AKBarratt Hatfield

Yeah, we are on mostly glacial moraine and rock around here. A foot or two of topsoil(mostly peat and brush roots) and then brown sandy gravel mix. There is a layer of volcanic ash a few inches thick.

I am planning to build a toyota 22r powered on wood-gas for my Gencharger at the cabin. It'll be really nice to run all winter on alder chips instead of Gasoline.

After searching a bit and test my soil, I have determined that I have no usable amount of clay handy. I really want to build a RMH in our new cabin and wonder, Can you use packed earth instead of Cob?

I was thinking to build a hearth out of some cool green volcanic stone we have here, use mortar with that for the shell, and fill the bench around the pipe with either packed sandy loam type soil I have or use beach gravel. I can get truck loads of pea gravel sized stuff right off the beach.

Better ideas?