Cob Say 1 Day 1

Los Barriles Camp: First Day of Cobbing, We work for Enron!

It’s been an adventure here in the desert so far. The airport brought our tent the second day we were here and we immediately put it up before it got dark. We slept comfortably the first night, but realized that during the day our tent was just a big kite if it wasn’t fastened down properly. Rachel and I made quick use of the rocks around the site and placed them on top of our deeply buried stakes and in the corners of our tent. This was a major improvement. Now we just need to figure out how to add a few more inches of air under our thermarests and then we’ll be set.

The campsite is pretty amazing, specifically, our rustic kitchen. We have tons of propane, two camp stoves, massive bags of all sorts of beans (coffee beans included) and a wide array of organic vegetables from a local farm. Good planning by our hosts (Pat and Kit from Mayne Island, British Columbia and their two twin boys Ethan and Brody) has made for a very welcoming stay so far, and all of the other folks who are participating in the workshop bring a wide array of backgrounds and robust personalities.

But the coolest thing is the cobbing! We had our first day at the site today and repaired a hurricane damaged cob building from a past project (unfortunately the owners were unable to get the outside finished and protected from the elements). Cob is a very versatile and tough building material and we were told that this was not typical of cob structures, but with 25 hands the repairs to the outer wall went quickly with our simple sand and clay amendment. It was a tiring day but it’s amazing how much was accomplished and how much independence mixed with instruction we were given just on the first day. Rachel, myself and everyone else were mixing and applying cob from the get go. Playing in the mud never seemed so easy.

Let’s just say Mexico is still Mexico, it makes a mean tortilla.