When Laura Hood bought 155 acres and a home near Wenatchee, WA, there was a caved-in root cellar near the house. Ten years later, the root cellar has been restored. The root cellar is thought to be the first white settler house built in the area by James Christiansen in 1886. It was described in … Read more
Building with adobe — a material created by mixing clay-rich soil with straw, sand, and other organic materials — has been in use since 8300 BC. It is popular in arid and semiarid places where wood is scarce. The word “Adobe” derives from the Arabic “al ṭūb” meaning “the bricks.” Adobe buildings are low energy, … Read more
Mother Earth News published a nice article written by Joe Silins about his journey as a natural builder and building his small straw bale guest house. The first paragraph reads: “Building my own straw bale guest house was the culmination of one journey and the beginning of another. After graduating from college in 2005 with … Read more
The Hubbell Trading Post, located on Navajo Nation land in Ganado, Arizona, is a National Historic Site. Due to the severity of the virus on the Navajo Nation, the Hubbell Trading Post remains closed until it is safe to open again. John Lorenzo Hubbell, originally from New Mexico, purchased the post in 1878 and moved … Read more
Spartan Giordano was 28 years old when he designed and started building a zero fossil fuel energy home In Greenfield, Massachusetts. Two years later he and his partner Hannah got the occupancy permit on the very day their son, Max, was born. Nine years later Hannah and Spartan have a 2½-year-old daughter and Spartan has … Read more
I just found out about the Earth Building Academy and their online courses. They have been teaching for 20 years and recently ran a free online pizza oven course and had confirmation that online courses really work. They currently are offering a 3 month series of online classes that starts on Monday, January 18th and … Read more