[Cob] Stone in cob

[jane at kirstinelund.dk]

I live on an old farm from mid 19th century. It's made of bricks, main
house as well as barns, and the mortar is clay mixed with sand (I can't
tell you exactly how much clay to how much sand, but when we make clay
mortar ouself we use about 4 parts sand to 1 part of our own, fairly pure
clay).

The bricks are easy to take apart and clean which means that we can use
them again as we build more houses (we are taking the barns down because
the timber construction won't hold much longer, and because it was a
condition for getting building permits). But even then the wall
construction is still very stable after 1½ century, so we see no reason
not to repeat the use of clay mortar.

And the bricks we re-use are made from local clay, and burned on the spot,
so it is all very romantic....

This isn't exactly cob as mortar, as there is no straw in it, but it works
very well