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..."

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Electronic cottage

I snapped this photo of Greg and Anatoly testing the internet and phone connection at Anatoly's cottage in Chapel Hill the other day. I felt I had to capture the juxtaposition of ancient cob and the very modern mac laptop and internet. Anatoly does computer programing and will use the cottage as an office as well as family get-away. A place of natural energy and magic in their suburban backyard, complete with rocket stove and internet connection!

Cob Workshop June 2012




Greg and I are hosting a 7-day cob workshop in Durham, NC this June. We will be leading participants in the construction of a cob building and garden wall in the backyard of the house we're currently building. We will build with cob, strawbales, earthen and lime plasters, and do some carpentry as well. The workshop is aimed at folks who want to build their own small cottage or outbuilding with cob and/or strawbales. No previous building experience is necessary, building with cob is a very intuitive process and you will be confident using the materials after spending week building with us.

you can find a full description of the workshop at cob workshops and on the Natural Building Network's event calendar. While you're at it, check out Danielle's blog, earthen acres. She took our cob workshop in 2009 and went on to build her own home the next year!