Cob Warehouse

[Rog]

Hi y'all (long time no see)

Well...  How things change.

Firstly, as an aside, I persued the makers of that 1:2:3
cement/whatever/sawdust building to no avail.  Seems they'll be keeping
their recipe to themselves.  No matter; sounds like a few of you got enough
of it worked out to build your own.

Secondly, I'll no longer be dropping out to the country and building a
little cob cottage, as was the plan.  See, things got a little bit out of
hand, one thing led to another, and now there's seven of us poised to set
up an intentional community practicing nonviolence and consensus right in
the guts of inner-city Melbourne.  Well, not slap bang in the middle of
town, but y'know, pretty close.  No forests nearby, put it that way.
However, that doesn't mean no cobbin'...  On the contrary, in fact. 
Physically we're going to be building a co-housing development into a
warehouse shell, with the architectural design focussing on community and
promoting social interaction.  And we quite like the idea of having our
internal walls made from dirt, basically.  Further to that, we're getting a
warehouse with a reasonable patch of land adjoining it, which we're going
to mould, via permaculture, into a small food-forest.  A spin-off from all
of this is going to be the educational side of it -- bringing this sort of
wisdom to the city-folk speaks volumes, methinks.  Naturally we're already
negotiating with the council regarding composting toilets, rainwater
harvesting and grid-interractivity.  It's scary what can be acheived when
people get excited.  :)

So anyway, I wanted to thank the many contributors to this list.  Your
information has been invaluable, and will be put to good use in the not too
distant future.

I'll keep you posted on Keep playing in the dirt!

Cheers, Rog.

P.S.  If anyone's interested in a more detailed 12-page document on the
Project, lemme know, eh?