Buying Cob Materials and Finding a Site!

So, some things which are very exciting to share about cobbing..

We purchased some concrete sand and mortar clay from Home Depot yesterday.  Our soil in our backyard probably has some clay once we dig deeper down a few feet, but our limited space in a manufactured home community means that we are vulnerable to finding either plumbing or electrical, which we haven't delved into where exactly the lines are yet.

So, we planned on buying our clay and our sand from a local gravel yard that we visited the other day.  There were many options for sand, but we weren't 100% on which sand was the best to buy for cob.  We checked online and luckily we didn't buy the typical playground fill sand, because apparently, it would have been too smooth to bind well with the clay.  The best sand for cobbing is coarse.  We stopped by the Home Depot for another landscaping project we're working on for my parents, and checked to see their options for clay.  We picked up a 50 lb bag of powdered mortar clay and a 60 lb bag of all purpose sand.  Maybe not the best options, but pretty cheap!  I was reading online about using potter's clay for cob, and anything I remember about potter's clay from a kid is that it's expensive!  Checking on Amazon, I've found that my suspicions were right, so I think buying mortar clay is the best deal for cobbing, since we'll need a lot of it.

As for straw, we live near tons of abandoned agricultural land.  I'm planning tomorrow morning to take my rake and pull some old grasses from the fields into a bag to bring back home with me.  The Cob Builder's Handbook by Becky Bee says to never use hay, because it will decompose in the cob.  My partner and I have suspected that this has to do with the moisture content of hay, whereas straw is bone dry.  I think with the lack of rain we've had this year in Sacramento- only 2 inches instead of the 13- the field grasses should be pretty dry.  The seeds on the grasses might have a potential to germinate with the water in the cob, but we think that without the sunlight and the binding texture of the clay and sand, the seeds will probably remain dormant.

Once I get the straw, I'll check if there are a lot of insects or not.  If so, we'll spray it with a garlic/oregano oil/water mixture and leave it out to dry.

So, we're very excited to get experimenting with our clay!  Becky Bee says to make some test bricks as a trial run for different ratios of clay to sand to straw, as everyone's materials can be a little different.  We'll make about 6-9 different bricks to get an idea of what it feels like to make them and to see how they form when dry.

Another exciting note about our cobbing is that we've found a site!  TRALALALLLAAA! :)
It's out in the old agricultural lands, a little spot that no one seems to care about besides us.. and someone who dropped off their deer carcass in a tarp.. :P   .. Besides that, it's very beautiful, there is a creek running through it with ample shade from trees.   Apparently the water stems from the Sierra Nevadas.  So, there's water, probably clay in the creek bed, probably sand in the bed, and dry grasses surrounding the area.  We are also planning to seed bomb the shit out of the place as we can take advantage of the water.  Hopefully, we can make cob to create some raised beds, or a nice bench  or cubby hole to sit in the shade when it gets hot this next summer.

Reading Becky Bee's Cob Builder's Handbook has been great.  I'm imagining all new things about cob and I'm realizing that my childhood dream of creating my own space to live, relax, be, and feel safe can come to life in a practical, functional way.  I'm very excited to have a partner who is also interested in doing this with me and that we can support each other.  We have a journey ahead of us!