mud!

hey, we got mud! on the walls! most of the straw bales are up and a good half of them are mudded. this coming weekend we'll be aiming to finish it up. the first coat that is. we've got a couple more to go. then we move inside.

as you can see our mud is very gray in color. the clay comes from the connecticut river valley and is a mix of about 25% clay and the rest sand and some silt (more than we want). so it's not really clay but clayish soil. when mixed with masonry sand (washed and screened) and straw it makes a pretty hearty mix, but i was concerned about it washing off too easily. so, we experimented with mixing in slaked hydrated lime in various proportions. the lime made the mix much stickier and, when dried, much harder and water resistant. so, that's what we've used. the recipie:

• 5 parts connecticut river clayish soil
• 3 parts washed and screened sand
• 1 part slaked hydrated lime putty
• 2 parts straw chopped to 2" in length or less

the final coats will be lime and sand mixes.