Archives for August 2015

We worked with Max Edleson on two projects at the home of a neighbor: a cabin stove and an outdoor cooking stove. The cabin stove is a compact masonry heater with a cooktop and an attached heated cob bench. This post will focus on the details of constructing the cabin stove. For complete documentation, including… [Read More]

We constructed the outer walls for the garden shed using two different techniques — light straw clay and chip-slip (wood chips mixed with clay slip), in order to compare the two techniques in terms of speed and ease of construction, as well as insulative properties. Our instructor this week for natural wall systems was Erica… [Read More]

We used round poles harvested on campus for the roof rafters. We flattened one surface of the poles, on which the roof will lie, and then scribed (traced) two cuts on the opposite sides for the rafter to attach snugly to the timber frame beams. To do that, we first laid out vertical and horizontal… [Read More]

We loaded up the timbers onto Bill’s truck and drove from the workshop over to the build site. We drilled holes in the bottom of the posts to prepare them for placement onto the four metal threaded posts embedded in the foundation. On re-checking the placement of the 4 metal posts, it became clear that… [Read More]

This week we had a break from the sun and spent our days on the Aprovecho campus in the workshop, building the timber frame for our shed. Our instructor for the week was Bill Sturm from Oregon Timberworks. We got acquainted with a new set of tools, reviewed some trigonometry, and got to work with… [Read More]

After filling the trench with rock, we constructed wooden forms into which the concrete was poured to form the bond beam. After allowing the concrete to dry overnight, we laid two courses of Faswall blocks (Insulated Concrete Forms). We left space unlaid with Faswall on the two ends of the foundation. This part of the… [Read More]

There was a record-breaking heatwave here this week, with temperatures reaching up to 109 degrees. Since it was our first week working together, it took us a few days to get into a good groove, and it was challenging to work in the heat, but we had fun, learned a lot, and made good progress…. [Read More]