Nanci Kuykendall

>Hey Nanci,
>Have you checked out Straw Bale houses?
>.....You might want to check that out in addition to
>the earth-berm as straw bale may be more insulating
>and you do, after all, live in Washington
>(brrrrrrrr..rrrrr)
>Good luck with your venture!
>Heidi

Thanks Heidi. Uh, I don't think WA is all that cold
though. Where do you live, Tahiti? LOL

As for the Straw Bale, we are students of Natural
Building. That includes a lot of different techniques
which we intend to use in hybrid combinations as
fitting for each site, available materials, choices of
the builders/homeowners, and season in which each is
built. They include: strawbale, recycled plastic or
paper bale, cob, adobe, rammed earth and earth
berming, round wood and raw wood, cord wood, ferro
cement, earthship methods, and others.

The earth bermed cottage I mentioned is on a slight
slope and the berming is on the side where the cottage
is being cut into the slope of the hill. The
reamaining walls will likely be cob, or a combination
of cob and other materials. Cob is an adobe like
process, where the material is sculpted in place
instead of dried as bricks first. That is what all
those whitewashed, thatch roofed cottages in the UK
are made of.

Cob has terrific thermal mass, similar concerns to
footing and roof (boots and hat) to strawbale, and is
very condusive to curvilinear construction, sculpted
architectural details, built in benches, shelves, etc,
and injecting personality into the design. You can
inset a piece of glass into cob and sculpt the cob
into any shape you want around it for a non opening
window. You can even build an "adobe" type oven into
the cob, to heat a home with. The thermal mass makes
it function great for slow burns, and slow release of
stored heat.

We favor cob for the reasons above, as well as the
fact that it stands up well to damp climates like
Ireland, Devonshire, Wales and New Zealand. Cob homes
have been continuously occupied in places in the UK
for over 500 years. It is untouched by earthquakes,
and totally fireproof as well. It is structually self
supporting, drying to an almost concrete hardness, but
can be cut later with a power saw if you need to add
onto a house, etc. It's very versatile, extremely low
impact environmentally, great thermally, and very
cheap to build. All you need is the appropriate
portions of sand, clay and straw mixed.

One more passion of mine. Natural Learning, Natural
Building, Natural Birthing, Natural Eating, Natural
Living....hmmmm, do I see a theme here?

Nanci K.

avgjean

--- In AlwaysLearning@y..., Nanci Kuykendall <aisliin@y...> wrote:
> >Hey Nanci,
> >Have you checked out Straw Bale houses?
> >.....You might want to check that out in addition to
> >the earth-berm as straw bale may be more insulating
> >and you do, after all, live in Washington
> >(brrrrrrrr..rrrrr)
> >Good luck with your venture!
> >Heidi
>


I am new to this group and I am really enjoying the discussions for
the week or two that I have been following them. We are near San
Diego, and yes, Washington would probably seem freezing to us! My
sister has been building her "house" in the Texas desert with
several different natural building techninques. She has a great
website with photos of her journey every step of the way.
(Twistedroad.com). My daughters (3 and 5) love looking at the
photos, and we have even tried our hand at making our own little mud
building bricks right in the backyard. (Just big enough for bug
houses. Actually, two of my sisters are doing this, but only one
has a website as of now.
Anyway, I have spent the past couple of years reading every
education book, website, newsletter, etc. that I could get my hands
on, and it seems all my "research" just brings me right back to
what I was doing in the first place...reading to my kids, building
forts, going to the library, digging in garden..etc. I hate putting
a label on myself, but whatever it is we are doing is working great
and we're not going to change any time soon. It is comforting to
know you are all out there! My family thinks I'm nuts, but we have a
nice unschooling community here in San Marcos.

Jean

Deborah Lewis

Ok, I lied.
Christian Bruyere and Robert Inwood's book is called "In Harmony with
Nature: Creative Country Construction". They are not two separate
titles.
The other book I was thinking of isn't by the same author at all and it's
only an excerpt from that old Woodstock Craftsman's Manual, which is a
cool book with line drawings about all kinds of stuff, not building,
except for maybe tipi's.
Sorry. Big time brain fog here...

Deb L, hopeful this is the right list.

[email protected]

In a message dated 9/29/02 4:12:35 PM, ddzimlew@... writes:

<< Ok, I lied.
Christian Bruyere and Robert Inwood's book is called "In Harmony with
Nature: Creative Country Construction". They are not two separate
titles. >>

I found what the book was I was trying to remember!!
(Someone else knew:)
[response first and then my question]

You're close! "A Reverence for Wood" by Eric Sloan ISBN 0-345-31991-5 as
well as some of his other books (he authored at least 23 books) can be
purchased at many of the big box book stores and their virtual stores on
the web.

Good luck and enjoy.
Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: cring@... [mailto:cring@...]
Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2002 9:37 AM
To: SandraDodd@...
Cc: jmattson@...
Subject: WWA Email Copy


From Woodworker's Central - http://www.woodworking.org

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for sending us your questions. As soon as we can, we'll get
back to you. In the meantime, you might want to keep this email as a
handy reference to our correspondence.
---------------------------------------------------
On 9/29/02 at 11:36 AM, Sandra Dodd of<SandraDodd@...> wrote:

I'm looking for information on a book I owned in the old hippie days,
called (I think) "The Love of Wood" or something like it. Ink drawings,
hand lettered, about traditional construction, trees, making hooks from
certains types of branches (building from tree-parts, not just all
finished lumber).

Sometimes I look online but can't remember enough to look for it! I
gave it away years ago thinking I could easily find another copy.

I think the author had done three or four books, but I only ever had the
one.

If you don't know, can you suggest someone who probably has all the
woodworking books he's ever owned who might be able to ID this for me?

Thanks.

Sandra

Referral to Woodworker's Central: Search Engine
Your Preferred Browser: Netscape's
Is our site easy to navigate? Yes

----------------------------------------------------

Thanks again!
Chuck Ring
WWA Information Director
email:cring@...

Jim Mattson
WWA Webmaster
email:jmattson@...

Woodworker's Website Association
http://www.woodworking.org
203 Riggs Ave.
Severna Park MD 21146
410-647-1258

Deborah Lewis

> I found what the book was I was trying to remember!!
> (Someone else knew:)
> [response first and then my question]
>
> You're close! "A Reverence for Wood" by Eric Sloan ISBN

Well, now I have to go look at it...

Glad you found it!

Deb L

[email protected]

In a message dated 9/29/02 6:27:33 PM, ddzimlew@... writes:

<< > You're close! "A Reverence for Wood" by Eric Sloan ISBN

Well, now I have to go look at it...

Glad you found it! >>

PROBLEM:
Very expensive.

$15 and $20 used with loose pages, $30 and $45 used in paperback without
loose pages (but how long before that 1970 glue dries up? <g>)

Amazon had what I HOPE is a typo--they're taking orders for a new edition,
$15 or so (I forget numbers; sorry), and they say December 2012 but I'm
hoping they really meant December 2002.

If so, I can wait two months! <g>

Sandra

Deborah Lewis

Sandra have you ever watched Roy Underwood's show, "The Wood wright's
Shop"? Maybe I don't have that title right. He's on PBS. It's a fun
show about antique hand tools and building.

Deb L

[email protected]

In a message dated 9/29/02 7:01:36 PM, ddzimlew@... writes:

<< Sandra have you ever watched Roy Underwood's show, "The Wood wright's
Shop"? Maybe I don't have that title right. He's on PBS. It's a fun
show about antique hand tools and building. >>

Once, accidently. I forget to watch TV. I should check to see if it's still
on here, and when. Thanks!