you can check out the pictures from the workshop at dropshots. i'm not going to upload any on the blog b/c it takes an insane amount of time.
check it out at www.dropshots.com/neptunefarm
peace
~n~
30 June 2008
More about Cob...
It's really hard to know where to begin. The workshop was fantastic. Basically, cob is a mixture of sand, clay, and straw. Depending on the purity of the materials, the exact ratio will change, but you are basically looking for about 10-25% clay to the rest sand. You mix it together (by foot/hand seemed to work quite well) and then you build with it. Simple enough.
Cob can be built, as far as I know, in many or most climates. They make cob houses in Africa and they have entire villages of cob houses in England (Devon, I think) - that have been continuously inhabited for centuries. Cob can be suitable for the prairies as well as the wet climate of the west coast. Protection is what you need - large roof overhangs, plaster on the outside walls, and a strong foundation. You want to keep the cob off the ground - at least 6", preferably 18", as I understand it, and make sure your foundation is below the frost line. Cob does have earthquake resistance - there is a large 19th century house in New Zealand that has withstood major earthquakes with minimal damage.
At the workshop, we established a daily routine. Each day we would start with yoga at 7:30, breakfast at 8:00, lecture/instructional at 9:00, workday would formally begin at 10:00. We'd work from 10-1 with a coffee break at 11:00, lunch from 1:00-2:00, and then work through from 2:00 'til 5:00. Free time from 5:00 - 6:15 or so when dinner would be served. In the evenings were various presentations, movie night, conversations, etc. All in all, the days were full, especially with the kids there. Meals were signalled by the harmonica off the deck of the house... imagine being awoken by the sound of a harmonica being played. :)
The property is a 5 acre organic farm with 3 ponds. The largest was the most popular in the hot afternoons - people would jump in and get wet before going back to work. We camped in an orchard with long long grass (I haven't had to take allergy medication in quite some time, but succumbed within an hour of being on-site. I had a rash and my eyes were itchy within an hour. Craziness. So I stayed on allergy medication all week.) - fifteen tents spread out over half an acre. We went without running water or electricity. Our toilet was a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat over top. After going, you covered your deposits with cut grass and when the bucket was full it was dumped in the nearby humanure compost pile. (For more information on composting human waste, read The Humanure Handbook; it has lots of info on this perfectly safe method of recycling our waste). The house itself had a large covered outside deck with seating and toys for the children.
I think there were about 15 of us on the course with 9 children between us all. It was so fantastic that childcare was included and we were blessed with a wonderful MudGirl looking after the kids. She was very skilled in nonviolent communication and redirecting the kids to something more appropriate when things went awry. Very patient and calm. We had a 3 month old diaper-free baby boy, a 21 month old boy, two 2 yr old girls, 4 yr old girl, 7 yr old girl, 8 yr old boy, 9 yr old girl, and 10 yr old boy. We all traded off to help our MudGirl with childcare - two of us every morning or afternoon. It was great to see people who didn't have kids of their own pitch in to help those of us who did have children; without the childcare offered by mudgirls, I really don't see how I would've been able to take a cob workshop.
The building we were working on was a two story small cabin - exactly 107 square feet so that no building permits were necessary. (I'll try to remember to write more about this later). When we arrived the first story was built - last year the mudgirls had put up the foundation and post and beam structure and roof in about one week, I think, and then they had two one-week workshops to get the walls up to the first level (with ~10 people each week). In our workshop, we had probably between 15 & 20 adults working on the walls, 6 hrs a day, for 7 days when we finished the walls. So cob is labour intensive, but not intense in terms of money (for resources) or skills necessary. And it's slower than stick-frame, but you don't get the same energy from a stick-frame building that you do from a cob building. No power tools were used.
I'd like to write more, but I think this post is getting unduly long. I'll write more in the next while about the workshop.
It was a very empowering experience overall to be able to gain the skills necessary to build your own house in just one week. It was an incredible experience as we built community and worked together - the socialness of the building process was awesome.
Good starter books are the Becky Bee book (she's the author; I can't remember the name of the book) or the Hand-Sculpted House (Ianto Evans and two other authors). Or there's another book by Clarke Snell (can't recall the name) - where he builds a cabin with different walls - cordwood, stick framed, cob, and straw bale, with a living roof on top. Kiko Denzer has a book written specifically about building a cob oven (good starter project). Anyways, good places to start if you're interested in reading more about these natural building materials.
Oh, and the plaster I mentioned yesterday? It was a 2:1 mixture of horse manure to clay. That's right - horse poo. We were smearing this mixture on the walls with our hands and trowels and it looked amazing. Go figure.
Cob can be built, as far as I know, in many or most climates. They make cob houses in Africa and they have entire villages of cob houses in England (Devon, I think) - that have been continuously inhabited for centuries. Cob can be suitable for the prairies as well as the wet climate of the west coast. Protection is what you need - large roof overhangs, plaster on the outside walls, and a strong foundation. You want to keep the cob off the ground - at least 6", preferably 18", as I understand it, and make sure your foundation is below the frost line. Cob does have earthquake resistance - there is a large 19th century house in New Zealand that has withstood major earthquakes with minimal damage.
At the workshop, we established a daily routine. Each day we would start with yoga at 7:30, breakfast at 8:00, lecture/instructional at 9:00, workday would formally begin at 10:00. We'd work from 10-1 with a coffee break at 11:00, lunch from 1:00-2:00, and then work through from 2:00 'til 5:00. Free time from 5:00 - 6:15 or so when dinner would be served. In the evenings were various presentations, movie night, conversations, etc. All in all, the days were full, especially with the kids there. Meals were signalled by the harmonica off the deck of the house... imagine being awoken by the sound of a harmonica being played. :)
The property is a 5 acre organic farm with 3 ponds. The largest was the most popular in the hot afternoons - people would jump in and get wet before going back to work. We camped in an orchard with long long grass (I haven't had to take allergy medication in quite some time, but succumbed within an hour of being on-site. I had a rash and my eyes were itchy within an hour. Craziness. So I stayed on allergy medication all week.) - fifteen tents spread out over half an acre. We went without running water or electricity. Our toilet was a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat over top. After going, you covered your deposits with cut grass and when the bucket was full it was dumped in the nearby humanure compost pile. (For more information on composting human waste, read The Humanure Handbook; it has lots of info on this perfectly safe method of recycling our waste). The house itself had a large covered outside deck with seating and toys for the children.
I think there were about 15 of us on the course with 9 children between us all. It was so fantastic that childcare was included and we were blessed with a wonderful MudGirl looking after the kids. She was very skilled in nonviolent communication and redirecting the kids to something more appropriate when things went awry. Very patient and calm. We had a 3 month old diaper-free baby boy, a 21 month old boy, two 2 yr old girls, 4 yr old girl, 7 yr old girl, 8 yr old boy, 9 yr old girl, and 10 yr old boy. We all traded off to help our MudGirl with childcare - two of us every morning or afternoon. It was great to see people who didn't have kids of their own pitch in to help those of us who did have children; without the childcare offered by mudgirls, I really don't see how I would've been able to take a cob workshop.
The building we were working on was a two story small cabin - exactly 107 square feet so that no building permits were necessary. (I'll try to remember to write more about this later). When we arrived the first story was built - last year the mudgirls had put up the foundation and post and beam structure and roof in about one week, I think, and then they had two one-week workshops to get the walls up to the first level (with ~10 people each week). In our workshop, we had probably between 15 & 20 adults working on the walls, 6 hrs a day, for 7 days when we finished the walls. So cob is labour intensive, but not intense in terms of money (for resources) or skills necessary. And it's slower than stick-frame, but you don't get the same energy from a stick-frame building that you do from a cob building. No power tools were used.
I'd like to write more, but I think this post is getting unduly long. I'll write more in the next while about the workshop.
It was a very empowering experience overall to be able to gain the skills necessary to build your own house in just one week. It was an incredible experience as we built community and worked together - the socialness of the building process was awesome.
Good starter books are the Becky Bee book (she's the author; I can't remember the name of the book) or the Hand-Sculpted House (Ianto Evans and two other authors). Or there's another book by Clarke Snell (can't recall the name) - where he builds a cabin with different walls - cordwood, stick framed, cob, and straw bale, with a living roof on top. Kiko Denzer has a book written specifically about building a cob oven (good starter project). Anyways, good places to start if you're interested in reading more about these natural building materials.
Oh, and the plaster I mentioned yesterday? It was a 2:1 mixture of horse manure to clay. That's right - horse poo. We were smearing this mixture on the walls with our hands and trowels and it looked amazing. Go figure.
29 June 2008
Cob Workshop complete!
Well, I'll write more tomorrow - must get the little people to sleep, but we have just returned from a fabulous 9-day/8-night cob workshop. I feel totally empowered and capable of building something with cob - either an oven, bench, outhouse(!) or shed of some sort. I will post pictures soon and tell you all the details... but here's something to ponder. 12 hours ago, I had my hands in plaster and was plastering the walls of the 2-story cob cottage we helped build this week. The plaster was made of clay and.... well, you'll just have to come back tomorrow to find out what it was mixed with!
In light & love,
~n~
In light & love,
~n~
21 June 2008
Summer Solstice!
Yesterday, at 4:59 p.m., P.D.T., we entered SUMMER!!!! (I only know that because I heard it on the radio). Nonetheless, I do make a mental note each year of spending even a few minutes quietly, thinking about what the passage of another season means to me.
So yesterday on the Summer Solstice, we celebrated being on a very long sandy beach - watching surfers and kayakers ride the massive waves under partly cloudy/partly sunny skies, watching the mist from the ocean spray onto the beach (it looked a little like fog rolling in)... just LOVING LIFE. I was so grateful for everything in my life in that moment. It was bliss.
There was a moment, in one of the two villages we visited yesterday, when I walked by a person, who I said Hi to, as you do in all these small coastal towns (and probably in big cities, although I don't find that to be the case myself)... and he replied, "How ya be?" We had already walked by each other, and we continued going on our ways, but my mind stopped dead in its tracks - here people don't ask about what you're DOING, they want to know how are you BEING.... and that is SUCH an important distinction. I recently read "To Have or To Be" by Erich Fromm which articulates exactly the distinction I'm talking about. But in that one moment, I realized that here was a place where people got It - there was no rushing around, caught up in stress. You just got done what you needed to get done, but more importantly it is who you are BEING while you are DOING the day-to-day necessities of life that is what matters. It also made me realize how unconscious I was in that moment, and I was grateful for his words.
Now I'm unpacking from that short trip and re-packing for the cob workshop, which begins tonight at 7. I don't know how often this next week I'll be able to get internet access, so you might not here from me while I'm cobbing, but rest assured, there will be lots to talk about when I come back!
So yesterday on the Summer Solstice, we celebrated being on a very long sandy beach - watching surfers and kayakers ride the massive waves under partly cloudy/partly sunny skies, watching the mist from the ocean spray onto the beach (it looked a little like fog rolling in)... just LOVING LIFE. I was so grateful for everything in my life in that moment. It was bliss.
There was a moment, in one of the two villages we visited yesterday, when I walked by a person, who I said Hi to, as you do in all these small coastal towns (and probably in big cities, although I don't find that to be the case myself)... and he replied, "How ya be?" We had already walked by each other, and we continued going on our ways, but my mind stopped dead in its tracks - here people don't ask about what you're DOING, they want to know how are you BEING.... and that is SUCH an important distinction. I recently read "To Have or To Be" by Erich Fromm which articulates exactly the distinction I'm talking about. But in that one moment, I realized that here was a place where people got It - there was no rushing around, caught up in stress. You just got done what you needed to get done, but more importantly it is who you are BEING while you are DOING the day-to-day necessities of life that is what matters. It also made me realize how unconscious I was in that moment, and I was grateful for his words.
Now I'm unpacking from that short trip and re-packing for the cob workshop, which begins tonight at 7. I don't know how often this next week I'll be able to get internet access, so you might not here from me while I'm cobbing, but rest assured, there will be lots to talk about when I come back!
18 June 2008
Food
Nearly 26 months ago, I made a massive change in my life. Overnight, I went from eating a Standard American Diet (the acronym is fittingly, SAD) - meat, dairy, grains, fats, fruits, veggies... to a vegan diet. This involved cutting out all meat and dairy. Oddly enough, I didn't have many detox symptoms, and at the same time, I took up rowing on my rowing machine (I avg 10 kms a day), and between both of these changes (regular exercise & a healthier diet), I lost ~50 lbs. As time went on, I had to purge my closet of my larger clothes and now have a predominantly organic cotton wardrobe, in things that are mostly the right size.
Some of my vegan culinary creations:
Buddha Bowl: cooked brown rice, marinated and baked tofu, warm 'buddha' sauce - a nice peanutty sauce, mung bean sprouts, red pepper, cucumber, and cilantro & some spices.
So yes, in this moment, I'm a raw vegan. I've lost about 15 or maybe close to 20 lbs so far, and I've kept a daily food log. No, I'm not feeling deprived or hungry, and once past the 4 week mark, my food intake dropped by about 25%. There are days when I figure I'm eating about 10-15 servings of food, but I'd say on average I'm closer to 15-20, which is just fine.
Basically, I try to get at least 3L of water into me, usually I'll have an avocado & mango together at some point, another thing I definitely try to get in is a green smoothie (sometimes I'll add blue-green algae or wheatgrass). Apart from that, maybe a salad or some veggie sticks, usually a couple pieces of fruit, some nuts or nut mix or something with nuts....
Here are a couple raw vegan creations as of late:
First, a raw burger & fries. The burger bun is portobello mushrooms, the burger itself is a dehydrated almond burger patty, with an assortment of veggies. The ketchup was made from sundried tomatoes, and the 'fries' are actually jicama sticks with seasonings. The recipes were from the book "Fresh" by Sergei & Valya Boutenko.
Second, a tropical fruit tart (thanks to Jennifer Cornbleet's book: Raw Food for 1 or 2 people). The crust was coconut, ground nuts, and raisins (basically), the pudding was a brilliant sunshine yellow mango pudding, and the top is fresh fruit. Fat free, cholesterol free, delicious! Eating raw can be pleasing for both eye & stomach!
Some of my vegan culinary creations:
Buddha Bowl: cooked brown rice, marinated and baked tofu, warm 'buddha' sauce - a nice peanutty sauce, mung bean sprouts, red pepper, cucumber, and cilantro & some spices.
So yes, in this moment, I'm a raw vegan. I've lost about 15 or maybe close to 20 lbs so far, and I've kept a daily food log. No, I'm not feeling deprived or hungry, and once past the 4 week mark, my food intake dropped by about 25%. There are days when I figure I'm eating about 10-15 servings of food, but I'd say on average I'm closer to 15-20, which is just fine.
Basically, I try to get at least 3L of water into me, usually I'll have an avocado & mango together at some point, another thing I definitely try to get in is a green smoothie (sometimes I'll add blue-green algae or wheatgrass). Apart from that, maybe a salad or some veggie sticks, usually a couple pieces of fruit, some nuts or nut mix or something with nuts....
Here are a couple raw vegan creations as of late:
First, a raw burger & fries. The burger bun is portobello mushrooms, the burger itself is a dehydrated almond burger patty, with an assortment of veggies. The ketchup was made from sundried tomatoes, and the 'fries' are actually jicama sticks with seasonings. The recipes were from the book "Fresh" by Sergei & Valya Boutenko.
Second, a tropical fruit tart (thanks to Jennifer Cornbleet's book: Raw Food for 1 or 2 people). The crust was coconut, ground nuts, and raisins (basically), the pudding was a brilliant sunshine yellow mango pudding, and the top is fresh fruit. Fat free, cholesterol free, delicious! Eating raw can be pleasing for both eye & stomach!
Upcoming Cob Workshop
In a few short days, the kids & I will be heading to a nearby Island for an 8 day cob building workshop. I chose this particular workshop because for a very reasonable price, it included vegan meals for the entire week, and also free childcare. I'm getting very excited to get going - I have been interested in natural building for several years, although to-date my interest has only gotten me so far as reading many, many books, and going on tours of houses built of straw bale or cob.What I like about natural building, in general, is that it seems to be a way to house ourselves that also minimizes harm to the Earth. It seems healing for all involved. It also seems very empowering for people to be able to build their own house, with minimal skills needed - no carpenter's ticket necessary. I like that a cob building site, unlike conventional building methods, is child-friendly. Children can actually assist with the building, thereby empowering them to one-day build their own house, too... or playhouse, like up at Shawnigan:
I also really like the creative quality of cob - that you can sculpt on the plasters, have curved walls, and the use of the recycled coloured glass bottles inset into the walls. I love the look of a living roof on top of a cob structure - it just looks... right.
So I'm in the process of packing us up... trying to remember clothes for the kids, work clothes for me, non-work clothes, hand tools, camping equipment, toiletries, extra food & snacks (both vegetarian & non-V) for the kids, and raw food for me. I've never actually camped for an entire week with the wee ones, so this will truly be an adventure. Luckily, we'll be within a 10 min drive from the village centre in case I forget anything.More info about cob:
or read (among other books):
Building green : a complete how-to guide to alternative building methods : earth plaster, straw bale, cordwood, cob, living roofs / Clarke Snell & Tim Callahan.
by Snell, Clarke.
New York : Lark Books, c2005.
by Snell, Clarke.
New York : Lark Books, c2005.
The cobber's companion : how to build your own earthen home / by Michael Smith ; illustrated by Deanne Bednar.
by Smith, Michael G.
Cottage Grove, Or. : The Cob Cottage, 1998.
by Smith, Michael G.
Cottage Grove, Or. : The Cob Cottage, 1998.
The cob builders handbook : you can hand-sculpt your own home / by Becky Bee.
by Bee, Becky.
Murphy, OR : Groundworks 1997
by Bee, Becky.
Murphy, OR : Groundworks 1997
Getting very excited!....
17 June 2008
Welcome
My first attempt at blogging... I've gotten into reading so many other blogs, I think it's time to share with others what I've been up to.
So here are tales of my exploits and adventures into cob building, veganism and raw and living foods (possibly one day even juice feasting), parenting, and many other aspects of my life. It seems to me many blogs I've read are singularly focused - either a juice feast blog, or only talking about attachment parenting... I am a multi-faceted person, and I'm sure this will be reflected in the range of blog postings. I hope you enjoy reading!
Oh, and why the name "Loving Life and Laughing"? Well, I wanted to remind myself to stay conscious and mindful... to remember to laugh more often and take things less seriously, and also to remember to be positive and not let myself spin into negative thoughts when they arise. I'm sure I'll write more about emotions and thoughts and meditation as time goes on.
~namaste~
So here are tales of my exploits and adventures into cob building, veganism and raw and living foods (possibly one day even juice feasting), parenting, and many other aspects of my life. It seems to me many blogs I've read are singularly focused - either a juice feast blog, or only talking about attachment parenting... I am a multi-faceted person, and I'm sure this will be reflected in the range of blog postings. I hope you enjoy reading!
Oh, and why the name "Loving Life and Laughing"? Well, I wanted to remind myself to stay conscious and mindful... to remember to laugh more often and take things less seriously, and also to remember to be positive and not let myself spin into negative thoughts when they arise. I'm sure I'll write more about emotions and thoughts and meditation as time goes on.
~namaste~
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