Earthwood Newsletter
May 23, 2013
Our free Earthwood video programs
are now accessed on our Links page.
Dear Friends:
Check out our new Links. Click on Links on the vertical bar on the left to get to our
Links page from any other page. You'll find some new links
there, and more will be coming, now that we have this page,
To save space, we have taken many links out of this Newsletter
page. And Facebook ? Yes. thanks to Jaki, we now have a good
Facebook page. She keeps it up to date, has event schedules,
and plenty of new pictures. You can like us at Earthwood Facebook .
2013
Workshops registrations are
now coming in thick and fast, but there is still room in all
of them, although the May cordwood workshop at Earthwood is
almost full. If a particular workshop is important to you,
you should register soon. If any questions, email us using
the information at the bottom of this Newsletter. We can
email
Michigan
Workshop in May. We have a
3-day Cordwood Masonry workshop on May 10 to 12 in
Marcellus, Michigan, about 23 miles southwest of Kalamazoo.
This is a Friday to Sunday workshop, hosted by Jason, a
former student of ours here at Earthwood. Jason's project is
a small six-poster, already framed. His cordwood is ready to
go. This will be a good workshop for anyone who has their
cordwood prepared and wants to start their project as early
as possible in the spring. Click on Workshops for more information.
Wisconsin
Workshops. We have two
workshops in Mondovi, Wisconsin, right after the Midwest
Renewable Energy Fair at Steven's Point. Mondovi is about 22
miles SW of Eau Claire, The first is a 2-day Timber Framing
for the Rest of Us Workshop, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 25
and 26. This is immediately followed by a 3-day
Cordwood Masonry Workshop, Thursday through Saturday, June
27-29. The project is one of our 6-poster designs, which we
have used over the years for saunas, guest houses, and
garden sheds. Students can attend either workshop, or come
to both - the 5-day Comprehensive Workshop - at a discount.
We also hope to have the various layers on for the living
roof, and might even get a bucket of soil up there.
Registration will be limited to 14 students. Click on Workshops for more information. By the way, Jaki and Rob
will be at the MREA Energy Fair, June 21-23, and will be
doing several free mini-workshops there. Stop by the
Earthwood Booth and visit.
Private
Cordwood Masonry Workshops.
Over the past five years, we have conducted 3-day cordwood
masonry workshops for several different groups, including
University of Alaska at Fairbanks; Pikes Peak Community
Foundation in Colorado, I.S.L.A.N.D. in Bellaire, Michigan;,
and others. If you would like to have us do a workshop with
your group at your site, please email us at robandjaki at yahoo.com and ask for our How
to be an Earthwood Workshop Host information sheet. (Note: You need to put in
the real "at" sign in that email address; not included here
to avoid blanket spammers.)
Local
Living Festival, Canton, NY,
April 27, 2013, 9 am to 5 pm. Jaki and Rob Roy will be
manning their Earthwood booth all day, and Rob will be
conducting several 45-minute workshops on subjects ranging
from cordwood masonry to mortgage freedom. Click here for info.
Open House. Our next Earthwood Open House will be on
Saturday May 4, 2013. The complete tour takes almost two
hours. See eleven different living roofs,
earth-sheltered housing, a dozen different cordwood masonry
buildings, the masonry stove, the sauna, bicycle powered
water system, off-the-grid solar electric system, and the
Earthwood stone circle and trilithon. Visitors are welcome
at other times, but call first at 518-493-7744 to make sure
someone is here. There is no charge for short visits. Design
consultations, personal instruction and comprehensive
personal tours are conducted at a flat rate of $75/hour,
both for individuals and groups not exceeding 12.
Scroll down to How to get here under Other news
below.
New Book from Rob and Jaki Roy!
The
Coincidental Traveler: Adventure Travel for
Budget-Minded Grown-ups
Free full
length Earthwood videos.
Thanks to Calvin Castine and Home Town Cable
Network of
Champlain, NY, we now have videos that you can watch for
free. Go to our
new Links page to access these.
Cordwood
Masonry Special Effects CD ... now available. We are very proud of this new
CD. done in
Power Point. (You can play it on your 'puter whether you
have Power Point or not.)
The
presentation has 106 color images of special design
features, bottle-ends, cordwood
textures and
the like. A 5000-word commentary tells about the features
and how to do them,
including a
section on various ways of making bottle-ends. The CD is
just $20 plus $3 shipping in the U.S.
Earthwood
Step by Step CD. This
building manual is a 110-page, 100-image. 7500-word Power
Point presentation. This Power Point CD can be shown on
computers made since 1998 (including Windows 98, Second
Edition) whether or not you have a Power Point program. (A
Power Point reader is included.) You can view, project or
print it. This CD expands and updates the slides or prints
(60 captioned images) which we used to offer. This CD will
really help anyone wanting to build an Earthwood-type home,
one or two stories. It also covers the 16-sided
post-and-beam frame. It should be used in combination with
my book Earth Sheltered Houses and the Earthwood Plans
Earthwood
Plans. These
architect-stamped plans are now listed on our Books page.
The plans are $210, and include my book Earth Sheltered
Houses, which details the step-by-step construction of the
Earthwood home. The plans now include a 10-page packet about
how to incorporate a 16-sided timber frame in the external
walls. This additional material is not stamped by the
architect, but should make your local code enforcement
officer happy. The frame is easily incorporated into the
plans, as many have done throughout North America. If Jaki
and I were to build Earthwood again, we would build under
the protective cover of a roof supported by a 16-sided
frame. You can add the Earthwood Step by Step CD, described
above, for just $20, or $230 for the complete package. This
is a savings of $20 over separate purchases. The prices for
these items have necessarily gone up by $15, as a result of
recent postal rates increases. For plans bought here at
Earthwood, we can take the $15 off.
Stoneview, our octagonal cordwood guesthouse, is
available for rental, May to October, when we are here.
Click on Workshops above and
scroll down to see a picture and read a description.
Stoneview is available at non-workshop times by special
arrangement only, two nights minimum.
How to get
to Earthwood:
We are 11
miles NW of Plattsburgh, New York, about an hour’s drive
south of Montreal, or 2-1/2 hours north of Albany, NY.
From the
south – most of you will be
coming from the south – get off Interstate 87 at the 2nd
Plattsburgh exit, which is Exit 37. When you get to the
light at bottom of the exit ramp, turn left (west) on Route
3. Go one mile to another light at the intersection of State
Route 190, also called Military Turnpike. There is a
stone-faced bank on your right, a Kinney Drug on your left.
Turn right (north) on Route 190. Go 8.5 miles along 190, and
when you get to the top of the first hill you’ve seen since
leaving Plattsburgh, you will see the Murtagh Hill Road sign
on the left. Turn left onto Murtagh Hill Road and go 1.7
miles up this road until you see a standing stone on the
right with an "Earthwood" sign on it. Pull in on the right,
and park.
From
Malone, NY and points west:
Go east on Route 11 to Ellenburgh Corners. Turn right onto
Route 190 towards Plattsburgh. Travel 15.4 miles on 190, and
turn right onto Murtagh Hill Road. Then proceed as above.
From
Burlington, Vermont and points east: Take the Grand Isle Ferry across Lake
Champlain, arriving on Cumberland Head, just north of
Plattsburgh. Follow the road off the Head and cross Route 9.
(Landmark: Gus's Restaurant on your right.) Within a quarter
mile, get on I-87 south towards Plattsburgh. Go one exit and
get off at Exit 38, towards Dannemora, Saranac Lake and
Malone (not towards Plattsburgh.) This will put you going
west on Rt 374. Immediately cross Rt. 22 at a traffic light
and continue west on 374 towards Dannemora, Saranac Lake and
Malone. Go about 2.5 miles and turn right at the very next
light, State Route 190, also called Military Turnpike. Go
6.5 miles along 190, and when you get to the top of the
first hill you’ve seen since leaving the Plattsburgh area,
you will see the Murtagh Hill Road sign on the left. Turn
left onto Murtagh Hill Road and go 1.7 miles up this road
until you see a standing stone on the right with an
"Earthwood" sign on it.. Pull in on the right, and park.
From
Montreal and the north: The
easiest way is to take Interstate 87 (Route 15 in Canada)
south and get off at Exit 38, towards Dannemora, Saranac
Lake and Malone (not towards Plattsburgh.) This will put you
going west on Rt 374. Immediately cross Rt. 22 at a traffic
light and continue west on 374 towards Dannemora, Saranac
Lake and Malone. Go about 2.5 miles and turn right at the
very next light, State Route 190, also called Military
Turnpike. Go 6.5 miles along 190, and when you get to the
top of the first hill you’ve seen since leaving the
Plattsburgh area, you will see the Murtagh Hill Road sign on
the left. Turn left onto Murtagh Hill Road and go 1.7 miles
up this road until you see a standing stone on the right
with an "Earthwood" sign on it.. Pull in on the right, and
park. There are ways across from Chazy which will save you 7
or 8 minutes, but there is a danger of getting lost.
Google maps
or GPS. Use "366 Murtagh
Hill Road, West Chazy, NY" as your destination on Google or
a GPS device.
"Cord"ially,
Rob Roy
Director,
Earthwood Building School
366 Murtagh
Hill Road,
West Chazy, NY
12992
Tel: (518)
493-7744
Email:
robandjaki at yahoo.com (You need to put in the real
"at" sign; not included here to avoid blanket spammers.)
Telephone is our preferred method of communication, as
emails take a lot of time. Questions usually lead to other
questions, much more effectively (and quickly) handled by
phone.
