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Jan 09
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Another New Year

By South Slope Farm No Comments

Each passing year sounds more sci-fi than the next. As a high schooler, I tried to imagine this decade’s calendar. The numbers sounded so fantastical. 2020. 2021. 2022… 2025. And yet here we are now, living through them. Turns out they’re just numbers, for the most part. The giant wheel of time turns on and on. The Year of Mud was, according to official records, back in 2008. That’s shockingly close to 20 years ago at this point. 

How do you mark time? At the end of the year, April and I sit down and draw out different events or memories that have transpired in the last 12 months. It’s a fun exercise. It helps shine a light on some of the smaller moments, too — in late May, Kohei-san and Jon Billing arrived for our Japanese Carpentry Workshop. Within 5 minutes of arriving, Kohei-san asked “so what do you want to do next year?” I cracked up, probably because I too am always thinking forward, thinking about what’s next, and generally just scheming. My brain is very future-oriented, for better or worse. 

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Dec 15
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Lath and Plaster Walls: Pavilion Progress

By Japan, Clay Plaster, Lime Plaster No Comments

clay plaster wall in pavilion

We had an especially mild fall this year. We didn’t get a hard frost until at least late October, or even early November. It was bone dry for weeks on end and the daytime temps were delightfully mild. Normally, when late fall lands this place turns into a cool, muddy swamp — not usually the most inspiring conditions for outdoor work, you know?  Instead, the building season was graciously extended by a few precious weeks. 

I decided to take advantage of this dry, mild window to make some progress on the pavilion plaster work. This felt like a big treat at the end of a busy year. I’ve been doing so much carpentry work the last two years that this recent opportunity to throw up some lath and plaster walls brought me some real joy. 

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Nov 29
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Natural Building: A Powerful Catalyst

By Food for thought No Comments

 

Over the past month, Nick and I have been working to complete the slate roof on the new timber frame. Slate is nothing more than split stone “hung” with copper nails on a roof deck. The genius of slate lies in its simplicity. It’s literally stone roofing, and incredibly durable and beautiful. Nothing more, nothing less. Slate happens to excel in this roofing context, and humans have devised ways to work with this natural material to create incredible structures for many generations.

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Oct 16
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Summer of ’24

By Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing, Japanese Carpentry

 

This summer, we hosted four workshops — two Japanese Carpentry classes, Natural Building Essentials, and Timber Framing. This was the first summer we’ve been able to use the new timber frame pavilion, now that the floor is complete. It’s made a huge difference in how we host classes and the overall feeling during events.

The first proof of that was during our Japanese Carpentry Workshops — no one wanted to quit working on their joinery projects in the evenings. (We had workspaces filling up the entire pavilion.) The calm setting, lighting, and overall good feelings all helped. In fact, we had to set quiet hours so people could sleep because students kept chiseling until 10:30 or later at night – ha! I love people’s energy and enthusiasm.

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Sep 17
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Natural Plastering Craftsmanship in Japan: 50 min. Documentary

By Clay Plaster, Lime Plaster, Resources, Video

 

Whenever you have a quiet evening, I highly recommend you check out this 50 minute documentary about plastering craftsmanship in Japan. I’m not sure when this was produced, but not anytime too recently. The production has that smooth, slow, gentle vibe that will whisk you away. You don’t need to understand Japanese to glean a lot of valuable information about the process and workflow of creating beautiful clay and lime walls. Much respect to the sakan. This is heavenly.

Jan 06
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Happy New Year

By Natural Building Workshops, South Slope Farm

Happy new year! Another year (of mud) has come and gone. They move quickly, these years. After 10 years of living in the Berea area, and 8 years at South Slope we’re past the point of getting established and firmly in the routine phase of living life. Our life is here. There’s a familiar flow to the seasons. The details may change, but we know more or less what to expect with each passing season. 

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Oct 31
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japanese carpentry workshop

Summer of Firsts

By South Slope Farm, Natural Building Workshops

This was a summer of firsts in some respects.

After many years without animals, we finally got chickens on the land. We haven’t raised chickens or ducks in years, and I have to admit that the sound of the chickens alone adds a new dimension to the day that I appreciate. (I was very very reluctant to add a new “daily project” this year.)

This was also the first year in a while that we haven’t started a new building project at home. And thank goodness. We still have plenty to finish up between the few on-going (and yes, some long-running) projects. I’m fine with that. It’s my personal goal to spend more time finishing what we have and getting to some much-need maintenance. The temptation to do something new is always there, but it can wait. Patience. There’s plenty to do already.

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Mar 19
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Timber Frame Progress, Workshop Updates

By Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing, Japanese Carpentry

The end of winter is nigh. However, it can be hard to tell sometimes. 78 degree days in February, night-time lows in the teens this weekend — the weather is an increasingly less reliable marker during this time of year. I’m sure that’s true for many of us, wherever we live. Nevertheless, there’s a change in the air. I’m jonesing to get my spring cleaning going this month. There’s a lot to catch up on after a busy 2022 building season. Here’s where we stand with the timber frame pavilion build.

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Jan 03
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New Year, New Building

By Timber Framing

Happy New Year, dear readers.

It’s been an eventful year. Recently, we achieved a substantial amount of “visual progress” on our ongoing timber frame pavilion project — we raised the frame, finally moving pieces out of the big tent and into the field for assembly and lifting them up into their final resting place.

And it feels really, really good to be at this stage in the game.

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