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Feb 19
Love0

Wanted: Your Feedback and Comments!

By Uncategorized

pug-dog-shopEDIT: I’ve just learned from a reader that Disqus may not be the best choice, because the system keeps track of your comments and they cannot be deleted. That doesn’t sound all that great to me. I’m currently re-evaluating my choice and considering going back to the default WordPress comment system, and hoping that an oddball plugin is causing my quirk with the comments periodically disabling themselves. Any other input would be great!

Maintaining this blog extends beyond just writing and posting new articles. There’s a fair amount of fussing and managing WordPress and other web stuff, too.

Anyway, without boring you too much here… I’ve had a nagging problem with the WordPress comments settings changing themselves for a couple of years now without any good advice about how to resolve the problem. More specifically, the comments basically disable themselves periodically, so people cannot post comments unless I somehow catch the problem after it happens.

Today, I’ve updated the comments feature on the blog to a third party system. To that effect, I would love your feedback on the new system — please let me know how it works for you.

You can leave comments as a guest without registering, and if you already use Disqus elsewhere, you can log in with your information here. I would dearly appreciate any comments and feedback about this change. And if you find that you suddenly cannot comment on a new post, please contact me and let me know! Thanks for reading!

 

Feb 16
Love3
how to make cob

How to Mix the Perfect Batch of Cob

By Uncategorized, Cob Building
Building With Cob

Stomping a batch of cob on a recycled lumber tarp

In the seven years I’ve run The Year of Mud and written about building with cob, I realize I haven’t written a simple ‘how to mix cob’ post. For many folks, particularly anyone coming across my various cob oven articles online, it may not actually be obvious how you mix cob, whether it’s for an oven, bench, building a house, etc. So, better late than never — here is a handy reference if you want to mix the perfect batch of cob for your project!

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Feb 14
Love0

Mini Workbench Photo Update

By Woodworking
Jointing Split Top Roubo Workbench Top

Sending one half of the (heavy) workbench top over the jointer

During my five day Roubo workbench building marathon with Jacob, I didn’t take much time to pick up the camera. But I did snap a few photos when I could. The days were rather long. Now that we’re home and the workbench is painfully close to completion, I thought I would share a few from our recent expedition.

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Feb 09
Love0

DIY Woodworking Workbench Plans

By Woodworking
split top roubo workbench plans

Roubo-style Ash Workbench

The time has finally arrived. After almost two years of dreaming about building a workbench for woodworking, and sitting on a cache of wood for the project for nearly a year, we’re building a Roubo workbench. This style of bench is named after André Jacob Roubo, a French woodworker who lived during the 18th century and wrote a massive three volume series on the subject of working wood called L’Art du Menuisier (The Art of the Joiner).

One of his particular drawings of a workbench design has become newly popularized by the likes of Christopher Schwarz and other current day woodworkers. Lost Art Press, a small publishing outfit is actually translating Roubo’s writings into English. Schwarz’s book on workbenches and blog probably helped catapult the Roubo design to the point where you can find many, many images and videos of different people’s own Roubo workbench designs.

Having only been recently exposed to this type of workbench a couple of years ago, it’s hard to imagine wanting to build anything else. The beauty of the Roubo workbench lies in the sheer simplicity, versatility, functionality, and heft of the design.

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Jan 25
Love2

How to Build a Better Outdoor Pizza Oven

By Cob Building, Cob Oven
Build a Better Outdoor Pizza Oven

Learn how to build this outdoor oven in this new how-to

Several years ago, I wrote about how to build (the now-infamous) $20 outdoor cob oven. That oven I built worked decently, produced a lot of delicious meals, and advanced my pizza baking fever to new heights. Since then, we’ve built several more outdoor pizza ovens, and each of them has been a great improvement upon the original.

This newer model is slightly bigger, allowing for easier access to the oven interior, it has even more food baking potential, and the insulation is vastly superior. This sucker gets hot, and stays hot… for a long, long time. The oven has a small roof shelter, protecting it against the weather, and a chimney keeps smoke out of the face of the fire tender. Best of all… the oven is still very inexpensive to build.

This is a very achievable, low cost, and effective oven that will not cost you thousands of dollars to build. Here’s a look at the new and improved outdoor pizza oven plans and how you can build your own.

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Jan 23
Love0

New Cob Oven How-to Series Coming Soon!

By Cob Oven

coboven-sandformMore than four years after I posted my how to build your own cob oven for $20, it is still the most popular entry on The Year of Mud. Clearly there is a big audience out there interested in building DIY backyard ovens. Gotta love that.

Since building several other ovens after the original $20 incarnation, however, we’ve made some significant improvements to our design, increasing the efficiency, the ease of use, and the baking potential. Needless to say, it’s hard for me to recommend the outline for the former design, because the new oven is so much superior.

I have finally begun an updated series on how to build a better cob oven, which I will begin posting next week. If you’re dreaming about projects you can do once spring rolls around, be sure to tune back in!

Update: Here’s where you can find the Better Outdoor Pizza Oven Plans!

Jan 18
Love0

Winter is for Making New Windsor Chairs

By Woodworking
Sack Back Windsor Chair 01

Up close look at one of the new sack back Windsor chairs

During our recent annual winter pilgrimage to Greg’s shop, I made two new Windsor chairs for our growing collection. The first year, I started with a simple hoop back, and last year I made a continuous arm Windsor. This winter, however, I decided to make two chairs simultaneously — both sack backs. This proved to be a really valuable learning lesson for me. Doing two at the same time really cemented in some of those many detailed steps more firmly. It was twice the practice in one go.

Here are the results.

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Jan 13
Love0

How To Hang Curtains in Your Straw Bale House

By Strawtron, Winter, Straw Bale Building
Thermal Curtains

Properly designing for thermal curtains results in a tidier look, and no loss of your view through the window

Though not often discussed, curtains are an important design consideration for any energy efficient house. Specifically, thermal curtains are the way to go if you want to help keep your house warm in winter (and cool in the summer), and save energy for heating and cooling. These insulative curtains require some forethought, and in a natural building such as a straw bale house with recessed windows, it’s important to think about how to hang curtains and curtain rods before your house is even ready to live in. How you decide to hang your curtains and rods will affect your window framing and trim, so you really want to plan ahead to ensure the most functional and aesthetically appealing result.

Here’s how we designed the windows in our straw bale house specifically for heavy thermal curtains.
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Jan 06
Love0

2014 in Review: A Chockablock Year

By Strawtron, Woodworking, Wood Carving, Natural Building Workshops, Cob Oven, Photos, Timber Framing

outdoor-pizza-ovenI can hardly recall such a dynamic, diverse year as 2014. 2014 marked a transition year for April and I, and I’m happy to say that it was a smooth one. It was our first year living in the Berea, Kentucky area, having left Dancing Rabbit in the fall of 2013. This move was not an insignificant event, as I spent seven full and formative years in the northeast Missouri ecovillage.

I like to think back on the year past and try to remember all that has happened — maintaining this blog is actually an important way for me to be able to do that. It’s as much about documenting what we’re up to as it is a way for me to preserve some of life’s countless details. Here I’ll share some of the notable events and experiences of 2014, the year of our transition into a new life outside of Berea, Kentucky.

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