One down, one million to go!

We made it around the house! Woo hoo! We've got about 6 inches of cob all the way around! That's one small step for man, one g...no wait, it's still a small step, but its kind of a big deal! There was a lot of learning to be done in that one trip around the house--for example, determining our best mix, and how to mix it most efficiently, and how to get it up on the wall the right way, and how to make slip, and how best to transport it, and how to divvy up the tasks, and trimming up the edges...so maybe it was a little slow, but I really do think the next layers will go much faster. Am I being overly optimistic? Probably. But, hey, when has a little optimism ever hurt? I'm just excited to see wall!!!

So here's what had to happen first:

Had the land surveyed

Attended a cob workshop

Read The Hand-Sculpted House

Decided where to build

Cleared a road by hand

Had a culvert put in

Harvested cedars and stripped them

Designed the house

Cleared out the building site by hand

Dug trenches for the foundation

Dug trenches for electricity and water

Ran electricity and water to the house

Got the water and electricity hooked up

Did a LOT of research

Got limestone

Built a stem wall

Found clay and transported it to the land

Found sand and had it delivered

Found gravel and had it delivered

Found straw and transported it to the land

Moved sand and gravel from here to there

Got an address

Put up a mailbox

Put in a gate

Gathered tools

Set up camp

Built a tarp roof

Made test bricks

Ordered windows

Bought doors

Made window bucks

Made door jams

Mixed cob...and all this while holding down our day jobs!