearly a cash flow and logistics nightmare for the Wheaton/Permies empire though. In all seriousness this might be for way down the road and created in conjunction with a wofati SWAT team that travels the world teaching and building them. Of you train the trainer or something. Perhaps this could be done in conjunction with planned communities like Jack Spirko's permaethos idea.

Current paradigm thinking: Video / Kickstart ah-la rocket stove success story. I'd buy it.

Outside the box thinking: Kickstart fund some help to build it. Rewards would be a 1/2/4 night stay in the completed wofati and/or video of the construction.

More Outside the box thinking: Talk to the Hexayurt people as they seam to have been making cheap shelter available to those in need for many years. Maybe Mr. Gupta might have some wisdom for this project.

Radical, rule the world thinking; find a permie who is also a grant writer and seek some grant funds. Double work score for siphon of .00001% of grant money otherwise going to big ag.

Ok I have worked it out I will be going to the first two weeks. For the deposit do you want $100 or the full amount?

Sean Henry wrote:Ok I have worked it out I will be going to the first two weeks. For the deposit do you want $100 or the full amount?

Great! We'd love to have you! Full payment via paypal to paul at richsoil.com will reserve your spot.

Matthew Beckman wrote:My name is Matt, I am one of the instructors for the Wofati workshop. I had my wife edit some photos to throw around for advertisement. Here they are. There will be more to come through out the next few weeks.

I like all of these. I do think you should add an image of the finished product, or at least an interior shot..

If we resize them we can use them on Facebook ads, once you have maxed out interest from the group and dailyish email people.

Paul your thots?

The current wofati is incomplete and currently not in a particularly photogenic state.

Hello everyone....My name is Stephanie. Could there be a partial discount for working one week? I just dont think i could get off work any longer. I really catch on quick to help out and have been waiting patiently for an opportunity to make it to your place! thanks!!!

stephanie victa wrote:Hello everyone....My name is Stephanie. Could there be a partial discount for working one week? I just dont think i could get off work any longer. I really catch on quick to help out and have been waiting patiently for an opportunity to make it to your place! thanks!!!

So you would like to arrange working for a week before the workshop and then how much of the workshop would you like to attend?

Thanks for your reply Paul. I'd work one week for one week of workshop (in an ideal world). I'd love this to be my segway into a new lifestyle, one not working for the "man". Here's a link to a house I deisgned and built in the Philipines. It's nothing like a wofati. http://stephanievictacp.blogspot.com/

Cheers!!!

stephanie victa wrote:Thanks for your reply Paul. I'd work one week for one week of workshop (in an ideal world). I'd love this to be my segway into a new lifestyle, one not working for the "man". Here's a link to a house I deisgned and built in the Philipines. It's nothing like a wofati. http://stephanievictacp.blogspot.com/

Cheers!!!

Stephanie, thanks for more info - I'll send you a purple moosage.

I would love to do the full workshop, as I am dying to get involved in this kind of work for educational and professional reasons. The only thing stopping me from signing up this very moment is the price. Being a poor college kid, I don't exactly have the funds to do this sort of thing. I'm going to set up a Kapipal for all of my wold-dominating endeavors. Anyone who has extra cash to spare . . .

In the meantime I'll just continue studying relentlessly. At this rate I'll be a walking, talking encyclopedia in no time!

So, a person can come for two months and it costs zero. In fact, I feed them.

So "free food" is too much money?

I thought I saw a $1400 price tag, and that's for people whoa are on the special list

Gordon Beemer wrote:I thought I saw a $1400 price tag, and that's for people whoa are on the special list

There was something wonky about the post that talks about worktrade. But I fixed it! You should be able to see it now (posted about jan 21).

paul wheaton wrote:

Gordon Beemer wrote:I thought I saw a $1400 price tag, and that's for people whoa are on the special list

There was something wonky about the post that talks about worktrade. But I fixed it! You should be able to see it now (posted about jan 21).

!

I'll consult my calendar! It's not a for sure thing at this point, but I'll let ya know ASAP.

There will be some well-traveled folks joining us for this - kinda cool!

I just bought my flight I will be getting in on June 28 at 5:23pm Delta flight 2077. If anyone else if getting in around that time send me a message or post here and we could split the cab or if you are renting a car I can help with fuel.

Sean Henry wrote:I just bought my flight I will be getting in on June 28 at 5:23pm Delta flight 2077. If anyone else if getting in around that time send me a message or post here and we could split the cab or if you are renting a car I can help with fuel.

Brilliant! I think two of you are arriving at almost exactly the same time, so this makes for lovely efficiency in an airport pick up on our end.

Sean, you and I will be on the same flight.
They'll be picking us up from MSO, but I'll send you my kontaktinfos in a purple mooseage.
See you there!

Other than Landor and myself do we have others signed up to come out?

Yes, we do have others joining in on the workshop - they just contacted us privately instead of in this thread.

My brother, Tim, has a special offer.

He will pay for two four week tickets. The way he wants to do it is that people that want these tickets contact him and in ten days he will announce who the two winners are.

He wants people with construction experience. So if you wanna have a go, send an email telling Tim about your construction experience to tim at richsoil.com. He's emphatic that he does not want a resume. Just a short email that will give him an idea of how much construction experience you have.

Tim also wishes to point out to everybody that this is a WORKshop with emphasis on WORK.

He also wishes to point out that that this workshop will be run as a collaborative effort. Emily and Tony will be providing a lot of the leadership for people - because they have lovely people skills. And Tim will be leading on the actual construction - because he has decades of construction experience. (so, what Tim wishes to make clear is that he's not what you would call a chatty kathy - and some people might wish for him to be more like Emily and Tony) Maybe Tim is wanting to buy tickets for folks that are ... well ... more like Tim!

One last little bump: the people that get the free ticket will pony up $500. If they make it to the end of the workshop, they get their $500 back. This was due to some concern that somebody would get the ticket and not use it, or get the ticket and say "I will be there for the full four weeks" but what they really meant to say is "I will be there for only the first week".

The two scholarships have been taken.

You should kickstarter a wofati dvd covering the 2 months. There are a _ton_ of people interested in wofati building but can't commit the 2 months to really get all the information from harvesting lumber, how/where to dig, building the structure, insulating using earth, cooling convection pipes, integrated rocket mass heater, care and maintaining a wofati, etc. This is extremely important information that is virtually non-existent in a detailed howto format on the internet. Wofati may actually be the most innovative and truly permaculture thing on this website, and it remains largely undefined and unknown.

It's one thing to dig out a really big root cellar. It's another thing to produce an integrated design rooted in ideas from sepp holzer + mike oehler + chris magwood + community homesteading experience.

I am a weirdo.

I have .... issues. Messed up stuff that keeps me from doing certain things. Stuff that normal people don't have a problem with, but i do.

I don't mind doing a kickstarter where there is very little work left to do and it is pretty much a slam dunk to get done if we get funded. But with the wofati, we still need to PROVE that it works. So the earliest we could do the kickstarter (according to my weird-ness) is next spring.

Other people would be fine with doing a kickstarter now and saying "you get your DVDs in november 2015" - but to have an obligation looming like that over me would make me sick. I far prefer something where we have all the footage we NEED, but we could add some frosting as a stretch goal or something. And then the whole thing gets wrapped up in three or four months. Then it is done and we can move on to the next project.

I am just wired in a really weird way. Much to the annoyance of many people.

In the meantime, this project must move forward. And the money we have from previous kickstarters is being spread pretty thin between a lot of other projects - so we are trying to move this stuff forward on the cheap.

Gotcha. That's a reasonable approach actually, pdubs. Also, I like your idea of respecting the "F" in wofati even in developing the educational and research parts. I wish I could be there!

I'm getting more excited by the day to head out to the work shop, I'v been reading the $50 underground book so I will have some technical knowledge on this building style. I had wanted the book for sometime and got it this Christmas just before the workshop was announced.

Now I need to get an air mattress and start figuring out how to get my camping stuff in the smallest bag that will safely make it there on a plain.

We have at least one extra tent here. I think we have two that are mine. It seems silly to bring a tent on a plane.

We had some people send us extra sleeping bags. So I think we have two spares that are for guests.