Bruce Jones left a comment on a recent blog post about some fun backyard sheds: “My family name is JONES so I’m a Welshman, five generations removed. Seeing these incredible creations is inspiring. I bought a small mountain in the High Desert of SoCal (part of the greater Mojave Desert) sixteen months ago and have … Read more
A 12 minute documentary of a Hobbit Hideaway built using the local, renewable materials of wood, stone, straw, clay, lime and mud. It is unique and beautifully built in Scotland by natural builders and educators Hartwyn Ltd. They shared the process with students in a pop-up learning village from June to September 2018. Hobbit Hideaway … Read more
A step by step tutorial on making an earthen floor, sourced from a mix of materials, such as clay, sand, and straw, similar to cob and adobe. In this video you’ll see construction of an on-grade floor (sealed with oil), along with its foundation (insulated with pumice). Sukita Reay, author of Earthen Floors, demonstrates how … Read more
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