Of Clay and Cob

The mixing of the clay is very important and squishy.

Sunday I had the great pleasure of working in the sun with some friends, both new and old. Under the tutelage of Chris Reinhardt, architect and cob builder we learned how to construct a cob and clay wall.

Chris built his entire house this way.

Rolling the sand and clay back and forth to mix it together.

 

 

This is our wall at the beginning of the day. I don"t have any pictures later on because at that point we were making plans to build a house for my new found friends and an enormous batch of brownies. 

Tiny plans

Front exterior view - My tiny house

When I was a little girl, I would gather my pillow, some stuffed animals, a dozen books and burrow into my closet. I would stay for hours in my private cocoon. Now I am too tall to pull that off.

In comes the tiny house. I've been fascinated with tiny houses and caravans for years. I poured over A very modest cottage with the understanding that all sane people would move a 100 sq.ft. cottage hundreds of miles.

After looking at dozens of homes, I decided to design my own. It comes in at 172 sq. ft. and was designed with my family in mind. (My family by the way consists of one obsessive reader who no longer fits in closets too well and three cats of varying laziness).

Front interior view - My tiny house

Harvest

I believe I'm patient. As a knitter of my caliber, I have to be. This last year I have been living by intution and instinct. Things have fallen into place over and over, bringing me to foreign climes such as Indiana. Now that I"ve been here for a few months and have a source of income, I am waiting for the harvest.

I hope I planted a wonderful garden, that I sowed laughter in the people I met, love with my family and friends and abundance by my generosity. I'm sure I threw down a cabbage seed when I meant a radish. But all in all, I think I have grown something that will feed me with fruit to spare. I sure hope so.

Country Living Caravans

 

I am obsessed with caravans. I love the idea of living with just a few precious items and always having home wherever you go.  The Country Living Fair had a collection of caravans you could tour. This one was my favorite. 

I want white bedding, but with a black cat it just seems masochistic. View some other caravans I love on my caravan Pinterest board. 

Country Living

 

The one magazine I pour over like a child looking at the toy section of the J.C. Penny catalog, is Country Living. All the pictures are beautiful, everyone has goats - the perfect life. So when I moved to Indiana, I knew I would drive into Ohio for the Country Living Fair. 

Country Living now has three fairs every year with tens of thousands of visitors and hundreds of vendors. Rest up. 

I bought some Garlic Rosemary and Strawberry Pepper Jelly from the Jelly Queens, some vintage company stamps (one of the things I collect) and a pillow with a pig on it. His name is Clive.

Next year, I"ll have to bring a bigger car. Antiques, crafts, demonstrations and some amazing pulled pork sandwiches. It made me want to embrace my ramshackle one bedroom apartment and make it my own miniature version of country living.

Bridge by my new home

After quitting my secure job and going back to school everything shifted again. In less than 2 months I packed up my stuff, said goodbye to everyone I knew and moved to a town in Indiana I had never been to. 

I didn't move with a lot of preconceived ideas, but the few I had were dead wrong. Now I'm in Muncie, Indiana going to Graduate School and piecing together a beautiful life from completely different materials.

One more time

As I'm doing the homework (so much homework) for the Blogging Your Way class, I can't help but remember my Word Press blog.  Word Press ate my files and then sent to me to the faceless, unwashed masses of the user forum to find out what happened. Can't you just tell me. Look me in the eye. I loved you once.

I am trying to be open. Word Press and I have had some long talks, confronted some long standing issues and have decided to give it another try. I know I might me making a mistake leaving the simple security of Blogspot. I have to try, I hope you will support me. So again (and hopefully for the last time) my blog is moving to www.patchworksoul.com.