MudLove

Day one of our Introduction to Cob course at Greenfields Farm with School of Natural Building! We met the materials;
- sand… aggregate… compressive strength
- clay rich earth… binder … glue
- straw… fibre… tensile strength
Considered where to find them, how to test them, and jumped in the mud to make mixes to compare them!
Then we looked at foundations and built a dry stone stem wall, started cobbing and studied junctions…
Phewf! All go again tomorrow! 🥱🛖💪❤️☺️

Tickets for our next workshop in August here! https://www.tickettailor.com/events/schoolofnaturalbuilding/2068812

It’s exactly 10 years since we finished construction on the Honey House in Southern California. Designed and led by MudLove, completed by and all possible due to the incredible Betty Seaman, and built by the many hands and feet of apprentices and volunteers. What a beautiful time to be alive ❤️🛖☀️

Getting all set up for our workshop this weekend with School of Natural Building ! We will be meeting, mixing and building with cob, as well as touching on groundworks, junctions and roofs. There’s a lot to cover but we can’t wait to get back in the mud! ❤️🛖💪
Last chance to buy tickets here https://www.tickettailor.com/events/schoolofnaturalbuilding/2038488

So exciting to be leading this course in April! Two days of muddy play, learning and sharing, getting up close and personal with my absolute favourite building material; COB. We will stomp mixes, build walls, investigate foundations, touch on roofs and leave time for dreaming, designing and questioning! All at my farm near Hay on Wye.
Feels great to partner with School of Natural Building to run this workshop and I can’t wait to do more with them in future.
Book your place here 👇 places filling up fast!

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/schoolofnaturalbuilding/2038488/r/snabweb

☺️

Update on our balecob roundhouse build!
We are now about 30 hours into the plan…

We are aiming to build a house in 40 hours (1 working week), for £400, using all reclaimed and natural materials, that will last on site for 2 years… and we are just about on track, I think 😂🤞🛖❤️🙏

We have built a rough stem wall from concrete slabs,
stacked the bales, cobbed the gaps, staked hazel down through… and almost built 3 different roofs now 😂

Firstly, a gorgeous reciprocal roof in square timber… that was more ‘hole’ than roof (the timbers were too short)

Second, we harvested hazel poles and built a second reciprocal roof… but the pitch wasn’t steep enough and head height was just too low (poles were too thin)

Third, we’ve raised up the end wall with our last remaining bales and built up the door frame to support a central ridge beam… but we think the ridge beam isn’t strong enough for rain and snow (pole too thin, again!)

Here’s hoping that our next roof will be the one; I would love to get the tarps on and the windows in and make it feel ‘inside’ ☺️

Huge thanks to our amazing volunteers who have pretty much figured it all out for me, what a great group ❤️❤️❤️

Note: volunteer hours aren’t included in the total! That would probably be about 45hrs so far ☺️

We are about 15 hours in to our balecob roundhouse challenge and here’s where we are at!

We are hoping to build a basic straw bale roundhouse in less than 40 hours (1 work week!) for less than £400 and aiming for it to be habitable for at least 2 years

So far, we’ve…
… stacked and levelled reclaimed paving slabs and concrete rubble for a base
… layed out repurposed windows and a door and put up timber bucks
… started stacking straw bales, ‘2 over 1, 1 over 2’
… pushed a cob mix of straw, horse p**p and mud into the cracks (just what we had lying around!)
… and covered the whole thing with our second hand dpm to wait until we have time to build again

Luckily a few friends came to help!

Next jobs…
… stake through the bales with sticks to hold in place
… add more cob
… cut and finish door and window frames
… cinch the whole thing in with paracord

Then it’s time to start on the roof!

Do get in touch if you’d like to come and help, we are building again over half term week 🙏❤️🛖

We have a plan ☺️
- build a roundhouse in one work week; 40 hours
- build it to last 2 years
- build it for less than £400
- build it entirely from natural and second hand materials
- build it totally demountable (so we could take it all down and build it again elsewhere!)

Can we do it?!
Follow to track our progress and I will explain how we do each stage so you can do it too🤞🛖❤️

Feeling excited to be sharing our intro to cob workshop at the Paramaethu Cymru / Permaculture Wales festival again this year, and also checking out the super inspiring site Henbant!
‘Get your hands and feet in the mud with this practical workshop aimed at getting a feel for cob and how to build with it. Bring your questions, projects and ideas and architect/ natural builder Louise from MudLove will pass on her knowledge and experience using earthen construction techniques around the world. Hands on skills share and open discussion for all ages.’
Hope to see you there! ❤️🛖🧱🦶✋☺️

Looking forward to seeing some of you at the Land Skills Fair again this year for some cob stomping, wall building and music making!
With Hawk Howard and Landworkers' Alliance