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Uncle Mud Tour of the water heater we've been updating for the shower house at Wheaton Labs in lovely Montana. The earlier build was full of soot because it was burning poorly so we did some editing and now it makes nice hot showers with no smoke or soot and just a little bit of firewood.
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In which Sarah Mud and I visit a Deek Diedricksen Tiny House build site with lots of cool projects and teach them a bit about cob.
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If I was going to use this cabin year-around I would put a rocket heater in there but since I just want a weekend retreat space this rumford fireplace gives a cozy heat and a lot of ambiance.
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Thank you for following and supporting our adventures on Patreon. We are working on collecting links to our work here from all over the Internet. Mother Earth News is great fun to work with. You can join us at one of their fairs all over the US.
Read Cob Building Basics: DIY House of Earth and Straw by Chris McClellan at Mother Earth News.
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Uncle Mud visits Rodney's Natural Building Demo
Melani and I stopped by Chatham University to attend Mud Brother Rodney Morgan's defense of his Masters of Sustainability Dissertation that I have had the pleasure of advising him on. He presented the University with evidence of a significant environmental footprint and financial gains if they switch their campus building program from…
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My mud sister Aviva in Atlanta seems to be everywhere doing everything. When she isn't cooking amazing vegan food or leading movement classes or belly dancing or writing songs or performing with her band The Flying Penguins she is playing in the mud. Yesterday she sent me this video of her long running community project, a cob playhouse affectionately known as"The Ox". It has outlasted numerous…
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A Tiny House Party in North Carolina
Sarah Mud and I were invited to meet up with Deek Diedrekson of Relaxshacks.com and his motley crew for a tiny house build in North Carolina. Deek's tiny houses feel like the crazy retro robot comic book fort illustrations from his books came to life and ran away to hide in the woods. You can find his books here:
Humble Homes, Simple Shacks, Cozy…
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Join us on a quick tour of one of our favorite Frank Lloyd Wright homes. Favorite because it was designed to be a (relatively) small economical home and it really works. If it sounds like I am repeating myself it is because I had to splice together 4 videos to get this and avoid most of the other people on the tour.
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Mother Earth News and Friends Ep 56: Natural Building
"In this episode of Mother Earth News and Friends, Chris McClellan (aka Uncle Mud) discusses how to build a home out of natural materials and the legal nuances that come with these structures."
They broadcast this live on the local radio station. It was great fun to do, I hope it is half as much fun to listen to. Come see us live…
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This Greenhouse heater we built in Montana has a number of successful experimental features that make it work well in wet conditions like a greenhouse or outdoors. First there is no cob that can get wet and turn to mush. Second is a horizontal stratification chamber that can be placed in a bench in a greenhouse or in the ground underneath the floor of the greenhouse where it can heat things evenly.…
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Hey Patreon peeps. We're excited to be invited to talk cob and rocket heaters and treehouse living at a Relaxshacks.com tiny house build in North Carolina. Deek asked us to give film a tour of Sarah's Treehouse. Unfortunately we will have to redo it because the date stamp on my new gopro is wonky. But it was a fun tour so I thought I would share.
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Tammy at Seven Generations in Bandon Oregon came up with this one and I had to share. IT DOES NOT USE WATER FROM THE TOILET BOWL! lol. It uses the clean water from the pipe that fills the flush tank. You can wash your hands with it and it drains into the tank to be used for the next flush. If you can find a commercial one in the states it will run at least $100. This was a couple bucks in hardware…
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One of my favorite presentations to give is how (and why) to build a 5 gallon bucket composting toilet. Its my number 2 presentation. Badump. Anyway, this article I wrote for Mother Earth News covers the how and why of composting toilets.
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I met Cat Taylor in early 2018 and visited Cob Hill, walking the land with her. A year later her Natural Building classes have netted a beautiful cob and cedar home and a beautiful bunch of friends who have come together to create it. In this video Cat gives us a tour of the house.
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On our way to the Mother Earth News Fair in Belton TX we passed a worn sign for this place and had to make a U turn. This place and places like it seem to be constantly getting their budgets cut. So sad. Even those of us who have been transplanted to this continent, this is our heritage. The Mississippian Culture filled the middle 2/3rds of the US and influenced all the way to Baja and the Florida…
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It's been very cold here in Ohio so I thought i would share my appreciation of the Rocket Mass Heaters that keep my house warm. It starts with a quick tour of my glass, cob and wood bedroom, then we light the little Rocket Mass Heater that keeps everything from freezing. It would probably have an easier job of it if I hadn't used so much glass in my walls, but I love waking up to the light through…
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https://www.motherearthnews.com/green-homes/build-a-home-zmaz09fmzraw
This is the first article I wrote for Mother Earth News thanks to Lloyd Kahn's kindness in introducing me to his friends William Castle, whose work I report on here, and Cheryl Long, then editor of Mother Earth News who was willing to give me a chance. My life has been enriched greatly by my friendships with these amazing folks and the work I do with Mother Earth News.
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https://www.facebook.com/MotherEarthFAIR/videos/10156530377342010/
In which Dan talks a lot while I do all the work, building a Jenkins style Humanure Bucket Toilet.
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We left Jamaica Saturday and most of us staggered into our own beds in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Krystal ended up getting stuck at our place due to the weather and is still trying to push home to Iowa as I write this Wednesday night. Jamaica--the real Jamaica, not the plastic resort fluff around the edges--is wonderful and hard. Folks here make only $20 or so per day if there is work…
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https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1506409959395235
Okay this video was from last year. I don't have enough bandwidth here now to upload new video and today was also pretty rainy and annoying. Not below-zero and piling up snow annoying like Ohio was today, let's be clear about that, just windy and rainy. Thank you to all my lovely patrons who are helping make this possible. In our absence the pizza oven and rocket cooker we built last time have been very popular. A lot of folks here in Nine Mile still cook over an open fire, often burning…
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