Nearby cob project

Our group met in Bloomington, Indiana, last night for dinner and to meet some new folks who are interested in what we're doing. About a dozen of us enjoyed dinner together and then walked a few blocks to a meeting of the Natural Building Group, one of many groups that meet under the umbrella of the Center for Sustainable Living (CSL) in Bloomington.

CSL has recently moved to a smaller location just blocks west of downtown Bloomington. By the time we arrived about a half dozen folks had already assembled to discuss natural building ideas and projects. That number had more than half filled the cozy meeting area, so our arrival was, to say the least, a surprise to them. We all scrambled for a few minutes to make more room to sit and watch the presentation.

While waiting for the presenters to get their equipment set up, we gave a brief description of the Raccoon Creek Community project.

This month's program was a talk and slide show from Chris and Jen Reinhart, and the reason we met in Bloomington this time. The couple, with help? from their now-three-year-old son, have been building their own natural structures on 15 acres they own east of Bloomington.

They talked about the process they used to find their property. It was all too familiar, driving back roads throughout the area, asking folks about various properties. They eventually found a property with woods, meadow and a creek.

Their first building was a privy, but a very nice privy, with a beautiful stone foundation, and lots of light. Chris worked on the site with their son while Jen continued her job in town. He decided to do all the work by hand, so the project took longer than it might have, but the results appear worth it.

He dug into the soil about two feet deep around the foundation-to-be, saving the top soil for their garden and setting the rest aside for use in the cob walls. The foundation started with purchased gravel across the entire floor area, and some flexible plastic drainage pipe running from the building outward into a drainage trench. After covering the pipe with more gravel, the actual foundation walls were started with large stones and "urbanite," a coined term to describe found concrete slabs, broken into manageable pieces.

The foundation was built up to a foot or so above grade and it was ready for the cob. The cob was mixed on a tarp in batches that could be managed and applied by hand to the foundation. As the cob rose higher, a door frame and windows were built into it, and eventually a roof was added. The end result is a beautiful natural building that looks like it grew there. I'll add a picture if Chris or Jen will send me one.

Their next building was a small house they had planned to build for their son to use as he grew older. Talk about planning ahead! But building the little house next wasn't the original plan. First the foundation for the family home was dug, but reality struck as they recognized that they wouldn't be able to finish the larger building before cold weather set in, and they wanted to get themselves moved to their property and eliminate the monthly rent they were paying.

So they turned their attention from the larger foundation pit and started from scratch on the smaller home. The foundation was built much the same as the privy's. This house was to be two floors, though, so instead of building it all with cob, it was to include straw bale sections. The gravel was dumped and spread, the urbanite foundation was finished, and they started with the cob. As the cob wall grew, the door and window frames were added. Soon the straw bales were incorporated. Pictures in the slide program show that soon the leaves were off the trees and they had to move promptly.

Without my belaboring the process, the second-floor loft was added, they finished it off with a custom designed roof and, voila!, a home for three, albeit a very small home. This year they will restart the family home, finish plastering the cob walls in the privy and small house, and start a wall for their garden.

If you'd like to visit their homestead, or want to offer some volunteer help, you can contact Chris and Jen by email.

And if you are in the Bloomington area on the fourth Wednesday of a month, you can't go wrong stopping in at the CSL building for the Natural Building Group's monthly meeting. Contact Joe Davis for more information.