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Jun 26
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2014 Timber Frame Workshop Recap: Part 1

By Hand Tools, Timber Framing, Natural Building Workshops
Scoring Lines: Timber Framing

Getting timber layout complete and ready for cutting

We packed in a lot of action during our four days of the 2014 Timber Frame Workshop last week. This was our first official course in our new home location in the Berea, Kentucky area, and I couldn’t be more pleased! The mountains, trees (and accompanying abundant shade), fresh spring water, and wildlife made an excellent backdrop to learning about timber frame layout, cutting, and assembly. It was great to meet new folks and reconnect with some ‘alumni’ from previous classes, too.

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Jun 11
Love0

Timber Arrives!

By Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing
White Oak Timber

White oak 8x8s for the upcoming timber frame pavilion

Last week, we got our timber delivery for the pavilion we’ll be building in our Timber Frame Workshop next week. It’s beautiful stuff! It’s all white oak, very clear wood, and sawn on a portable bandsaw. It smells really good since it’s so fresh. We will be working this material very green, as it was literally felled and sawn a mere day or two before its final delivery.

We have begun some prep work, doing some layout and cutting on a few pieces to ensure that we can make good headway in the four days of our course. Our goal is to demonstrate layout, cutting, assembly, and ideally raising, too (if the stars align, you know.) This past week and the few days ahead are busy busy busy. More news when I find time to write!

Jun 05
Love0

New Cob Oven Building Progress

By Cob Oven, Natural Building Workshops
Cob Oven: Fire Brick Hearth

April gets ready to lay another fire brick for the oven hearth

Preparations for our 2014 Cob Oven Workshop this year begin with building yet another completed oven ahead of the start of the course. It’s no fun if we can’t offer an earthen oven demonstration and pizza party as part of the class, and the oven that we’ll build over 2 days needs quite a bit of time to dry out before it can be used. Of course, this first oven will be used beyond our class this year, namely by the proud new owners for their various theatre events. We’re making nice progress on this oven and we’re patiently waiting for things to dry as we go along. Here’s hoping this is just the first of many ovens we will build in Kentucky!

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Jun 03
Love0

A Sweet Sight for a May Morning

By Homesteading
Dexter Cow Grazing

A Dexter Cow takes care of mowing the grass

I have enjoyed waking up to this sight the past few mornings. Who needs a lawnmower when you can have this instead? Tim and Jane have a little Dexter dairy cow that they set out on a tether to “mow the lawn” when the grass needs to be cut back. It’s a particularly enjoyable sight as the sun rises over the mountainside in the early morning. Simple pleasures, you know?

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May 25
Love0

Our First Batch of Kentucky Cob

By Cob Oven, Natural Building Workshops
Mixing Cob in Kentucky

Mixing up the first batch of Kentucky cob!

This week it feels like we’ve hit a special milestone. On the one hand, it’s an oh-so familiar feeling, but then again it’s so new and exciting! I sunk my feet into our first batch of Kentucky cob a few days ago. I’ve mixed hundreds of batches of cob by now, but they’ve of course all been made in our former home of Missouri. Mixing up this cob in Kentucky is another little landmark along our path to arrival and settling in here.

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May 19
Love0

Gearing Up to Timber Frame!

By Natural Building Workshops, Hand Tools, Timber Framing

boring-machines

Do you ever get into cleaning frenzies, and spend hours scouring and scrubbing around the house, including those areas that often don’t get their fair share of loving? Well, that’s how I’ve been feeling lately, but it’s not our house that is getting the attention… it’s all of our tools. Recently, I’ve been spending a goodly amount of time sharpening, oiling, de-rusting, and tuning to get all of our gear ready for the upcoming Timber Frame Workshop in June. This year we’ll have some newcomers on the tool front to try out, including two antique boring machines we obtained last winter that haven’t seen action yet.

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May 12
Love1

Soak Up the Sun in an Attached Greenhouse

By Design, Greenhouse
Attached Greenhouse

A lively attached greenhouse in the springtime

I’m a big fan of attached greenhouses. We designed our second home Strawtron to include a significant greenhouse on the south side of the house. Benefits of designing this way include the obvious ability to extend your growing season to grow more food, but an attached greenhouse can provide your home with additional heat, and an interesting intermediate living space, too. It’s not quite inside… nor is it outside space, either. Anyway. I love this image of the attached solarium of our dear friends Tim and Jane. Doesn’t it just look so wild and green, but so inviting, too?

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