Finishing the Cement Exterior

     A few days ago we slapped the last trowel of cement against the 
schools exterior walls. The process is fairly straight forward, and a critical
component to building with largely organic materials. The schools
exterior cob layer is prepped with golf-ball sized indentations and
covered in tightly bound chicken wire. Together these preparations
provide a sturdy surface for the cement mixture to cling to, imagine
the way legos fit together. The cement is then mixed with sand in
a ratio of 1 to 6 and thrown (imagine a second base player side-arming
a toss to his first baseman) against the cobb exterior. On average it
takes around a 150 or so tosses to sufficiently coat a half square
meter. Seeing that a single exterior wall can be in excess of 36 square
meters... Elbows tend to get stiff. Thankfully a daily 20 minute dunk
in our frigid waterfall heals most of our bodies daily ails.

Andiso, Temesken and Gazan strike a pose for the blog
  audience out there.

 
      The coating prevents most moisture from finding it's way to the cob
beneath, it also allows provides the school added protection from the
waves of children that will undoubtedly climb atop the schools
retaining wall skirt.