Caitey Ronan

Hey y’all! I’m excited to finally visit this topic. I’d really love to get into food preservation for most of our needs when fresh is not available. I feel pretty good about solar dehydration, but pressure canning definitely intimidates me, although I think I need it to bridge a gap and my grandma already has the entire setup. We tried to can pickled okra once following a recipe she had. It was awful! Slimy mush that no one would even pretend to eat. That experience left me with a bad taste and some guilt for wasting that food. Where did I go wrong? Does anyone have tips and troubleshooting for maintaining some texture and avoiding a mushy mess?

It’s great to hear that you didn’t have trouble cobbing in VA! Every time I hear of someone in the SE building cob I feel a little more at ease

Thanks for the responses y’all. In general I haven’t heard about many mold issues, except one or two experiences that have me scared. One thread on here titled “Mold in Cob” that mentions a magazine article where a man was having trouble with mold on the bottom 15% of his walls where condensation would collect up from his cold foundation. Luckily we have much more mild winters than his location, but we do have some stretches below freezing in the winter and I worry about a cold stone foundation. I suppose most of my fear comes from the lack of information or examples of cob building in my area and the insistence of folks (that aren’t natural builders) that it’s just not suitable here. Every structure I’ve been in here without a powerful climate control system has been very susceptible to mold and I’m nervous that the cob will be able to handle all of the moisture here.

You replied to my round pole question! this is similar but more looking for advice about the cob itself in our wet climate.

Thanks for the responses y’all! We’ll have to check out those books. Hopefully where we still feel confused some of our community that knows how to build may be able to offer help. As for a local cob builder, we haven’t found one. We seem to live in an area with extreme cob skepticism. I know there is someone is Charleston, but she seems to have moved away from cob and that’s a vastly different environment. If anyone knows of another builder in SC, please let us know

Hey all! My partner and I are planning on building a cob house next year around 400sq ft. We are wanting to do something similar to the Smiley at the Cob Cottage if anyone is familiar (small living space kitchen and bathroom with a small loft for sleeping and a desk) We live in Upstate South Carolina. It’s pretty humid and rainy here but also hot as get out. We live in predominant red clay area and the sun seems to bake the heck out of it on a clear day. But we are wondering about drying time for the cob. Does anyone have experience building cob in a similar climate or know of any other cob builders in this area? We also wanted to know if anyone has any tips for preventing mold in the building. We are planning on a French drain with a concrete bond beam and stone foundation over that. I’m hoping that will be okay, but I’ve read some mold horror stories and I know how easy it is to grow mold in our humidity. Any advice or tips about those topics or really anything for a first time cob builder would be greatly appreciated!

Hey all! My partner and I are going to be building a small cob house next year (around 400 sq ft) we are planning on using the felled trees for roundpole rafters and having a curved log ridge pole similar to the style we saw at some of the cottages at the Cob Cottage Company in Oregon. We plan to use the trees we fell around the site in our house. Does anyone have any tips/tricks, experience they’ve learned from, or know of any good resources on round pole construction? We live in SC and are wanting to do a pond liner living roof situation. We are lucky to have a lot of friends in construction that know how to timber frame, but they are familiar with only modern construction so we’d love to hear advice from natural builders. Thanks so much I’m advance!