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Natural Building Workshops

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
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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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May 19
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Gearing Up to Timber Frame!

By Timber Framing, Natural Building Workshops, Hand Tools

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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Mar 16
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Full 2014 Natural Building Workshop Schedule is Up!

By Timber Framing, Natural Building Workshops, Cob Oven

Outdoor Cob Oven

Towering timber frames and hot pizza pie… oh my! (Sorry, that was a weak attempt at poetry.) But hopefully it paints a colorful picture of our upcoming natural building courses this year in 2014. Our full schedule is up, and we’ve added a Timber Frame Workshop and Cob Oven Workshop to our offerings. Both of these classes are in our new and beautiful location of Berea, Kentucky. Specifically, these two workshops are being hosted at the Clear Creek Festival grounds, home to an incredible arts & music festival and a developing off-grid homestead.

Perhaps you’ll join us this summer in raising an old school timber frame pavilion? Or building an outdoor oven with cob?

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Feb 28
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Anticipating the Spring, Workshops, and More

By Natural Building Workshops
Carving wooden bowl

Carving a giant dough bowl, a current side project

All of a sudden, things are getting really busy around here. Springtime is coming on fast. This week has been so busy I don’t even have time to write a proper update here, but I promise I will quite soon. We have a lot of exciting projects in the works, and some of which may involve you. There’s a couple natural building workshops we’re currently planning — these are the first workshops we’ll be offering in our new home location of Berea, Kentucky! Oh, let’s not forget to mention the full-on straw bale cabin we are helping a couple to build this year up in the woods, too. Things are rolling along.

This week has been so full that I haven’t had even a minute to continue work on some of my recent carving projects, including a huge dough bowl, pictured above. I’m excited to get back to this once I have a moment. And then there’s building that workbench, too. We’ve got the wood, and now it’s a question of finding a way to mill some of it up.

Anyway, you should expect to see some exciting updates here quite soon detailing our newest natural building workshops this summer. Keep posted. Exciting times are ahead.

Dec 30
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2013: The Year of Chairs, Stairs, Workshopping, & Moving

By Woodworking, Homesteading, Natural Building Workshops, Carpentry, Strawtron
Spreading Seed: Living Roof

High up in the sky, spreading seed on the living roof of Strawtron

Now is the typical time to think back on the past year, and to try my darnedest to remember everything that has transpired. 2013 was a particularly memorable year, not unlike the others, I suppose. But this year has been pretty different in several big ways, too. Most notably, this year we decided to move to Berea, Kentucky and sell our two homes at Dancing Rabbit. But that didn’t stop us from squeezing in a few more natural building workshops before we left. Oh, and we had to wrap up a lot of work on Strawtron before we could even sell it. Somehow, we found a way to cram it all in.

Here’s a look at how events and projects unfolded in 2013.

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Oct 06
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Pizza… and More Cob Oven Workshop Photos

By Natural Building Workshops, Cob Oven
Outdoor Pizza Oven: Fresh Pizza

A particularly bubbly pizza gets topped with fresh basil during our pizza party

Our latest group of Cob Oven Workshop students departed last week with full bellies, new oven building skills, and with a greater glimpse of life in an intentional community. These 3 day workshops are very fun for us, and I foresee planning more for the future. Can we pull off doing a few in 2014? I sure hope so…

Each time we build another cob oven, I learn something new. The same applies to when we go to actually use the oven, as well. Our pizza is slightly improving every time. Mmm..

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Sep 20
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Our Inaugural Cob Oven Workshop: Mud, Fire, and Fun!

By Natural Building Workshops, Cob Oven
Cob Oven Bread

Baked bread fresh from the cob oven

A few short days ago, our first Cob Oven Workshop came to an end. The workshop was filled with mud, fire, and a whole lot of fun. Thankfully, our participants agreed! Folks got down and dirty as we built an oven from the hearth upwards. We learned all about how to make a good batch of cob, using natural and recycled materials effectively, plastering, how to fire an oven and make good use of the ample heat it provides, and lots more. We sure did eat extremely well, too.

Here are a few nice testimonials from just a couple of our lovely people from the inaugural workshop:

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