“25th April 2015 is my 2nd birthday”, said Ang Furba Sherpa, our partner from Be Human Nepal. And it is so true for many Nepalese who had experienced the devastating earthquake which tore Nepal apart exactly year ago. The homes of our students at Manjushree Singa Primary School in Namkheli village were also not spared.
Owen Geiger
Support Malawi Earthbag Projects
“Thank you Owen for this great development. Together with the Roscher Youth Development Centre in Rumphi, Malawi, I built a wonderful prototype of sandbag house last year, which now is impressing and convincing everyone about construction with earthbags (http://supportmalawi.org/en/projects/58-sandbaghouse). Aaand we now almost finished a first house for a teacher’s family.
Earthbag Production Rate: 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x
As an experienced builder, it’s fun to think of ways to improve productivity. Just imagine all the time and money you’ll save. This blog post explores three realistic earthbag building options: 1x = typical earthbag method; 2x = polypropylene tubes instead of bags; 3x = mechanized hyperadobe (raschel mesh tubes) on curved walls. (Note: An earthbag machine with 4x potential will be tested soon in Nepal, but we’ll save that for a later date.)
Earthbag Dome Home in Hungary
“Hello Owen, As you can see finally my first alone project has finished, hoorraayy!!. I want to say thank you for your guidance at the beginning and also I wanted to tell you that your book sometimes gave me that little help too because to reflect my knowledge and to see the things again in your book gave me a real help in times when I was not sure anymore what to do, not because I don’t know the things, because when my fear is coming up that I maybe can’t make it because it’s my first project with nobody around me who knows something about earthbag. So this was a quite heavy pressure for me because the people expected much and my building group knew nothing. In those moments your book was a real help because it was like talking with somebody who knows…
Permaculture, homesteading, and compost-powered heating in the Vermont hills
“Ben Falk is a permaculture designer based in Moretown, Vermont. In this video, he speaks about different aspects of homesteading and cold weather, notably his wood cook-stove which also heats water, and his compost-powered greenhouse heating system. He also talks about the importance of being engaged with the land around us, and how gardening is just basically awesome!”
Lloyd Kahn’s Small Homes Book under Production
I just saw on Lloyd Kahn’s blog that he’s working on a new book. His other Shelter Publications are excellent. Lloyd Kahn is the editor-in-chief of Shelter Publications, an independent California publisher. Shelter Publications specializes in books on building and architecture, as well as health and fitness. Lloyd’s latest book is Tiny Homes on the Move: Wheels and Water. For more info, see: www.shelterpub.com