[Cob] Stone houses and "Natural" Building

[Jennifer Roberts]

So, here is my dilemma. All my ventures into natural building began on the 
premise of "use what you have," materials as local as possible, etc. I moved 
to a high valley desert surround by mountains, where there is no clay in 
sight for miles. Scoria, etc., even strawbales have to be trucked in (60 
miles or more), while my next door neighbor just dug out his basement and 
came up with enough rock for my house and then some, which he offered to me 
free of charge. Though this is a little more labor intensive than I had been 
planning, I have thought of it more and more. Why not build stone walls with 
a layer of straw clay on the interior for lightness and insulation? Or maybe 
make space for sawdust from the local mill. How about with lime mortar?

This leads to the bigger question of just how natural our buildings really 
are. When we are discussing R values, for example, how do you figure the 
local use of material vs. how much it will take to heat, etc.? I tend to 
frown on the idea of anything being trucked it, but maybe I am looking at 
the project with blinders and will save more energy than is necessary to 
bring in the right thing. Instead of comparing building methods with each 
other I am also comparing them to living in a travel trailer in the dead of 
winter and will have to create other housing by next May. So will it be a 
used tent style yurt, earthbag dome with scoria, stone circle house? This 
process is teaching me over and over again that purism doesn't always make 
sense, but if I am taking extra steps to be deliberately natural, I want to 
be sure that it is worth it.

Jen