[Cob] Cob Student Travels

[Sky Orndoff]

Hello Cobbers, Natural Builders, and Good Life Pioneers!

Thanks for taking time to read this.

My friend Laura Arvidson and I, both recently graduated from the University of 
Montana, will be spending much of this spring driving around the Western United 
States and (a little bit of) Canada.  


We are hoping to meet building and gardening pioneers who have used creative 
means to solve the mystery of how to live well on this planet.  If you are one 
of these people, or know one of these people, would be interested in meeting us 
and sharing a bit of your experience, and happen to be roughly along the way 
(see route below) that would be fantastic. 

We will start from Tucson March 27 and arrive in Montana in late May.  

Along the way we plan on going (roughly) from:
Tucson to Santa Fe, NM 
Santa Fe to Durango, CO
Durango to San Fransisco, CA
San Fransisco to Corvalis, OR 
Corvalis to islands off BC
Vancouver to Montana

Specific techniques we know would like to hear about:    (if you have a good 
idea to add to this list please let us know)

Land/space/materials/financing:
--Alternative financing ideas
--Ways to get good land for less?
--Ways to pool resources
Design:
--Passive Solar
--Thermal Mass
--Superinsulation
--Heating/cooling/ventilating
--Lighting
--Kitchens
--Bathrooms
--Space Saving
--Noise isolation
Building Techniques:
--Cob
--Strawbale
--Foundations
--Roofing
--Structural engineering considerations
--Stone Masonry
--Plumbing
--Electrical
--Solar systems
--Rocket Stoves and Mass Heaters
--Other heating systems

We do not want to take up too much of your time, but we know that most of you 
know more than we do.  We are hoping many of you might like to share some 
valuable lessons you have learned.  In general, we would be looking to stop by 
for a quick tour and chat during an afternoon?  We are pretty flexible, and 
we would also be interested short term work exchanges if you have work you'd 
like done that we could learn from.  


We plan on applying this knowledge in a small cottage (probably cob-insulation 
hybrid, but open to ideas) to be begun (and hopefully finished!) this next 
summer.  Long term, we are interested in doing more natural building, managing 
land with permaculture techniques, and communal living projects.  We look 
forward to hearing from you, meeting you, and learning from your experiences.  
Thank you so much for replying to this list, or to: 


skyorndoff at yahoo.com  or to
laura.arvidson at gmail.com

Sincerely yours,

J. Sky Orndoff and Laura L. Arvidson

P.S.   We're trustworthy and addictionless.  Check out our couchsurfing profiles 
for a bunch of references: www.couchsurfing.org/people/cirriss ; 
http://www.couchsurfing.org/profile.html?id=9677YA