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 [...]
Posts under ‘Cob walls’
Back to… the rain
A goal was set
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 [...]
A bit more rain…
I didn’t get a heck of a lot of time to work on the cob house since it was very wet and gray and rainy throughout much of the past six days. I must say that it’s a real drag constantly worrying about the weather and covering up the walls every night with tarps, and [...]
Another cob house picture update
The house is starting to feel much more like an actual house now that some of the walls are 6+ feet tall. Standing inside, it’s also easier to imagine what the final house will look like, where things will go, and how big the space feels.
Sculpting with cob
If there’s one thing you’ve probably heard/read about cob many times before, it’s probably the fact that cob is immensely sculptural.
Lately, I have been working at a much slower pace since I have been working on sculpting various cob book shelves and other little storage nooks into the walls of my house. The photo above [...]
Three feet and rising
Ok, so my original estimate of 100 total batches of cob to complete the walls may have been off.
Eighty plus batches later, the walls stand at an average height of 3.5′ (not including the foundation), which is probably half the total amount of cob necessary. Some taller spots are now no longer workable without standing [...]
The cobbing workflow
I thought I might touch upon the actual cobbing process, since I haven’t really talked about that specific element of building very much. Over the past few weeks, we have developed a very efficient working system, allowing us to quickly stomp, loaf, and apply the cob to the walls.
It begins with a “burrito”, the final [...]
Rain, rain, rain
This is an extraordinarily rainy spring. We’ve had so much rainfall so frequently, with so many warnings of flash floods and tornadoes the past number of weeks that it’s been hindering not just our gardens, but local farmers from getting their crops in the ground, too. And of course it’s been washing away all the [...]
The cob wall is growing
The cob wall is growing day by day, despite tremendous recent rainstorms.
On Monday night, we suffered a huge storm, with 3.5″ of rain pouring down overnight, complete with blazing lightning and ground-shaking thunder. The following morning, a little flash flood passed through, dropping a whole additional inch of rain within a mere 20 minutes. The [...]
Latest cob house pictures
Ok, I think I was wrong about the 12-16″ of cob on the walls… it actually is a little more than that, it seems! Check it out:
Here’s the lovely 5′x4.5′ south plate glass, with work exchanger Adam proudly displaying the setup. I was nervous about sticking that large a piece of glass on the cob, [...]
