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Jan 17
Love0

An icy cob house interior

By Moisture

I recently got back from traveling. I have been away for six weeks, so I have not been able to closely monitor the condition of my cob house throughout this very cold Missouri winter.

The night I returned, I went to check out the interior of my house with a flashlight. The outside temperature was something like 1°F or less, and lower with the wind chill. Almost the entire interior of the house was glistening with an icy sheen – the walls, and ceiling all had a light coat of ice. It actually looked quite beautiful but it made me a little concerned. I’m not sure if it’s the result of moisture that is still locked in the house, or from condensation, or what. There is some light mold in some spots, too.

Should I be worried? I’m not sure. Is it enough moisture to cause a problem? I wish I knew. If anyone has had a similar experience, I’d love to hear more.

Dec 06
Love0

Subscribe to The Year of Mud blog via email

By Uncategorized

You can now subscribe to The Year of Mud via email. Please note the signup form in the right column.

You no longer have to visit the site to find out if there are new updates; instead, you can receive all the latest news and reports in your email inbox.

Please try it out! Let me know if there are any problems!

Thanks for reading.

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Nov 26
Love0

How to Build a Reciprocal Roof Frame

By Resources, Reciprocal Roof
reciprocal roof frame

A freshly assembled reciprocal roof frame

This is a long-delayed post about building my reciprocal roof frame. This entry documents the details of building my reciprocal roof frame, including the type of wood I used, the number of rafters, and the work process itself. I hope that this will be useful for individuals who want to attempt building a similar frame. With the general lack of information about reciprocal roof construction on the internet, I hope this will become a primary resource. Here we go…

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Nov 21
Love0

My cob building in The Bund magazine of Shanghai

By Uncategorized, Resources

the bund - cob cover

I was surprised to receive a comment on my blog from a foreign reader a couple of months ago. It was from The Bund magazine of Shanghai, and they were interested in doing an interview about building my cob house. Needless to say, I was immediately interested. Surprised, too, of course.

Anyway, I just got a copy of the magazine in the mail the other day. It’s a large format weekly magazine, very glossy, very westernized. Smack dab in the middle of high fashion and pop culture is the article about my cob building, with a photo of me (see above) sitting in my (unfinished) little mud house in a dirty t-shirt. Pretty hilarious. (And opposite that photo? An advertisement picturing Jackie Chan. Trippy.)

Fun stuff.

Here is a PDF document of the article: Cob building interview in The Bund

Nov 18
Love0

Still here, but almost done for the year

By Uncategorized

When all of your energy comes from the sun, and the sun don’t shine for a week, that means there ain’t no power to keep this blog updated.

So. Anyway. Building is definitely winding down and pretty much done for the season. I will put up a few more entries detailing the last of my cob building exploits for the year, and then I will slowly enter hibernation mode.

I would like to keep this blog rolling in the off season, so I am considering creative ways of keeping relevant and fresh content coming even while I’m not working on my house. We shall see.

Nevertheless, expect a little bit about my earthen plastering experience and winterproofing the house in the near future.