Mayan Pyramid Oven from Symbiosis

Building the Oven at Symbiosis

What a time at Symbiosis! Before too much time passes since the amazing festival experience we had, I want to reach out to you to update you on a couple things. It was such a thrill to be able to share my passion of natural building with you, and I hope you were inspired to delve deeper into the world of earthen, cob building.

As you may recall, during the presentation on natural building in the Permaculture Hub I listed the 50 reasons for using Earth as a building material, with photos to accompany them. Ill share my top 5 list with you now...

1) The main reason why I do it, is that I find it incredibly Fun to build with Earth- the whole process of finding the right clay, mixing it up with your feet, sculpting, watching it dry, plastering it, then using it.

2) Having work & pizza parties is a great way to build community

3) The earthen material is actually good for your body and the clay absorbs toxins

4) You can sculpt beautiful, rounded structures which stirs up your creative juices.

5) Earthen building causes no harm to the environment, as it avoids using cement, steel or trees.

On my Living Earth Structures website I have the other reasons listed as well.

Mayan Pyramid Oven built at Symbiosis

The Mayan Pyramid Oven we built at Symbiosis now has a new home! During the 5 day Permaculture Design course prior to the Festival, we built an oven using adobe bricks and earth right from the festival site. As you may recall, we used it on Saturday night during the festival and must have cooked at least 100 pizzas in 2 cob ovens. The oven was donated to an organization called Urban Tilth based out of Richmond and now lives in an educational garden which feeds many people. They will be using it this Saturday during their tour of over 20 school, community gardens in the Richmond area. It is such as thrill that the positive energy generated at the Festival has been absorbed into this earthen oven, and now continues to radiate out the walls of the Pyramid for many years to come.

The 10th Annual Permaculture Convergence is coming up next week! This will be a great opportunity to learn valuable skills on living a more resilient, sustainable, and ecologically sound lifestyle, while connecting with some great folks. For more information and to register, you can click here

There will be a natural building workshop, called "Dirt Cheap Housing" on Saturday afternoon at 2 pm on building a small house using pallets, filled with straw, covered in cob. Hope to see you there!

Afrika Town in Oakland

Natural Building Workshop this weekend! As part of the Urban Permaculture Design course, will be building a cob oven/bench in downtown Oakland on 23rd and San Pablo at the Afrika Town community garden. We will be be there on Sunday, October 4 from 9-5. It is a full class with about 45 students attending, but if you are in the area and would like to stop by to see the process, you are welcome. It is the intent that this oven will help build a festive community feeling in an area of the City that desperately needs it. Prep for the project will be happening this Friday from 12-5 if you would like to come help with the foundation.

Call me at (707) 320-3609 if you are interested.

Cob Village on Cobb Mountain

Cob Village on Cobb Mountain visualized.

After the Valley Fires, there is much receptivity to alternative building strategies to house the people who lost their homes. I made a presentation last week to the Lake County Board of Supervisors and Community Development about building a cob village which would be on a campground, with shared kitchen facilities, composting toilets, grey water, community gardens and childrens play area. Each unit would be constructed using various different natural building techniques- pallets, cob, adobe, earthbag, rammed earth, strawbale, etc, and the residents would be helping to build them. There was definite interest in this, and more meetings will be had soon to consider this as a viable option. If the County approves this, and recommends this alternative building to happen, then FEMA will pay for it. This is a great opportunity to create something magical out on Cobb Mountain and the surrounding areas in "Middle Earth Town" . I will keep you posted as this develops further, and let you know if there are volunteer opportunities available.

Cob Bench

If you are interested in having an earthen structure on your property, please let me know, and we can work together to come up with something wonderful for you to enjoy. There is still time before the winter rains come to build something, so let me know soon. Also, if you would like to come help make adobe bricks with me in Petaluma, let me know, and we can discuss this more.

Or, if you work with a school or community, perhaps we can do a workshop to make the project more inclusive.

Sir Cobalot

I hope to stay connected though a mutual joy and passion for natural building, and I hope to see you at the Permaculture Convergence next week!

Miguel Elliott aka "Sir Cobalot"

Living Earth Structures