Cob Re: Status in Mauk

[Patrick Newberry]

Boy it's hot here. NO I mean BOY it's hot here. 
Somehow I'm actually getting use to it but would have to warn any 
folks coming down to help out that unless  you have dealt with heat 
and bugs or you are bit masochistic like me well you were warned.

now back to the house.

the Large dome has a bond beam around the 9 foot level. I am still 
working on the ideas for the "roof" part of the dome but have set 
that task off to the side to work on the outerwalls (review:
house is basically a round dome surrounded by a polygon). The outer 
walls are going to be what I have started calling "Bag and Beam" 
strawbale, while the "wall section" section of the dome is built 
totally from earth and bags. Ok back to bag and beam walls. Here I am 
taking the cal-earth long bags and building the corners with the 
earth filled bags.  the bales will then be placed between these earth 
filled bags. 

The first two corners I am building, extend the earth wall 
four feet in both directions, however the next corner I plan on only 
extending them two feet in each direction. 

On our window seat, we have found a  piece of stained glass 
which we will embed in some cob. On the cob embedded windows I am 
thinking of adding a vent below the window. Has anyone built  or 
purchased vents that are used with fixed windows. Ken Kern in his 
books mentions this technique. it seems more cost effective than 
regular window and you don't have to worry about kids punching holes 
in the screens.

We have about 1/3 of the vegas cut and pealed. That work is going 
easier than I thought it would but still a bit labor intensive. 
Actually they are sort of vegas-etts as I don't plan on putting too 
much weight on them. My plan at the moment is to to take these 
wooden strips left over from a furniture manufacturing plant in 
Columbus GA. The strips of wood are 1 inch wide and  vary in 
thickness. I will tack, or nail the strips to the tops of the vegas. 
Since it's free! I'm happy. The top of this surface won't be level 
but I'm just laying insulation on it so what the heck.


I've picked up 100 bales of straw for $1.50 each. I got that price 
because I drove out to the fields myself and picked them up. THe 
price seems to rise the further from the field you get. I'll need 
more but that is what the budget had in it at the moment, plus they 
will be baling for the next month or two so I have plenty of time to 
pick up what I need at the $1.50 price.

For the dome I plan on trying to fill the poly rice bags with straw 
and build a superadobe style dome with them. I'm doing a proto type 
this week over my well. I'm not going to put any rebar or other form 
work at first just to see how sturdy the dome with be on it's own. If 
it appears weak, I'll add more reinforcement as needed. I'll let you 
all know how it comes out. 


Well it's my birthday and as a present to myself, I took a week of  
vacation to work on the house. I some times wonder about myself.

Love and Light
Pat &
Carroll






Art

To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the
majority of men, is the same as saying of some kind of food that it is
very good but that most people can't eat it.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910),
Russian novelist, philosopher. What Is Art? ch. 10 (1898; published in
Tolstoy on Art, ed. by Aylmer Maude, 1924).