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Nov 30
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Natural Lighting in Your Natural Home

By Living Electricity-free, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Natural Lighting: Straw Bale Home Interior

The morning sun casts a warm glow on the bedroom ceiling on our straw bale home

Something I’ve become very aware of over the last number of years is my deep craving for natural lighting, and access to sunlight in general. This becomes especially apparent to me when I’m in a home that has poor solar orientation, or during the winter when sunlight is naturally less abundant. Unless I can see and feel the sun on me when I wake up, for example, I’m much more likely to feel drowsy and lethargic in the morning hours. Something I’m very happy about with our straw bale house that we built in Missouri is the abundance and quality of light in the home interior.

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Nov 23
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Straw Bale Workshop Slated for 2015!

By Natural Building Workshops, Straw Bale Building

Straw Bale Workshop 2015We’ve got some very exciting news to share with you. This fall we’ve been busy behind the scenes, organizing our first workshop for 2015 — a Straw Bale Workshop next July outside of Berea, Kentucky! We’re really happy to be teaming up with Mark Mazziotti again to offer another 7 day course on straw bale construction. This time, our workshop site is a small octagonal straw bale house. It’s an off-grid home being built here in the stunning Appalachian foothills.

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Nov 23
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Straw Bale Workshop Slated for 2015!

By Straw Bale Building, Natural Building Workshops

Straw Bale Workshop 2015We’ve got some very exciting news to share with you. This fall we’ve been busy behind the scenes, organizing our first workshop for 2015 — a Straw Bale Workshop next July outside of Berea, Kentucky! We’re really happy to be teaming up with Mark Mazziotti again to offer another 7 day course on straw bale construction. This time, our workshop site is a small octagonal straw bale house. It’s an off-grid home being built here in the stunning Appalachian foothills.

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Nov 19
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Our Recent Book Giveaway Winner

By Uncategorized

japanese-templeCongrats to Darren Collins, our most recent book giveaway winner who’ll be receiving a copy of The Art of Japanese Architecture in the mail in the coming days! Thanks again to all who participated. I’ll have more giveaways coming in the winter months, so go ahead and subscribe to our newsletter to keep informed.

In other misc. news… The Year of Mud newsletter will be getting a facelift in the next month or two as well. It will be streamlined so that it’s easier to sign up, and I may begin including special content for newsletter readers that isn’t available here on the website.

Other things to look out for? We’ll be announcing our first 2015 workshop soon, too. Look out!

Nov 17
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Two Japanese Trowels For Sale

By Clay Plaster, Lime Plaster
Japanese Trowels for Sale

These 300mm rigid Japanese trowels are for sale

I have two Japanese trowels for sale, excellent for natural plaster work, whether it be clay or lime. These have seen almost no use, as can be seen in the included photos here. (I have a third, turns out three of these is too many!) It’s time to pass these on to another builder who will put these to work. Read ahead for more details if you’re interested!

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Nov 10
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Essential Plaster Tools: Japanese Trowels

By Lime Plaster, Hand Tools, Clay Plaster, Straw Bale Building
Plaster Tools: Japanese Trowels

Japanese trowels are some of the most prized for natural plaster work (image source: JapaneseTrowels.com)

April thinks I have a compulsion for Japanese tools. I think she may be on to something, but I’ve got a pretty good excuse. Very generally speaking, Japanese tools are often well designed and manufactured, and the plaster tools are not unlike the acclaimed kitchen knives and woodworking tools. Japanese trowels are made with a careful level of attention in an incredible assortment of sizes and shapes, and different types of steel depending on the purpose.

Clay and lime plaster traditions go way back in Japanese architecture, so the craftspeople and blacksmiths there have had quite a bit of time to develop highly refined tools for the work of spreading and smoothing plaster. Today, Japanese trowels are quite popular amongst folks doing natural plaster work all over the globe.

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Nov 05
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The Art of Japanese Architecture: Book Giveaway

By Book Reviews, Traditional Building
Shinto Gate: Usa Jingu

A Shinto gate (torii), in front of another larger temple gate, remodeled in 1592

Tuttle Books has been kind enough to donate another fascinating book to The Year of Mud, and an extra copy will go to one lucky reader. Check out my review of The Art of Japanese Architecture, by David and Michiko Young, and comment below to enter the free giveaway to get your own copy of the book.

The Art of Japanese Architecture is a sweeping look at the evolution of building styles in Japan over thousands of years, from the earliest settled cultures through the modern era.

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Nov 02
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New Photos of Our Straw Bale House for Sale

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Straw Bale House for Sale

Our newly finish straw bale house interior

As you’ve likely already seen here, our straw bale house is for sale at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northeast Missouri. We only recently returned from a six week trip that we took to wrap up all of the finish work on the home. I can happily say that the house is complete now, having received all of the nitty-gritty finish details.

To reflect the newly completed state of the house, I’ve updated the straw bale house sale page, including all of the new features. There’s plenty of new photos to view, too. Check it out and tell me what you think!

Oct 30
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The Joy of Finish Clay Plaster on Straw Bale Walls

By Clay Plaster, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Plastering Walls: Using Finish Clay Plaster

Troweling a finish clay plaster on the straw bale walls of our house

Having recently finished plastering the walls of our straw bale house, I have a renewed sense of enthusiasm for using clay plaster. Not that I ever felt ‘meh’ about it or anything — it’s more that I feel so inspired to go further with it than ever before and learn some of the deeper nuances to the craft. Clay plaster is just that – a seemingly simple craft, but full of subtleties, and the difference between an okay plaster and excellent plaster are profound. While I’m satisfied with the plaster work we just accomplished, I feel hungry to go further with it.

There’s a few tricks to plastering walls, including the quality of the base coat, your plaster recipe, and the alignment of the stars. Okay, maybe not that last part… but you get the idea. It’s a lot more than slapping some mud on the straw bales.

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Oct 26
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The Marathon is Over. Life is Good.

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Finished Straw Bale House

A sneak peak at our newly finished straw bale/timber frame house

Our six week building marathon has finally come to an end, and work on our straw bale/timber frame house is complete. We’ve returned to Kentucky, and Missouri is behind us (for now). We plastered the interior and exterior, finished the ceilings, wired the house, did a bunch of trim and baseboard, built railings, built shelves… and completed countless other tasks. The finale was a bittersweet feeling, one of deep satisfaction of completing what we started, but also one of sadness…. that this is not truly our house. It’s for sale, and we’ll never have the chance of truly living in it in its glorious completed state.

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