Photo: a cob home at Emerald Earth intentional community in Mendicino Calif. ALL COBBER'S DAY by Charmaine R. Taylor Sixteen people talking, planning, and building with earth...that was the All Cobber’s Day event in August, in the blazing hot Sierra Foothills of California. This informal meeting of people interested in cob construction was an extension of an April, 1998 cob building event where more than 30 people gathered to help construct a sweat lodge of wattle* and cob at another location. This group ranged in age from mid 20’s to 50 something and represented teachers, activists, therapists, builders, and a few intentional transients. Like many Americans who are looking for alternative housing options, cob builders, generally speaking, seek a less consumptive lifestyle, and want to treat the earth in a gentler way, while creating healthy and balanced homes. Joh, a young woman who is interested in creating a collective or intentional community said “ I see strip malls, and freeways– and I don’t want those things! Building with cob I have empowerment, I can create what I want.” Cloud, a former traditional carpenter, told how much his hands used to hurt, and that the noise and clamor of drills and saws on the construction site drove him away from that work entirely five years ago. Now he seeks to integrate his more spiritual side with the peaceful, almost contemplative, method of cob building. Cloud quoted Aristotle “When your talents, and the needs of the world meet, therein lies your vocation.” Richard and his wife Linda are at mid-life, and have stressful jobs in mental health and live in a traditional stick-built house. For Richard, specifically, building a small, and sustainable home of earthen cob is a way to bring peace, delight and joy into their lives; one of his goals is to enhance possibilities for villages of cob houses. To help create the income for his dream he is completing a book entitled “The American Revolution-Part II” about the movement towards alternative housing and lifestyles. Johanna Parry, an experienced cobber, reconstructed a bear-damaged canvas yurt seven years ago, using straw bales, and plastering it over with cob. She raised her three children in the 30’ diameter cob/yurt and now teaches cob building classes in her free time. For her getting muddy, handling earth, and creating a sculpture or shelter is part of a process of increased personal awareness. Johanna sees natural building as community building, and a way to raise both political and spiritual awareness. Misha Rauschwerger, a naturalist teacher, and his new bride Elisheva, hosted the event at their building site, where they are constructing a home of cob and creating a permaculture demonstration site. Misha purchased 4.5 acres of rural land three years ago after completing a six month apprenticeship at Cob Cottage Company in Oregon. For their cob structure he used local, snow warped timbers for support beams and the main ridge beam, and constructed a drystacked stone perimeter foundation, using indigenous stones. Elisheva, who met Misha at a cob building event, is chemically sensitive, and their cob home is the best environment for her health. Elisheva relates that our culture is one of excess and having too much. She is interested in the Native American ‘Beauty Way’ in which attention is paid to how things are done, not in doing them fast, or cheap and without consciousness. For her aesthetics are very important, she believes that when we don’t rush, and take time in building a home, or creating a gift that we put more heart, and patience into it, and the result is of higher quality and value. The thick golden brown walls of their cob home reflect her careful attention to detail, as cob must be trimmed and smoothed at just the right point in its drying cycle. Patience and focus are virtues in cob building. Many people in the group talked about forming an educational non-profit organization, or a collective of teachers and builders. Walter, a massage therapist in fast paced Silicon Valley, California spoke about the ‘velvet rut’ of our lives. He is impatient to ‘just do’– no more workshops, no more classes, he was there to build, and work with the earth physically. His partner Kate wants to live with intention, and recently quit her stressful job. They were there to learn and do, as part of the process for helping define their own home needs. Michael Smith, well known co-founder of the Cob Cottage Company, and author of The Cobber’s Companion, spoke about going as far as he could from the mainstream and traditional thinking, and see who would follow him. Michael is interested in creating a new paradigm, and building with cob is one way he seeks to ‘model’ that new world. Johanna described corporate culture as a bulldozer that was once unstoppable, and feels that people working together to build their own homes will create a critical mass that will change the future, and empower the individual. She is finishing a book, too, written for the layperson, to help introduce cob. Entitled “Cob in a Bucket- Earthbuilding Projects for Your Own Backyard” she details how to build a garden bench, an animal shelter, and other introductory and easy to finish creative projects. Getting people to experiment with small, non-load bearing structures will help create awareness and open up thinking to alternative building possibilities. A important element discussed was support for natural building and cob codes and permits. Currently many cobbers build in very rural areas, or apply for an “agricultural” permit, or call the dwelling anything but a house– camping cabin, studio, mediation room, shed, etc. However, this does not resolve the long term need to ‘mainstream’ this simple, very practical method of construction. One couple who are actively building with cob, and without permits, have a personal mission to simply “get the house done, and not disturb the elemental kingdom.” They related how people would “just show up to help us build– and we didn’t know they were coming”. Mark, a young man who showed up, and is helping build their house, said that learning about cob was a life transformation for him, he saw magic in it. For Mark the organic, and natural process of cob construction was what he was seeking for his life. Bay Area architect and cob code proponent John Fordice was not able to join the group this time, but he sent a message via email which was read aloud. It began: “The most important thing that we can do for cob is to SET IT FREE.... for me this takes the specific form of making a building code for cob - so that anybody who wants to can walk into their local building department and get a permit for a cob safe building - no hassle - no questions - pay your bucks and out the door - when that becomes possible cob is going to take off like a rocket. One of the biggest stumbling blocks that I see for cob is that we don't really know its structural limits - this stuff NEEDS to be tested - so that we can know (not just pretend/hope) what it is capable of - there are physical realities to everything - we can push the limits of cob or build conservatively - but until we really know - its all just guess work and supposition - sooner or later someone is going to push the limits a bit too far and someone will be hurt, injured or worse- I personally don't want that to happen - it will be a setback cob doesn’t need ! we can build conservatively to avoid this possibility - but why do that if we don't need to - let's find cob's limits on a realistic level - based on what cob's actual properties are - and built to those limits - then we can build with confidence - knowing that our buildings are not going to come down and kill somebody when an earthquake does its thing - this is possible - it just need the efforts of a dedicated group - like this group -make this happen !!!!! And it ended: “...just imagine the possibility little houses on the hillside - little houses made of sticky cob - little houses - little houses - and they all look just so fine - there's a round one , and a short one, and a tall one, and a wavey one - little houses made of sticky cob and they all look just so fine ....be fine ....cob on.”
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Misha and Elisheva Rauschwerger have decided to complete their home and meet code requirements as a demonsteration building. Thye continue to work within the code system. People interested in discussing the property, or chemical sensitivity can contact them at 209-588-1058. |