Shire Hill Farm

11/09/2025

The cob stomping gremlin is here to spread chaos on your timeline.

11/06/2025

10/28/2025

Cob plastering has now begun! First I screened our clay (that we dug up on our property) to get rid of any large debris and then I mixed the clay with sand at about a 40% clay to 60% sand ratio with some water. Then I mixed in straw to the clay sand mix. I applied a clay slip (clay mixed with water) to the boards first to prep and then applied the earthen/cob plaster.

10/20/2025

We decided we're going to put cedar shakes on the top half by the loft instead of cob plaster, so we put up the zip system and added rockwool insulation on the inside wall of the loft. Rockwool has a slightly better environmental impact than fiberglass, as it is made with recycled industrial materials, but if I didn't have a time constraint of trying to get the structure ready for winter storage, I would have ordered wool insulation. I papered over the insulation with contractor paper and then we will be putting tongue and groove boards over the wall and on the ceiling.

10/04/2025

More cobin updates! Building stairs, a visitor from FL (thanks for the help mom!), and blocking out framing to set more of our bottle windows on.

09/07/2025

We have a roof! Now we are working on filling in the gaps in the pallets with boards to prep for applying plaster.

09/06/2025

Having a great time vending wool needle-felted wares at The Majestic Peasant People's Renaissance Fest!

06/08/2025

Well we finally got the trusses up. Hopefully we can get the panels up tomorrow. Still behind my planned timeline, but it's definitely progressing! A big thanks to my parents who came up to help this week.

05/26/2025

The doorway is framed out! Hoping to finish the rest of the framing and start on the roof tomorrow; then we can actually start the cob plastering this week!

05/25/2025

Asheville peeps! Requesting glass bottles (preferably blue or green) for our build (bottle art).

05/25/2025

The framing is finally going up!!!

05/21/2025

Another foundation update for our little agriculture structure. The only "foundation work" I've done before this is putting a good foundation on a horse in training or foundational obedience with my dogs. In any of these instances, a solid foundation is extremely important. But, after working on our building's foundation, I can surely tell you, I'd much rather work on the foundational work of my animals than a building's foundation. It has felt like a sisyphean task, but I know it is actually getting closer to completion. All I can say now is that I can't wait to start framing work!