Our new homestead site along Clear Creek in the Appalachian foothills
I’ve been greatly anticipating writing this post for a long long time. Today, I can proudly report that we are officially landowners! We’ve finally found and purchased a piece a property outside of Berea, Kentucky, where we’ll begin the exciting and challenging work of building a permaculture homestead community and natural building school. Getting to this point has been a long time in the making.
As the temperature rises, so do our activity levels. Summertime can be hysterically busy as we juggle all of the projects and work commitments that we’ve taken on. This year is no exception. We’re at the brink of several exciting things here… but I digress. I know I’m being vague, but I’ll have more to say about all of that soon.
During our downtime at home, the newly released The Art of Natural Building has been inspiring lots of conversation. This new book release is a much improved second edition to the original published way back in 2001. The 2015 edition is a major and well-organized overhaul, containing a diverse spread of essays and articles about natural building materials and techniques, building history, best practices, and personal stories.
Scything grass on a hillside — a beautiful scene in the film INHABIT
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to view a rather poignant and inspiring recent film, INHABIT. INHABIT is a documentary detailing the permaculture model as it has been explored and practiced by a number of farmers and food producers across the US, in a variety of settings and climates. The strength of the film lies in the excellent portrayal of diverse individuals using permaculture design principles to guide their work in a variety of locations, creating more resilient food growing systems, a healthier relationship with the land, and stronger communities in the process.
Looking into the house from the porch side
Here’s some of the latest photos from the off-grid straw bale cabin site that we’ve been busying ourselves with these past few weeks. The earthbag stemwall is basically complete, other than the finishing details. Yep, there’s always something else even when you think you’re ready to move ahead. But things are shaping up nevertheless. Check it out…
Read More
Traditional Japanese interior with natural plaster finish
Today, I present you with two websites that shed a bright light on the magic of traditional building and natural plasters of Japan. Japan has a long history of the use of natural clay and lime plasters in construction. Thankfully, there still exists a wealth of knowledge of these traditional finishes, and skilled craftspeople are keeping the practices and recipes alive.
Kyle Holzhueter is an American-born builder, consultant, researcher and educator specializing in natural building techniques, including straw bale building and clay and lime plasters. He has taken up full-time residence in Japan, where he’s been formally trained in traditional plastering. His websites are a treasure trove with some incredible building documentation, including the recipes, mixing, and application of some of the most interesting and refined natural plasters I have ever seen.
The earthbag stemwall goes in at the off-grid straw bale cabin site
To be really honest here, foundations are the least exciting part of any natural building project for me. Most of the fun stuff like timber framing, building with straw bales, applying clay plaster, or building with cob represents the “glory” of the natural building world. Foundations don’t have the same sex appeal, for lack of a better phrase. However, a good foundation is one of the most important parts of a home.
These Sandflex grit blocks are handy for bringing rusty tools back to life
If you’ve read my “Essential Timber Framing Tools” article, you might be digging through an old relative’s garage or planning a trip to the flea market in search of some antique goodies to build up your tool kit. It’s easy to look past some potential winners based strictly on appearances…. you know what I mean. Rust. Rust is the perpetual enemy of steel tools, now and forever. But don’t despair. Just because a tool is rusty, doesn’t mean it’s beyond repair. I know it’s hard to look past it sometimes, but all it takes is some time and you can turn an old tool right around.
Highland Woodworking published my “Building Our First Shaker Blanket Chest” article on their Wood News Online publication. I wrote this a couple of months ago when April and I built a dovetailed cherry blanket chest for the first time. It was a fantastic furniture-making experience, and our first time cutting dovetails.
Hopefully this chest was the first of many more projects of its kind. Yeehaw.
Coperthwaite striking an iconic pose in his canoe
Bill Coperthwaite is an icon among the likes of the Nearings and Harlan and Anna Hubbard, an individual known for his simple living ethos, yurt design and construction, advocacy of craft and creativity, and his 50 year journey living on a remote homestead on the Maine coast. He lived without a telephone, without road access, without many of the physical things we often deem “necessities” in this era, yet he was a highly influential teacher and role model until his untimely death in 2013 at the age of 83.
In A Man Apart, husband and wife Peter Forbes and Helen Whybrow document their two decade relationship with Coperthwaite in his later life, sharing a powerful portrait of a man difficult to categorize. It’s part tribute, part biography, part memoir, and full of meaningful insights and lessons for all of us about what it means to live your life according to your values.
Changing the newsletter service for The Year of Mud has been on my agenda for months. The past two weeks, I finally took the time to hunker down and make the switch from Feedblitz to Sendy. What that means for you is… no more ads embedded in emails, the signup process is much easier, and if I’ve got everything figured properly, the new email template should be easily viewable on your tablet, phone, or whatever crazy technology you do your newsletter reading on. I’m happy with how the first couple of newsletters have turned out. It’s actually a little more work for me, but this latest edition of the newsletter is so much more improved that it’s worth the extra effort.
To celebrate, I’d like to make a special offer to readers. In next week’s newsletter, I’ll include this special w0rkshop offer for subscribers to the list. If you want to be privy to that, please consider signing up!
See that signup form in the right column? All you need to do is fill it out and hit send. Super simple. I also have a dedicated page where you can sign up for the newsletter. You will be automatically added to the list. Why don’t you join in? Thanks for reading, as always.
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This blog is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. Since 2012, we’ve been hosting Natural Building Workshops so you can learn essential skills to build your own natural home.
