Living in rural northeast Missouri, one thing I have (very thankfully) not had to deal with is building codes. At times, I have totally taken it for granted that I could just wake up one morning, and decide to build a house without telling anyone. There is nothing preventing me from building a home (or any type of structure, really) here. That’s why I can build a house out of cob, without electricity, with a living roof, with all of these crazy things that would NEVER fly in many other places.
No, I’m not trying to climb inside, believe it or not… I’m just cleaning out the sand form in this photo. (This part of the cob oven construction makes for some interesting photo opportunities!)
Cob Oven Update! (1/26/2015): This $20 cob oven article has been the most popular entry on my website since I originally posted it. It’s been 5 years since I wrote it, and we’ve made significant improvements to the original design, resulting in a much better outdoor pizza oven.
I highly recommend reading the Better Outdoor Pizza Oven Plans if you’re interested in building one of these for yourself. The instructions there are much more detailed, too. Here’s the original article for posterity…
– – – – – –
I must admit, I’m a bit of a breadhead. Few things are as exciting to me as freshly baked bread with a dab of butter, or hot and greasy scallion pancakes, or fluffy and airy naan, or a pizza fresh from the hearth of a wood-fired cob oven. (That last one trumps all the others.) I thrive on bread. I love eating it, and of course I love making and baking it, too.
Earlier in the year, the idea of baking in the outdoors in a wood-fired oven became something of a romanticized (in every positive sense of the word) notion to me. It was soon obvious that I should build a cob oven, which would be fairly easy and quick to build, and quite cheap, too. Compared to masonry ovens, which can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars and usually require pretty intense materials in their construction, a cob oven can be made from very simple, locally available materials. (Although it must be said that masonry ovens undoubtedly have a longer lifespan!)
The finished straw mattress
(This lovely DIY how-to is written by my partner April, who made a straw mattress for our cob bed. Read ahead!)
[UPDATE: Do you have experience making alternative mattresses, including using straw? We were forced to give up this straw mattress due to back pain and an unfortunate uneven sleeping surface. If you have tips about how to make a more comfortable natural mattress, please contact us!]
Living in a hand-built home can often mean making unique and non-conventional furniture choices. I recently transitioned from a tent to a cob house and ran into the dilemma of what to do about a bed. My criteria was something natural and sustainable, economical, readily available, quick and easy to assemble, and comfortable. Is that too much to ask? I decided to do some research first.
About The Year of Mud
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This website is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. In 2012, we started offering Natural Building Workshops, so you can learn essential hands-on skills to build your own natural home.
