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Natural Building Workshops

Aug 17
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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.

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Jul 29
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Cob Building Workshop is Just Around the Corner!

By Natural Building Workshops, Cob Building

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 10
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Timber Frame Workshop 2014 Slideshow

By Natural Building Workshops, Photos, Timber Framing

Hewing Hatchet

Here’s one last round of photos of our 2014 Timber Frame Workshop that ended a couple short weeks ago. If you’re interested in getting a firsthand look at our finished pavilion, the building will be up and in use during the Clear Creek Festival from August 29-31. We’ll likely be making pizza during that same festival out of our new cob oven, too… so look out. Anyway, click ahead for the slideshow.

Photos of the completed structure should be up soon, too!

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Jun 29
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And The Tools Come Out: Timber Frame Recap Part 2

By Timber Framing, Natural Building Workshops, Hand Tools
Cutting a Tenon with Chisel and Mallet

Pam works on her chisel skills on a tenon

Carpenter’s squares and tape measures are handy and all that, but they don’t carry nearly the same appeal as say, a sharpened chisel, an antique boring machine, or a Swedish axe. Marking and measuring, though arguably one of most important steps of timber framing, lacks the “cool” factor that comes with cutting joinery. People’s eyes tend to light up as soon as they see the ol’ Millers Falls boring machine come out, what with its fancy gears, the double handle, and the amazing wood chips it produces once set to motion.

Needless to say, enthusiasm ramped up on day two of our Timber Frame Workshop as people got a chance to saw and waste tenons, bore holes for mortises, and get busy with chisel and mallet.

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Jun 26
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2014 Timber Frame Workshop Recap: Part 1

By Timber Framing, Natural Building Workshops, Hand Tools
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
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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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May 25
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Our First Batch of Kentucky Cob

By Natural Building Workshops, Cob Oven
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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