Small world

It's a small world after all, and here's why. Meet Nancy and her daughter Serene, the latter of whom was actually born in Sonora almost 30 years ago. They only lived there for a little bit before moving to the Bay Area and eventually settling in Sonoma County.

Nancy has been to the Strawberry Music Festival several times and loves it, as do we. (We already have tickets to the fall festival as an incentive to come back).

Serene moved to New Zealand back in 2003 with her kiwi partner. A year later her mom joined her after being fixed up with Eric, who is Dutch and has lived here for many years. They've been building a cob house addition to the wooden house Eric started building eight years ago.

They plan to marry at the property this coming January.


Inside the cob house, this is where the bathroom will go.


And this will be the kitchen and dining area. Check out that tree in the wall.

Cob houses are an eco-friendly way of building, Eric explained to me. His cob is a mixture of clay, hay and straw that is mixed together and used to build the structure. He also used second-hand materials for things like the roof and windows.


These stairs lead you up to the existing house. On the right you can see their food pantry made out of cob. They also have an outdoor cob oven they make pizzas in.