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Jun 02
Love1

The Magic of Japanese Plastering

By Resources, Clay Plaster, Traditional Building, Lime Plaster
Japanese Plastering

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.

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May 24
Love1

Why We’re Building an Earthbag Stemwall

By Foundation, Straw Bale Building, Earthbag Building
Earthbag Stemwall

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.

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May 16
Love1

How to Remove Rust From Old Tools

By Hand Tools
Remove Rust From Tools

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.

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May 04
Love0

A Man Apart: Inside the World of Bill Coperthwaite

By Book Reviews, Homesteading, Design
Bill Coperthwaite

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.

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Apr 29
Love0

New Year of Mud Newsletter! Sign Up for Special Workshop Offer

By Uncategorized

NewsChanging 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.

 

Apr 27
Love0
japanese timber log saw

Essential Timber Framing Tools

By Hand Tools, Timber Framing
Timber framing tools

This list should help you get started down the path of timber framing with hand tools

Like any craft, the world of timber framing comes with its own unique set of tools. And if you’re new to this type of work, it’s important to have the right timber framing tools in your kit. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to cost a small fortune to equip yourself with the basics. Of course, once you get deeper into this kind of stuff, you’ll always find something else you think you probably need. But for a solid starter kit, you can get by with a relatively small handful.

I’ve narrowed down a list of essential timber framing tools, highlighting both inexpensive options for folks starting out, and more expensive choices for someone who may continue with this line of work.
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Apr 21
Love0

Where Do Your Morels Lie?

By Homesteading, Photos
Morel Mushrooms 2015

A few paltry (but pretty) morel mushrooms

Well dangnabbit. This year appears to be another bust for morel mushrooms. Last year, resident fungi guru and our friend Tim said (of 2014) “this is the worst year to date, in my experience”. This year he said “this is the worst year to date, in my experience”. Well, humph. Did we bring bad luck with us from Missouri?

At least we found a few… and I mean, a few. Pictured above is a not insignificant percentage of the total haul. I’ve heard firsthand accounts of years where 30 lbs. of morels were plucked out of the woods and carried victoriously home. Granted, that was a rare boom year, but still. The disparity of the prevalence of these morels is rather odd.

Oh well. Maybe next year? Or maybe the other fungi family members will pick up the slack (chicken of the woods, chanterelles, maitake?) Have you had any luck in your neck of the woods?

Oh right, building stuff… I’ve got a big ol’ article in the works, coming at you hopefully within a couple days. It’s been hard to find the time this past week, but my newest post will be about timber framing tools… stay tuned.

Apr 11
Love0

Embodied Energy of Common and Natural Building Materials

By Resources

light clay straw

Embodied energy is a term that often comes up when discussing the benefits of building with natural materials over synthetic, manufactured, or more conventional building components. It’s an important concept — embodied energy is “the sum of all the energy required to produce any goods or services, considered as if that energy was incorporated or ’embodied’ in the product itself.”

Attempting to actually calculate or understand the full implications of embodied energy is a mighty challenge, however, and honestly a bit befuddling, since it’s going to be completely different depending on your location. However, this table from The Natural Building Companion book is an excellent reference — not the end-all be-all of data necessarily, but an excellent case example comparing the differences in embodied energy between natural materials like straw, sand, and timber to concrete, paint, fiberglass insulation, and others.

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Apr 05
Love0

One of the Best Natural Building Books of the Past Few Years

By Straw Bale Building, Book Reviews

Natural Building Companion Book“Natural building is about relationships. We choose to work with natural materials not just because they are ‘natural,’ but also because their use is the logical conclusion of a process in which we seek to develop and sustain as many relationships and connections as possible within the context of the development of a building. The process of natural building acts as a web, connecting us back to ‘place’ and all those who help make that place.”

These are some of the closing remarks from Jacob Deva Racusin and Ace McArleton in their excellent natural building guide, The Natural Building Companion. This is one of the best natural building books of the past few years, not just for insights like the one above, but for the wealth of practical information, diagrams, and design ideas contained within, particularly useful for folks living in wet and cold winter climates. This is a significant niche that is often ill-covered in other similar building books, and Racusin and McArleton fill in with some much needed ideas.

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