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Saturday 11 May 2013

A-Cobbing we will go

Today was our first cobbing day of the year. Luckily my brother and sister joined us.
The more the merrier, I say, but thank goodness for extra people as it gives us a chance to rest in between.
It`s very hard work but really it`s just glorified mudpie making.

We woke to a rather iffy day weather-wise but it turned out to be fine, although very windy.
We set up a windbreak in order to have our sausage sizzle at lunchtime.





We mixed clay with sand and water on a tarpaulin. When it was well mixed we added some straw. 
There is a bit of a shortage of straw due to the cows having been indoors for so long. 
When it was a good consistency, we started cobbing.
Paula wore rubber gloves as she knew there were worms in the mix and she doesn`t like worms. We removed as many as we could.


I find it easier to mould the cob with bare hands but you need good handcream afterwards.


Steve is good at shaping the cob and visualising the overall look.
Mine is a bit slapdash.


We had to spend quite a lot of time working cob around the doors and windows as there had been quite a lot of movement over the winter.


I thought this was rather funny.


Inside the cob hut we have lined the floor with old crockery and tiles.


We stopped for a dinnerbreak and later a teabreak.
We must have used up quite a few calories as we were carrying around extra weight on our boots!!!


It was a great day and we managed 4 lots of cob. 
Tom the scarecrow, was trying to give us a hand.



I hope the girls staying in the Woodland yurt, have a good  hen-party tonight.





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