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Behold! I made dirt, specifically cob!! Why? I say why not! Why do we even do the things we do anyways??
PS i did not intend for this to sound venty but this is stuff I think about frequently, worries about life and such
Recently I’ve been researching natural building practices/ off grid living and homesteading cause some day I want to own a home and seems first time home buyers are in their 40s and most of Gen Z is fucked either way🙃Is it unreasonable to look for alternatives? Heck I'm a simple person and i don't really need all that much to be happy, I want my own little space and to live within my means, and maaaybe hold hands with someone 😭
So last week I decided to dig up some dirt just to get a feel for what it’d be like… I uh, don’t do much manual labor ^ ^; but fuck it, I wanted to try to make cob! And my test bricks turned out better than expected. Of course there’s a couple problems with it. I don’t think I quite reached the subsoil, the straw I had access to was very short and the sand I used was closer to “beach” sand, you want something with more grit, that way when the cob sets it locks in better… Also when I started to mix everything I added waaaaay too much water so I had to let it dry up a little. Either way my blunder of a cob brick is surprisingly hard, I was expecting it to fall apart after drying up tbh.
Big reason I’m interested in cob/ Adobe buildings is cause they don't cost much to build compared to a normal home and you don't have to spend much for heating (well, depending on where you live). Theoretically I could buy some cheap land and develop it on my own… the problem is income, being so far away from everything, internet access, zoning laws and a lot of other ridiculous pencil pusher rules, like dawg, can you believe in some states it’s illegal to collect your own damn rain water just cause someone has “claimed water rights” to it??? BS imo.
I also like the idea of a family compound (lol wish my family wasn't so nutty), or just a group of friends living together on the land. Idk, perhaps this is a pipe dream but at the same time I feel this is probably the most realistic way towards home ownership. It takes a lot of work but I think it's a net positive if you can become super self-sufficient like that and “escape” the system.
Posted using PostyBirb
PS i did not intend for this to sound venty but this is stuff I think about frequently, worries about life and such
Recently I’ve been researching natural building practices/ off grid living and homesteading cause some day I want to own a home and seems first time home buyers are in their 40s and most of Gen Z is fucked either way🙃Is it unreasonable to look for alternatives? Heck I'm a simple person and i don't really need all that much to be happy, I want my own little space and to live within my means, and maaaybe hold hands with someone 😭
So last week I decided to dig up some dirt just to get a feel for what it’d be like… I uh, don’t do much manual labor ^ ^; but fuck it, I wanted to try to make cob! And my test bricks turned out better than expected. Of course there’s a couple problems with it. I don’t think I quite reached the subsoil, the straw I had access to was very short and the sand I used was closer to “beach” sand, you want something with more grit, that way when the cob sets it locks in better… Also when I started to mix everything I added waaaaay too much water so I had to let it dry up a little. Either way my blunder of a cob brick is surprisingly hard, I was expecting it to fall apart after drying up tbh.
Big reason I’m interested in cob/ Adobe buildings is cause they don't cost much to build compared to a normal home and you don't have to spend much for heating (well, depending on where you live). Theoretically I could buy some cheap land and develop it on my own… the problem is income, being so far away from everything, internet access, zoning laws and a lot of other ridiculous pencil pusher rules, like dawg, can you believe in some states it’s illegal to collect your own damn rain water just cause someone has “claimed water rights” to it??? BS imo.
I also like the idea of a family compound (lol wish my family wasn't so nutty), or just a group of friends living together on the land. Idk, perhaps this is a pipe dream but at the same time I feel this is probably the most realistic way towards home ownership. It takes a lot of work but I think it's a net positive if you can become super self-sufficient like that and “escape” the system.
Posted using PostyBirb
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Good luck! Congrats on the bricks. I never made cob but my experience with manual labor is that over time you can kinda start checking out and doing the task automatically like with most other things. In the great plains they used to make sod houses which I think are very charming too.
It’s definitely a work out but it’s nice so long as you don’t step on rocks (heck I did run my dirt through some chicken wire in an attempt to filter it a little). But it felt nice to work with my hands and I can see how you could start to zone out, I’ll have too check out sod now!
You'd be surprised with some of the houses that are made with this stuff, they all look so magical ;w;