Vision | 
03 15th, 2010| 
We didn’t have plans to get a rooster right now because we will be keeping a rooster from the batch of chicks. BUT a close friend has 6 roosters who were on their way to the table so we picked one out! So here is “Doodle” as in Cock-a-doodle-doo.. He is 4.5 months old and a Barred Rock crossed with Rhode Island Red. He is very friendly with the kids and the young hens LOVE him! They are following him everywhere and even helping to groom him, pretty funny to watch! So sooner or later we won’t have to bring in fertilized eggs, we will have our own.
Mar
15
It has been a VERY exciting weekend here on the Robinson farm! Blackie had 6 of the 7 eggs hatch into chicks, 5 of them survivied, one was born with an umbilical hernia (I think thats what it is called for chickens too) and was very weak, it went on to prolapse and didn’t make it, the kids were very sad but we had a little burial in the compost pile so the little chick will live on and return to the soil. It is amazing how much the kids (and us too) are learning by having experiences like this, I would not trade it for anything, seeing the wonder in their eyes! Having a broody hen is the way to go with raising chicks, it is such a natural process! Mama knows what to do, she keeps her chicks all under her the first few days and as of today I removed the last egg that wasn’t going to hatch. Soon after that she let her chicks all out and has been teaching them how to eat, drink and scratch, so beautiful to watch! Here are some pictures of our little ones with the new little ones!
Mar
13
This is a question we have been asked lately by friends, family and strangers..
“What is Cob?”
Cob is a traditional building technique using clay, sand, straw and water- wet enough to shape, yet dry enough to build up without forms. The clay acts as the glue, while the sand gives strength to the mixture and the straw gives the walls tensile strength once hardened into place. It dries to a hardness similar to lean concrete and is used like adobe to create self supporting, load bearing walls. A cob house is essentially monolithic. This with it’s curved walls gives them greater strength in earthquakes. Earth is an abundant resource that can produce beautiful and sustainable homes with a minimal footprint.
Most of the materials used for building an earth house are unprocessed, natural and local products such as sand, clay, straw and recycled materials.
Cob invites creativity to be expressed in the process of building your space. Because cob is very flexible to work with, you are able to create just about any shape, curves, arches, shelves, benches, niches, fireplaces and ovens.
Earth homes are cool in summer, warm in winter. Cob’s resistance to rain and cold makes it ideally suited to cold, rainy climates like the Pacific Northwest, and to desert conditions.
History of Cob
COB is not a new material it is a building material that has been around for centuries. The word cob comes from an Old English root meaning a rounded mass or lump. It was started in England around the 13th century from other types of earth building techniques like adobe, sod, rammed earth, straw-clay, and wattle-and-daub just to name a few. Thousands of cob houses have weathered rainy England for hundreds of years.. Earth is probably still the world’s most common building material. With recent rises in the price of lumber and increasing interest in natural and environmentally safe building practices, cob is enjoying a renaissance. In this age of environmental degradation, dwindling natural resources, and chemical toxins hidden in our homes, doesn’t it make sense to return to nature’s most abundant, cheap and healthy building material?
What are the advantages of building with cob?
Cob is gentle on the planet. Earth is non-toxic and completely recyclable, creates no waste, and requires minimal tools to construct.
“Buildability” – Cob homes are owner built. It is easy to learn, cob is a very flexible and forgiving medium.There is obviously, quite a bit of labor involved but if time is not a factor, a house of this type could be built with just a couple of workers. Basic carpentry, plumbing and electric skills are required.
It is Affordable and Inexpensive – The walls of the home are made entirely of natural resources that are available under your feet.
Fire proof
Cob is very durable and requires little upkeep
Energy Efficiency – A cob house provides a large amount of thermal mass. This helps keep the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It is ideal for passive solar homes.
Fun – If you like playing in the mud, this is the house for you. Seriously, this is an excellent style of house to build for those with imagination. You can be very creative with the walls of your house. Also a Safe building material with kids
I have included some pictures here from Gord and Ann Baird’s from Eco-Sense BEAUTIFUL loadbearing cob home in Victoria!
Mar
5
We built our chicken coop with mainly recycled materials and built it as a family project. Our metal roof is “rustic” and recycled, cedar siding we were given as scraps from a awesome guy at a local mill, OSB was given to us, plywood flooring we had, fencing materials given to us by a friend who tore down here goat fence to rebuild so was scraping these pieces. We had to buy some 2 by 4s for framing and roof framing (we had about 1/3 of what we needed here). We are happy with how our little coop turned out and the chickens seem pretty happy too! We have 17 chickens in there now and one of them Blackie is a broody cochin, she was not wanting to get off the eggs so we got her some fertilized eggs to sit on, she is sitting on 7 eggs that will hopefully hatch next Thursday into chicks!
