Community Skillshare
Welcome to the Community Skillshare at Laughing Tree Cove:
A community for hands-on learning, time on the Land, and connection with kindred spirits.
The Community Skillshare is an ongoing monthly gathering for those who want to learn practical skills, spend meaningful time on the Land, and build relationships through doing things together.
Each month, your household membership includes a 2 hour hands-on learning experience, time on the Land, and a community potluck meal.
The skills change with the seasons.
The relationships deepen over time.
Join the Skillshare →
Membership structure
Each month, we gather at Laughing Tree Cove to learn something practical together. The particular skill changes with the season and is led by Cara or a special guest teacher.
We might make and preserve food, herbal medicine, natural dye, ferment, create with clay or paint, tend a fire, garden, repair something, or practice an Appalachian craft or folkway.
You'll learn by doing — practicing the process yourself, asking questions, working alongside others, and taking what you've learned home with you.
Some gatherings will result in something you've made. Others will give you a skill or practice you can bring into your daily life and continue developing over time.
The Land we gather on
Laughing Tree Cove is 16 acres of Appalachian mountains woodland beneath Mt. Pisgah, with a forest trail, a fire circle, koi pond, hammock spots, outdoor spaces for campfire meals and picnics, dark starry night skies, and a Gathering Room for classes in any weather.
A Skillshare member called it “summer camp for adults.” There’s something to that — a little wild, a little eclectic, plenty of places to explore. Cabins and houses are scattered throughout the property, home to my family, animals, and the people who gather here.
The Land is one of the teachers here — a living presence with her own seasons and rhythms, welcoming us into a place where connection, curiosity, and community can grow.
What's included in your membership
One 2 hour hands-on Skillshare class each month
A practical class informed by the season, complete with digital study guide and resources to take home.
Feel at home on this Land
Nature connection and place-based learning woven into our gatherings as well as monthly nature connection practice at “Dirt Church”. Build a relationship with the Land you can return to.
A community potluck meal
Social time to eat together, share stories, and build relationships beyond the class.
A household membership
One membership rate covers the people who share your household.
Member pricing on “Make & Take” workshops
Special pricing on intensive public workshops (think: making herbal medicine, canning, fermenting, etc.).
Connection between gatherings
Stay connected, share resources, and always be the first to know about community gatherings through the group “Band” app communication portal.
A year guided by the seasons
The Land informs what we learn, and so do the people who join us.
The curriculum isn't fixed. Members help create what comes next — bringing their curiosity, interests, and talents into the mix.
As people return each month, their learning can deepen and the community can grow into new territory together.
Spring blooms with connection, planting, and reawakening the senses.
Summer opens into gathering, growing, and outdoor projects.
Autumn brings harvest, preservation, medicine making, and fire.
Winter invites making, repairing, cooking, and preparation.
The skills change with the seasons.
The relationships deepen over time.
Why a Community Skillshare?
We could offer these as one-off classes.
We chose membership because community makes more possible.
Your membership helps build a learning community that supports you in return.
That's the idea behind Community Skillshare: we each contribute to something that becomes more valuable because we're part of it.
Membership gives Laughing Tree Cove the continuity to develop new offerings, invest in the Land and teaching space, and bring in inspiring teachers based on what the community wants to learn.
But the real investment is in the community itself.
As members gather, share skills, follow their curiosity, and return through the seasons, we build a network of kindred spirits who know one another, learn from one another, and have something to contribute.
Join when you're ready.
Stay as long as it serves you.
The Skillshare is designed as an ongoing community, but you don't have to commit to a full year. You can join at any point and stay for as long as Skillshare fits your life.
The learning builds over time, but the commitment doesn't bind you. When life changes, you can change your membership with it.
And if you stay, you get to help shape what the Skillshare becomes next.
One membership for the whole household
Your monthly membership covers you and the people you share your home with, so you can come on your own, with your partner, or bring your children when a gathering is a good fit for them.
Skillshare is designed primarily as an adult learning community. Children are welcome when appropriate for the particular gathering and must remain under the active supervision of their parent.
Choose your monthly contribution:
Both membership levels include the same gatherings, experiences, and benefits.
Choose the amount that feels right for your household.
The Sustaining Skillshare membership rate: $65/month
The Regenerative Skillshare membership rate: $80/month*
*For households with a little more room to contribute and help make Skillshare accessible to a wider range of people.
A community for hands-on learning, time on the Land, and connection with kindred spirits.
The Skillshare is an ongoing monthly gathering at Laughing Tree Cove for people who want to learn practical skills, spend meaningful time on the Land, and build relationships through doing things together.
Each month, your household membership includes a 2 hour hands-on learning experience, time with the Land, and a shared potluck meal.
The skills change with the seasons. The relationships deepen over time.
A community for hands-on learning, time on the Land, and connection with kindred spirits.
The Skillshare is an ongoing monthly gathering at Laughing Tree Cove for people who want to learn practical skills, spend meaningful time on the Land, and build relationships through doing things together.
Each month, your household membership includes a 2 hour hands-on learning experience, time with the Land, and a shared potluck meal.
The skills change with the seasons. The relationships deepen over time.
A note about the setting
Laughing Tree Cove is a private residence and wild mountain Land.
Skillshare gatherings take place throughout the property and will include uneven terrain, hills, knobbly roots, rocks, water, fire, tools, and insects. Please use your judgement to know and respect your body’s limits.
It is also home to wild animals and domestic pets. So, for everyones’s safety, NO outside pets are allowed. Children must remain under the active supervision of their parent and respect the safety rules and boundaries.
Come learn with us
Return to the Land through the seasons.
Learn with your hands & heart.
Share a meal in community.
Meet kindred spirits.
If this feels like something you’ve been looking for, we hope to see you on the Land soon!
