Plastering

Above: Brendan, the main plasterer, applying the first coat to the curves around the window in the kitchen. The plasterers came back to apply 1st and some 2nd coats to the inside, and finish off the 2nd coat to the outside. I was helping to sift the clay they needed to make the plaster. Now we're heating the building with the wood stove to dry out the plaster faster, and then Brendan & friends will return to put the final coats on, probably in late April. The final two exterior coats, a lime plaster, won't be applied until June, after the last frost date.
Above: a wall in the library upstairs; this is the second coat. The third and fourth coats will be much finer, much more finished-looking. Below: a wall finished with the 2nd coat. As you can see, two different types of clay were used. The darker one, which we got from Medford, was very hard to work with -- hard to sift, and needed a lot more sand mixed in. So they switched over to some clay from our land, which was much easier.

Above: Lydia, who facilitated the baling of the building last summer, came back for a few days to help plaster. Below: the window plaster, 1st coat.