Hi there, everyone! Thanks for tuning in. This is the first of a flow of updates and stories from the S.H.I.R.E. Pilot Project down here in Manor, Texas at the Hundred Acre Wood. I'm excited to share with you what we have been up to; there's so much to say, I don't know where to start. In lieu of boring you with endless descriptions and chronologies, I think each time I'll just pick one "theme" to focus on. So here we go!
A brief description of the space, so you can construct a picture in your head: The land is rectangular in shape and is a mixture of native grass pastures, about 40 acres of agricultural pasture, and a brushy forest of cactus, mesquite, and scrub oaks. Wandering around the land for just 15 minutes brings enthusiastic brainstorming about the potential of the space and what can be done with it. Near the north end of the property there are various buildings: a two bedroom house, barns and sheds, and a beloved old green shack, whose paint is flaking slowly off to reveal the weathered wood beneath.
So far in 2010, the overarching theme has been growth! The year has started off on a productive note for us. We kicked off the year with our New Year's Solutions volunteer day on January 9th. Around 20 volunteers came out for the day and participated in various activities.
These included building water filtration islands out of used plastic bottles, mesh fencing and water plants, constructing erosion control terraces around the back pond, building bird and bat houses with reclaimed building materials, starting seedling flats for the kitchen garden and even picking rocks out of a field in exchange for hot cider and freshly baked pastries! It was a great day; very brisk and sunny with a high of 35. We have kept the ball rolling in the weeks since and whenever the weather is nice we are outside working on land improvements and projects. When the weather is more rainy and cold, we stay under the eaves and do research and planning for future projects and events.
On top of all this internal activity, we have had some lovely and interesting guests come to stay and are expecting three long-terms visitors to arrive by the end of January. It is fun to imagine all the progress that will be made in February with the help of all these eager extra hands.
As Sandor briefly mentioned in his article about the Hundred Acre Wood, we have three goats, two pygmy does and a Nigerian Dwarf buck. January is also a month of growth for them; I am happy to announce that both of our does are pregnant! We will have 2-5 brand new baby goats bouncing around sometime soon! The kids will be a pygmy/nigerian dwarf mix. We are raising all our goats for meat and milk; I am excited to soon be adding cheese-making to my repertoire!
I'll be sure to keep you updated as kids are born and veggies start producing! We are beginning out spring workshop series in early March, so keep checking the calendar to see when you can come out and learn how to build a wind generator or can that bumper crop of green beans and okra.
In the past year The New SHIRE Institute began a relationship with a Texan friend of sustainability, resulting in our first demonstration site. We have put together a work trade lease with the owner of a property called The Hundred Acre Wood. The owner of the Hundred Acre Woods intended for the land to serve as an event-space, focusing on sustainable practices. We became involved with the project as sustainability consultants and green builders, partnering with the landowner to improve the property, "greening" the infrastructure. We will help turn the Hundred Acre Woods into a sustainability demonstration site, holding workshops to showcase various green building practices and appropriate technologies. This one hundred acre property is less than thirty minutes from Austin, TX, a city renowned for a vibrant music scene and progressive populace.
Currently, the Hundred Acre Wood is being managed by four residents. They work around the property, doing work trade to pay for the lease. Lease credit projects are approved by the land owner in bi-weekly meetings. The work being done on the land ranges from beautification, pond construction and maintenance, small livestock management and grey-water system development.
Austin has been in a drought the past few summers. This makes water issues a big portion of what The New Shire Institute is doing on the property. Before we arrived the property featured two large ponds to hold water and minimize runoff. These work as a passive rainwater catchment system (as well as a great way to wash the dogs when they get muddy!) We have been improving the ponds by fostering the development of a functioning ecosystem within them, planting water plants from various local aquatic environments.
In addition to the human residents of the Hundred Acre Woods, three dogs co-inhabit the land, performing various functions around the property. One of these is Brutus, a Great Pyrenees, acquired to keep the coyotes off the land. The other two dogs- Romo and Star- are vocal backup when the coyotes decide to try to come on to the property. The dogs guard the three pygmy goats and seven laying chickens from many wild animals.
Eventually all the property will be used for farming but there is not enough time and labor to manage all one hundred acres. In the mean time about thirty acres are leased to a neighbor for pasture hay to keep the land categorized as being "agricultural". Additionally, the residents planted a small garden to minimize the amount of food purchased off-site. The residents planted a future CSA field with rye grass and beans in preparation for the other crops to be planted as the weather warms.
A one acre field was planted with rapeseed and rye-grass. The rapeseed is a test plot for oil production to make bio-diesel. This trial run of bio-diesel production, from seed-to-tank, represents the sort of experiments The New SHIRE Institute will do more of as resources become available. As we are able to put more land in production (and as we learn the ins and outs of bio-diesel production,) we hope to run a bio-diesel co-op on the property. Ideally, this bio-diesel will be a mixture of waste vegetable oil and fresh pressed rapeseed. The bio-diesel brewing equipment we will be using was acquired from Dieselgreen in Austin.
As additional labor, money and equipment become available, we will be able to increase the scope of our projects at The Hundred Acre Wood. With such a large property it takes a lot of time to do anything. Just moving stuff from one place to another can take a while: it took four weeks to burn half the brush excavated from one of the ponds. Though intimidating in scale, this pilot project will allow us to test ideas as we create a sustainable living space. Our hope is to get more projects going by exhibiting how we can make this property a sustainable habitat incorporating renewable education. By creating one SHIRE at a time we hope to create a future into which we can be proud to bring our children.
Darkness recedes from my mind and the fields at about the same hour.
Heavy boots wet from early morning dew, drag along worn dirt paths. Legs hang off the bed of a Ford 350 4 by 4. The feet barely skim the ground, feeling every pebble, puddle and bump, a gentle massage for tired soles. Cracked hands hold onto the truck, fingers calloused and strong.
The sky above is nothing but clouds, blue skies haven’t been seen in 14 days in the month of June. We are wet. Everything is wet. The sky is still above us and the soil is still underneath.
Harvest. Urgency palpable. Truck comes to a stop. Jump off. An organized chaos, a dance executed with precision. Hustle to the fields, to the beds, were the firework colors explode, the rubber bands snapping the only rhythm besides a breath in and a breath out.
The earth brings forth sustenance, our labor coaxing it to our vision. Ruby red radishes, pearl white turnips, deep maroon sexy velvet beets, rainbow chard, a forest at dusk dark green spinach. Soil rich and wet from the rainfall, as inviting and sweet as chocolate mousse. The dance has us bent over, our heads hanging near chests like ragdolls, legs straight, hands constantly moving, pulling from the earth the harvest.
From the hustle and chaos I catch a glance of her at work. She sees me looking and her eyes catch mine, and an explosion rocks my heart and it takes a moment before it remembers to beat again. Full of desire, dreams, passions, love and lust forever entwined; my eyes widen. She looks away.
The whirlwinds blow and bring me back to the task at hand. Boxes are packed and rushed to the truck, rushed to be washed where their colors explode all the brighter, and then rushed off to market… We feed people. Sometimes we bring smiles.
Winds blow across the fields and I stand to feel their touch. I close my eyes; a smile shines on my eyelids. My arms flung wide pressing my body back against the wind, an embrace that has traveled far to meet me. These moments when we are forced to pick ourselves up from being bent over and hunched, on our knees and crawling, backs bent and carrying, you have to pick your head up and feel. Because the wind is strong and free, it is bigger than me, it blows from the North and has traveled since forever.
Every pore is filled by the knowledge that I am not hurting anyone, or at least I am trying not to. I am doing my best to not be destruction. I am, but not here. I open my eyes, the wind turns to breeze, the breeze turns to stillness, and a chorus of killdeer, mocking birds and chickadees fill the air.
Stillness lasts as long as a breath. The harvest and its urgency begin again. I hang my head down and look back to the earth. My eyes pause on my worn hands which say it all: calloused and strong, dirt under my fingernails and ingrained into my skin, but stronger than they were when the earth first began to thaw. I am stronger. My spirit fills my muscles.
I find that in any situation I never have enough compost. Purchasing quality compost can be expensive on a shoestring budget. It is the quintessential soil additive helping hold water and nutrients in the soil while protecting the plant from a wide variety of problems, from providing nutrients, to helping prevent water loss. Every year I try to add compost to the soil of all of my perennials.
So, what is compost? Compost is a mixture of fully decomposed organic matter that has a dark, rich coloring. Good compost makes it difficult to see what the parent material was; everything in the compost has been broken down by microbes, insects and worms. Yard waste, food scraps and even fecal matter can be composted safely if given the right circumstances. It is our job as gardeners to provide the right environment to facilitate decomposition and sterilization of potential pathogens.
Keeping the right ratios of the types of ingredients is really important to keeping happy, healthy and pleasant smelling compost. The aroma of well decomposed and finished compost is one of my favorite smells---it is the smell of earth, musty, almost chocolate like. I have also smelled compost that was wretchedly foul. It had to be hands down the worst smells I have ever let come in contact with my olfactory organs--rotten eggs would smell much better. I thought that it was interesting that it was from a vegan household all the nasty odors were coming from fruits and vegetables. I was there to remove some trees that were threatening their house and we happened to fall a log onto the corner of the compost pile, when out wafted the previously mentioned malodorous stench.
The problem was that there was too much water and nitrogen in the pile, so that the slop fermented anaerobically (without the presence of oxygen) producing all sorts of funky aromatic nitrogen and sulfur compounds. More dry matter and carbon is needed to keep a healthy balance. One must keep the compost wet enough to continue composting, but not so wet that it replaces the oxygen in the compost system. The pile should feel damp, but water should not come out when the organic matter is squeezed.
The carbon to nitrogen ratio is a really important factor to keeping the compost smelling pleasant. The ideal ratio is about 30 parts carbon to one part nitrogen. Most dry material such as wood chips has about 40:1 while most sloppy wet things have around 10:1. If you want to know the C:N ratio for a variety of commonly composted items, please see the end of this article. Finding enough carbon can be hard to accomplish. Attaining sawdust can be difficult unless you know a carpenter, but newspaper composts wonderfully as do paper egg cartons, and most households have plenty lying around. Just rip it into shreds and add it to the compost bucket in the house as needed, to prevent the juices from collecting on the bottom of the compost bucket.
Not only is moisture content and C:N ratio crucial to a successful compost pile, having enough air is what allows the midden heap to compost. The organisms that break the compost down require oxygen to do their work. Just as flavors blend in a pot of soup more quickly when you stir it often, the more the pile is turned the faster the pile will break down. The best method I have found is to turn the pile every two to five weeks, which depends on the gardener’s time and priorities. Some people turn it every few days and can get finished compost in about 2 months.
Compost is a delicate thing to keep in optimal balance. If there is not enough water, nothing happens. If there is too much water, it rots. If there is not enough carbon, it stinks like ammonia, and if there is too much it will take forever to break down. Humans have devised a broad spectrum of ways to speed up the composting process, and ultimately it is not that difficult to compost most organic matter. As long as the proportions of carbon and nitrogen, and water and oxygen are correct, the pile takes care of itself.
Works consulted Jenkins Joseph The Humanure Handbook: A Guide to Composting Human Manure Jeavons, John The Sustainable Vegetable Garden: A backyard guide to healthy Soil and Higher Yields Mollison, Bill Permaculutre: A Designers’ Manual Bill
Travel is an important aspect of life. It expands one's horizons, it connects cultures, and it increases appreciation for our world. Having recently returned from a trip to South America, I found myself analyzing the dynamics of tourism and its effect on the environment and the host community. Although the traveler will most likely benefit from the acts of tourism, the surrounding ecology may not---an ecology that includes the natural world and its human society. A movement called "ecotourism" has begun to incorporate sustainability, fair-trade, and volunteerism as a means to offset the harmful effects of such a desirable activity.
Ecotourism, or ecological tourism, is a global traveling industry that aims to include and benefit the host community while preserving the surrounding environmental balance (1). By uniting conservation, community and sustainable travel, ecotourism enhances the cultural integrity of local people while providing economic benefits to the community and reducing human impact on the land (2, 4a). Because there are a multitude of political, financial and environmental problems involved with tourism, the ecotourism movement aspires to repair and prevent the misconduct of this steadily growing globalized industry with the implementation of volunteerism, sustainable development, and economic empowerment.
“Voluntourism is a wonderful opportunity to develop meaningful contact with people, bridging the cultural gap between ‘us’ and ‘them’ to bring us closer to the global ‘we,’” -Jason Rolan, Voluntourism Director, North by North East Travel Services (3).
PROBLEMS & CONTROVERSIES WITH MODERN TOURISM Tourism, as an industry, is so controversial because it provides benefits while producing disadvantages. The most obvious of benefits is that tourism brings money into the economy by providing jobs and income to communities (3). The disadvantage to this is that once a community is exposed to tourism, it may not be able to gain economic strength without it. The community begins to depend on tourism so much that most of its infrastructure and commerce are geared toward the industry instead of toward the local residents. Eco tourism, on the contrary, strives to counter this effect and create a balance between local community outreach, involvement, and development by creating opportunities for travelers to volunteer with local organizations and businesses. Tourism has created 230 million jobs in its history, but it’s also responsible for millions of acres lost to ecological damage. On average, there are 700 million travelers annually around the globe that incorporates file=templates/shire_home/innerPages/shire_blogs.php.4 billion a day, or 876 billion dollars a year (3). For the world’s forty poorest countries, this income is the second largest foreign exchange other than oil (2). If all transportation in the world were to stop suddenly, there would certainly be a torrential downpour of financial crisis, particularly in developing nations that rely so heavily on tourism dollars.
The tourism industry in general causes much controversy and political unrest. Tourism has been described by some as modern day imperialism, where class is at the forefront of power and domination (4). It can enhance the dichotomy of class wars and complicate social relationships within a culture and between cultures. The most disturbing of problems is the eviction of local communities to make room for more tourists (1). Public railways that were once used by local citizens are now luxury tourist trains that sight-see the countryside (locals not included). The societal infrastructure is then monopolized by waterparks and beach resorts, where angry Westerners lose their temper when there is not enough hot water to take a shower. There is then a conflict over the land, its resources, its power, and its profits. There is also a ubiquitous commercialization of indigenous culture. This may or may not be a downfall to tourism, because it boosts the local economy and builds respect for regional trades, talent, and history. This is also where haggling is most prevalent, which then demeans the skill and time put into hand-made crafts. Other problems exist where travel organizations or agencies are disguised as ecologically minded by putting the words “Eco” or “Green” in their name. Although the official definition of an ecotourism organization has not been carved in stone, there are many efforts to create a global accreditation certification to identify genuine ecotourism organizations and businesses (4b).
The ultimate goal of ecotourism is to build global awareness and respect for the world’s ecology, which includes environment and culture (2). The dualistic approach of this “responsible tourism” brings benefits to both nature and nurture. From the environmental perspective, ecotourism aims to provide direct benefits to conservation efforts, while reducing consumption of non-renewable resources (1). From a cultural perspective, ecotourism aims to provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts, while directing financial benefits of tourism straight to the local community, rather than funneling profits to an elite corporation that then unfairly distributes the wealth (2). Many communities do not openly welcome or approve of tourism, which causes much tension and animosity between cultures. Although the desire to travel opens opportunities for cultures to mingle, bridging the gap between the far sides of the globe, politics will always show its face, even through the most positive of intentions.
GUIDELINES ON HOW TO BE AN ECOLOGICALLY-MINDED TOURIST When traveling, tourists should first and foremost understand their place in a community—financially, politically, and culturally. Where is your money going? How is it benefiting the surrounding ecosystem and society? Is there fair and just involvement and/or consent of local communities? To help you figure this out, here are some tips on how to be an ecologically-conscious tourist: * Be mindful of your consumption. Use glass instead of plastic when possible, for many developing countries have few, if any, organized recycling centers and glass can be reused more readily than plastic. Also use rechargeable batteries to reduce toxic waste (1).
* Use less H2O! Most Western cultures are extremely hygienic and not only use 10 times the amount of water as the rest of the world, but also use chemically-enhanced products for cleansing, which contaminates the local drinking water (3)—so if you must use toiletry products, try to use those that are organic or at least non-toxic.
* Minimize rubbish and packaging. Buy bulk foods, or remove packaging of products when still at home, or where there is organized garbage control (3).
* Be mindful of Leave No Trace Principles (www.lnt.org) when doing outdoor activities and spread knowledge of sustainability and environmental conservation during volunteer opportunities. Tour guides are the best means to educate tourists as they are your direct link to the local community.
* Purchase local goods, food, and handicrafts rather than putting money into large global corporations like Mc Donald’s, which send your American dollars right back to America.
* When photographing people, always get consent—they are not part of the landscape, they are humans with feelings. It can often offend or intrude one’s privacy. Photographing has caused some people to even wear traditional garb and ask for money in touristic centers, which encourages begging, especially from children (1).
* Learn some of the local language before arrival or during your stay to gain respect for the culture. They, in return will gain respect for you. Many communities do not learn English in school, so perhaps you can arrange a language swap (3).
* When haggling, don’t go over the top only to save fifty American cents. Fifty cents may mean the difference between feeding an entire family for the night or letting them go hungry, but to you it’s just a candy bar. Travelers must look at their privilege objectively to gain perspective on how their actions affect their hosts (1).
* Volunteering is a culturally, environmentally, and financially more sustainable way to travel. Because a traveler spends less money on food and lodging while volunteering, they can use that extra money to support local businesses and pay the extra dollar for the local handicrafts and products rather than the mass-produced and commercialized products. There exists a more intimate connection with the community where one’s experience is more personalized and unique. It is a great way to meet people from around the world, while making a positive impact on the local community. Travelers can truly get the inside scoop of the roads less traveled.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN SOUTH AMERICA
When I decided to take the plunge and travel alone, I chose to volunteer with two organizations affiliated with others such as Volunteer Latin America, Couch Surfers, and WWOOF. The first of my adventures in South America was at the Southern tip of Chile in the majestic Patagonia. The conservation organization called AMA Torres Del Paine (www.amatorresdelpaine.org) was placed in Torres Del Paine Parque Nacionale. During the month, I worked in the organic garden that produces many vegetables and fruits for the upscale hotel, the hostels and the employees. The most important of tasks was assessing and repairing the trail damage caused by horses, people and erosion. Although horses are needed to transfer supplies to backcountry refugios (huts placed strategically along long-distance backpacking trails) they walk where they please and tread with great force. The control is at the hands of the gauchos and trail guides, yet they are sometimes not appropriately informed. As a means to prevent excessive trail creation, the other volunteer and I made wooden signs to direct hikers along the trails. If people know where they are going, they will stay on the trail. The fragile Patagonian ecology is composed of alpine brush, grass, and some small trees, therefore one hiker who blazes a trail will invite many others in their path. The only fauna are pumas, birds, and some small mammals. Currently, research is being conducted on the livelihood of the puma population in relation to the growing number of tourists, as well as the recovery from the forest fire in 2006 that consumed hundreds of acres of land in the park. On my time off I explored the park and backpacked for 10 days through the famous "W" circuit where I discovered enormous glaciers, turquoise lakes, rugged mountains, and wonderful people.
As the climate grew colder and winter approached in Chile, I moved to a farm closer to the equator and located just north of Lima, Peru. The farm, Eco Truly Park, can be described as a Hare Krishna eco village with a sustainable lifestyle (www.ecotrulypark.org). Although I was not aware of the religious affiliation of the farm prior to arriving, I was accepting and open to learning new ways of life. Settled right on the Pacific coast, the farm was an enclosed community of nearly 30 devotees and volunteers. Volunteers may be transient or permanent. The goal of the farm was to set an example for the surrounding agricultural community by implementing sustainable farming and living practices. Many members of the surrounding community are involved in the well-being of the farm and attend ceremonies and events for its fundraising. Eco Truly Park offers daily classes in yoga and meditation, as well as personalized classes or appointments in Reiki and massage. Although volunteers from around the world were eager to stay at the farm, most of the incoming tourists were local Peruvians from Lima.
When working on the organic farm, volunteers participated in harvesting, weeding, composting, and the watering of plants. The vegetarian kitchen primarily uses the produce from the farm, plus some imports of rice and flour. The farm also has a restaurant and bakery that serves tourists and beach-goers, where volunteers can also help cook and learn Peruvian cuisine. Because the farm is located right on the coast, they use compost toilets to reduce water contamination. Volunteers are always welcome to maintain the bathrooms, yet that was hardly the favorite task. Instead we worked in the art studio, or tallere de arte, where we produced crafts like dream catchers, incense holders, jewelry, and pottery to be sold in the Eco Truly Store. We also attended spiritual ceremonies, and learned the ideology of the Bhagavad Gita—the spiritual text for the Hare Krishna religion. Overall, Eco Truly Park was a great way to meet people from around the world and to share ideas and philosophize about spirituality and sustainability.
While I enjoyed my volunteer trip to South America, I know that next time there are things I will do differently to promote the principles of ecotourism. I definitely cannot claim to have left the smallest carbon footprint or brag that I managed to be 100% culturally responsible during my travels. Flying is by far the most detrimental and debt-inducing culprit, which I tried to offset in some way with repairing local trails in Patagonia and consuming only local goods when traveling on my own. I know that my year working with AmeriCorps planting millions of native trees and shrubs along salmon-bearing streams in Washington state has, in a way, given me carbon credit for quite some time. It is most important for a traveler to make every effort possible to offset the environmental and cultural damage that takes place during tourism. Next time I travel to South America, it would be nice to bike through Central America and to paddle-boat across the Panama Canal on my way to the Amazon.
(1) www.andeantravelweb.com, April 2009 (2) www.ecotourism.org, April 2009 (3) www.conservation.org, April 2009 (4) www.wikipedia.com, April 2009 -(a) Randall, A. (1987). Resource economics, Second Edition. New York, USA: John Wiley and Sons. -(b) Elper-Wood, M. (1998). Ecotourism at a Crossroads: charting the way forward. Nairobi, Kenya: The final report from the Conference of Ecotourism at the Crossroads.
The most recent revival in natural building has focused on cob, a combination of earth with straw. This natural construction method is possibly the world's oldest and most ubiquitous building practice. The renaissance in cob building has occurred mostly in Oregon. These structures, with their emphasis on curved walls, have gained their own name, "The Oregon Cob Style". Ianto Evans is one of the main figures of this movement, and since its inception his Cob Cottage Company has taught thousands of people how to build with mud.
The evidence suggests that with cob building we may be tweaking the tip of a big and very solid iceberg, the while impact of which has yet to be seen. Cob construction seems to satisfy its builders in very profound ways. Our files are stuffed with letters of encomium, extravagant appreciation of how good it feels to build with a house of mud pies, to involve yourself in building in such a primal way. You don't get ecstatic about building with concrete blocks or drywall, but with cob there seems to be universal enthusiasm. As a specific remedy for what ails our buildings, cob is unlikely to cure the epidemic, but it seems to be having a catalyzing effect as an inspiration and a tool for considering all the crucial issues.
-Ianto Evans
Cob is truly the ultimate natural building material, as it seems merely working with it seems to bring people into greater harmony with nature. It is needless to say that using unprocessed and local materials has ecological benefits; it nearly wipes pollution and embodied energy out of the calculation. There are no specialized skills required, but due to its weight, working with cob can be labor intensive and slow. As a result, cob builders usually involve their friends, family and neighbors to aid in the building process, creating community through the joy of working outside with good folk. Working with cob is just delightful, from mixing sand clay and straw with your feet, feeling the squish of earth between your toes, to shaping beautiful sculptural walls with one's hands, molding the wet earth to anything the builder fancies. Cob is also the material that gives people the most flexibility and freedom to improvise details and fit their home to their lives like a glove, not a box.
"What is cob? Cob is a structural composite of earth, water, straw, clay, and sand, hand sculpted into buildings while still pliable. There are no forms as in rammed earth, no bricks as in adobe, no additives or chemicals, and no need for machinery"
.- Ianto Evans
Cob is made by adding a wet clay-slip to a bed of sand on a tarp. These ingredients are then mixed by pulling the corners of the tarp and stomping with the feet to create a homogeneous mixture; straw is then scattered and mixed with the feet. The ingredients are balanced so that the mix isn't too wet or dry (too much clay or sand), with as much straw as it can hold without loosing its mud-like feel. This mixture is then formed into small pies (the word "cob" is Old English for "loaf") and tossed to a cobber who sews the straw in the individual cobs together using his hand or a stick. Cob is heavy and working with it is slow compared to conventional construction. Each foot thick layer of cob has to dry sufficiently before the next layer is added or the wall will deform, thus cob favors a different pace of building. The steady pace of building and the singular enjoyment of mixing cob are suited to owner-builder projects that allow for a building to arise slowly from the combined efforts of friends and family. There is nothing complicated about cob, yet it is a material of such synergy between common materials that has been in active use by people across the globe since the dawn of shelter. It is a durable building material that is readily available nearly everywhere on the globe.
The structure of cob is created by the interaction of its composites. The clay binds the small particles of sand together, much likes stones in a mortar, the straw is then used to 'sew' the individual cobs together, adding tensile strength, and creating a monolithic straw/clay wall. The best sand for cobbing is coarse, since these edges allow for the particles of sand to interlock and support each other. Almost any clay, as long as it is semi-sticky, can be used for cob, but as a rule, the stickier the better. At a certain point, very sticky clay has a higher tendency to crack, but it is important that the clay be sticky. Building with a monolithic material lends itself to unique geometries, allowing builders to easily create curves, nooks and arches, forms that are very difficult using standard methods. Clay is a miraculous substance, pliant when wet, rigid when dry, able to transport water as well as repel it. Clay's versatility is created by its molecular structure, consisting of plates that expand when wet and bind together when they dry. These plates align in structure when dry, when exposed to moisture these plates expand, locking together, and blocking the further passage of water. Clay is a natural material that truly surpasses our modern inventiveness, far surpassing our synthetic membranes that often allow too little water to escape creating mold problems. Clay, due to its ability to expand and contract, naturally tends to crack as it dries. To prevent cracking, sand is the natural ally of clay; as clay dries the sand particles spread the shrinking effect out such that it no longer destroys the internal structure. The clay particles fill the gaps between the sand, drawing it together as it dries forming what has been called a 'stabilized micro-adobe masonry wall'. Cob is created by adding straw to this mix, which, when cemented in place by the clay, provides internal structure and tensile strength to the wall.
The "mass-effect" is the tendency of a dense, massive wall to delay the variation of external temperatures, storing the heat of the day for use during the cool nights and vice versa. Ianto Evans performed an experiment on a cob addition to a wooden cabin, measuring the internal temperatures of each structure as they fluctuated with the external temperature. The massive walls of the cob cottage smooth out the swings in external temperature, heating up slower, but maintaining that heat more than twice as well as the wooden cabin. This makes cob, or other forms of massive construction, most useful in structures that are continuously inhabited, such as homes and hospitals, since the initial energy used to heat the mass is retained constantly. In schools or supermarkets, structures that are not continuously used, the heat absorbed by the mass is merely lost during the hours when the heat is turned off.
The monolithic nature of cob lends itself to geometries other than those of component materials. Cob is a composite system; the wood frame of a suburban house is a component system. In a cob wall the structure is created by the unity of all the parts, mixed together. However, in a conventional wall the structure is created by the combination of parts, each an entity unto itself. The strength of each component determines the strength of the whole, regardless of the shape of the whole in the second case, where, with cob, the shape of a wall is integral to its structural capacity. The shape of a cob wall is designed to internally buttress itself, as such curves and tapered walls are the most useful forms. The use of component materials leaves corners that are very difficult to utilize successfully, but with a monolithic materials such as cob, such abrupt changes in the geometry of the wall can result in structural weaknesses. The foot-print of a home is no longer made up of individual walls but one sweeping gesture that encloses the space. Where industrial geometries are rectilinear, cob geometries are curved, tending to round the corners as added buttresses and supports for the wall. This allows natural building to defy the expectation for houses, and mold every space to fit its exact purpose. The builder is able to hand sculpt their home, decreasing the need for additional unused square footage, and giving the builder the opportunity to personalize every aspect of their abode.
Due to the complexity of this structural interaction, like load bearing straw bale construction, cob is often difficult to pass through building departments that require calculable systems of compressive strength. Further complicating matters is that cob is always different depending on the characteristics of the soil used, this makes for a nearly impossible standardization process. The strength of cob has been thoroughly proven in its long history, even in the constantly wet and cold climates of England, cob houses have stood for almost a half a millennia. This is one of the earth's oldest building forms, and one of the most common forms of construction to date. The myth about cob is that it is mostly used in Africa, in the mud hut, primal dwelling, but this is not the case, as Ianto describes:
What is the earth's most common building material? Why, the earth itself of course! Even today between a third and a half of us humans live in houses of unbaked earth… lavish adobe haciendas in Latin America, rammed earth mansions in France, earth brick palaces in china. They're ten-story apartments in Yemen, old fortified monasteries in the middle east, puddle and hand shaped and press bricked and foot-stomped earthen buildings from near the arctic circle in Norway to the tip of Chile and the polar end of New Zealand, millions of them
This is the most convincing argument for the soundness of cob that any builder could present, that this method is proven by centuries of use across the globe. The date plate reads 1539 on one particular cob home in Devon, England. There is no credible debate about the strength and durability of cob, it is a proven building method, yet code departments are slow to accept such a precedent. Although much work still remains to study the structural properties of cob walls, cob's usefulness is not lost on modern construction.
Works consulted and cited
Bee, Becky. The Cob Builders Handbook: You Can Hand-sculpt Your Home. Groundworks, 2008
Evans, I; Smith, M.G.; Smiley, L. . The Hand Sculpted House. Chelsea Green Publishing Company. 2002
Guelberth, Cedar Rose . The Natural Plaster Book: Earth, Lime and Gypsum Plasters for Natural Homes New Society Publishers 2003
In the past year The New SHIRE Institute began a relationship with a Texan friend of sustainability, resulting in our first demonstration site. We have put together a work trade lease with the owner of a property called The Hundred Acre Wood. The owner of the Hundred Acre Woods intended for the land to serve as an event-space, focusing on sustainable practices. We became involved with the project as sustainability consultants and green builders, partnering with the landowner to improve the property, "greening" the infrastructure. We will help turn the Hundred Acre Woods into a sustainability demonstration site, holding workshops to showcase various green building practices and appropriate technologies. This one hundred acre property is less than thirty minutes from Austin, TX, a city renowned for a vibrant music scene and progressive populace. 
A one acre field was planted with rapeseed and rye-grass. The rapeseed is a test plot for oil production to make bio-diesel. This trial run of bio-diesel production, from seed-to-tank, represents the sort of experiments The New SHIRE Institute will do more of as resources become available. As we are able to put more land in production (and as we learn the ins and outs of bio-diesel production,) we hope to run a bio-diesel co-op on the property. Ideally, this bio-diesel will be a mixture of waste vegetable oil and fresh pressed rapeseed. The bio-diesel brewing equipment we will be using was acquired from Dieselgreen in Austin.
Darkness recedes from my mind and the fields at about the same hour.
Every pore is filled by the knowledge that I am not hurting anyone, or at least I am trying not to. I am doing my best to not be destruction. I am, but not here. I open my eyes, the wind turns to breeze, the breeze turns to stillness, and a chorus of killdeer, mocking birds and chickadees fill the air.
I find that in any situation I never have enough compost. Purchasing quality compost can be expensive on a shoestring budget. It is the quintessential soil additive helping hold water and nutrients in the soil while protecting the plant from a wide variety of problems, from providing nutrients, to helping prevent water loss. Every year I try to add compost to the soil of all of my perennials.
Keeping the right ratios of the types of ingredients is really important to keeping happy, healthy and pleasant smelling compost. The aroma of well decomposed and finished compost is one of my favorite smells---it is the smell of earth, musty, almost chocolate like. I have also smelled compost that was wretchedly foul. It had to be hands down the worst smells I have ever let come in contact with my olfactory organs--rotten eggs would smell much better. I thought that it was interesting that it was from a vegan household all the nasty odors were coming from fruits and vegetables. I was there to remove some trees that were threatening their house and we happened to fall a log onto the corner of the compost pile, when out wafted the previously mentioned malodorous stench. 
The carbon to nitrogen ratio is a really important factor to keeping the compost smelling pleasant. The ideal ratio is about 30 parts carbon to one part nitrogen. Most dry material such as wood chips has about 40:1 while most sloppy wet things have around 10:1. If you want to know the C:N ratio for a variety of commonly composted items, please see the end of this article. Finding enough carbon can be hard to accomplish. Attaining sawdust can be difficult unless you know a carpenter, but newspaper composts wonderfully as do paper egg cartons, and most households have plenty lying around. Just rip it into shreds and add it to the compost bucket in the house as needed, to prevent the juices from collecting on the bottom of the compost bucket. 
d ultimately it is not that difficult to compost most organic matter. As long as the proportions of carbon and nitrogen, and water and oxygen are correct, the pile takes care of itself.
The most recent revival in natural building has focused on cob, a combination of earth with straw. This natural construction method is possibly the world's oldest and most ubiquitous building practice. The renaissance in cob building has occurred mostly in Oregon. These structures, with their emphasis on curved walls, have gained their own name, "The Oregon Cob Style". Ianto Evans is one of the main figures of this movement, and since its inception his Cob Cottage Company has taught thousands of people how to build with mud. 
The "mass-effect" is the tendency of a dense, massive wall to delay the variation of external temperatures, storing the heat of the day for use during the cool nights and vice versa. Ianto Evans performed an experiment on a cob addition to a wooden cabin, measuring the internal temperatures of each structure as they fluctuated with the external temperature. The massive walls of the cob cottage smooth out the swings in external temperature, heating up slower, but maintaining that heat more than twice as well as the wooden cabin. This makes cob, or other forms of massive construction, most useful in structures that are continuously inhabited, such as homes and hospitals, since the initial energy used to heat the mass is retained constantly. In schools or supermarkets, structures that are not continuously used, the heat absorbed by the mass is merely lost during the hours when the heat is turned off. 
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