Outdoor Adventure

JOURNAL & GALLERY of ADVENTURE

ENTRY #4
22-27 June 2008
Sustainable Building Course
Near Eganville, Ontario, Canada
Algonquin Tea Company

I had been waiting a year to attend this workshop. On one of my trips I had purchased a box of Algonquin tea, and inside (along with the tea) was a piece of paper describing the workshops that were offered at the Algonquin Tea Company (ATC). The sustainable building workshop caught my eye, because I had got my mind set on the idea of building my own house about 1.5 years ago. I was talking to a guy named Bob Eade, who told me about 'rammed earth'. This was completely new to me, but his description of it fascinated me. So, when I read the ad for this workshop I knew I was going! However, due to bad timing, I couldn't attend the 2007 workshop. June 2008 eventually arrived and I was at the workshop.

As expected, we spent the first day with introductions, setting ourselves up and settling in for the course. Steven, the owner / visionary / gardener / herbalist of the ATC showed us around the land, his gardens, and explained how he processed the herbs into high quality teas. Having seen his methods and the location, I have much more respect for these teas that I had already thoroughly enjoyed. The house that the owners Steven and Megan live in is a heritage home, well over 100 years old. It was built by Germans, and has since been improved by the addition of an attached greenhouse on the backside.

There were around 15 attendees at the workshop. The ratio of males:females was almost 50:50. Almost everyone tented on the property, which was suitably natural and rustic. Just how I like it.

Steven showed us his sketches of the building he had envisioned, which was a round hut that would be build into the side of a hill. The walls would be a cob stackwall. Cedar trees inserted into the ground were used as pillars between which the cob stackwall was built up. Around the building a drainage ditch was dug and filled in with pebbles. There was no foundation built. Rather, the space beside the hill that the building was to occupy had been dug out, cleared, and flattened.

The workshop was very organically structured. Most of the people in attendence did not have a large amount of experience with building using alternative materials, so the progression of the project felt very experimental. This turned out to work very well. Everyone got a chance to rotate through the various tasks, which included:

collecting clay & sand & straw, sifting the sand, making slurry with the clay, foot-mixing the slurry & sand & straw into cob, carrying logs, stripping the bark off of logs, charring logs, and building the cob stackwall. By the end of the week each person had discovered which task they most enjoyed and stuck to it. For me, that was stripping the bark off of the logs.

On day 3 we took a break from work to visit several local buildings that were made with alternative materials.

This house was built of cob and wood. It was big enough for 2 people to live together comfortably, and felt very cozy! The spiral staircase was strategically placed, and the loft space was so cool! This house also had an attached greenhouse.

And this house was built of tires (mostly)! About 7000 tires and many thousands of pop cans and other "modern society waste products". This type of house is called an Earth Ship. For more information on Earth Ships, Earthship Biotecture are the experts. This particular Earth Ship was very long, about 70 meters. It's completely off-grid and harvests power via solar. The owner is a musician who has built his recording studio into the Earth Ship. The picture with me beside the bottle design shows the outside of his studio. For more and better pictures of this totally neat place, click here.

During day 4 and 5 we continued to work on the cob stackwall hut back at the ATC. It wasn't finished by the time I left. However, I had thoroughly enjoyed the time spent there, sleeping outside every night (rain or shine), and getting some hands-on-earth&wood experience.

I would highly recommend the Algonquin Tea Company for everything they offer. The tea is excellent, and the courses and knowledge they offer are perfect for someone who truly desires to learn how to live a more natural life. For a list of their workshops, click here.