Finishing the Foundation

Unfortunately the foundation (as you guys I'm sure recall) is what took me the longest and stopped me from getting to cobbing last year. I had never done any stone masonry before, and I will never attempt any more until I take a proper course in stone laying. It not only was a lot of labor, it was a task that is a bit beyond my skill level. It's not something you can just learn by a book. At the time of making this, I really didn't have the option of taking a class or having a mason work with me (no money) so I have thus winged it. I will explain after the photos why I have left it at the height it's at, the size, and what I think of it right now. I will then explain the next process.


These first photos are of where the foundation was, and all the stone Belle (fellow architecture bud) and I gathered at a local farm in my area (thank you Mr. McCaffrey!) Spring Rain Farm offers my family a lot of strawberries, too, and if you haven't ever been in the summer you should definitely go pick your own. The final stones were put in place by myself, my father, and Emily (a friend from massart.)



Height of wall (average because I suck!): 12"
Door opening: inside= 2'-5" outside 3'-0"
Wall thickness: 1'-0" to 1'4" because it get's skinny in a few areas (but my minimum was 12")
Depth under grade: 1' or so of stone, another two feet of gravel, compact

I have amazing drainage in my yard, and considering the fact that this is just a shed and not a building that will be used year round, I opted to cut down my initial design. I shortened the wall, I thinned the wall. I did not go to the frost line and my masonry is at least.. not going to move. The top is 'rough' so that cob will adhere to the top and won't slide as much. I am going to hope for the best and see how the rain affects the area in the next few days.

The cob will be at the base between 6-8" thick. This will be enough to support a roof and support some detailing inside (such as some built in shelves, can handle the weight of me putting in pegs to hold tools, a window with a wooden lintel, bottles placed into the cob to allow light and color. It will seem dark when we finish but when I apply a white plaster I believe it will change everything about how it feels and how much light is within the cob. Hopefully I will be complete enough this summer to plaster it next summer.

My current plan is to make phone calls and get clay/stray tomorrow, or enough to start doing test bricks. I will need to build a platform to hold and keep dry the straw, and rearrange my workspace for cobbing, not stone work. I need to get those silly weeds off of my dirt pile as well. I will also make a list of tools I need tonight so that tomorrow I can get those tools, or prepare to make anything sort of strange out of wood at massart. I am not sure where I'm going to get a door at the moment, but I may just build one myself from recycled lumber. Not sure yet. I know a few local carpenters and they may assist me with this if I throw some money at them.

The door needs to eventually have a wooden jamb made, a lintel, and I will use the left-over concrete to make a threshold. The floor will remain dirt. I have a window that was donated to me, so I will nestle it directly into the cob.

I do have a good back ache and can finally feel the actual shed coming together.

We'll start with the oven!

A while ago (now) I finally got around to firing my oven. This required only a small amount of fire wood that I had sawn down into manageable chunks, though I will recommend even smaller firewood bits and strips to get the fire started if you have a tiny oven such as mine. I will also go ahead and say that it took a bit for the oven to be fully fired and dry to hold a strong temperature. You really need to fire that baby for a few hours! Onto the photos and the times it took to cook the two pizzas and muffins.

The pizzas were the first experiments, and at first I had not waited long enough for the oven temperature to level out (because it hadn't fired enough.) It took a bit of fiddling to get the pizza's to cook but after trying leaving a fire going inside and letting it fire longer, we had success.



In the end we found that, once at temperature (500-400 degrees Fahrenheit) the oven can cook an east side cheese/topping pizza in 15 minutes. Our corn muffins cooked in 20 minutes which is the time it takes in a conventional oven. Everything had a wonderful crust and very light smoke taste to it and a lot of moisture. We look forward to the fire dept allowing us to cook the oven again and a more successful firing(at least faster!)



---------------------
The pizza was donated to us by East Side Pizza from East Taunton, MA. If you are ever in the area, give them a call - (508) 821-5969 . They are like family to us. My mother and brother aided in bringing food, set up, and of course eating. Thank you Paul and massart for allowing me to be a bit crazy in your courtyard. Next up - updates on my foundation with measurements and plans for the cobbing!