You may have noticed that The Year of Mud has gotten a bit of a design overhaul recently. The theme has been changed, and along with that, the navigation up top has been simplified — hopefully you can find what you need more easily and clearly now.
Check it out and leave your feedback if you have anything to share. Thanks for reading!
p.s. Did you know you can also get to The Year of Mud at https://theyearofmud.com? Oh yea.
I’ve updated my (abbreviated) cob house construction slideshow. This is a great series of images to show folks who are curious about what it is like to build with cob, and to give a look into all aspects of the construction process. The slideshow has been updated to include images of the “new look” of Gobcobatron, including the renovated terracotta tile floor and lime washed walls.
Check it out!
Bringing home the harvest at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage
Ever wonder what it is like to live in an ecovillage? It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly five years since I moved to Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northeast Missouri. After all this time, I’m still learning the ins and outs of community life and what it means to live ecologically. But that’s the way it should be, I think. Learning is an ever-present process.
I wrote up a guest post for Earth Easy about what it’s like living in an ecovillage, how I spend my time here, and some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way.
Apparently, cob is a “wacky” material, even though half of the world’s population live or work in earthen structures – ha!
Well, anyway, Forbes has deemed cob “wacky” enough to include in their latest article, Homes Made From Wacky Materials. They’ve got my house in the mix.
p.s There are perhaps no more wacky materials than the industrial, synthetic ones in use in conventional construction today. Talk about far-removed from any identifiable source! Sheesh.
I never tire of thumbing through beautiful images of inspiring natural buildings, tiny houses, and well-designed spaces. Ahhh…
Well, this so-called free cabin porn site is just that and nothing else: a well-maintained collection of 100s of photos of beautiful traditional buildings and small cabins throughout the world, updated regularly. I’d love to see a collection of these images in print! (Print is always better, right?)
A handmade cob staircase
Oliver of Natural Homes posted this nice shot of a cob staircase in Meka’s cob cottage, one of my favorite cob home interiors. I’ve often wondered what it is like to traverse these particular steps.
One thing is for sure: they are at least nice to look at!
Want to learn all about straw bale home building this year? Don’t forget that we are seeking enthusiastic interns for the 2012 building season for the construction of our new straw bale and timber frame house.
This may indeed be a rare chance to learn how to do timber framing, straw bale building, and participate in two natural building workshops with skilled instructors, all in one program. Rarely will you find a natural building internship as robust as this.
Check out all of the juicy internship details here.
It’s that time of year where I am beginning to really hoard building materials and supplies for the upcoming construction of our new straw bale house. We struck gold last weekend at a local auction — a building supplies business had recently shut down, and everything in their shop and warehouses was up for auction. Wow! That included lumber, windows, doors, metal roofing, hardware, and much more. We had a bit of a spree. Read More
In the not-too distant future, we will be contacting the sawmill for our timber order once and for all. It’s quite exciting, and also a little nerve-wracking to think about putting in an order for such a large quantity of timber — over 6000 board feet of wood! I’ve never dealt with so much wood in my life. Whew. This is a little new to me.
Anyway, we want to take very good care of the wood for our timber frame home once it is delivered, and to that effect, we will be using Land Ark Liquid Wax End Sealer to help protect the wood.
The Year of Mud is happy to announce that we are seeking an intern during the 2012 building season. We are offering a rare natural building internship opportunity — the chance to help build a straw bale house from the ground up, and to participate in two complete natural building workshops in an inspiring ecovillage community.
Interns will help to organize and get full participation in our Timber Frame Workshop, and Straw Bale Workshop. Come experience what it is like to build a natural home from step one at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage!
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.
