Jay Gore

Wow guys. Would you mind to share the floor plan? Ive been watching the video over and trying to wrap my head around it. You've certainly done something incredible.

Hi guys, I've had similar thoughts of finding a way to combine a earth bermed back wall with cob construction. It would be cool to have a vent that ran through the berm and looped back into the house for a passive a/c system.

My idea was to build the foundation up, timber frame the roof, then build up your cobwalls in that then created dry space, maybe use a different material for the back wall where the berm comes in if necessary.

THEN when you bring the earth berm in use dry dirt and throw a giant pond liner over the whole structure including the berm. Bury it one more time and grow some herbs.

What do ya think?

yeah it needs a fiber matrix to be cob but I really expected there to be sand in there. When I took the sample it felt sandy in my hands. If it is the right ratio for cob will it stay mixed rather than settle into 2 layers? I haven't been out for another sample yet but the one on my desk just keeps getting a thicker layer of clear water on top and the rest just looks like orange clay.

I think the test is inconclusive. I'll have to do it again and use an actual glass jar. I had a water bottle in my car so I used that and it looks like its all clay but I don't think that can be right. I think the clay stuck to the plastic and messed up the test. Otherwise I just made cob in a water bottle. lol idk I'll get back to you.

Hello all!

I am in south central MO also interested in building with cob. Have been wondering if a cob wofati is possible? From what I have read you just have to be sure and keep the water off of it so if you use a buried pond liner like a wofati to take the rain off and away from the structure I am thinking this is viable. I would not mind mixing materials like sort of wofati timber style on the buried exteriors and cob on the interior with a mixed timber/cob/stone exposed exterior front. Anyone currently building give me a shout I'd like to lend a hand for a weekend and see how things are being done.

As far as coming up with clay in the Ozarks I think this red stuff you find a little deeper has got to be rich in it. I am conducting the water jar test to see about that. When I mixed this red dirt with the water it turned a really great earthy orange color. still waiting for it to settle. I believe the difficulty in our area is going to be sifting out the rocks.

This makes more sense! See what you think of that.

hell It had my location all screwed up. those calculations are wrong lol back to the drawing board

I am using data from suncalc.org for these calculations.. As I began looking at what the sun is doing during the Summer Solstice I became rather confused to find that in the middle of the day the sun will be coming in at the same angle as on the winter solstice but from the north rather than the south. Can this be? Can anyone explain this? It feels like I've got to be looking at this wrong or something.

Walipini Winter solstice sun shadow calculations for southern Missouri at approximately 37 degrees latitude

Hey Mike!

You are right! I just did a quick image search for zone maps and whatever I was looking at was not the USDA system because it was going the opposite direction! I'm right at the border of 6a and 6b.

I'm going to be in crumby little tents for a while. I'm thinking if I just keep the water livable for the fish, grow something crazy hearty like tatsoi and not worry about air temp during the winter I might be able to keep it going year round in these smaller stages. When I scale up serious I'm leaning towards a walipini! That should make the RMH far more feasible! I've been up all night researching! SO MUCH COFFEE! I was working on this earlier... er.. sometime:
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