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Apr 13
Love0

The Year of Mud expands

By Uncategorized

The comments I received on my earlier post seemed to be enough to sway me towards combining this website with my kitchen construction blog, so except many (and more frequent) posts about building the bale-cob kitchen here in the future! For the sake of my own sanity and time, this seems to be the best option. I’ve imported all of the content (there isn’t that much yet), so you’ll see it throughout the existing posts.

You may notice a few other changes on The Year of Mud to accommodate this change, as well. I’ve reworked the About page to include a brief cob building overview, and moved my cob house timeline to its own page. And the kitchen construction project has its own page as well, which will surely be updated as progress on that building continues.

Stay tuned for more, and thanks for the feedback!

p.s. No new title yet. I gotta admit that I’m sorta attached to “The Year of Mud”, even though the name is kinda irrelevant now.

Apr 13
Love0

Question for readers: Combining kitchen building blog with The Year of Mud?

By Uncategorized

I’ve been pondering a possibility for the past week or so. Last year, I started up a new blog dedicated to my latest building project, a sub-community kitchen here at Dancing Rabbit that I’m working on with a few other folks. However, I’ve been finding it difficult to want to maintain two separate websites, although in theory I like the idea of the content for each website being devoted to each particular project. It just seems more organized, you know? But it’s really hard to want to upkeep two pretty regular blogs… well, regularly.

And so I ask you readers: do you think that I should combine The House That Millet Built with The Year of Mud, for the sake of simplicity? Or should I keep them separate, for the sake of organization?

It should be fairly straightforward to have a kitchen subsection on this website, with it’s own set of categories.

Well, what do you think? Would it detract from the straight aim of this blog to start talking about a whole new project?

Apr 07
Love0

Cob Bench Demolition Video

By Video, Cob Bed and Bench

Holy crap. I knew taking cob apart was not easy, but to actually try to destroy cob makes it really clear just how strong this stuff is! This is a brief video of me (attempting to) demolish the cob bench outside of my house. This bench no longer fits into the design since I plan to add a small mud room/airlock to the house, and the bench would be in the way.

I tried a sledgehammer, but it wasn’t as effective as a pick axe. Actually, it was easiest when the bench was soaked with water and then struck with the pick axe. Hitting it wet with the sledgehammer resulted in cob flying everywhere.

Cob is stupidly strong. You can see the minimal impact a full pick axe blow has on the bench. What made it somewhat reasonable was prying the urbanite out from underneath the bench, and then really wailing on the cob to break it up.

This cob bench demolition experience is making me sweat when I think about taking the whole cob bed and bench apart inside the house! Good lord… it’s gonna be backbreaking…

Apr 03
Love0

Osage orange garden gate

By Design

gardengate

I am constantly amazed by osage orange. April and I recently built a new fence around the garden in front of the house, and we dug up old osage orange fence posts from derelict fence lines here at Dancing Rabbit. We pulled them out from being buried three feet underground, and reused them for our own fence. These posts seem to be nearly indestructible – osange orange is the most rot-resistant wood native to North America. Fence posts can last something crazy like 60 or more years without deteriorating… unreal! Anyway, this garden gate is made mostly from osage orange, too. It’s kinda funky. I like it.

Osage orange… we love you!

Apr 01
Love0
freshly cured earthen floor

Top Ten Reasons to Live Without Electricity

By Living Electricity-free

candle light

Here’s a post I wrote for sustainablog about top ten reasons to live without electricity in your home.

Of course, I don’t actually live completely without electricity (obviously I wouldn’t be writing this if I did), but my actual home does not include electricity. It’s been great and I adore candlelight. Anyway, read the post for more information about why I chose to keep the lights out of my home.

Mar 26
Love0

Deconstructing the rocket stove

By Rocket Stove, Cob Bed and Bench

rocketstove-demo00

A few weeks ago, I started dismantling the rocket stove, officially calling it done. I began with chipping the cob around the base of the barrel and then lifting the barrel off of the system, revealing a very blackened, sooty interior. I was surprised by the level of soot – I thought that perhaps the system was definitely choking up seeing how much material had collected in and around the heat riser.

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Feb 27
Love0

Information Wanted About Cob Houses in Cold Climates

By Heating, Winter

This is a call for information from folks living in cob houses in cold climates – by cold, let’s say places that frequently have below freezing temperatures in the wintertime. If you live in a cob house in an area with cold and/or extended winters, can you describe the construction of your home and your heating system?

How thick are your walls? Do you have any insulation (in the roof, stemwall, floor, etc.?) What is the square footage of your space?

How are you heating your house? How often do you run your stove? Is the home occupied full-time during winter days?

Finally, can you provide average indoor/outdoor temperatures? How comfortable does your cob house stay?

I will followup with some insight into winter conditions in my cob house in the near future.

Feb 27
Love0

A rough drawing of the kitchen design

By Design, Wabi-sabi Kitchen

kitchen-roughdraw

Here’s a rough drawing of the kitchen design. In this sketch you can get a sense of the shape and arrangement of the building. On the east is a wide covered porch for outdoor cooking in the summer. The building has a sizable greenhouse on the south side for starting seedlings and additional heat in the winter, and a west-facing balcony can be accessed from the loft above the dining area on that side of the structure. There are three roof lines — I think the building sorta looks like a duck in this drawing. Outdoor eating will be on the east, along with a cob oven and perhaps even a cob wall along the north border of our “warren” (plot of land) for privacy / a windbreak / aesthetics / sound protection.

If I could find our floor plans drawing, I would post that too, but I actually want to make a more accurate one now that the trench has been dug. Unfortunately it’s hard to measure the drainage trench when it’s covered in snow. Anyway, expect those soon!

Feb 25
Love1

Tiny Wood Stoves For Small Houses: My Choices

By Heating, Winter

I’ve been researching efficient, small wood stoves that could replace the rocket stove in my house. Most home wood stove manufacturers’ smallest models heat 800-1000 square feet at a minimum, which is overkill for my  200 round foot home. However, the house will probably benefit from the extra oomph with all of that (cold, cold) thermal mass and lack of insulation. Here are the two top contenders that I have been researching.

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