Cordwood building has begun using cob made from all local materials: earth, clay, straw and cow manure. Cordwood construction is also known as stackwall or stovewood. Cordwood or short pieces of debarked tree are laid in a cob mixtures to build a wall. There's a lot of manual labor involved in building a cordwood house, however the structures can last for many years. There are some homes in Canada that are between 100 and 200 years old. Cordwood is commonly used to build homes, barns and saunas.
Our initial project is a boot room in front of a yurt. We are perfecting the cob recipe and techniques to latter use for Eco Village buildings. We are using earth near our lake which is naturally high in clay, so we only need to add a little bit of clay.
The straw is coming from tall grass cut in our garden and dried in the hot sun. The cow manure comes from "visiting" cows who have lately populated our village.
