So my mom in law turned 60 a couple of
weekends ago and we signed up for a visit to celebrate. The visit turned into an
early Christmas because we will not be seeing that part of the family
over the actual Christmas time.
This year moms house was full and we
got to stay with my wife's dad on the farm just outside the village.
He lives in a house that he literally built with his own hands.
Cob,
a mixture of clay and dry grass, is rolled into balls, slapped in place
and shaped with your hands making the wall. This is done in a circular
fashion, working your way around the wall until you get back to where
you started, by which time the cob should be dry enough to start the
next layer.
This process is followed until the
desired height s reached. After all this you need to seal the clay
from the rain, else it will just become a neatly washed pile of mud.
To seal it, it gets plastered with a mix of clay and lime. Then you
roof it, floor it, furnish it and move in (in short that is).
What a lovely place. Because of the
thick natural walls the temperature is beautifully regulated inside,
summer and winter. None of the walls are perfectly straight, giving
the house a lovely natural feel.
At night everything settles due to
temperature differences, making the house feel alive as it moves at
night. A huge porch gives a lovely farmhouse feel and give a great
vantage point to enjoy a stunning view over the farm and of the surrounding mountains.
The only thing missing is a line up of
motorcycles and some sort of a test track... LOL!! I don't think that dad will bite though... :)
