Building with cob in the UP is just a little bit, shall we say, tense, as we know that these hot summer days can quickly turn to frosty nights and the cob has to be well dried by then, or it will puff up like pastry. We decided to alter our cob mix and removed the sawdust because it was slowing down the drying time. The new mix is prettier, points very nicely, but does have a tendency to crack. We may continue to experiment, adding just 1/2 the sawdust that we were using. We also found that collecting dry manure and shredding it the chipper/shredder is making an easier mix to work with.

We have temps near 100 today, but the work must go on as we have fallen behind schedule. The goal was to be done with the walls no later than August 1st, and it's looking like it will be 2 weeks later than that. The earthen floor takes a long time to cure, and then requires 7 coats of linseed oil and drying time between each. We may be living with a REAL dirt floor this first winter.






(No, the posts aren't made of rubber... The wide angle lens distorted the image a bit.)








View out the kitchen window.