~~LET THE COBBING CONTINUE~~

We've started working with COB again. We started last summer, took winter off since it's to cold to work with COB in the winter and now we've started back up. We started a little out building and hope to finish it this year.

COB is a mixture of clay, sand and straw and when it's totally dry it's as hard as cement. Since we are doing this project all on our own and without large work parties (like most Cobbers have) we've chosen to speed up the process by using a tractor to mix the cob. This is NOT the way typical cobbers would mix cob, but then again we aren't typical people so it fits. Being short on helpers and short on time has lead us to find other ways to speed things up a bit. We would probably be shunned from the cobbing world if people only knew...LOL 

Cob is usually mixed with bare feet (lots of feet) & a tarp.

Dusty spent about 7 hours on the tractor today mixing cob. He mixed enough cob to hopefully finish the project. Just to give you an idea on the amount of cob and the time saving by using the tractor, this would have taken probably 1 full week, 10 plus people & 10 hours a day to make what we made in 1 day.

Shhhhhh, don't tell anyone, okay?!

Dusty and Siah on the tractor together. Oh I should probably explain the tractor. A good friend from church lent us his tractor for a day, we bartered for honey and grass fed beef.  :)  I just LOVE bartering.

Oh my poor driveway.

Yes, my driveway is under all that mess.

Dusty would mix the cob on the driveway and then load it up and haul it to the building site on the other side of the house. (I know from last year that it's going to take me a full day to clean off the driveway, but it does come clean. phew! )

More mixing...

This is a picture of ONE of the large pile of cob. We have two HUGE piles.