Here’s a short little video I made at Alline’s request about the Milkweed Mercantile, a bed and breakfast currently under construction here at Dancing Rabbit. The Mercantile will also feature an organic cafe, and an eco general store. Check it out in the above video!

The Superheroes headquarters is the Possibility Alliance community in La Plata, Missouri, which I visited a few times last year. I’m a big fan of what is going on down there: the community is completely petroleum-free, car-free, and electricity-free. I’m very inspired by this living model and the folks who live there, Ethan, Sara, and others.

Anyway, the Superheroes are super inspiring folks - the rides occur once or twice a year and they are totally unplanned - once they hit the road, they decide where to stop day by day. They help folks in exchange for nothing. This is activism at its finest. I could wax poetic about the whole concept, but it feels more genuine being able to actually talk about it. Maybe later.

Although, I had the chance to sit down with Ethan, who lives at the Possibility Alliance and co-founded the Superheroes movement. We had a great talk - about sustainability, radical simplicity, the balancing act of trying to live simply, and trying to bridge the gap between different alternative groups and communities - and it resulted in this article that I wrote for Planetsave.com: Superheroes Bike Across Missouri and Provide Public Service. I’ll write a second article about the Possibility Alliance itself.

Hopefully I’ll be able to go on next year’s ride. I really wanted to make this one ever since I heard about it last year, but the cob house has been taking all of my time, ya know. Next year, for sure!

Well, the Mercantile is now a finalist, meaning that they are that much closer to the prize! Please consider voting. It’s for a good cause. Seriously. Who ever heard of an off-the-grid bed and breakfast based in an ecovillage? Well, now you have. It’s real. It’s happening.

Go to Ideablob to register and vote!

Go to Ideablob to register and vote!

Last week we got a whopping nine inches of rainfall, totally separate from anything Hurrican Ike delivered elsewhere. (Thankfully, Ike merely skimmed this part of northeastern Missouri, so we were spared any extra rain.)

It’s really been messing up my building schedule, as I’ve had to delay re-building my reciprocal roof frame. There’s just not much one can do when it’s raining all day and night, and the ground is completely saturated. Thankfully, this week’s forecast is looking solidly sunny thus far…

(Climate change = changing weather patterns? Huh? Who said that?)

My new position is at Green Options for their blog Planetsave, which claims to bring you “green news, commentary, and services”. (Services? Eh? That part of the tagline kinda throws me off…)

Anyway, my first post was just published. It’s a kind of introductory post about living off-the-grid at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. Expect to see more writing about life off-the-grid and living sustainably. Hopefully I’ll now have the opportunity to share my interests in natural building, permaculture, local foods, and all of that good stuff with a wider audience.

You can view my Green Options author profile here, and keep up with everything I’ll be writing.

If you are a StumbleUpon or del.icio.us or Digg or other social bookmarking user, I would love it if you shared my posts using these websites.

Thanks.

Bad weather, a tired body, stress, and some other bad spells and downers spilled over me in one week’s time. I had a bad case of fatigue that lasted a few days. At some point I slept nearly 36 hours in two days. I was essentially bed-ridden.

Significant rain delayed the raising of my reciprocal roof (which probably wouldn’t have happened anyway, because I was so fatigued), and put me in a generally sour mood. Then, a bad case of indigestion and a lack of appetite continued beyond my spell of fatigue. But during that, the reciprocal roof went up anyway. Which was a positive thing! But. Now I am planning to redo it, since it’s a bit short of perfect. (But I’m not too sore about that one.) Afterward, more rain came through, harsher indigestion, some bad luck, and other personal things took any kind of potential zap outta me over the rest of the weekend.

This is a new week, however. I’m focusing now on cutting trees for my roof. I can’t worry about the weather, and I can’t try to stick to a non-existent construction schedule. The roof will get re-done in due time.

But damn if it doesn’t feel like the whole world’s pissing on you at times. I rarely get so bleak and bummed out, but last week was my definitely my time to do so.

Time to move on, though.

Yea!

From this point on, I will only post my cob house updates, progress, and photos on The Year of Mud. Please consider subscribing to The Year of Mud RSS feed to keep updated!

This address will go back to serving as my all-purpose ‘life in an ecovillage’ blog.

Thanks!

Yesterday afternoon and this morning, I put some final touches on the cob walls, leveling them in preparation for the soon-coming reciprocal roof. After I smoothed out some of the last cobs, I took a minute as I stood on the lean-to trestle, just staring down at the walls which now easily tower over my head, and I wondered in amazement.

It has been quite a journey to this point, moving over 40 tons of material. That’s a lot of earth. More specifically, it’s been 194.5 batches of cob so far. All this over 57 days (which were not all full work days, mind you.)

And it’s not over yet, but this massive portion of the process is, at least. Here are some photos of the structure.

Interior, looking southwest.The bed will be positioned along the far wall, under the window. The joists will support a 7.5′ wide, 22″ deep storage shelf.

The north wall interior, with nooks and a shelf at the foot of the (future) bed. The rocket stove will be to the left of the window. Exterior backside, looking southwest.

Entryway with storage nooks. A gigantic corner bookshelf.

Happy.

Here’s a couple of photos of the 99% complete cob walls. I figure I’ll be able to finish them off tomorrow, perhaps Sunday if it takes a couple more batches than I expect. Reciprocal roof: here we come!

Also, in the top photo you might notice a post near the entryway. This black locust post will bear one of the reciprocal roof rafters, making for a nice little overhang near the entryway. Call it a really small porch, maybe, but this should provide some decent extra coverage from the elements.

Get all the details here my cob house work exchange. Pass it on.

Alas, I’m building a house out of mud, so I can’t make it there, but I do wish I could. It’s been a while since I’ve been to one of these. I could use the potential burst of inspiration that usually comes along with going to a film festival, watching funky short films, and meeting different folks.

Nevertheless, if any attendes out there chance upon this, I’d be curious to hear how it goes.

(You can find Life With Thomas on YouTube, too, of course.)

With the help of my superstar work exchangers Dan and Danielle, the cob walls are nearly complete. Unfortunately, D&D departed today to begin their own pursuits, but I am hopeful that I’ll be able to complete cobbing by myself by the weekend. I suspect it will take 10 or so batches to level out the walls in preparation for the reciprocal roof - no problem! (My estimations are historically inaccurate, but I feel pretty confident about this one.)

It’s amazing how tall the west wall (see above) is/feels, compared to the rest of the house. A little bit of slope can go a long way.

Last night we had a third campfire in the house, and several folks have suggested leaving the house as is, without roof, because of the dramatic light cast by the fire on the walls. It’s quite a sight. Maybe I’ll have to design a retractable roof…