A Busy Week Gone

This past week was extremely productive. Thursday and Friday we ended up finishing the framing of the final wall in the upstairs lookout (seen here). It was kind of frustrating for me because Jennifer and I got it done before lunch on Friday and went out to look at it from far away and realized the top plate was very bowed (over 1"). Alex and I fixed after lunch in less than 1 hour. We are amazing!Meanwhile, Owen and Bear spent the day working on the finished ceiling on the north side (1st floor). After Alex and I finished the wall framing upstairs, he went back to the computer to finalize his design of the lookout windows, while I helped Owen and Bear finish the ship-lap ceiling. With rotational sanding rounds, we were able to finish just after 4. With a cold beer and a swim in the pond calling, it was a great way to end a week of hard work.
It has been a few weeks or so since I realized how we were powering the whole work site. At first it didn't occur to me, but when I plug in a saw, sander, or some other power tool, I'm not sending harmful pollution into the atmosphere. Seen below are the solar panels that have been powering saws, recharging the battery powered hand tools, and keeping our beers cold for that special moment at the end of a hard day. Before coming here, I had no idea the extent of the power of the magical panels. I thought there would be no way we could rip boards on a table saw for an hour, if it was powered by solar panels. It feels good to be off the grid and still be able to use all the useful technology that goes into building.
I know not everyone wants to live off the grid, or even understands how it can be done, but this just feels right for me. I think if more people started living like the folks here at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, the world would start becoming a more enjoyable place to live for everyone.

Building Update

The past couple of days have been somewhat eventful around the timber frame site. Alex has been detailing the "lookout" window of the loft, spending much of the day working with Auto-CAD. We have had the chance to check off many things from the list of items which can seem overwhelming at times. Bear spent today framing the south facing clear-story windows. The plan is to use straw-bales on this wall to take advantage of their high R-value. The south facing windows should let in a bunch of light to the living space (kitchen/living room area). With a properly sized overhang these windows should block out the summer sun (when it is higher in the sky) and allow direct sunlight during the winter (when it is lower in the sky). The plan is to continue the overhang from the existing timber frame, but we may have to make it shorter because it seems this large of an overhang would block all the direct sunlight year-round. Jennifer is thinking of incorporating louvers of some kind into the overhang, but the design has yet to take form.

Jennifer and I spent most of today (with a short break to help a neighbor raise a post) framing the east wall of the lookout loft. Once again, this wall is at a complicated angle, and with the design of the window above it, we had to do compound miter cuts on the ends of all the joists. We also spent the morning fixing the top plate of the adjacent south wall (for the second time now) so that the metal we order to frame the custom sized window we are making, fits exactly. Here is Jennifer conquering her fear of heights while using the reciprocating saw over 30 feet in the air. The framing is nearing completion. Hopefully we will start putting in bales soon.

Earlier this week we all spent some time putting up hardware cloth around the entire exterior of the first floor. This is the first line of defense against the mice that so eagerly try to invade the straw-bale walls. In fact, the existing timber frame walls have been invaded by mice, but the mice are unable to get all the way inside of the house because the original builder put the hardware cloth on the interior of the straw-bales (for some reason). We are hoping to learn for this mistake.

Owen and I have spent some time over the past two days beginning to install the fascia and soffits using reclaimed ship-lap. The inner fascia (as we are calling it) is meant to hold in the blown-in cellulose insulation in the ceiling cavities. This is what you see a picture of below.

We spent a sufficient amount of time yesterday waterproofing all the bales, walls, and ceilings. Got to keep those bales dry!

We made the paper!!!

This is the site. We made the paper, we did.

We all liked the part about be unshaven and wearing dirty clothing. Hope you enjoy the article.

All work and no play? NOT AT ALL!

Last week many of the members, visitors, and work exchangers took Thursday off from working to float down the Des Moines River in our kayaks, canoes, and various other makeshift floatation devices. Drinking beer, eating amazing food, and floating/swimming in the fast flowing river made for an all around enjoyable all day event. I believe it was the break from building we all needed. What a gregarious group it was.

Yesterday 9 of us traveled to Columbia, MO to participate in the Show-Me Games Ultimate Frisbee competition. We decided on the team name of Red Hill Rabbits (a combination of the 3 surrounding communities that comprised our team - Red Earth Farms, Sandhill, and Dancing Rabbit). We were definitely the most ragtag team there, which helped us pick up 3 extra teammates (Sarah, Mark, & Pedro) who were looking for a team. Since our field at Dancing Rabbit is about half the size of a regulation field, we normal play 4 on 4. The new 7 on 7 made for quite a challenge for some of us who had never played competitively before. Our first game started out well, being up by 4 points or so, but ended up loosing to the Cleveland Steamers 12-13. The next two games were much more challenging, playing all male teams who had been playing together for years. Next, we took on an all women's team from St. Louis. With both teams being exhausted and tired of loosing, it turned into more of a friendly practice match without much score keeping. Some of our players then decided to join forces with them for their next game, giving those college students a run for their money. All in all, it was a fun (but very long and tiring) day.

We also met two journalism students from MU who were sent to write a story on the Ultimate Frisbee tournament. After talking with our team before any others, they decided to change the topic of their article community living and how it relates to the game of Ultimate Frisbee (I think). When I find their article I will be sure to post it up here.

Back at DR this morning we woke up to our 2nd and final straw bale delivery of around 150 bales. This picture is only a portion of them, but you can see the finished ceiling that Jennifer and I work so hard, until after 5:30, on Friday to finish.

Meet The Crew!

Jennifer Martin - It is her house who we are all building.

Papa Bear - Member of Dancing Rabbit and the most experienced builder of us all.

Owen - Experienced builder and ex-member of Twin Oaks in Virginia.

Horacio - Architect from Mexico.

Dave - Building scientist from North Carolina.

Alex - Architecture student from England.

Owen left, Jennifer right.

Horacio

Papa Bear

Owen

Bear and Alex finishing the metal roof on the North side.

Owen and I (Dave) installing the purlins on the loft.

Today I am planning on catching you up to speed. With lots of pictures from the past year, you will see what has been going on around the timber frame addition. Let's start in order. August 2008 commenced the ground breaking of the addition with the excavation for the two 1700 gallon cisterns.

Once the forms for the foundation were in place the pouring of the concrete occurred. This is Jennifer's son finishing up with the trowel.

Bear spent a very long time working on the timber framing which would be raised into place earlier this year. After the raising of the timber frame, the exterior wall framing and roof framing began. These took the better part of a month or so, in which I arrived on site about half way through. When I got to Dancing Rabbit we finished the rafters and started putting on the purlins with hopes of getting the metal roofing on so that we could keep water out of are building space. Here is a picture of the nearly complete framing before any of the metal roofing installation began.

Most recently we have been installing the metal roofing. We will be finishing the north roof soon and should be moving on to bigger better things. Here is Owen, Bear, and I working on the roofing of the loft.

Let's start!

A summer of natural building.

This is the existing timber frame. The original structure broke ground in 1998. Built by Aaron Corbin, it incorporates passive solar design keeping it significantly warm in the winter. The original structure is a post and beam (joined by the traditional mortise and tenon style) strawbale building. The building was originally designed for a small family, with a loft for a child's bedroom, and room for a small kitchenette. The passive solar design gives significant warmth on a sunny winter day.

Jennifer Martin, the current owner, has decided to add on to the east side of the existing structure keeping the timber frame strawbale building method. The original plan is to add two bedrooms on the ground floor, a small kitchen area, a bathroom, and a second story loft with a lookout.

The building season started early this year with two wexers (our term for work exchangers), Horacio and Owen, arriving quite early. Bear, a member of Dancing Rabbit and experienced builder would also be joining the team in his free time. I (Dave) arrived in mid-June from North Carolina, and Alex in early July, from London, England. With the number of people working on the project increasing, our rate of progress continues to grow.

Here is a picture of the first timber frame wall being erected. It took a whole crew of villagers many hours to get it into place.

I will be posting more past, present, and future information on the timber frame.