[Cob] Natural Builder rates

[Amanda Peck]

Back in the 70's I was an odd jobs person.  I'd trained as a carpenter, had 
trouble getting "real" jobs, so I did a bit of everything--cleaning fish may 
have been the low point--but I did work a handful of jobs where the person 
hiring me was my helper.

It does make for kind of an odd relationship.  I've been on the other end as 
well, and found that particular "expert" quite unwilling to work with me, 
even though that was the agreement.

So I'm thinking that maybe getting a (well recommended!) person to lead a 
workshop at your place might work better for all of you.

Or go ahead and bite the bullet and take a workshop somewhere else.

Or, phooey on it, just start building--get lots of contradictory advice from 
all of us.  You're not going to get in too much trouble with a cob bench.  
Or even an earth oven.

Prices????--going to be all over the place.  From you provide a place to 
stay and/or board, up to well over $20/hour.

...................
Michael wrote.
I have a couple of projects for my backyard.  1 is a bench perhaps 12 feet 
long
and the other a storage shed.  Each will have a natural form and lots of
undulations.  I was considering hiring a natural builder to do all or part 
of
the work, especially the finishes.  What I'd like to know is a general,
ballpark figure of what I may expect to spend for a person's time on a 
project
like this?  Part of the reason to hire a pro is to help get me trained to do
more work like this in the future.