The beauty of building with what you have rather than what you are told you need. Tom Ruby (@bgcts) First and foremost, a cordwood dwelling is accessible to anyone with wood and arms to cut and lift it. It is simple. Not easy, simple. If you have wood and mud and ash you can build a home. There's a very old cordwood cabin in Copper Harbor. For us, we peppers 2 summers to do this so that it'd last. We tested last summer by building a chicken coop. Took lessons and incorporated them into this build. We learned that Poplar debark very easily when cut down (and the bark dried rock hard if you cut and flatten it. Can be used for roof shingles. Maple is difficult to debark. Oak easier than maple but only when freshly cut. We made a 10" ruler and sorted the logs with a hand saw and then cut with chain saw. Takes discipline to make plumb cuts. We built a rig to put the logs on to help with plumb cuts. Saved all sawdust for use in mortar. Poplar dries much lighter than oak and maple making it good to use, but we have oak and Maple and Walnut in there as well. Bought inexpensive Poplar framing wood from Amish to frame the cabin for load bearing and are putting cordwood inside the 4x10 framing wood. You can buy portland/type S for mortar but that defeats our purpose of using local materials. Ag line is $12/ton from our local quarry so that is a great filler. We saved wood stove ash over the winter and have more than enough. Clay below the topsoil comes from our hillside. As for mortar discipline, we learned last summer that if too wet it will crack and pull away from the wood. But even that is repairable with pointing and relayering. This time we have a more peanut butter consistency and are leaving space inside the ends of the logs for touching up after it dries. We have a good natural reaction cycle happening with the mortar so that's good. This is an accessible process. It is very forgiving. And it allows for varying anesthetics from lots of big logs with small fillers to all small dowels. All work. I have several books on the process and there are cordwood homes around the world. As https://bitter.st/wrathofgnon said 2 years ago, "just use your local mud or make some." He was right. — https://bitter.st/bgcts/status/2094061953173860709#m
https://hell.twtr.plus/media/2c/7d/ee/2c7dee45bc99406fbc581bc49134a01363a7e8f982fd6e8943aea186e0a02d8f.file
https://hell.twtr.plus/media/53/ae/6f/53ae6f56545fae7bc219b0bfbdf0d7b0cc626181bfa9ca00641bbe70fe57ec9f.file
https://hell.twtr.plus/media/bb/f2/f9/bbf2f9bb12f677ec7ead19ad5049d1705cab9d47f8d4b224356e030eb82e2778.file
https://hell.twtr.plus/media/70/09/06/70090651de2a8bb946903d9832136fba2cb8bbde0ce5737f4083b1996de43144.file
