Inner City Farmer

The more I read about other people’s attempts to live more sustainably (the latest is Heather Flores’ book Food Not Lawns), the more I realize how far I have to go, how much I need to learn. But the one thing I have learned is that you have to do things when it’s the right time and not a second before.

For example, I started my stucco project just after it had rained because I knew the ground wouldn’t be as hard. Then, sensing that more spring rainstorms were on the way I set up a rain barrel (which has since been filled to the rim). So when it came time to decide which project to embark upon next I, once again, let nature decide. This time the “decider” (thanks for making up such a neat word, George W.) was the opossum I found in my garage. Sigh: it was time to take off the old, crappy garage door and seal up the entrance with a cob wall.

I’m either crazy to be doing this or very wise. I started to think it was the former minutes after I’d ripped off the door and discovered much of the wood frame had been destroyed by termites. Uh oh: this was going to be a bigger job than I’d anticipated. As I was prying a piece of the rotted wood away from the wall a man walking down the middle of the street lugging a lawnmower and a gas can asked me if I’d pay him to mow my lawn. I actually laughed and said, “Man, do you think I’d be doing this if I had any money to spare?”

He told me about his family getting thrown out of a motel.

I told him about someone stealing my brand-new chainsaw out of my garage (my other inspiration for wanting to replace the old, crappy garage door and replace it with a thick, cob wall).

He told me he didn’t do it, which made me laugh again. I should have tossed him a five spot just for cracking me up because no one else has been able to do it lately.

The whole encounter reinforced my belief that we as a society are living a big fat lie. This is the richest country in the world? Really?

After ripping away the termite-ridden frame, I set about laying a course of bricks at the base of the future wall. You can’t put cob directly on the ground because, even if it’s protected by plaster, the rain will quickly erode it. You need to make a foundation plinth. I had never laid brick before, but for some reason this didn’t deter me one bit. I laid three courses in all, using up an entire 80-pound bag of mortar. I was too tired to do any cobbing so I simply put the old, crappy garage door back into place. It’s not attached to anything so the only way it actually might deter a thief is if it falls and lands on him, which, if it happens, might make me laugh for the third time today.

Self-Sufficiency Meter: 31%

Tags: brick laying, Building with Cob

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Building with Cob, Urban Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.