Skip to main content
Category

Strawtron

Sep 20
Love0

Design Your Deck With Rot Resistant Wood

By Timber Framing, Strawtron, Carpentry
White Oak Deck Wood

Our white oak balcony deck floor

It is a wise idea to incorporate rot resistant wood into your outdoor deck, balcony, or porch designs, to ensure a long-lasting, safe floor for years to come.

I’m happy to be finally decking our west balcony so that we can stand out there and enjoy the view, without worry of falling through or tipping the temporary piece of plywood we’d been using. We obtained some nice white oak boards for the occasion, as the balcony is exposed to the weather. The balcony is actually under a substantial roof, but nevertheless, with our occasional big storms, moisture and rot is a concern. We chose thick 1.5″ white oak wood for its excellent rot resistance and strength.

Read More

Aug 29
Love0

Straw Bale House Building Progress

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
Straw Bale House Construction

What Strawtron currently looks like

This is where progress on building our new straw bale & timber frame house currently stands. A year from now, the house should be fully plastered and lime washed, with a lush green roof, and a big ol’ greenhouse full of plants growing on the left side of the house. Imagine me on a hammock on a balcony, snoozing, too.

Read More

Aug 28
Love0

Top 5 Natural Building Reads on The Year of Mud

By Resources, Strawtron

reciprocal roof frameIt’s fun for me to track the content on The Year of Mud to see what people are reading and sharing the most. It is definitely the how-to articles that attract the most attention — here are the top 5 natural building posts on The Year of Mud:

As the building season dies down and time becomes more available to me, I have plans to travel backwards in time to create more how-tos, and detailed posts about all of the building we’ve done this year — timber framing, straw bale building work, etc. Look forward to more articles about our adventures with the new straw bale & timber frame home!

Aug 10
Love0

Living Roof and Pond Liner Excitement, and Safety Tips

By Living Sod Roof, Strawtron, Uncategorized
EPDM pond liner

Pond liners... please, lift only once, if you can

Living roofs are a lot of labor. Especially dealing with several hundred pound EPDM pond liners, which are big and awkward to move around. So when you get the liner on your rooftop, make sure it’s going to stay there. We encountered some fun with the recent installation of our pond liner… let’s say we repeated the lifting of the 300 pound liner. Twice, actually. The circumstances were… a bit scary.

Read More

Aug 04
Love0

Straw Bale Workshop Finished! Slideshow & More

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron, Natural Building Workshops
strawbaleworkshop-group02

Our lovely bunch of straw bale workshop participants

We just finished our awesome 10 days of the first Year of Mud Straw Bale Workshop — what a blast! We had yet another great batch of students, and there was ample opportunity to get lots of progress made, and learn all the ins and outs of working with straw bales. I think everyone went home energized and enlivened, and probably a bit tired too…. and definitely full from tons of great food.

I personally came away from this class with my love once again reignited for natural building, a wish for continuing to learn and challenge myself, and a strong desire to keep working in this invigorating format. It is so great to be surrounded by and working closely with people curious, excited, and enthusiastic about natural building and alternative living.

Read More

Aug 01
Love0

Earthen Plaster Makes Me Happy

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

Fresh first coat of earthen plaster in our future bedroom

The fact that we’ve come this far during the workshop makes me very happy. Here’s looking at our future bedroom, with a fresh base coat of earthen plaster, and our first trimmed window with embedded black walnut window sill. It looks fantastic. The students have been loving the mud. I love that they love the mud.

Things are good. The workshop has been a blast. Today is our last day!

Jul 30
Love0

Straw Bale Workshop Photos!

By Strawtron, Natural Building Workshops, Photos, Straw Bale Building
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.

Read More

Jul 19
Love0

Progress is Sweet

By Timber Framing, Strawtron
Timber Frame Compound Roof

Our newly erected compound roof frame!

Progress is sweet. I have never worked so hard in my life. Physically, and mentally, even.
It is sheer exhaustion, but looking up at the timber frame in the morning light seems to make it all worth while. Getting compliments from friends and neighbors, and smiles from strangers coming into the village must mean we are doing something right, too.

Getting these compound roof rafters installed on the timber frame was a highlight.

More later.

Jul 09
Love0

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?