Skip to main content
Apr 07
Love0

Cob Bench Demolition Video

By Video, Cob Bed and Bench

Holy crap. I knew taking cob apart was not easy, but to actually try to destroy cob makes it really clear just how strong this stuff is! This is a brief video of me (attempting to) demolish the cob bench outside of my house. This bench no longer fits into the design since I plan to add a small mud room/airlock to the house, and the bench would be in the way.

I tried a sledgehammer, but it wasn’t as effective as a pick axe. Actually, it was easiest when the bench was soaked with water and then struck with the pick axe. Hitting it wet with the sledgehammer resulted in cob flying everywhere.

Cob is stupidly strong. You can see the minimal impact a full pick axe blow has on the bench. What made it somewhat reasonable was prying the urbanite out from underneath the bench, and then really wailing on the cob to break it up.

This cob bench demolition experience is making me sweat when I think about taking the whole cob bed and bench apart inside the house! Good lord… it’s gonna be backbreaking…

Apr 03
Love0

Osage orange garden gate

By Design

gardengate

I am constantly amazed by osage orange. April and I recently built a new fence around the garden in front of the house, and we dug up old osage orange fence posts from derelict fence lines here at Dancing Rabbit. We pulled them out from being buried three feet underground, and reused them for our own fence. These posts seem to be nearly indestructible – osange orange is the most rot-resistant wood native to North America. Fence posts can last something crazy like 60 or more years without deteriorating… unreal! Anyway, this garden gate is made mostly from osage orange, too. It’s kinda funky. I like it.

Osage orange… we love you!

Apr 01
Love0
freshly cured earthen floor

Top Ten Reasons to Live Without Electricity

By Living Electricity-free

candle light

Here’s a post I wrote for sustainablog about top ten reasons to live without electricity in your home.

Of course, I don’t actually live completely without electricity (obviously I wouldn’t be writing this if I did), but my actual home does not include electricity. It’s been great and I adore candlelight. Anyway, read the post for more information about why I chose to keep the lights out of my home.

Mar 26
Love0

Deconstructing the rocket stove

By Rocket Stove, Cob Bed and Bench

rocketstove-demo00

A few weeks ago, I started dismantling the rocket stove, officially calling it done. I began with chipping the cob around the base of the barrel and then lifting the barrel off of the system, revealing a very blackened, sooty interior. I was surprised by the level of soot – I thought that perhaps the system was definitely choking up seeing how much material had collected in and around the heat riser.

Read More

Feb 27
Love0

Information Wanted About Cob Houses in Cold Climates

By Heating, Winter

This is a call for information from folks living in cob houses in cold climates – by cold, let’s say places that frequently have below freezing temperatures in the wintertime. If you live in a cob house in an area with cold and/or extended winters, can you describe the construction of your home and your heating system?

How thick are your walls? Do you have any insulation (in the roof, stemwall, floor, etc.?) What is the square footage of your space?

How are you heating your house? How often do you run your stove? Is the home occupied full-time during winter days?

Finally, can you provide average indoor/outdoor temperatures? How comfortable does your cob house stay?

I will followup with some insight into winter conditions in my cob house in the near future.

Feb 27
Love0

A rough drawing of the kitchen design

By Design, Wabi-sabi Kitchen

kitchen-roughdraw

Here’s a rough drawing of the kitchen design. In this sketch you can get a sense of the shape and arrangement of the building. On the east is a wide covered porch for outdoor cooking in the summer. The building has a sizable greenhouse on the south side for starting seedlings and additional heat in the winter, and a west-facing balcony can be accessed from the loft above the dining area on that side of the structure. There are three roof lines — I think the building sorta looks like a duck in this drawing. Outdoor eating will be on the east, along with a cob oven and perhaps even a cob wall along the north border of our “warren” (plot of land) for privacy / a windbreak / aesthetics / sound protection.

If I could find our floor plans drawing, I would post that too, but I actually want to make a more accurate one now that the trench has been dug. Unfortunately it’s hard to measure the drainage trench when it’s covered in snow. Anyway, expect those soon!

Feb 25
Love1

Tiny Wood Stoves For Small Houses: My Choices

By Heating, Winter

I’ve been researching efficient, small wood stoves that could replace the rocket stove in my house. Most home wood stove manufacturers’ smallest models heat 800-1000 square feet at a minimum, which is overkill for my  200 round foot home. However, the house will probably benefit from the extra oomph with all of that (cold, cold) thermal mass and lack of insulation. Here are the two top contenders that I have been researching.

Read More

Feb 23
Love0

The Tiny Temporary Wood Stove

By Winter, Heating

Here are a couple of photos of the tiny, super ragamuffin wood stove April and I are using right now. It’s manufactured by the Buckeye Incubator Co. Our setup is extremely tacked together, as you can see — the stovepipe runs out the top half of a double hung window. We didn’t exactly have enough stovepipe, so we straightened out some elbows to make a short straight run for inside the house. Outside, the stack rises a few feet above the eaves and is wired to the rafters to prevent it from shaking in the wind.

We used two perfectly sized sheets of metal (thanks Bob) and cut holes in the middle to seal up the window. Aluminum tape covers the edges and keeps air from sneaking in.

With this little thing, we can get the whole house decently cozy in about thirty minutes.

I’ll be happy to have a better quality stove in the house!

honkystove-01 honkystove-02