This
is a total solar powered cob house with a radiant heated
earthen floor, branched drain graywater system and a range
which is half electric, half woodburning.
We
began breaking ground for the hybrid cob/straw bale house
July 1, 2003. I worked with David Voss (the mastermind behind
the natural building design) who custom-tailored the solar
electric system for my needs. We share the philosophy espoused
by such builders/authors as Ianto Evans, Linda Smiley and
Michael Smith of Cob
Cottage 
,
Daniel
Chiras ,
Michael Reynolds of Earthship
Biotecture
and others. We must act responsibly for the sake of the
next seven generations. I can do my part by building with
renewable, recyclable, and/or locally produced materials
that cost little and have low embodied energy.
Building
with "cob" (an Anglo-Saxon word meaning loaf-shape)
is as old as dirt. In fact, it IS dirt: a mix of clay, sand
and straw. It has been used to build houses, by the occupants,
all over the world for thousands of years. All the clay
I used to build the house came from digging the foundation.
Sand is cheap, $12.50 for 3 tons, and I haul it with my
truck; and the straw from a neighbor's farm is also cheap.
HELP
NEEDED to finish a potential retreat center
(or just a home): Our solar powered cottage on an Indian
Reservation in Kansas is actually FOR SALE, but open to
creative cooperative possibilities. Finished unit includes
kitchen, bathroom, utility room and sleeping loft, radiant
heat under earthen floor, cookstove is half electric/half
woodburning; graywater system watering trees,--lived in
one and a half year. Living room unit, begun last summer,
includes Faswall Block basement with slab floor, post-&-beams
for strawbale walls (w/balcony or full 2nd story), Spanish
clay tile roof. Bales easily obtained locally. Price, $195,000,
includes 30 acres (10 in native tallgrass prairie in a conservation
program for one more year, and 20 acres timber), 2 stocked
ponds and creek, lots of wildlife. No codes to worry about,
on the Rez, for natural building styles. Neighbors now conscious
of these concepts. Please contact me at dorethy@centeroftherainbow.com
You
can see more pictures of Dorethy's house on her website
at Center
of the Rainbow
