[Cob] natural building

[Shannon Dealy]

Damon clarified his meanings in another post, however, I think some of the 
statements below are not uncommon beliefs and worth addressing.

There are a few things people need to consider before they land on any 
particular side of this issue.  This is in no way a criticism of anyone or 
their approach, I have lived a life that has ranged from some of our worst 
excesses to extremely primitive and a fair amount in between the two. 
Even now, I live at the primitive end of the spectrum while studying and 
working at the most extreme end of high technology.

> 	Yes, in a way, it is the point to be natural and use human strength, 
> but man kind's true strength is his brain which allows him to make tools that 
> make the job easier.

Yes, tools make the job easier, however, it is important to distinguish 
between easier and better:

  - easier generally means "less physical labor", anyone looked at the
    obesity levels in countries where life is easier?  The increase in
    rates of many diseases associated with lack of physical activity?
    For those who haven't looked, lack of physical activity correlates with
    higher levels of virtually every lethal disease you have ever heard of
    including: heart disease, most cancers, stroke, and the list goes on
    for many pages.  Are you really saving time if you get it done six
    months sooner, but die 10 years earlier of a heart attack because you
    lived an easier life?  A number of my friends have had heart attacks in
    the last few years.

  - easier often implies use of petro-chemical power sources. Looked at the
    air lately?  It has improved a lot throughout the USA, but better is
    not the same as good, and it has become much worse in many other areas,

> If you dig all your footings by hand (not with a shovel or pick axe) you 
> may never get done.

  - It takes longer, but I have done quite a bit of digging with just a
    stick (technically still a tool), it does take longer, but the "may
    never get done" either means you are trying to dig through solid rock
    or you give up way to easily.

> If you use chunks of urbanite and place 
> by hand (someone already used a machine to mine limestone/ clay/stones and 
> transport it and used a cement mixer to pour into forms made of 2x4's which 
> were made at a mill). Then you start bending over to pull that man-made tarp 
> with 100 pounds of cob on it, and load into a wheelbarrow (man-made) only 
> after all that you apply cob with your hand. So really, there's no way around 
> using the genius of human ingenuity.

I have done cob without wheelbarrows, without tarps, quite literally with 
the only tools being just what natural materials I found lying around on 
the site.

> But if you wanted to be truly natural 
> but build a real sized house it's gonna take your whole life and all the

We need to define "real sized house".  My 70 square foot house is large 
for some parts of the world, microscopic for the USA.  Most builders could 
save an enormous amount of time and money if they first spent a year or two 
contemplating what it really means to need or want something, then before 
designing a house, cleaning the accumulated debris out of their lives and 
sizing the house for maximum space utilization to handle what is left.
I went from 3800 sq ft to 70 sq ft, so I understand this better than most.

> while you'll have to live in a fox den. Not sure what you would eat 
> since you can't kill or grow anything without tools.

Sticks and rocks (technically tools) work quite well for killing things, 
but our ancestors were pretty good at it even bare handed.  Of course it 
depends on what you are trying to kill, but rodents can be just as 
nutritious and a lot easier to catch/kill than most larger animals.  As 
far as growing things, nature does it quite well without tools, so there 
is no reason we can't either, though if you don't mind grabbing a stick or 
rock as a tool, it does make things easier.

> To what degree is fossil fuels 
> being use it building cob accepted? My personal experience is that if you 
> don't have a job, and someone else takes care of all your material needs, 
> then you can take 10 years to build your house for $500, but most of us don't 
> have that luxury.

I could do a fair sized house (500 sq ft) in one year, working alone, 
using only what nature provides in the area I currently live in (Oregon).
This is based on real numbers and experiments I have done making cob 
and working wood using only what was found on the site.  I'm not saying I 
would choose to do it this way (and probably wouldn't enjoy it after 
the first month or so), only that it is doable with a lot of work and
assuming no time is spent earning money or looking for food.  It would not 
have modern ammenities obviously, but there were lots of houses in the USA 
100 years ago which were of comparable size with no indoor plumbing, 
electricity, etc.  Of course, I am in good physical condition, have lots 
of cob experience and many other relevant skills that most of you do not. 
Add in scrounging, $500, and a few modern hand tools and most modern 
ammenities could be included in that one year as well.

Having said all this, I am not suggesting that anyone should take any 
particular path to their cob house, or that you should feel guilty about 
choosing one path over another.  In the different buildings I have 
worked on, a wide range of approaches have been used and intermixed, 
including rototillers, skid loaders, tractors, hand tools, and even no 
manufactured tools (sticks and stones).  In some cases these things were 
done just to see what is possible.

It is important to remember that our ancestors at one point in time did 
all of their building using only what was on hand.  No hardware stores, 
blacksmiths or refined metals.  The issue is not is this possible, but are 
the tradeoffs worth it (time, energy, money, environmental concerns, 
needs, wants, etc.).  Only you can answer that question for your particular 
life and beliefs.

The reason I bring this up is that it is important to honestly assess what 
the options are and more importantly, why we are leaning towards a 
particular option.  Too often I hear people saying that "X" can't be done, 
or is too difficult, when what they really mean is they have too many 
prior commitments (reasonable), are lazy or impatient (up to you how you 
want to live your life), or some other reason which may or may not be 
valid for not choosing a particular path.

Our decisions are only as good as the information we use to make them, 
and if we are not honest about our choices, we are using bad information 
to make those decisions.


FWIW.

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
dealy at deatech.com     |          - Custom Software Development -
Phone: (800) 467-5820 |          - Natural Building Instruction -
    or: (541) 929-4089 |                  www.deatech.com