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Natural Building Workshops

Straw Bale Workshop Photos!

By Photos, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron, Natural Building Workshops
Earthen Plaster at Straw Bale Workshop

Mo and Rick apply some earthen plaster

We’ve been having a great time during our 2012 Straw Bale Workshop. The students have really taken to working with bales, and most recently, mixing and applying earthen plaster. People just love the mud.

I love working with our students, and again, it will be very sad to see everyone go home. We’ve gotten an incredible amount of work done in just one week.

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Two Weeks Remain Until Straw Bale Workshop!

By Natural Building Workshops, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Straw Bale House Workshop

The Year of Mud's Straw Bale Workshop is soon approaching!

Only two short weeks remain until our Straw Bale Workshop begins! From July 22 – August 2, we will be hosting our last natural building workshop of the year, a 10 day course dedicated to straw bale house construction. Come and learn all the ins and outs of working with straw bales and natural plasters at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri!

A few more participant spaces still remain — apply now if you want to get in on our last natural building workshop of the year. It’s not too late.

p.s. This weekend, a local farmer brought us 300 straw bales from his property, seven miles away. How cool is it that our walls were grown in a field less than 10 miles away?

Thank You Timber Framers!

By Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing, Strawtron
Timber Frame Workshop 2012

Thank you Timber Frame Workshop participants!

Yesterday was the end of our fantastic two week Timber Framing Workshop. I’m very sad that it is over, and extremely grateful for the fantastic progress we made, and the quality of work we produced. Wow. We did everything from square rule layout, to lofting and daisy wheel layout and scribing, to hand hewing, working with roundwood, hand raising 18′ tall posts and beams, and so much more. We used Japanese hand saws, planes, chisels and mallets, boring machines, broad axes, and more with a group of students with minimal hand tool experience. It is incredible what we were able to achieve.

I cannot express how much enjoyment I was continually experiencing during the course, and how satisfied I am now to have been able to host such a wonderful workshop, with wonderful folks involved.

Thanks April, Tom, Chris, Lauren, Kyle, Dan, Will, Carl, Jacob, Kiera, Alex, Shand, and Micah!

(Expect more updates about what we learned, and what we built in the next couple of weeks.)

Timber Framing 2012 Workshop Video: The French Snap

By Timber Framing, Strawtron, Natural Building Workshops, Hand Tools

Here’s a quick little video of one of our favorite tricks we’ve learned during the Timber Frame Workshop: the so-called “French snap”. After you saw the tenon shoulder one on side of your piece, flip the timber and saw the end cut down to that same shoulder cut depth. Once you’ve got your cuts, you can snap the material off by striking it with a heavy mallet. It works with straight grain and eliminates extra sawing and splitting. It’s very satisfying!

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Two Days to Go Until Timber Frame Workshop

By Timber Framing, Strawtron, Natural Building Workshops
Tounge and groove subfloor

Tongue and groove subfloor under the main house is complete!

Wow, what another whirlwind of a week as we prepare for the first Timber Frame Workshop, beginning Sunday, June 10. We had a delivery of tongue & groove subflooring just in the nick of time on Sunday, and got immediately to installing it, and now it is but a few feet shy of completion. I have been so thankful for all of the great help this week from friends, neighbors, and visitors alike.

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Timber Frame House Photo Update: The Floor Platform & More

By Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing, Strawtron
Timber frame house subfloor

The latest step: installing reclaimed subflooring material

The major framing of the timber frame house floor platform is complete! All of the sill beams and floor joists are firmly in place, and now we are at the exciting stage of installing our reclaimed tongue and groove subflooring.

Whew.

Here’s a photo update of how things are shaping up at the work site.

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