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Dec 17
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Learn How To Build a Cob Oven: Join Our 2013 Cob Oven Workshop!

By Cob Oven, Natural Building Workshops

We are happy to announce our first building workshops of 2013 — come learn how to build your own backyard, wood fired oven in our Cob Oven Workshop.

In September and October, visit Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri for our latest three day natural building course — learn cob oven construction essentials, and get a great glimpse into sustainable living in a well-known ecovillage community in the process.

Outdoor ovens are extremely popular, and for good reason. A cob oven can be built with inexpensive natural and recycled materials, and the results are fantastic. No pizza party will ever be the same again!

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Dec 14
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Sweet Hobbit House Pictures From The Hobbit Set

By Photos
Hobbit House

The quintessential dream house

I really enjoyed stumbling upon this tumblr page dedicated to a boatload full of pictures from The Hobbit movie, specifically of hobbit houses from the Shire set. The close-up captures are great — all the little construction details are really quite stunning. I only wish… well, that they were real. I know that sounds really dumb, but it pains me to know that it’s probably mostly a bunch of nasty foam we’re seeing, and not actual carpentry, living roofs, and really cool brick work. Oh well…. but the hobbit house pictures are really quite inspiring, nevertheless

Read ahead for more pictures!

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Dec 08
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Greg’s Beautiful Timber Frame Shop

By Hand Tools, Timber Framing
Greg's Timber Frame Shop

A great space to create…

We’ve recently had the pleasure of spending time with Greg Pennington in his lovely timber frame shop, here in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Greg is a chairmaker and woodworker, and makes and sells some beautiful handmade Windsor chairs. He works with hand tools and creates some really beautiful work, in addition to teaching others how to work wood with hand tools.

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Dec 03
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How to Acquire Timbers For Building Your Own Timber Frame Home

By Strawtron, Timber Framing
Timbers

Figure out how you will acquire your timbers… early!

This is the first of many posts where I travel back in time, and fill in missing parts of the Strawtron building timeline with essential information for how we built our timber frame and straw bale home.

If you want to design and build you own timber frame home, you should be prepared to determine how you will acquire the timbers for your frame. You almost can’t determine this too early, nor start your search too soon. The timber frame can be a significant portion of the total expense of construction for an owner-builder, and as always, it is helpful to know how to keep costs manageable.

Here are a few tips for how you might acquire timbers for building your own timber frame home.

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Nov 28
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Our Timber Frame & Straw Bale House Building Timeline

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron, Timber Framing

Straw Bale House2012 was a whirlwind of a building season. Organizing and running two natural building workshops, building a timber frame house with hand tools, meeting deadlines, unbelievable heat…

Despite all of it, we accomplished an amazing amount of work. Again, huge thanks to our awesome building workshop crews, and every volunteer that picked up a hammer (or a really heavy timber) in our crazy journey. Here I present a recap of our 2012 Strawtron building season. In the coming weeks I will ‘fill in the blanks’ where I have not provided online documentation of our timber frame & straw bale house, so look out!

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Nov 24
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Why You Should Read A Pattern Language

By Resources

Before you take your shovel to the dirt and start digging to build your own home, before you even take pen to paper in sketching designs, I advise you to read Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language.

If you want to understand what makes a good building good, and a particular space work well, this book will teach you the “pattern language” derived from timeless architectural problems and their solutions. A Pattern Language presents compelling design practices and ideas that will make your space more functional and pleasant.

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Nov 21
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Help Turtle Island Preserve: Community Raided For Code Violations

By Resources

Turtle Island Preserve

Turtle Island Preserve is an educational center that focuses on primitive and traditional living skills, including natural building. They have been operating for 26 years. Recently, they have been subject to a harsh government raid for apparent code violations.

Once again, the government demonstrates complete hypocrisy and hatred in the face of positive change, and my compassion goes out to Turtle Island.

Read their urgent letter below, and support them by signing this petition!

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Nov 14
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How To Build a Timber Frame & Straw Bale House — Coming This Winter

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron, Timber Framing

Timber Frame Home

Throughout the process of building my cob house “Gobcobatron”, I documented the entire process of its construction online here at The Year of Mud, demonstrating the process I went through to build my first home. It has been a rewarding experience for me, and the feedback and learning experience has been wonderful.

This year, since beginning the construction of my new timber frame and straw bale home, time has been particularly scant, as the timeline was even more compressed and deadlines were many, thus a less detailed documentation effort during the building season throughout the various construction stages.

However, this winter I have plans to retrace my steps, to present how to build a timber frame and straw bale house.

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