Alfred Decker

June 17-21 (2017)

Join us for a 5-day workshop where we will build a beautiful cordwood structure with two of the most-respected natural builders in North America, Rob & Jaki Roy. The structure will be a sauna, a fitting choice as Rob is the author of the classic book The Sauna. This type of structure could also be a guesthouse, office, or similar.

Course Info HERE

The first two days of this workshop will be the framing of a small “4-poster” sauna using commonly available mechanical fasteners as described in Rob’s Timber Framing for the Rest of Us book. This is not “traditional” timber framing with finely crafted wooden joints. Rather, this is the way that most farmers, owner-builders and contractors actually do it.

The last three days of the workshop will consist of infilling the timber frame panels with cordwood masonry, that style of building in which walls are built of short logs – called “log-ends” –are laid transversely in the wall, much as a rank of firewood (“cordwood”) is stacked. The wall derives exceptional thermal characteristics – good for a sauna or a home – because of the insulated space between the inner and outer mortar joints. You will learn how to select and place the log-ends with efficiency and good esthetic balance. Jaki, our expert pointer, will teach you how to smoothen and tighten the mortar for appearance and good structure, leaving the log-ends about a quarter-inch proud of the mortar matrix. You will get plenty of hand-on training from Rob and Jaki, and, by the last day, will be able to lay up a strong and attractive wall with some degree of speed and efficiency.

There will be illustrated classroom sessions for both the timber framing and cordwood masonry components, which will cover the technical details of the work –structure, best woods, how long to dry log-ends, etc. – as well as show examples of cordwood masonry from around the world.

Rob and Jaki Roy have owned and operated Earthwood Building School in West Chazy, New York, since 1981. Rob has written more than 15 books on cordwood masonry and other natural building topics. The couple have taught cordwood masonry all over North America and around the world. Their website, with lots of picture pages and their complete book list, is: www.cordwoodmasonry.com

Venue
Can Comú is a holistic educational project where collective learning leads us towards regenerating the landscape and rebuilding the relationships between ourselves and the environment around us. We founded Can Comú on the principles and ethics of permaculture, and the inspiration provided by active education (“educación viva” in Spanish).

Course Hosts
Project founders Alfred Decker and Daniella Querol are permaculturalists who work as facilitators in courses as well as collaborate with the local associations of our coastal mountain zone. In 2016 we purchased our property in a natural park in Catalunya called Montnegre i el Corredor. Located two hours north of Barcelona by public transport, the property is surrounded by a cork and holm oak forest, has about 20 fruit and nut trees, several terraces for developing a food forest, and good soil that has never been treated with chemicals. Our goal is to create a highly self-sufficient “closed loop” system: the vast majority of our food, water and energy will be produced/captured on site, and our “wastes” (which in permaculture we treat as resources) will be recycled/reused here as well.

Dates
Participants arrive by dinnertime on the night of June 16th. From the 17th to the 21st, there will be five full days of coursework, with a party on the last night, which is summer solstice. On the 22nd there will be breakfast and an optional trip to a gorgeous beach in Catalunya’s famous Costa Brava (“wild coast”).

Fees
Rob & Jaki have been generous with the fees they are charging to facilitate this course. We can offer two prices for course participants, and these funds will go towards covering the facilitators’ fees, all organic food, and the cost of some extra water we will need to buy from our community water system.

€380 for people who want to eat organic vegan meals
€430 for people who want to eat organic omnivorous meals that will include some fish, meat, and dairy
Camping is included in the price, but for those who wish to stay in a room instead of camping at our place, we can recommend a beautiful Catalan farmhouse that is an eco-tourism host, Can Pica, which is 40 minutes walk or a 10 minute drive from Can Comú.

On the first day we will take up a collection for whoever wants to buy alcohol, and go into town and get it. On the last night’s summer solstice party, we will provide local wines.

12 Principles Permaculture Design & Permaterra are happy to invite you from August 25th to September 6th 2017 for a two-week intensives Permaculture Design Course (PDC), offering the basic, internationally-recognized 72-hour permaculture curriculum with an additional focus on social permaculture, organizing tools, and spirit.

Course given in English, translated in French.

Come and share permaculture with an intercultural mix of participants! There are funding possibilities for French participants.

Course Info and registration

TRAINERS
Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer, and one of the foremost voices in earth-based spirituality. She has lived and worked in collectives for thirty years. Her twelve books include The Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred Thing, The Earth Path, and her first picture book for children, The Last Wild Witch. Her book on group dynamics, The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, is available from New Society.

Since his first PDC in 1998 in California (where Alfred and Starhawk were students together), Alfred Decker has been involved with permaculture projects and social movements and projects throughout Europe and the Americas. He is the founder of the 12 Principles Permaculture Design consultancy, and is focused on facilitating permaculture teacher trainings. Alfred lives in the coastal mountains north of Barcelona, Spain, where he is developing a permaculture demonstration site and educational project called Can Comú.

dear hanley and hubert,

thanks for the advice, i appreciate it.

the two systems i built are: 1) a series of four vertical buckets with holes on the bottom (except for the bottom one, which collects compost tea, and then i have a spigot i can open) and on the sides for ventilation; 2) the same as the bucket system, but with plastic storage boxes. both work well, but the quantity of compost generated in the new locations would quickly overwhelm these systems, even if i kept adding buckets and boxes vertically.

i looked into the flow-through design, and it really looks like a good option. i had an idea for the design: instead of using a 55gl drum or some other large fixed structure, what about using straw bales? obviously, worms love and will eat the straw, and my idea is that over time the worms will be composting the straw as well the food scraps, which adds a lot of carbon to the mix, and it's another way to enhance the compost building process. your thoughts?

perma greets,
alfred

Greetings folks,

I'm in the process of designing a vermiculture system for two locations: one, a community garden, and the second, a cultural center. I've built two different systems for home-scale vermiculture, both worked great, but when i think of the next level up--a level of food scraps that would quickly overwhelm smaller systems--I'm not feeling very clear on the most effective and efficient system. Any suggestions?

Perma greets,
Alfred