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straw bale workshops Archives - The Year of Mud

Aug 24
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The Off-Grid Straw Bale Cabin: Workshop Photo Gallery

By Natural Building Workshops, Photos, Straw Bale Building
Straw Bale Workshop Site

Working on the site of our 2015 Straw Bale Workshop

I’m writing from the past for the future — I should be in Vermont as you read this. I scheduled this little post to self-publish so you’d have some fun photos to look at while I’m PDCing it up during this latter part of August.

Here’s a photo gallery and slideshow from our recent July Straw Bale Workshop in which we built the straw bale walls of a small, off-grid octagonal cabin in the Kentucky foothills. It’s always amazing to me to see the walls go up and instantly take the house to a whole new level of completion. I love the gradual defining of the space from digging the foundation trench, to building the frame and roof, and then the stacking of the walls themselves. Even once the straw bales are up, the house is still ultimately a ways away from actual “completion” (whatever that means), but my goodness it feels good.

Read ahead to see the evolution of the small straw bale home in the woods during our course!
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Jul 20
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Beginning Days of Our 2015 Straw Bale Workshop

By Natural Building Workshops, Straw Bale Building
Off Grid Straw Bale House Site

The octagonal straw bale cabin, site of our 2015 Straw Bale Workshop

Yesterday was the finale of our 2015 Straw Bale Workshop outside Berea, Kentucky. Our team of participants made it through a week of straw bale building, clay plastering, and more than our fair share of rain. Despite the far less than ideal weather conditions, everyone stayed remarkably upbeat and we achieved a lot of good work. Apparently even record-breaking rain couldn’t stop us from having fun.

I am so grateful to our top notch team of participants who joined us this year! Here’s a look back at some of the construction work we accomplished this past week.

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Mar 25
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Sneak Peak: Off-Grid Straw Bale Cabin

By Natural Building Workshops, Straw Bale Building
Porch Roof on Off-Grid Straw Bale Cabin

Wrapping up the framing on the porch roof of the off-grid cabin

How can it possibly be that March is already coming to an end? The passing of time is so utterly mundane of a subject but it’s terribly fascinating to ponder at the same time. I can hardly believe how fast these weeks go by sometimes. I’ve been spending some quality time doing various woodworking projects over the last month, so I’ve got some catching up to do on the blog. For now I wanted to share a couple of photos of the off-grid straw bale cabin we’re helping to build with our friends here in Kentucky. This off-grid house will be the site of our 7 day Straw Bale Workshop this July.

This sweet little cabin is tucked away in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains, and it will be decked out with straw bale walls and clay plaster this summer. Eventually it will have a small off-grid power system and be a comfy little outpost in a beautiful patch of forest.

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Nov 23
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Straw Bale Workshop Slated for 2015!

By Natural Building Workshops, Straw Bale Building

Straw Bale Workshop 2015We’ve got some very exciting news to share with you. This fall we’ve been busy behind the scenes, organizing our first workshop for 2015 — a Straw Bale Workshop next July outside of Berea, Kentucky! We’re really happy to be teaming up with Mark Mazziotti again to offer another 7 day course on straw bale construction. This time, our workshop site is a small octagonal straw bale house. It’s an off-grid home being built here in the stunning Appalachian foothills.

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Nov 23
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Straw Bale Workshop Slated for 2015!

By Natural Building Workshops, Straw Bale Building

Straw Bale Workshop 2015We’ve got some very exciting news to share with you. This fall we’ve been busy behind the scenes, organizing our first workshop for 2015 — a Straw Bale Workshop next July outside of Berea, Kentucky! We’re really happy to be teaming up with Mark Mazziotti again to offer another 7 day course on straw bale construction. This time, our workshop site is a small octagonal straw bale house. It’s an off-grid home being built here in the stunning Appalachian foothills.

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Aug 04
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Straw Bale Workshop Finished! Slideshow & More

By Strawtron, Natural Building Workshops, Straw Bale Building
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.

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Aug 01
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Earthen Plaster Makes Me Happy

By Natural Building Workshops, Photos, Straw Bale Building, Strawtron
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
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Straw Bale Workshop Photos!

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