The cob workshop has arrived! The initial crew (Keith, Krista, Julia, Scott, Gary, Jeanine and Jim) came to the Ecovillage super stoked to get dirty and make sweet cob.
Keith and Gary rock out on the foundation
Jim inspects the work on the west wall foundation - not bad!
'When you stare into the rock, the rock stares into you'
Scott and Gary keeping it real (or playing rock paper scissors?)
It's called 'clay meditation', and is the practice of breaking up lumps of clay with your hands, smoothing things out for the cob mixture. It's been known to cause sometimes great conversation, sometimes deep introspection.
Jeanine and Krista workin the clay
Gary and Scott flash the cob gang symbols. Rival cob gangs beware.
See? It spells C-O-B. (Umm... yeah, sometimes we do work, too)
The foundation for the west wall is complete.
Check out the fine rockwork on that corner! Cob structures have been known to stand for over 1000 years. In our rainy climate it's all about 'good hat, good boots' (good roof, good foundation).
The other end of the west wall foundation.
Let's dance! One of the funnest parts of cob building is mixing the sand, clay, straw and water with your feet. Best done with friends, and music.
Mix, mix, mix...
Krista raises the roof.
'This is how we do it'...
Good dance moves are an key part of the structure.
Months of preparation, 27 bales of straw, many truckloads of earth and clay and 245 plays of the song 'Ridin Dirty' all come together to produce our first cob. It was a glorious moment.
And they began to multiply...
Gary and Jim do the old cob toss.
Our wall design incorporates stacked logs, adding to the insulation and speeding up the building process. This is called a 'stacked wall' design. The east and west walls will use this design, the north wall will be stacked straw bales for maximum insulation, and the south wall will be pure cob with large windows for passive solar heating.
A log with fish-hook-like 'barbs' is used to secure the door frame. Those barbs bite into the cob like a vegetarian on a tofu dog.
Jeanine 'sharpening the axe'. We all take time during the day to read from 'The Cob Builders Handbook'.
Scott takes a break.
End of the day comes and hungry cobbers dine on veggie chili and garlic toast. Yum.
