ARNAUDVILLE, La.

LOUIS MICHOT could have built his house without ever tramping into the Louisiana bayou to wrangle 600 pounds of Spanish moss out of the live oak trees. But the plan — and Mr. Michot enjoys an open relationship with plans — was to fabricate the south wall out of moss and mud.

Old-timers called this Acadian building method “bousillage,” a country cousin to wattle and daub. And his wife, Ashlee Michot, said, “Everyone used to know how to do it.”

At least they did in the 1800s. Born a few years later (1979, to be precise), Mr. Michot is the fiddler and frontman for a riotous Cajun rock band, the Lost Bayou Ramblers. And he did not know how to construct a bousillage wall, or much of anything else, when he decided to raise his homestead on a sweet-potato field here.

“The only thing I had ever built before was a rabbit cage,” Mr. Michot said. “For one rabbit.”

He got some practice remodeling the grottiest parts of the 1970s camper that was his home for two years on the building site. “It had little air plants — bromeliads — growing from the shutters,” Mr. Michot said.