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.
It’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!
How to spend a rainy Sunday… when you’re not doing this…
We finally have a day of rain in the forecast for tomorrow — a 100% chance. I will definitely take it. It has been weeks and weeks of drought here. To celebrate, here are a bunch of fun building links. Perhaps you have your own rainy Sunday coming up. Check out these cool natural building and carpentry websites in your time off:
The Gransfors Bruks Hunters Axe… ah…
There’s something intensely romantic about axes. Perhaps it’s that they have an ancient quality, having existed alongside humans for much of our history — they’ve been carried all over the world, used and depended on, for a long, long time. I’ve always thought of the axe as something that you’d really need in your arsenal, if you subsisted with only a small collection of manufactured tools. As far as woodworking is concerned, they predate many other hand tools and have long fulfilled the purposes of many newer, more specialized tools. Axes are versatile, simple, elegant, and timeless.
They’re something I can’t stop myself from looking at and picking up at the flea market, moreso than most other hand tools.
“The life cycle of timber frame structures is measured not in decades, but millennia.”
It’s true: timber frame houses are built to last, and their durability surpasses conventional stick frames by leaps and bounds. The renowned Ise temple of Japan is, astoundingly, over 1300 years old and claims the title of the oldest existing timber frame structure in the world. And there are many more 500+ year old timber frame barns, homes, and buildings scattered globally, especially throughout Europe.
If you want to build a house that will last 100, 200, 300 years or more, the timber frame is the only answer to long-lasting framed buildings.
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.
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.
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!
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This website is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. In 2012, we started offering Natural Building Workshops, so you can learn essential hands-on skills to build your own natural home.
