Our little cobwood barn project is almost done!

And just in time for the snow, too! This post is being written by me, and "me" being Andrew, just so you stand forewarned...

This was our summer project.. A 16x25 cobwood barn. We plan on putting a small rocket-stove greenhouse in front. The warm attached greenhouse, plus the critters' body heat will hopefully keep the barn at a comfortable temperature for chickens, goats and an occasional calf or sick animal. The goal was to build the structure with the leftover cordwood from our house for as dirt cheap as possible. So far we haven't spent more than $500-$600 on it. We also experimented with a few new ideas along the way, using the barn as kind of a test project for load-bearing cobwood walls and a shallow sandbag foundation.

We excavated the site by hand and dug a trench, about a foot or two deep and a couple feet wide for gravel and drain tile. You can see the first course of gravel-packed tires under the sandbags. The bags could have gone right on the ground, but the tires offer a wider footing and I basically wanted to try packing a few of them earthship-style. It's a lot of work, and I wouldn't do it again unless I was building a foundation with nothing and had no bags available.

We wrapped the sandbag foundation with plastic erosion control netting and plastered with a cement/lime/sand mix. We were too cheap to use chicken wire or stucco lath, but the netting was a bad idea for this application.. Too flimsy and too dense to let the plaster key in; perhaps a heavier plastic fence/netting would make a better cheap alternative.

The cob mix was clay, sand, dried and shredded horse manure, chopped straw and some dairy products to improve stickiness and workability.

For anyone who's unfamiliar with cordwood building; you build with firewood sized pieces of logs (16" usually), you leave a cavity in the center that is filled with sawdust/lime or some other kind of insulation to prevent the cold or heat to wick right through the wall. Cordwood is typically done with cement, but we've chosen to build both our house and this barn using cob as our mortar for the sake of keeping this more natural and breathable (not to mention cheap!) We've not been disappointed! Cob is amazing!! :)

The rafters are Aspen logs cut off our land.

The logs were bolted to 2x4 scabs, which were in turn screwed to a couple rounds of cordwood. This helps to both spread the weight of the roof out on the wall, as well as tie down the rafters.

Stackwall corners were something new and kind of fun.

The mix tuck-pointed well, in spite of the chopped straw..

Slabwood headers over openings..

Laying down pallet sheathing over the log rafters.

Pros: Free.

Cons: A big pain to get the roof somewhat level and safe to walk on. Hardwood pallets are heavy and defiantly bend each and every nail you try to stick through them.

Pros: Free....

Also, you will notice that the front of the building is sandbags with an earthen plaster all the way up. This is to provide more thermal mass in the south-facing greenhouse back wall, as well as give us more experience with earth/sandbag building.

Finally got the pallets up and the slab fascia installed.

Over the pallets, we put down a layer of old carpeting, then a pvc billboard tarp for a waterproof membrane. Another layer of carpet over the plastic for extra protection, and finally a layer of hay bales for an insti-green roof. I imagine we'll seed it in spring..

Here's how it looked this afternoon:

Still need to put some windows and doors on..

I found this project exciting because of how cheap it was, and it wouldn't take too much more work to turn it into a warm and cozy cottage! The roof was practically free, minus the billboard and some nails.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. Cheers!

Thankful Kids...

Hey You All!

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Mary typing away here, on behalf of the younger dudes.... Maybe it was butchering the bird yesterday (a very satisfying feeling btw!) that had me thinking on the upcoming holiday. I hope this isn't too premature, but I thought it would be sweet to share what the younger kids are thankful for this year.

Johnny is thankful for:

1. God

2. Donna

3. My brothers and sisters

4. To be able to play with Lizzy and Donna

5. To have a farm

6. For Puff and Purr

7. For Mom

8. For our Family

9. To be able to play in snow!

10. To be able to eat. :)



Lizzy is thankful for:

1. Charity and love in our family.

2. My sisters and brothers who play with me all the time.

3. The farm and how much joy it grows in our family.

4. The beauty in our family and gardens.

5. God

6. All the animals and our healthy food.

7. For Perla.

8. Not having to go to school!

9. A big lake that we can go swimming in when it gets hot.

10. For being able to go sledding and skating.


Michael is thankful for:

1. My parents

2. My siblings

3. My animals.

4. For being homeschooled

5. For living such a great way

6. For creation and our souls.

7. For life.

8. Good looks. (laughing :) (and I might add, that I'm thankful for brother's sense of humor!)

9. My bed.

10. Cute sisters! (No I didn't tell him to say that! He's laughing and patting my shoulder... I'm groaning. :-P Little brothers! Oh whaddya gonna do? :)

Fun in the Back Field

Hey guys!
I'm Mary's eleven year old sister, Lizzy :). It's nice to talk to you again.
You know me, my fort, sure ya do.
Anyway, I want to tell you guys about how pretty life is in the field—mostly gorgeous for me, so let's see if it's the same for you.

I like it because when I go out there I feel free, not like I'm not already :). But it's just so... when the wind blows, and just... all the horses come to greet you, I just feel so alive, with all the birds singing in the trees.. it's just so like safe and at home.. okay, to tell you the truth, it's like a dream in the fall. I feel so happy when I go out there, I feel like I have to do some spins on the way out.
Then when I'm out there enjoying the horses' company, I like to thank God for everything, especially Donna, my one year old sister, Perla, a half Icelandic pony that is now one year old, and my dream one day is to gallop through the fields with her.

So that's my story for you. I'm going to go and run in the field.
Have a great day.
Lizzy :)

Cute Baby... good for a chuckle or two :)

Hey out there!

 I've been getting questions regarding our latest hobby of commercial making. Thought it was about time I explained...

As ya all can imagine, this homesteadin' lifestyle ain't always the most profitable business, so we're always scroungin' for odd jobs and small ways to make money on the side. Most of these opportunities are a lot of hard work and since our farm and its abundant work is where we really want to be putting our efforts into growing bright futures... that's tough. So, when Andrew stumbled across this site that watches and manages commercial contests going on on the web, offering decent to good cash prizes, we joined on. It's a good opportunity for us because movie making is something we love doing. It's fun verses being labor intensive, so to be doing it for a potential money making purpose is great! Whenever there's a commercial need posted that's up our alley, we chat about it a lot as a group while digging potatoes or working on the barn and get our creative juices flowing and then collaborate on something that we can do quick and easy in the evenings.

So far, we have yet to win something, but we're hopeful. The Sthil commercial will be picking finalists after Nov. 1st. ...We're kinda thinkin' we lost that one to somebody with much better equipment. Our viral cow vid lost out in the finalist choices. Then that nature commercial I posted in my last entry we were forced to submit late... so not sure if that one will even make it into the draw. Then we filmed these four Etrade baby commercials for, you guessed it, Etrade! These are just ideas and concepts for Etrade. If they bought any of them, they would be redoing them with their babies.

So, I just thought I'd explain and just for the chuckle of seeing a really cute baby in action, thought I'd share these:

Puppet Skills:



A Little Counseling:



The Cute Factor:



Delusions of Stardom:



So, that's what we've been up to lately. If you could spare a prayer that we can win a commercial once in a while, we'd be grateful. :) I'll keep you all updated on our wins and losses. Oh, and one last favor, if you could, please share which one of these you found to be the funniest??

Lil' Prairie Princess

My little sister is a princess. 

The kind that can twirl her faded jean skirt round and round until it turns into a dazzling full ball gown. Hers is a magical world, where the long open field becomes a royal hall filled with dancing lords and ladies. The yellow and red trees edging the field are the mighty golden and ruby pillars holding up a ceiling so high and majestic, that birds fill its endless eves. The color of the ceiling fades from a deep magnificent blue on one end of the hall, to a perfect pale blue on the other end. Fluffy white clouds drift and swirl across the ceiling with such color and depth that no artist could paint. Leaves fill the sky and float down around her like droplets of pure gold creating the perfect mat on which little royal slippered feet may dance. A brilliant brightly colored rainbow bending down from the sun into the pasture looks like the light from the worlds most amazing chandelier, lighting the dance floor for the princess to preform. 

A gentle wind shuffling the trees and bending the grass becomes music, expertly preformed and so mesmerizing to the ears that one can not help but dance to its tantalizing rhythm. A shaggy pony threatening to draw the princess from her magical world with a nudging on her arm, is suddenly a mighty white steed with long flowing mane and tail who is just waiting at the princess's beck and call, to lope over mountain and hillside with the little lady perched femininely on her back.

  

Another peal of music coaxed forth from beautiful old instruments by the calloused fingers of expert musician's, leaves no choice for the listener but to once again fall into step, silk gowns twirling about ankles as the princess spins and spins in her majestic world.

Maybe it's the season, where winters cool breath turns ordinary trees to gold and works it magic creating magnificent displays of color from sky to ground everywhere you look. One can not help but feel like a princess while standing in the midst of such glory and knowing that she owns such riches. 

Perhaps this is why, when I saw Lizzy dancing and twirling in the field the other day, I could so accurately read her thoughts... That and the fact that we often share stories while working in the garden together and I know the way her mind works.... and why shouldn't it? :-)

Sometimes adults tend to think that kids live in a delusional world, but personally I think theirs is the more accurate view on the world.

(Btw, I got Lizzy's approval before posting this... when I asked her what she thought, she scrunched her nose and turned bright red... I said, "what? are you embarrassed?" and she said, "no, it's just creepy how you can read my thoughts like that!" LOL!)

:)

Mary

P.S. I thought this commercial the boys made for GE and starring Lizzy, fit with the theme of this post really well! Check it out: (Original piano score by Annie!)