Welcome to cordwoodmasonry.com

The virtual home for Earthwood Building School, accenting Cordwood masonry, Earth-Sheltered Housing and Timber Framing for the Rest of Us! And it’s all under one roof: a Living Roof!

2021 was our final season of workshops at Earthwood Building School in West Chazy, NY. We will continue to provide books, videos, and plans through this website. Also, Rob and Jaki Roy are open to conducting cordwood workshops at other locations in North America and around the world by arrangement with organizers at least six months in advance of the desired workshop dates. Interested parties should email us at robandjaki(at)yahoo(dot)com.

In fact, we are scheduled to do a 3-day Cordwood Masonry Workshop in Montana in August. The basic details are that it will be held at the Artists’ Refuge at Thunderhead, Hughesville, Montana from Tuesday though Friday, August 1-3, 2023. The tuition is $475/person and includes three lunches and an end-of-workshop dinner. Camping is available at $15/night per site. Some cabins and RV hook-ups are available for a fee. There is free camping available nearby at the Lewis and Clark National Forest.

Do not register with Earthwood. To register – or for more information – contact Chris Komer at komerchristopher@gmail.com or call him at (646) 784-5017. The website is  www.thunderheadrefuge.com

See the poster here (clearer on www.thunderheadrefuge.com) :

Montana Cordwood Masonry Building Workshop

Also, we can do private 3-hour workshops for an individual or a couple at our – now – permanent home at Chateaugay Lake, New York.  We have a framed panel set up on site, where we teach students to build a cordwood wall.  You will learn to mix mortar, lay up the log-ends with insulation, finish the mortar with a pointing knife.  After three hours, you will be able to build a very nice cordwood panel.  You will also see our Mushwood home (the one on the cover of Cordwood Building) and three other small cordwood buildings. The tuition for either one or two people is $300.

Private workshops available at ‘Mushwood’

The Earthwood campus has a variety of cordwood masonry buildings which hundreds of students have helped to create. They include four guesthouses, a bookstore/library, sauna, mess hall and garage. All have living roofs.

Round Outbuildings

Stoneview Guesthouse is an octagon.

In addition, various big stones have grown in numbers, some during Stone Circle Workshops. The stone circle has been a gathering place for workshop introductions and evening socials. A positive aspect of workshops has been the feeling of support from other like-minded students. Cordwood building draws a special group of people!

Ancient and modern solar technology at Earthwood: a megalithic stone circle in the foreground and photovoltaics in the background.

Earthwood Building School is in the northeastern foothills of New York’s Adirondacks, close to the Canadian border. We’re an off-grid facility getting all of our electricity from solar energy. Over the years more photovoltaic panels have been added, the last in November 2016.

Because Earthwood is in a reclaimed gravel pit, the only viable option for a vegetable garden is raised bed gardening and we have found that ‘raised raised’ beds work really well for us. They help keep most animals out, and, most importantly, they’re great for your back! We have also experimented with hugelkultur, a mounded garden popular in Germany.

‘Raised Raised’ bed gardening