Introduction
The 57 acres that comprise Cedar Ridge Farm are located in the beautiful rolling hills of South Central Kentucky. My wife, our four children, and I are on a homesteading adventure as we work toward increased self-sufficiency. We grow much of our own food and enjoy being in touch with the agrarian roots of our lives.
One of the major projects we have undertaken is the building of our own home. The house we're building has three major distinguishing features: 1. we're building it without incurring any debt; 2. it is a timber frame structure; and 3. the exterior walls will be plastered straw bales. We live debt and mortgage free, and building our house with that approach makes perfect sense. Large timbers in a home possess a beauty and project a sense of strength, stability, and warmth that we want in our home. Straw bale walls provide insulation and make ecological sense. This blog is a record of our home-building project.
At the beginning of August 2011, we put the first coat of plaster on a couple of the interior walls of the house. Well, 12 tons of dry material later, 
we’ve completed plastering the interior walls!
Early in the month, I told Ramiah that we should get the plaster finished in September. Although there have been several other things to work on during the month, not just the house, we have managed to spend some time with our hands in the mud. Yesterday, we did two batches of plaster, finishing the boys room. This morning we were back at it, doing four batches of plaster and finishing the last walls before lunch time.
It feels good to reach this milestone. We celebrated this evening as a family, having some homemade kettle corn and wacky cake (a special family recipe).
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