megan thornton

aaaannnnnd I just saw how old this post is

William Egan wrote: I plan on building a cob house of sorts, Have to do more research but was thinking on a post and beam set the width of a pallet so pallets can be screwed to both sides of the post and the pallets being filled with cob. The space in between the pallets, the width of the post( maybe 4 inch posts) will be filled with a mixture of lime sawdust and maybe a little borax for bugs and fungus. I need to find out if the sawdust would retain too much moister being enclosed, They use it on cobwood houses. It will be more of a daub and wattle type. It will also have an earth roof but instead of earth I plan to use wood chips as they will soon turn to a light dirt and very insulative . Never seen any of this done before so its kinda experimental but sure it will work ok. Maybe if anyone in this area is interested in helping we could exchange labor or something.

Hi William. I've built a couple of wattle and daub type houses for colder climates. I built a modified post and beam frame with 6x6s every 8 feet. My local lumber yard sells bundles of long wood scrap that averaged 1/2"x 2ish" and i attached them to the inside and outside of the posts with about 6-8" between them. The infilll was light straw clay (straw coated in a clay mud slurry) that would slump out between the slats and create a surface to attach a base coat of clay mud with long straw which would easily span the wood slats. Adobe plaster doesn't naturally want to affix to wood but with all of the long straw to hold it together it works out fine. Your plan with the pallets sounds really cool and like it would create some nice thick walls. If you have suitable dirt to make cob and mud, that light straw clay in fill might be more resistant to critters and mold than the sawdust idea. Good luck. sounds fun

Hi Anne. my local feed stores don't have it but thank you for the links. I'm particularly excited about the native seed link. i haven't been there before.

Tereza, thank you , i was wondering if the store bought stuff might just work. I should sprout some now to be sure that it's viable come time to sow it. would you grow a different variety for your animals that you would for human consumption?

Daniel, thanks for the link. I just grew blue corn last year and i've yet to nixtamalize it. So, interesting, i haven't heard or thought of doing it with other grains, though i did read another post on which you spoke about it. thank you!

I've recently become interested in growing sorghum,  mostly because i read that you can cook it as a whole grain, pop it and grind it into flour. I am having a hard time finding seed and figuring out which variety I'm looking for. I am not completely hooked on the idea of sorghum, though "nutty flavor" sounds appealing. I'm just looking for a multi-use grain to grow. I've had millet from the grocery before and found it to be bitter. I live in a dry climate though i do have acequia access (seasonal irrigation) and a dependable well. Any suggestions appreciated.