Update on the cob

Well, it's time I gave an update on how we are going with the cob. Progress has slowed for several reasons. Firstly the weather is much cooler, and the wall is drying more slowly, meaning we can't make each lift as high. Also, now we are getting higher up the wall, we need to climb a ladder each time to place a cob on the wall. Still we keep on, slowly but surely. I wanted to share with you some of the pictures from our international "mud stompers" hall of fame.

Firstly Jesse and Annie from stomp the Canadian way!














Meagan stomps solo in the Aussie way.












The cup of tea way.












Returning for his 3rd visit, Kiwi Ben stomps the Kiwi way.













Dita stomps the Czech way, watched by her parents. Dita and Martin had been wwoofing with us late last year, and were responsible for some of the most beautiful tiles in the earth house. It was so wonderful for us to host the whole family for a few days, before they headed back to Czech.












All that stomping has given a few of us sore feet. Meagan and Annie decided to do a new take on 'bound' feet, and found that red duck tape was a real winner.














Morning tea on the deck of the wwoof house.












Scones and cream, Ali's favourite.















Another important way to mix the earth and straw is to roll it using the tarp on which it sits. Here wwoofers Gaston and Barbara from Argentina show us how it's done.











You might be wondering how the earth is applied to the walls. Meagan shows us how to form the earth/straw mix into a rough brick-like shape.










This is then applied to the walls and worked in with your hands and fingers to ensure each lift mixes seamlessly with the one before.











And the most important thing is that the walls are going up, slowly but surely.










And we have even reached the top lintel on the northern corner. Gaston and Barbara show how excited they are about that!