we have begun the building of our cob cabin!

This photo shows the site we have selected for our cob cabin. The cabin will be built between the two large boulders in the foreground.

As of June 24, 2015, we started construction on our cob cabin located in the back country of San Diego County. This house will serve as a demonstration and education site for learning about natural building, permaculture, rainwater harvesting, as well food and soil systems. The cabin will primarily be made of cob, a simple mixture of clay, sand and straw - that's it! Cob has been used for thousands of years to build all kinds of structures. Natural building materials, are cheap, easy, beautiful, healthy and long lasting. Need we say more???

The house is situated such that 2 of the cabin walls will be composed primarily of existing granite boulders (see photo). The rest of the walls will be made of cob and 2 rainwater harvesting tanks will be integrated into the actual walls. These tanks will be made of ferrocement (such as the tanks on my website). The rest of the cabin will use recycled materials such as doors and windows. The roof will be made of ferrocement. I will explain these different methods later as I get closer to actually working with and constructing them.