life’s everyday adventures in an ecovillage, plus other intentional community, filmmaking, and random musings
Here’s a normal cob wall (with no/near zero significant water damage):
And another wall that has been pelted in a flash flood:
The damage isn’t that significant (it’s just surface runoff), but it sure still bugs me…
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Rainiest year. Ever.
When I left DR three weeks ago, I figured all that rain we’ve been experiencing had left us, too, but boy was I wrong. Yesterday, we experienced yet another incredible flash floor, dumping a good 2″ or so of rain on us in less than half an hour. We just can’t seem to get a few dry days.
The day was gorgeous until a mere hour before this storm rolled in. We went to a party at Sandhill Farm, and before we left I decided against covering my house, noting the clear skies, but I should have known… never take a chance… (Covering the walls is really annoying at this point because it takes a good half hour to do it right, hence my reluctance.)
Needless to say, my house was left exposed (although it was quickly covered pre-storm with the help of some folks who were staying back at DR, the wind [60 MPH+!] whipped any and all tarps off the walls).
The north wall took a bit of a beating, washing away a decent amount of cob surface material, exposing a lot of straw. But really, it’s only just surface damage (although it still really sucks to see), and the integrity of the walls has not been lessened.
Let’s just say: lesson learned. I don’t want to see that happen again. (But I wonder if it really would have even mattered had I myself tarped the walls before we left… oh well…)
Tomorrow I return to Dancing Rabbit via the train. Well, lemme correct that: tomorrow I leave for Dancing Rabbit, but I won’t get back until later the next day. It’s a day and a half trip by train. It’s pretty grueling, but I prefer it to flying, mostly for environmental purposes.
It feels strange to be away for so long in the middle of summer, when most of the action is happening. I haven’t seen my house in weeks, and I can’t wait to get back to work, although I know the heat is pretty intense by now. I anxiously await finishing the cob walls and getting that roof up. I feel like once the roof is up, it will be pretty smooth sailing. (Not that the work will be so quick after that, but at least more familiar to me: plastering, making a cob bed, the earthen floor, etc.)
Here we go!
I went to the beach for the first time in two years. It was a pretty regular thing until I moved to Missouri (especially when I was younger), but now I’m nowhere near the ocean. You kinda take it for granted when it’s so close.
A change of pace…
On Wednesday, I learned that my grandfather died, and before I knew it, I was on a car/train/subway/plane to New Jersey in order to make it for the funeral.
It was a dizzying experience learning about my grandfather’s unexpected death and then suddenly making new travel plans. (I originally planned to leave for a trip to New Jersey next week.) Needless to say, I won’t be working on my house for a few weeks.
Perhaps I will bury one of his possessions (maybe a watch or something - my grandfather loved to buy watches and clocks at the local flea market and then to hawk them to other people - ha!) in my cob wall as a memory. He will be missed. The more I think about it, the more I feel a certain connection to him and his personality. He grew up on a farm in Poland and eventually made to the US during World War II, settling in New Jersey. When he visited Dancing Rabbit with my parents last year, he was amazed by all of the open land and he insisted that he could be happy in the local area (which I didn’t doubt.) He never lost touch with his past and his rural roots.
Rest well, Chet.
I set a goal to finish the cob walls of my house before I left Dancing Rabbit for a visit to New Jersey come July 12. I thought this would be possible several weeks ago, when progress was very brisk, but with last week’s rain, I suffered a setback. Granted, there is absolutely no reason why I have to finish the walls before I leave… I have plenty of time to finish this house before late fall arrives, but I like to set markers. I get pretty crazy about wanting to get X number of batches by Y date, etc… but mostly it’s all in good fun and I don’t get that hung up on it.
I have some help coming in the form of visitors tomorrow and some guests over the weekend, so maybe I won’t be too far off from my original goal after all… we’ll see! These are exciting times.
The Year of Mud: Building a cob house Green Options: Posts by Brian Liloia