I was fortunate to visit Joshua Tree this weekend. I met up with friends made at the Water Woman Festival in October. During the festival I didn’t really take any photos… to busy plerking ( play-working ). This time I made sure to take some!
There were 4 building projects during the festival. A temple led by Sun Ray Kelly; a cob bench and shade structure led by Kata Polano; Ray Cirino’s cob bench with built in rocket stove cooker; and a pond built by Gregory Glenn or the “goddess dipping pool”. The temple and pool are complete, though the two cob benches are still under construction. We were working on that this week end.
Have you ever heard the expression “I’m a builder not a baker”? It’s funny, until recently, I’ve made more cob ovens than loaves of bread.
My friends Kevin and Kristy ( KK ) came for a visit and we reconstructed the Oasis cob oven. The size was a little too small and it had seen a years-worth of weather, so I destroyed the dome. That’s what I love about cob… you can start over, with ease, creating a whole new form. This time made it a little taller inside and added a chimney stack just for fun. So, it took a while to get all the elements in place… remodeling the oven, gathering ingredients, and researching recipes. But then one day, it was all together, and it was time to bake. Continue Reading…
It’s been super fun to watch the process of Ziggy and friends building his cob house, dubbed Gobcobatron, over the last year or so. It’s a new installation on the land of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, a ecological and socially minded intentional community in northeastern Missouri. Ziggy has been busy working on a spiral designed cob house with a reciprocating living roof, a rocket stove, earthen floors and interior finishes. Now it seems that he’s ready to move in!
I’m gracious to Ziggy for documenting the process as he works step by step through building a cob house. Sharing insights and taking the time to document his experience, which is no small feat in it’s self. Congratulations!
Explore the world of natural building and meet some of its pioneers who are creating beautiful and inexpensive houses out of earth and straw, houses that you can make, too. This is a way of building that can transform how you see the earth and yourself.
I’m fascinated by new ways of making cob. Especially ones that take some of the back-breaking labor out of the equation. Years back I visited HUG, or Hunt Utilities Group and produced a short video of the experience. Ryan Hunt gave us the tour and explained their vertical auger mixer. Which can make quick work of cob creation in mass quantities. Recently I checked in with HUG to see if there were any new innovations with mechanical cob mixing. The following is a email I received from Ryan…
The magic to it is the vertical auger. Tumble mixers make balls of it. Mortar mixers and others with blades running through the mud catch the straw on the leading edges where it builds up huge sometimes. Horizontal augers can compact the material against the side. Skidsteer or tractor mixing is inconsistent. And feet just get tired by the time you get a couple tons done.
We started with the big, blue Patz vertical Auger mixer. It’s called a TMR mixer (total mixed rations) and is usually used for cattle feed. We bought the small one made to be run by a 100hp tractor. It mixes up to 7000 lbs of cob in about 30 minutes.
Then we bought and modified a little orange mixer hopper meant for spray-able, fibrous mixes. We modified it with a vertical auger to replace the paddles and added a variable speed motor. It has been used extensively to make small batches for the cob sculpting on campus.
With those two, we decided we needed something of an in between size that could be more portable than the big one, but make enough cob to be useful on a job site. So we commissioned the construction of one about 1/4 the size of the big blue Patz. That is now powered with a small tractor.
These are all successful, but are now underutilized. We may be willing to rent some out. Last year, we made several tons of cob for a local builder.
Then we have a gravel screener to get the rocks out of the sand and the clay (somewhat). Cob with only small rocks works well for being pumped and trowel applied or spray applied on a wall. We have a nice little pump and air compressor set up that can do that job, too.
We’d love to have some help documenting “commercial” cob. It’s not the main direction we are headed at the moment, but there is a lot that we can share with people.
We started with the big, blue Patz vertical Auger mixer. It’s called a TMR mixer (total mixed rations) and is usually used for cattle feed. We bought the small one made to be run by a 100hp tractor. It mixes up to 7000 lbs of cob in about 30 minutes.
