Skip to main content
Aug 22
Love0

Shelter Gets a Brand New Blog

By Media

shelter-blog

Owner-builder and DIY types are almost certainly familiar with some of Lloyd Kahn’s books, chief among them Shelter, the original inspiration for many alternative builders back in the 1970s.  Since then Lloyd and co. have put out a number of other books, including Home Work, Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter, and perhaps my personal favorite, Builders of the Pacific Coast. Lloyd’s books continue to be a personal source of great ideas and motivation.

The Shelter Blog is the recently launched website in the same vein of those inspirational books, highlighting a variety of alternative and natural buildings, and homesteading and gardening goodness from across the internet. It’s fairly fresh yet, but I suspect this will be a site to keep a close eye on. Check it out.

Aug 17
Love0

Getting Ready For Cob in the Forest

By Cob Building, Natural Building Workshops
Cob Bench Site

The lovely site for the cob bench we’ll soon be building

Time is (of course) flying. You’ve heard it all before, and it’s true all the same. August, though it doesn’t feel like any August I can remember, has peaked and we’re on the slide down to September, one of my favorite months. Though when I was of school age, I absolutely dreaded the coming of that particular month, and could not much look past the beginning of the school year to the sheer beauty and joy of the end of summer and beginning of fall.

We’re starting off September with our Cob Building Workshop, and things are definitely in motion to get ready for the event. We’ll be playing with cob in the forest for three days, here at the lovely mountain homestead of Tim and Jane outside Berea, Kentucky. It’s an absolutely beautiful site, as you might be able to tell from the photo above.

Read More

Aug 14
Love0

And Our Newest Book Winner is…

By Uncategorized

japanese-carpentry-artCongrats to our latest winner, Lola Faulkner for our recent giveaway of the book The Genius of Japanese Carpentry! Once again, I wish I had unlimited copies to be able to award everyone…

The good news is that Tuttle has donated several other book titles, so our giveaway series isn’t over yet. We have a few more exciting books coming to us in the near future. I’m very pleased to be able to do this and spread the love. I personally love a good book, and being able to access valuable information in a tangible, physical form is still my preference for reading and learning. The experience of flipping through a book is vastly preferable to me than scrolling on a screen. But I digress…

Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for future giveaways. (And a small note on that front… the newsletter is soon getting some exciting improvements and a facelift!)

Aug 10
Love1

Timber Frame Pavilion Gets Wrapped Up

By Timber Framing
Timber Frame Pavilion @ Clear Creek

The pavilion gets the last of the countertops installed before its first debut

Our work on the timber frame pavilion at the Clear Creek Festival grounds has come to a happy ending. We have fulfilled our responsibilities and commitments, now that the frame is raised, the roof decked and metal roofing installed, and the countertops and sinks put in. I’ve gotta say, it’s so nice to be done…

Check out some of the latest photos here.

Read More

Aug 02
Love0

Congrats to Our Winner & Another Giveaway Coming Soon

By Media, Book Reviews

japanese-timber-framingAfter reading all of the comments on the review and giveaway post for Just Enough, I want to send everyone copies of the book to enjoy. Unfortunately, there’s only one… and the lucky winner is Nadine. Congratulations, Nadine!

Lucky for everyone else, we still have one more giveaway coming up soon! We’ve got a copy of The Genius of Japanese Carpentry to give away next week. This too is a really excellent, and inspiring book, full of information about traditional temple construction and timber framing techniques in Japan.

Please check back soon to enter. It will be just as simple as last time. The image to the right is a little sneak peak of what to expect from the book…

Aug 02
Love0

Congrats to Our Winner & Another Giveaway Coming Soon

By Book Reviews, Media

japanese-timber-framingAfter reading all of the comments on the review and giveaway post for Just Enough, I want to send everyone copies of the book to enjoy. Unfortunately, there’s only one… and the lucky winner is Nadine. Congratulations, Nadine!

Lucky for everyone else, we still have one more giveaway coming up soon! We’ve got a copy of The Genius of Japanese Carpentry to give away next week. This too is a really excellent, and inspiring book, full of information about traditional temple construction and timber framing techniques in Japan.

Please check back soon to enter. It will be just as simple as last time. The image to the right is a little sneak peak of what to expect from the book…

Jul 29
Love0

Cob Building Workshop is Just Around the Corner!

By Cob Building, Natural Building Workshops

Dancing In CobJust when I thought things might be quiet for a while, I look at the calendar and take note that we are just a little more than a month away from our Cob Building Workshop. Yow!

Our 3 day Cob Building Workshop takes place from September 5-7 here outside Berea, Kentucky. There are still three spaces remaining, so if you’ve been waiting to register, I suggest you go ahead and do that soon, because the spaces are certain to fill up. You can also save a bit on the registration fee if you register within the week.

I’m personally very excited to get my hands (and feet) back in the mud, at what will no doubt be a beautiful time of year. If you want to get your cobbing on with us, go ahead and register today.

Jul 26
Love0

It’s Party Time…

By Cob Oven
Pizza party time

Our first pizzas ready for the hungry masses

Amidst all of our timber framing work, we have been chipping away at our cob oven construction. In fact, we deemed it ready enough for a big ol’ pizza party this past week. The oven needs some finish plaster, but why wait? It proved to be a real workhorse, as April and I churned out about 50 pizzas (really, we lost count) for a big group of 40 people at the Clear Creek Festival grounds.

Read More

Jul 23
Love0

Book Review & Giveaway: Just Enough

By Media
Just Enough Book: Azby Brown

Read ahead to enter your name in a giveaway for this book

Here is part one of our book review and giveaway series, in collaboration with Tuttle Publishing. In this post, you’ll find my review of the fascinating book, Just Enough, and details for how you can enter to win your own copy. It’s quite simple… read ahead for more!

Read More