First Cob on the Ystervark Manor!!

It has been an exciting week! Monday was a holiday, so Lerato and Notsi took the day off and Corné and I went up on the koppie (hill) looking for stone to finish the last 2 meters of the stem wall. Tuesday, we collected those and put them up, finally finishing the sandstone stem wall. Thought the job would take 2-3 weeks, and it took about 2 months! However, it's higher than we planned, which is nice. Made 3 test cob batches of soil, crusher dust (which is leftovers from making gravel, all of it smaller than 4mm) and clay. Didn't add clay when building the store room, but the cob is a bit crumbly. So we've taken to breaking up clay that was under the sub-soil we dug up for the store room. Using a small garden shovel, did a 10-3-2, 10-3-3, and a 10-4-4. The first didn't pass the pull apart test well. Both of the other two were better, and chose the later 10 soil, 4 crusher, and 4 clay.

The 10-4-4 is on the left, then 10-3-3, and the

10-3-2 is the cracked one on the right.  

 Yesterday, dropped the crusher down to 3, mostly because the guys can't help themselves when shoveling the stuff, and it's always more than what it's suppose to be. Also pushed up the clay to an almost 5. It's actually just over half a 5 gallon bucket. When we take the clay out of the ground, from a place somewhat affectionally know as "the mine", we put it in pits of black plastic so that we can soak it. 

 In the pits, I chop it with the shovel to mix and break it down, get the water through it, and it's ready to use in an hour or two but try to actually let it soak overnight. It has made a difference, the cob is much stickier and bonding better. At first didn't think we really needed to add it as there are many traditional homes here where they didn't add anything. Come to find out, those weren't really cob homes, but rammed earth. Similar, but the ramming must do something to make it stronger.

Wednesday we started mixing and laying the cob down! Starting at the lowest interior wall in the house. We'll keep building up, which will take us further and further up the building as we go along. Putting down lifts of +/-10cm/4in. Had a conundrum in what to do between the wall and the earth on the high side of the wall. The house is on a slope, and our bedroom, the lowest room, will be 2 steps below the living room above it. I'll add a video and photos to show how we are handling it.

Bedroom on right of wall, living room above it. Photo taken Wednesday.

Bedroom foreground, guest room above it.

Seeing the walls starting to come up is finally making the place seem like a home!! I told Pastor John, I wish I had more money so that I could hire more guys. If I could, I'd employ 8-10 men and have the house built in no time!! Just a note if you building yourself . . . for most of the stem wall, I had 3 volunteers from my church helping me. This week there were also 4 of us.   

I am still amazed when I think that the "mud" I can squish with my boots and that is totally malleable, will harden and be a wall for a long, long time!