Shelter
Straw bale construction, timber framing, earthen plaster, and natural building
Summer 2014
We kicked off Summer with a solstice party that I may try to do on a regular basis. 'Midsummer Mayhem' as I called it featured a large bonfire, a pickup truck pool, lawn games, garlands, and me in loi...
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Spring 2014
The day after my last post we planted potatoes. Last week we harvested those potatoes. That's how erratic my blogging has become so I'm not going to go into detail about the almost 3 months in betw...
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Sputtering towards Spring
In between the unusual arctic blasts that continue to pummel the area I've been quietly preparing for the inevitable coming thaw. We're now back in another round of near record-low temperatures, but b...
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Unglamorous Accomplishments
It's been almost 5 months since my last blog entry. Summing up so many months to a length that won't drown you is the challenge now. The reoccurring themes of this past summer seem to have been ma...
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Adventures in Homesteading
My summer-long volunteer, Syndey, arrived last week. She's a Wisconsin native who has just finished an engineering degree in California. She'll mainly be focusing on the food situation, maintainin...
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Addressing Problems
I haven't started on any major construction projects this year, but I have been spending a lot of time in the garden, doing some Spring cleaning, and addressing some other issues. I'll start of with...
Read MoreDuplex Disaster and Recovery
We had a serious failure in the duplex, but were able to save the vast majority of the building thanks to some helping hands. The following videos cover briefly the cause of the fire and then the re...
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August 2012 Newsletter: It's Liveable!
The heat wave broke in mid-August and our energy levels went up along with a noticeable improvement in everyone's spirits. We've continued to re-evaluate what is possible with the remainder of the yea...
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