Crazy about Cob and Ho'oponopono

I've been listening to Zero Limits: The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More by Joe Vitale and Ihaleakala Hew Len PhD. The title would never have attracted me but it was recommended on an awesome e-mail list I belong to unschoolingmiracles. It is fabulous. The message is basically the same as A Course in Miracles but simpler to put into practice. I've been using the technique and it is tremendous. One of the main principals of the Ho'oponopono system that the book describes is that we are 100% responsible for everything that enters our life and we can change situations by changing our thoughts about them.

Jazz must have listened because last night after rescuing a baby bunny from the cat, she was very upset and confused about how it could be her fault that Chi--my mom's cat-- caught this bunny. I got an opportunity to explain it to her. We tried to save the bunny--it was still alive--by giving it a safe home for the night and the plan was to lock the cats in the house and release it in the morning. Unfortunately it died in the night.

Young desert hare we tried to rescue

Tonight as she went to bed Jazz asked if I would do more research on Ashland OR and so I started out searching for green building in the area and found this group:

House Alive! Cob building, natural building, natural design & appropriate technology about 30 min from Ashland. They had a couple of beautiful pictures on their site and I am inspired to share them. If you have never heard of Cob or been in a Cob house find a way to do it. These house are amazing. Pictures can never do them justice because you don't get the feeling you get when you are inside.

Cob is basically sculpted adobe--instead of building blocks and then building a house you sculpt the house into any shape you desire. The difference between being in a house created of squares and rectangles and one with natural undulations and curves is extremely profound. An architect, Christopher Day, describes it in his book--Places of the Soul--like this: In art and design we use perpendicular straight lines to create tension in a piece, curved lines create calm and peace. And our living spaces, working spaces and nearly all indoor spaces are created from perpendicular straight lines. Is it any wonder that we are a tense and violent people? Many people describe living in a cob house like living in a hug. My dream house is part Cob.

A garden wall--House Alive!

A house in Mexico--House Alive!

I felt inspired to add more pictures of Cob and somehow ended up at First Earth: Uncompromising Ecological Architecture, a site about about a documentary of the same name that included some pictures. They asked that I also link to http://www.davidsheen.com/. I hope these pictures inspire you as much as they do me.

Dusk Till Dawn Cabin Coquille, Oregon

Cob Cottage by Ian Marcuse Vancouver, British Columbia

Home by Pat Hennebury Mayne Island, British Columbia


Goddess GazeboMurphy, Oregon

Hostel by CobWorksMayne Island, British Columbia

Myrtle House - Cob Cottage Company Coquille, Oregon

Dragonfly Cob Cottage by Meka Bunch - Sitting BenchWolf's Creek, Oregon

I also found the I love cob! site. It's a beautiful site I hope to get around to exploring someday. Here some pictures from their picture gallery:

Dragon at Hug Ecological Living Campus, Pine River, Minnesota

Another advantage of Cob--you can press tile pieces into it. Unfortunately this one did not say where exactly it is in Portland, but it sure is gorgeous.

Natural Building Convergence 2002, Portland OR