Learn how the dirt under your backyard can be turned into beautiful buildings, benches, pizza ovens, and much more ... the possibilities are limited only by one's imagination! Be prepared to get muddy.

Play in the mud with Uncle Mud and friends. Use clay, straw, and sticks to build little houses and sculpt beautiful objects from your wild imagination. This is a "hands-in" workshop: hands and feet squishing and mixing and making a big mess. Talk about how we can use these same materials to build benches, ovens, and even houses. You can use the water at this workshop to wash off with, but be prepared to get dirty and have fun.

Almost half the water you use in your house gets flushed down the toilet, wasting water, energy, and valuable nutrients that could be going back into your garden. To be truly sustainable, we need to recycle everything. We also need to compost all organic materials, such as food scraps and yard waste, returning the nutrients to the Earth. That includes humanure, the nutrient-rich excretions human societies produce in massive quantities each and every day. Dan Chiras and Chris "Uncle Mud" McClellan show how to build a safe, low-cost, odor-free, and highly effective humanure composting system, consisting of a sawdust toilet and compost bin. This system works well in homes, cabins, cottages, and even camping spots. It can also be used in emergencies.

See how straw, an agricultural waste product, and wood pallets can be turned into a low-cost, beautiful, eco-friendly, highly insulated wall that keeps your house comfy winter and summer.

Help turn a pile of mud into a wood-fired pizza oven! See how easy it is to do this in your own backyard. Be prepared to get muddy.

See how you can turn a pile of old bricks and mud into a super-efficient woodburning heater for your house or cabin.