Still I have trouble either cleaning my head and overanalyzing how to make cob from clay dirt in my backyard or I am just not finding a general guideline specific enough to my brain to fully understand how to make cob from clay I dig up from 18" down in my backyard.
I'm looking for that magical thread that explains A RECIPE ON HOW TO MAKE COB FROM DIRT GATHERED FROM MY BACKYARD (Or recipe for making cob from clay/dirt extracted from the ground. Need some guidance as all dirt has different compositions and as a newbie I am having trouble looking at dirt and saying "this needs more sand OR this needs more clay OR this needs more dirt from my backyard, etc). Some particulars include:
1) Testing dirt with a layer test in a mason jar (having trouble reading my results but will try again)
2) how to treat or prepare my dirt for making cob (do i have to let the clay dirt dry then crush it and remix then strain? OR do I have to let it sit in water for a month? OR do i have to treat the clay dirt at all besides getting out the organic matter, rocks, roots, etc?)
yes, over analyzing, me thinks.
it's more of hands on learnt skill, you have to experiment and make mistakes, until you grok it =)
and find a good mix, with the specific materials you are using, because as you were saying they are all different, the dirt has very very different properties in different areas.
i have never been there, but from brief conversations with some people i know in CO, the dirt is really weird, very unusual conditions and they have to add so much to get any food growing beds.
heres a really general recipe, a place to start
2-4 buckets of sand, 1
bucket of screened clay dirt, 1/2- 1 bucket of
straw
but recipes cant really be exact, and theres a huge amount of different recipes to experiment with....
then theres a whole assortment of other things you can add in and try out different recipes with- like builders clay from the hardware store, lime, manure (weird, maybe, but its chewed up straw basically), sawdust, woodchips, etc etc etc. other related building methods, like making bricks and forms, which is more what i prefer.
a method i have used most often to process the subsoil clay dirt = get a bunch of containers, buckets and especially large plastic tubs and put hardware cloth, or a metal screen of some kind with large holes, on top of it. dig the clay and throw it on top of these, then use the hose to wash it through the screen. this takes out large rocks and clumps, also roots and such organic material.
now your clay is too wet for using immediately, let it dry out slowly (and naturally stratifying by weight in the tubs/buckets) and keep pouring off the top water as it settles every day or so.
you can pour off a larger amount into other containers to separate it.....as the top will be the lighter particles, more of "slip" clay, and the bottom will be the heaviest.
but of
course, theres a million other ways to do it, a bazillion recipes that work depending on the materials, so experiment with something that works for you.
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