Happy new year! Another year (of mud) has come and gone. They move quickly, these years. After 10 years of living in the Berea area, and 8 years at South Slope we’re past the point of getting established and firmly in the routine phase of living life. Our life is here. There’s a familiar flow to the seasons. The details may change, but we know more or less what to expect with each passing season.
This was a summer of firsts in some respects.
After many years without animals, we finally got chickens on the land. We haven’t raised chickens or ducks in years, and I have to admit that the sound of the chickens alone adds a new dimension to the day that I appreciate. (I was very very reluctant to add a new “daily project” this year.)
This was also the first year in a while that we haven’t started a new building project at home. And thank goodness. We still have plenty to finish up between the few on-going (and yes, some long-running) projects. I’m fine with that. It’s my personal goal to spend more time finishing what we have and getting to some much-need maintenance. The temptation to do something new is always there, but it can wait. Patience. There’s plenty to do already.
The end of winter is nigh. However, it can be hard to tell sometimes. 78 degree days in February, night-time lows in the teens this weekend — the weather is an increasingly less reliable marker during this time of year. I’m sure that’s true for many of us, wherever we live. Nevertheless, there’s a change in the air. I’m jonesing to get my spring cleaning going this month. There’s a lot to catch up on after a busy 2022 building season. Here’s where we stand with the timber frame pavilion build.
Happy New Year, dear readers.
It’s been an eventful year. Recently, we achieved a substantial amount of “visual progress” on our ongoing timber frame pavilion project — we raised the frame, finally moving pieces out of the big tent and into the field for assembly and lifting them up into their final resting place.
And it feels really, really good to be at this stage in the game.
The bustling summer and fall seasons are finally coming to a close. We just wrapped up our final Natural Building Essentials Workshop a few weeks ago, gardening season is long past, and it’s nearly time to start hatching plans for 2023 already. It’s been a year to remember.
Well, here we are again. Another year (of mud, timber, gardening, challenging weather, the pandemic, parenting, life on earth) for the books. In many ways, 2021 was a continuation of 2020. So many ups and downs. So many glimmers of both hope and despair. We all need a collective pat on the back, unironically. It’s impossible to pretend that things are “normal”. It’s hard to know what to say after a while without repeating myself. And so this annual recap exercise takes on some new meaning.
Beyond the pandemic and the continuing torrent of challenges, there’s a host of things to remember and celebrate. I can fall prey to pessimism pretty easily these days, so this is good practice for me. Life is indeed full, and here’s a glimpse of some things worth remembering in 2021.
Last spring, I finally had the time to build the new cob oven under the timber frame pavilion we built in our 2019 Timber Frame Workshop. Our intention had been to use this cob oven to host monthly community pizza nights. (We’re doing that, although not in the same way I imagined it with the onset of the pandemic).
I took this opportunity to make some small but effective improvements to the standard cob oven design. After using the oven regularly for 8 months or so, I want to share those design enhancements and a few pictures of the construction process.
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As we all know, it’s been a rocky year (uhhh, at best). However, I want to take this opportunity to share some updates about workshops and natural building happenings. I also want to take a moment and find something positive to celebrate about the past year. I hope you can do the same.
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I’m a big sucker for the series Begin Japanology / Japanology Plus. It’s a long-running TV series that dives into specific aspects of Japanese culture, hosted by the mild-mannered Peter Barakan. The premise and delivery are very simple, and there’s an episode for seemingly everything Japanese.
Recently, an episode devoted to Japanese plastering was released. It’s an informative, inspiring look at the history of plastering craft, and some of the newer work being done today.
One word: storehouses. Check it out!
This has been the busiest winter in a long time. It’s all good stuff, but the window of opportunity to appreciate some downtime is narrowing before a busy spring and summer season. Enough of that, though. I’m here to share some details about our upcoming Japanese Carpentry Workshop project.
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This blog is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. Since 2012, we’ve been hosting Natural Building Workshops so you can learn essential skills to build your own natural home.
