Progress on the cob house has been continuing at a good clip. The second course of the foundation has been laid out. We started to run out of larger pieces of urbanite, and fell back on medium and smaller pieces, which I thought to be less than ideal. Unfortunately, the majority of the urbanite I have collected is very irregularly shaped, so it’s trickier to work with than flat stuff. I think it will be fine, though.
We started to fill in the cracks between urbanite with more clay/sand mortar. Whenever there is rain in the forecast, I throw tarps over the entire foundation to prevent it from getting went. The mortar would probably just wash away if it got thoroughly soaked. But anyway, the purpose of the mortar is to prevent the passage of wind and rodents into the living space. Eventually, the interior face of the foundation will be cobbed over or plastered over to for extra protection.
Yesterday, my first work exchanger arrived. It will be fun to have new help around the work site.
On Friday, I hope to get sand delivered, because I expect cobbing will begin within another week… yeehaw!