Okay, so I left off with figuring out the door/window on Wednesday. I got back to the build Friday. First thing was to muck up the other bench, so I started with digging and hauling and cob dancing. Then I worked on layout and made sure I had everything in place.
This photo shows the smaller vent tubes that will allow air flow behind the brick wall. The brick wall has intake slots along the bottom and larger exit openings along the top, so once it heats up it pulls cold air off of the floor and warms it before pushing it out at the top. I decided to make a couple larger voids for storing wood and a poker and maybe warming my slippers while I'm at work, so I used some extra stove pipe to form molds for those "caves."
Then, I brought in my mud. I did okay, but it got a little deep towards the end and I had some sagging. Not to worry though, I knew I couldn't do it in one application, so I let it go. One thing I'm learning about this medium is you can get kinda loose and wild, and go back and hack it up and try something else. I'm loving the cob. So, here's my east bench after the first application.
That was all done on Friday, and on Saturday a couple curious friends wanted to experience the cob process, so I patiently showed them where the clay was and allowed them to do the digging, hauling, and mixing. Aren't I generous? I was really thankful for their enthusiasm, as I was getting kinda sore! We did a final shape on the west bench, and screened some clay to try to make a plaster for finishing it. It was fun playing with the different mixes, and I learned a lot. Here's the west bench after my helpers did their first cob work on it.
I made another arch mold with the bricks and some stove pipe, to make a void to set the clean out back from the face.