why rising earth?

The title of this blog draws from my time as an apprentice at the Cob Cottage Company in costal Oregon. If you spend time with natural building folk, you'll eventually find yourself around a fire, sing silly songs about cob and natural building. Folks usually refer to these oftentimes improvised tunes as "cobsongs". I often sang..."There is a house in old coquille, they call the rising earth, it's been the work of many hands, and you know what that's worth..."

Monday, October 13, 2014

Greenhouse and Garden Cabin


This little building is located in a beautiful ridge top garden at Hillsborough Permaculture in Hillsborough, NC. The design includes a greenhouse for starting plants and storing tools, and a cabin to accommodate an overnight guest and serve as a studio for writing, painting, and refuge.

 This project has been an exciting opportunity to utilize many materials directly from the site, which really is my ideal natural building scenario. The foundation is built with beautiful stone gathered from outcroppings around the property. The very week I began building I was presented with the material for the timberframe, as a dozen pines fell in an ice storm. The walls are composed of light straw clay and cob infill, with clay soil coming from the site as well. (The walls were just being started in this photo). Lumber came from a sawmill 10 miles down the road.

This photo was taken in July, and I've been working on another project in New York since, but look forward to finishing this building when I return to NC next week, as well as sharing photos and info about the lovely Strawbale and lime plaster house in NY.