In its essence, Ohana means family, but goes beyond your blood relations to include those close to you, that you choose to share your life and experiences with. “The people within it are bound together by genuine compassion, culture, support, loyalty, and love for each other.”
Mission Statement: Connecting and empowering adults and youth with the art of handicraft, while immersed in the healing of nature.
Welcome to Ohana Roots! We are John Puckett and Felicia Cinquegrana Puckett. We would love you to follow us as we embark on our Journey to create an educational space for creativity, innovation, and traditional skills!
Our goal is to offer hands on learning to low income, high need and underserved youth, Veterans groups, and others that can benefit from creativity, honing new skills, and the zen of the wilderness. John and I started with the dream to help people reconnect with nature, and learn, or re-learn how to use their hands to create and problem solve. Wood working, boat building, ceramics, welding, blacksmithing, silversmithing, fine arts, digging in the dirt, farming, hiking, and sailing are just a few of the skills we want to share.
This has been our dream for a long time and we are now standing on the land we will build it on! John grew up on a sailboat that his father built in their yard. He has been a captain since he was 18 years old and has a passion for sharing his knowledge of sailing and wooden boat building. I was born on a papaya farm in Kealakekua, Hawaii and moved to the east coast and when I was young. Being surrounded by such beauty I have grown a deep reverence and connection to the land. I hold a Masters in Art Education, which I acquired for the sole purpose of starting this art center. We both grew up with families that could build anything and were taught that we could do anything we put our minds, hearts, and hands to. We feel that the art of handiwork is being lost and imagination and creativity are integral skills that help in so many aspects of life. We want to show the next generation of youth and adults that you can learn, and you can create. To see Felicia’s art page, please visit www.FeliciaGraceDesigns.com
It Started with straw
John and I purchased this land in the late summer of 2018. We cleared a little over an acre for house, gardens, and barn, and began to build a straw bale home! We hand cut a timber frame from all of the trees we cut for the clearing and then finished it with stacked straw and lime plaster.
You can watch the build on Building Off the Grid “Maine Straw Bale Cabin” https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/maine-straw-bale-cabin/umc.cmc.3761mejstwihzmtdqc3z8fylu?showId=umc.cmc.419rlujcd4tikcm7m4hxsikoc
and for a more in depth look, keep scrolling!
John sitting on our new walls!
Firing up the saw mill, we have got a lot of wood to mill for our straw bale timberframe
Milling our own lumber for our timberframe house
Hand cut tenons
All of the logs were barked by hand with a draw knife.
Leveling up the framing bed
putting up the first wall
Barking the trees made me super strong!
Hand hewn!
There's a tree in the house!
Esa on Break
Hand cutting notches for the wind braces
Puckett men doing what they do, hand cutting scarf joints
Hammering together mortise and tenons
Final framing wall going up!
Frame is done! Now onto the walls!
Mortise and tenon joints fitting nicely
Timber locking the wind braces
Stacking Straw Bales all the way to the ceiling! 18'
Cutting notches for the window bucks with a chainsaw
Stacking Straw bales for walls
And stacking
Thank goodness for friends that felt like throwing bales up 20' on their weekends
Stacking straw around window bucks
always on break
Sewing in the lathe through the bales to make curved sills
Sewing in the lathe to create the curved sills
Trimming the straw to prep for plaster
Who ever thought I would be weedwacking the house?
First coat of lime plaster on our straw bale walls!
My brave mother in law helping me sew in the inside sill curves through the straw
Found this on our newly installed door jamb
We're dried in, and have a couch!
John working late night to cut notches for the loft floor joists
Final coat of lime plaster on the interior
Fitting stones from the yard around a live edge slab, soon to be counter
Making a backsplash with pebbles I found in the stream
Finished backsplash
New live edge Beech Bar top we just milled from our firewood pile! What a score!
Solarium finally added to the front of the house! It heats the house and grows things year round!
John in his happy place with his Thor Hammer
Check Back! More to come….
Contact Us
If you would like to know more about the build, specifics about straw bale or plaster, or just want to say hi, please contact us! We aren’t professionals, but we know how much it helped us when people would answer a never ending list of questions for us and we would like to share our experiences with you!
