How to NOT have jellified cob

Progress wasn't as much this week as the last, but things are still coming along. We mixed cob Monday and Tuesday. We had been slapping the cob down and hearing a nice smacking sound. Seemed like it would help the new cob bond with the previous layer. Did notice, especially in areas of lots of cob, like where the four walls meet, that when wet and pressed on, say, the next day, the area nearby would rise up. I was just reading a bit in The Hand Sculpted House, and Ianto said that slapping would “jellify” the cob. Seemed that was what was happening. The next day, no slapping down, just working it all into the previous layer. This morning, no jelly, just soft cob that's still wet, but not moving the surronding cob when pressed on.

When we built the small storeroom, we only put in the adobe floor after the roof was on. It then took a couple weeks, even in late summer, for the floor to be firm enough to walk on. So now in the house, we were thinking of putting in the sub-floor (about 3in/7.5cm thick) now in the dry season and before the walls are too high and block much of the light and airflow. When it does get rainy, we'll put a single, large piece of black plastic that will rise up the sides to keep it dry. Wednesday we leveled our bedroom floor and guest room floor and put down about 3in/7.5cm of gravel as a moisture barrier, and then tamped that down. Going with less than what the books recommend, but our climate is much drier than Oregon or England (where my cob books originate). Our soil is also very dense, so no so easy for water to move through it. Also, traditional homes here have a earthen floor with no gravel under it. Friends of ours, familiar with cob, recommended no gravel, but since we had 2-3 cubes of it, decided to be safer than having to redo a floor later on!

The doorway to our bedroom taking shape!

Close-up of cob wall, after trimming.

Thursday the wind picked up, making working out in the open uncomfortable. So after lunch we cut some firewood, for the last time as a group, winter seems to be winding down already. Thank you Lord! Today, Friday, cancelled work as it was windy, cloudy, and cold with the wind chill. I went over for a couple hours and pulled weeds . . .