This past week has been pretty busy, and it’s finally starting to feel like fall, too. Last weekend, we were experiencing unusual temperatures in the 90s, but this week brought in some much more normal fall-like weather.
With the onset of cooler temperatures, it’s time for chopping and stacking wood here at Dancing Rabbit. We get a lot of our wood for heat in the form of scrap oak wood from a local lumberyard. The scraps come in huge bundles, and all the wood is very thin and very long. The grain bin, where I live, has a small woodstove that’s about eighteen inches in length, so all wood needs to be appropriately sized and cut to fit.
Unfortunately, the scrap wood we get is not very easy to process. Since it’s oak, it’s very hard, and it’s sheer length requires that it be cut into three pieces. It’s not very thick, either, so the quickest way to cut it is to stack it on a wood horse and cut many pieces at a time. This, unfortunately, requires a chainsaw, something I’m not that excited about. Not only because they’re loud and smelly and dangerous, but they obviously require gas to run, too. Ideally, I would prefer to be able to cut the wood with a saw or axe, but in the interest of time and energy… I went for the chainsaw. Hopefully I’ll find a better solution sometime in the future.
Anyway, cutting wood took up a large chunk of time this week. I also spent some time helping Dan to insulate a (unfinished) house he recently bought from someone at Red Earth Farms. (The house will be moved to Dancing Rabbit sometimes soon.) We are insulating the house using “light clay straw”, which is essentially straw lightly coated in a thin clay slip. The technique involves hammering a board to the 2″x4″ structural members of the wall, and then shoving handfuls of straw into the space between the board and the wall. After removing the board, the packed straw holds its shape and is allowed time to dry. Later, the straw gets plastered using an earthen plaster. It’s been a fun experience so far.
Other than that, I’ve been thinking about everything I want to accomplish in time before I go home in November. I just received a bunch of ferment-y cultures in the mail, and I want to be able to use some of them before I leave. I got some fresh kefir grains, a natto culture, and light rice koji.
I also have at least one video that I want to complete for DRTV, and another that I want to start shooting.
Suddenly, I feel really busy!
Note: Please find all of my cob building related content at my new blog, The Year of Mud: Building a cob house. Thanks! See you there!
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