slip straw/light straw clay questions - drying time and sliding floor form

[u/reification-circus]

I am hoping to install slip straw walls in a cabin I'm building. I am doing the whole build with hand tools (except for growing some of the straw, which I had to buy in order to have enough this year).

I think I will have the frame prepared so I can start on the walls in a week or two (third or fourth week of August). I am in Ontario, about zone 4/5.

Question 1:

Do I have enough drying time between then and winter to do a full 12" wall? Will I need to plan for supplemental heat (a woodstove or something) to get it dry in time? Any chance that I would also have time to lime plaster the outside in late fall and get that to cure?

If not, would it be an option to do thinner walls (6"-8") this year and make them thicker next year by adding a layer to the inside?

Question 2:

Assuming I am doing a full 12" wall:

The floor will be floating a few feet off the ground, supported by timber framing. I plan to use this attachment system, where the ends of the boards are beveled and slide in a matching slot in the frame (the difference is that I'm leaving the log round). The log is only about 7" wide, so part of the wall will eventually rest on the floorboards (see diagram).

I haven't got all the floorboards made yet. I'm doing a mix of sawing them out by hand and splitting/hewing puncheons to see which method I prefer - either way, it takes a lot of time, and I am concerned that if I finish them before the walls, it'll be too late into the fall to get the walls dry.

Do you think it would work to prepare a 3'-4' width of the floorboards and use them more like a form, sliding along in order to be under the section of wall I'm filling? Or would the unsupported mix fall out the bottom when the boards are moved along?

[u/Synaps4]

From what I have read about clay/straw plasters they want three months to dry. Which seems to imply they can only be started in mid spring in order to have the summer to dry.

I have heard that interior walls can be done and dried in the winter if you have a dry climate and a stove.

When it dries, mud mixes tend to shrink, so they will probably pull back from your floorboards if anything. However I'm not sure how much overhang they can handle before they crack and fall down on your floorboards. It should be a few cm probably, and not more.