Cob: Ananda/Cob/Yurt/Xtracycle

[Graham Cooper]

Charmaine,

Thanks for the info about Ananda - lots of good sticky red clay.
I used to live there in a yurt that I built before I moved to Seattle.
By some strange co-incidence, (or synchronicity) the Pacific Yurt company is
in Cottage Grove, OR.

Among the rural enterprises at or near Ananda is the Xtracycle:
http://www.xtracycle.com/html/home.php
 - not just for bikies but also for those who want to be non-motorized -
ideal for hauling material
 to building sites in roadless areas and trails in other places too.

Graham Cooper


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-coblist at deatech.com [mailto:owner-coblist at deatech.com]On
Behalf Of charmaine taylor
Sent: Friday, December 27, 2002 6:04 PM
To: Ray Luechtefeld
Cc: coblist at deatech.com
Subject: Re: Cob: Use of Forms?


Yes, cob is being actively created via "tractor cob".  A couple guys in
Nevada
City CA mix cob on a flat spot wit, clamped (like the Madrigil form Ken Kern
promoted for double wall forms)  and 4' long by 1 ft high( maybe more) they
are
building cob fast. I saw and entered a small  round retrreat room maybe 12'
diam,.half underground.

they also did a hundred foot long cob wall , 8' high, arch entrys with
living
sod roof, all with forms and tractor.
last I hear they were going to present this at the Nat build Colloq. in OR
in
Oct..anyone know if they did?

I think the forms were actually thin board, like cut down paneling,and they
just dump the dryish cob in, tamp a little and move the form up and dump
again
as I recall. This is Simon ( a Brit in the US) and Rob who built this all on
Ananda, a religios village.  Saw all this in June and encouraged them to
write
it up.  I have some images I will upload, the cob entry walls are
extroardinarily beautiful, deep wine red clay, slates used as sills in the
window arches, just gorgeous cob work. sculpted seating areas, portholes and
sculpted art into the walls too.

Ms. Charmaine  Taylor/ Taylor Publishing
http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com
http://www.papercrete.com
PO Box 375, Cutten CA 95534
707-441-1632

Ray Luechtefeld wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have been following this list with great interest and we are considering
> doing a cob house in South Central Missouri.
>
> My problem is that I don't have a lot of time to spend working on a cob
> house.  I saw a reference to historical cob buildings that mentioned that
> some of the "newer" (150 years old) cob houses were built with forms to
hold
> the cob in place.
>
> Does this mean that the cob can be mixed and then just poured into the
> forms, like concrete?  I haven't heard anything about this approach and
> would like to know if anyone has any information or comments about it.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Ray