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Oct 16
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Summer of ’24

By Japanese Carpentry, Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing One Comment

 

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 Resources, Video, Clay Plaster, Lime Plaster

 

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 Natural Building Workshops, South Slope Farm

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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Jan 01
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Looking Back on 2021

By Food for thought, Homesteading, South Slope Farm

Well, here we are again. Another year (of mud, timber, gardening, challenging weather, the pandemic, parenting, life on earth) for the books. In many ways, 2021 was a continuation of 2020. So many ups and downs. So many glimmers of both hope and despair. We all need a collective pat on the back, unironically. It’s impossible to pretend that things are “normal”. It’s hard to know what to say after a while without repeating myself. And so this annual recap exercise takes on some new meaning.

Beyond the pandemic and the continuing torrent of challenges, there’s a host of things to remember and celebrate. I can fall prey to pessimism pretty easily these days, so this is good practice for me. Life is indeed full, and here’s a glimpse of some things worth remembering in 2021.

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Jan 22
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3 Cob Oven Design Improvements

By Cob Oven
cob oven design improvements

Last spring, I finally had the time to build the new cob oven under the timber frame pavilion we built in our 2019 Timber Frame Workshop. Our intention had been to use this cob oven to host monthly community pizza nights. (We’re doing that, although not in the same way I imagined it with the onset of the pandemic).

I took this opportunity to make some small but effective improvements to the standard cob oven design. After using the oven regularly for 8 months or so, I want to share those design enhancements and a few pictures of the construction process.

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