[Cob] Off Grid Cob House on Bly Mountain

[Janet Standeford]

Hi everyone,

I need to give you a synopsis of the planned events here at Stone Haven 
on Bly Mountain.  For those of you unfamiliar with Bly Mountain, it is 
32 miles NE of Klamath Falls on Hwy 140. This is off grid.

The first permit has been approved for a home, in Oregon, to be 
constructed of cob which is monolithic adobe. There are other cob homes 
in Oregon, however to best of my knowledge, none of them were approved 
for permits. This means there is ample opportunity for a lot of 
publicity for this type of building as well as a great opportunity to 
educate the public. Go to 
http://cdd.co.klamath.or.us/etrakit/Permit_Search.asp and type in 
BLD09-0424.

The goal is a self sustained home property that will be used later as 
well as currently, to educate people on the use of cob and self 
sustaining techniques for our area. Anyone wanting to be a part of the 
short or long term goals for Stone Haven should notify me at 
janet.standeford at gmail.com

Michael Metts of KCC is interested in his class working on this project 
as is CJ and Linda Riley from OIT. There could be certain limitations 
for input from one or both of these. We will know more about this later.

I would be interested in Habitat for Humanity being involved with the 
understanding that there will not be a charge to me from anybody.

In fact, at this point, as some of the funding I was hoping to receive 
from my daughter doesn't appear to be forthcoming, I am accepting 
donations of time, effort, knowledge, materials and money. This is 
particularly difficult for me to admit to but I am learning that 
sometimes there is a trade between being helped and helping others so I 
humbly divulge my need to you as I attempt to help by educating both the 
Public and our Officials. Any money would help pay for the permit to 
ensure the work begins on the foundation as soon as the snow is done 
melting and to help with sanitary huts, toilet paper, drinking water, etc.

I know a lot of places charge people to attend "workshops" to learn to 
build with cob but I cannot bring myself to do that as I believe that I 
will learn as much as anyone else in this endeavor.

Some goals of this project are to keep it as green as possible and to 
recycle where possible. I will apparently have to purchase doors and 
windows to code, (these also, I should be able to afford) however the 
rest should be recyclables.

Materials needed are rebar (I'll have to look up the strengths), use of 
specialized home made cobbing tools, roofing with metal (I believe I can 
finance this when the time comes), foundation insulation, bags of cement 
(if KCC and OIT agree with me that my design would work for the 
foundation to just below ground level - see projects later to understand 
this), flat rock for the upper foundation, use of a truck to haul gravel 
and/or rock, used bricks for the house fireplace (also made of cob), use 
of a backhoe with a 12 to 15 foot reach for the duration of the building 
process. There may be 2 house fireplaces if I can get approval and brick 
could be used for greenhouse cob stoves.

This project should take no longer than 3 months. It includes additional 
structures which need to be constructed at the same time the house is 
being built. Those include an outdoor cob oven, two medium sized cob 
greenhouses with year round capabilities, a long covered walkway from 
the house on the rocks to the road for safety in the winter.

We need people for quality control and supervision of these and the 
production of cob, building of walls and a variety of other things as 
well as for a writer or two for the news and newspaper and someone good 
with websites to keep the website updated with photos and information. I 
need someone to help with this immediately. I have the website but 
cannot get OpenAtrium or Drupal to work for me. We need to start putting 
the projects up right away. The website is www.mystonehaven.com

There is a need for people to help design the electrical system and 
water systems (rain run off, holding tanks for rain water and well water 
as well as ground water run off ponds for recycling to the greenhouses 
and gray water system). The "cisterns" will be made of cobb and must be 
lined or painted with a heavy rubber liner to protect the cob and then 
lined with a non toxic liner. If anyone has better ideas for anything, I 
am open.

There are more than enough projects for a multitude of people and 
everyone is welcome for whatever time you can put into this. You are 
also welcome to camp out here for the duration.

I look forward to meeting all of you and am excited about all the 
possibilities, not just for myself but for teaching people that they 
don't have to owe their soul to the bank to have a beautiful living 
space and year round, homegrown food for their tables.

Janet