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Dec 20
Love1

The Wood Cook Stove is In!

By Uncategorized
Kitchen Queen 480 Wood Cook Stove

Lighting the first fire in the new Kitchen Queen stove

Another big fulfillment came in the form of moving our wood cook stove into the house today. Hooray! The stove made it through the door, and nothing terrible happened in the process either. Mind you, the stove weights 750 pounds, so it was no slouch trying to maneuver the beast into its final resting place. We found this beauty on craigslist months ago — it’s a Kitchen Queen 480, an Amish-made wood cook stove of epic proportions. Here you can see me about to light the first fire… yes, it was a giddy moment for me.

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Dec 13
Love1

SunRay’s Magical Treehouse

By Carpentry, Design, Photos
SunRay Kelley Treehouse

A ramp provides access to this funky little treehouse — I love how the underside of the roof catches morning light

SunRay Kelley may be one of the most “mythical” of the natural builders out there. He’s the builder known for saying the forest is his “Super Natural Store”, and his building designs conjure up feelings of the fantastical, magical, funkadelic. I had the privilege of seeing one of his creations in the making at the recent 20th anniversary Natural Building Colloquium at the Black Range Lodge in Kingston, NM — a whimsical treehouse nestled in ponderosa pine trees, featuring some signature SunRay touches. Check out the photos of this wild little building ahead…

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Dec 06
Love1

This is One Sweet Natural Floor Finish

By Uncategorized
Rubio Monocoat floor finish: buffing

Our natural oil finish in the process of going on the new red oak floor

Well dang, I’ve been waiting many days for this moment. Right now I’m happily sitting in a chair on our hardwood floor. That doesn’t sound particularly thrilling without any context though, I know. So… after days of grueling installation and sanding, we finally got to put the finishing touch on our new red oak floor — a special natural oil floor finish, one we’ve never before used. The application was a breeze / dream, your choice of cliche.

Really though, the finish went on extremely well. Best of all, of course, is that it’s a natural oil finish. This particular product is linseed oil-based (no polyurethane or VOCs here, thanks), it goes on in a single coat, and it gives the hardwood floor a beautiful “natural” tone and low gloss finish. The particular natural hardwood floor finish that I’m describing here is Rubio Monocoat, which I’ll talk more about below. So far, I really like it.

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Dec 02
Love0

The Best News of All

By Uncategorized
April and Ziggy

!!!

I’ve got an exciting announcement to share with you all. I’ve been waiting to really share this news for a little while, and now’s the time. The newest addition to our lives is better than the new land, or any house or cool building project… it’s a little baby. April is pregnant, and she is due in early March. Wow! This is by far the most exciting thing that’s happened for us, even moreso than acquiring land this year and all the other great things that are happening in our lives. Life is about to get really interesting, I must say. I’m looking forward to parenthood and having a little one running about. I already have visions of the baby’s first fistful of cob, and tromping around in the garden… oh yea.

It’s been remarkable to experience all the changes in April’s body. Thankfully, April’s health is really sound right now and she is physically feeling quite good. A bit of sore muscles here and there, but things must be alright if she’s able to paint the walls of our house, and cook big meals and plaster walls… There’s nothing more remarkable than a woman’s body and the ability to grow a tiny person, right? Unreal…

Well, until March… we have some time to prepare, thank goodness!

Nov 29
Love0

Buy Nothing, Making Something

By Living Electricity-free, Winter
Homemade taper candles

Some of our newly made beeswax taper candles

The day after thanksgiving is Buy Nothing Day. While we didn’t specifically set out to Make Something on Buy Nothing Day, I do believe the “holiday” was made all the better by deciding to make some beeswax taper candles in preparation for winter.

Making hand-dipped candles is one of the most wholesome activities I can think of. Wholesome because of the amazing smells of the process, the time available to reflect on the incredible depth of bee energy necessary to create such an astounding natural product, the visitations of the bees themselves as we dip candle after candle, and the routine of it all. Needless to say, it’s an enjoyable process, and the satisfaction of a restocked cache of candles gives me such a glorious feeling of security, too.

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Nov 20
Love1

The First Ever Rocket-Style Griddle Oven

By Cob Oven, Rocket Stove
Rocket-Style Griddle & Barrel Oven

The first fire ever in the first rocket-style griddle oven ever!

One of the exciting projects going up at the recent Natural Building Colloquium was this amazing rocket stove-style griddle oven. It’s a wood-fired griddle with barrel oven, both heated by the same fire — in this case, a downdraft fire similar to what you see in the now classic rocket mass heater design. This was designed and built by two mass heater wizards, Max Edleson of Firespeaking and Flemming Abrahamsson of Fornyet Energi in Denmark. It was the first of its kind ever built, and it was really sweet to see the griddle oven take shape over the week.

See below for a sequence of construction images and the finished product. Too cool. I wish I could have taken it home with me.

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Nov 11
Love0

Natural Building Colloquium 2015: A Community of Builders

By Uncategorized
nbc20 group

The NBC20 crowd

What do you get when you assemble 150 natural builders and seven days in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico? A whole lot of jabbering, that’s for sure. Seriously though, the recent Natural Building Colloquium is what I’m referring to. April and I just returned from a long stint out west, where we participated in the 20th (!) anniversary Natural Building Colloquium (NBC). Twenty years ago (21 to be really precise), the idea was hatched to gather individuals from across the country to share ideas and inspiration, and to further the goals of the natural building community. And thus the Colloquium was born. A lot has happened in the time since the first gathering, and this year’s event provided a great opportunity to reflect on the history of the movement.

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Nov 10
Love0

The Return Home…

By Uncategorized
Red Soil, Kingston, New Mexico

I’m back from the foothills of the Gila National Forest in NM… where the sun shines bright and the soil is deep brown & beautiful

It’s one month later… and we’re back in Kentucky after a rather long road trip. I’ve been enjoying the break from the computer/internets, to be frank… that’s no offense to you though, dear reader. It’s nice to be unplugged for a good stint. I am, however, excited about sorting through my photos from New Mexico and the Natural Building Colloquium to share here. It might take me a few days. We have a moving truck from Dancing Rabbit to unload and I suspect the return to remodeling the house here will be swift.

All is well… keep posted for some insights from the Colloquium and more.

Oct 30
Love0

New Mexico! Colloquium!

By Uncategorized
kingston new mexico

Sunny Kingston, Mexico: home to the 20th anniversary Natural Building Colloquium

April and I have been in Kingston, New Mexico for the past two weeks for the 20th anniversary Natural Building Colloquium. Last week we were surrounded by 150 incredible natural builders from all over the globe. This week we’re helping finish projects that got started and cleaning up after the craziness that was the gathering. It’s been a dizzying time… it’s been a real privilege to be surrounded by so much building knowledge and experience. What a joy to meet so many people whose work I’ve been following for a while! (What is this “colloquium” business, anyway? There’s a good history of the gathering in the newest editon of The Art of Natural Building.)

I don’t have much time (or bandwidth) to really get into details here… it will have to wait until I get back home in another week or so. Until then, here are just a couple photos! It was a great time and I wish I had even more opportunity to soak it all in and meet more of the people in attendance.

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Oct 13
Love0

Replacing a 2×4 Wall with a Timber Frame

By Carpentry, Timber Framing

We just accomplished one of the more exciting items on our remodeling to-do list — we raised a timber frame between the kitchen and living room. Before the frame went up, we methodically removed the original 2×4 wall. The intention here, of course, was to really open up the space and facilitate a better interface between the living and cooking areas, provide more light to the kitchen, and allow the heat of the (not yet installed) cook stove to move more freely though the house.

I’d say it’s lookin’ pretty good right now. I managed to capture a little video of the actual timber frame raising… watch the video above to see how smoothly the frame fits right into place in the opening we created by removing the stud frame. The video also illustrates some of the steps we took to ready the house for the new frame.

Click ahead for some photos of the new wall, as well!

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