Monthly Archives

December 2011

Dec 30
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The Year of Mud Top 10 News and Posts for 2011

By The Year of Mud Book, Natural Building Workshops, Wabi-sabi Kitchen, Moisture, Timber Framing, Lime Plaster, Earthen Floor, Strawtron
Pug Cone

Pug dons a dog cone in 2011... but that's not terribly related to the here and now...

2011 has presented us with a wide mix of events and emotions. It’s been everything from momentous, to extremely challenging, to gratifying, and everything in-between. Just like every other year, I suppose, right? Each year is not so different from the last, but at the same time, each year is full of its own unique experiences.

This was the year we experienced some significant health challenges, decided to build a new home, continued to do major renovations to Gobcobatron to correct some of its moisture and heat issues, made some advancements on our kitchen construction, hosted our first mini building workshop, began organzing two major natural building courses, got some rewarding nods in the media, and ultimately, just like last year, kept incredibly occupied.

Here I present the top 10 news and posts from The Year of Mud in 2011.

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Dec 29
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The Year of Mud Website Downtime

By Uncategorized

Whoops! The Year of Mud has had a few hiccups today. All of the kinks should be ironed out now, but it’s not impossible that it may go down briefly once more in the next 24 hours. Sorry for any inconvenience!

Happy browsing!

Dec 28
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My Cob House in Lloyd Kahn’s Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter book!

By Media
tiny homes book - ziggy 1

Gobcobatron in the new Tiny Homes book

I was really excited yesterday, literally breathless with joy. I walked to the mailboxes yesterday afternoon and spotted a package from Shelter Publications casually lying across the top of our mailbox, and I tore it open to find two glossy new copies of Lloyd Kahn’s latest book, Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter. I literally ran home to pry into it (dropping one of the cute Tiny Homes mini books in the mud in the process… whoops!), and I was thrilled to see my cob house gracing four of the pages within.

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Dec 21
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Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter Book Due in February 2012

By Media

Lloyd Kahn, the man behind cult classics Shelter, Home Work, and the recent Builders of the Pacific Northwest has a new book coming out in February of 2012: Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter.

Lloyd’s previous books all feature the work of owner-builders with a natural flair. Many of his books have the element of travel in it, too, as Lloyd traipses around the country and beyond, meeting creative (and not too infrequently, quirky) builders that delve into natural and traditional styles of building. Shelter set the trend in 1973, and Home Work followed much later with more current day builders and their beautiful work, and Tiny Homes exposes the new exploding scene of tiny houses and small living spaces.

Actually, my cob house will be featured on two pages of the the book. Look for Tiny Homes in February 2012.

Dec 13
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The Year of Mud on Facebook

By Media

The Year of Mud has decided to grace facebook with its muddy-fingered presence. Check out The Year of Mud page and do what you will as far as “liking” us and all that stuff… Expect news announcements, updates about our natural building workshops, and some other good stuff.

(I have been avoiding the site like the plague for a while now, but… what with our building workshops and all that, it seems necessary to break down and get our name out there through the beast that is facebook. So it goes.)

Thanks for supporting The Year of Mud!

Dec 12
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Straw Bale Building Workshop 2012: Build a Straw Bale House

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron, Workshops

The Straw Bale Building Workshop at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage is now open to applicants! Come join us in July 2012 for a comprehensive 10 day straw bale construction course, where you will learn valuable skills you need to know to build your own straw bale house.

You’ll get hands-on experience stacking, securing, and pinning bales, and plastering the walls with local clay. Enjoy and learn from the incredible experience of helping to build an actual home in a well-known, inspiring ecovillage community.
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Dec 08
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Cabin Stove: Small Wood Burning Masonry Heater

By Heating

I’ve been in contact with Max of Firespeaking recently, and he pointed me to a very interesting masonry heater in response to my question about small masonry stove designs appropriate for small homes.

The Cabin Stove, built at Aprovehco Research Center, is a compact multi-functional wood burning masonry heater. A rather attractive one, I might say, that has cooking and water heating functions, in addition to slow-releasing radiant heat.

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