Owner-Built Straw/Clay Home with Old World Charm

When Gary Zuker bought an undeveloped piece of land outside of Austin,Texas he knew the only way he could afford a home there was to build it himself. With no building experience, he immersed himself in architecture books at the University of Texas (where he works as a computer engineer). He fell in love with … Read more

Spring Time Blessings from Long Creek Homestead

My friend Michael Judd lived in Nicaragua for many years and moved to Frederick, Maryland several years ago with his wife to establish a permaculture homestead. I recently got this email from him that is so enticing I thought I would pass it on too you.Spring has Sprung in full force at Long Creek Homestead … Read more

Two Week Natural Building Intensive

Learn skills, techniques, and design theory to create your own beautiful, durable, energy-efficient home from local and site-harvested materials. Most of each day will be spent practicing a wide range of hands-on natural building systems, some ancient and time-tested, others experimental. This workshop teaches a wide variety of techniques that you can choose depending on … Read more

Lammas Ecovillage in Wales

The Lammas Ecovillage is a collective of smallholdings and eco-dwellings in Wales. Residents explore alternative models for living on the land, broadly in line with the Welsh Government’s ‘One Planet Development’ policy. The smallholdings combine traditional farming and building techniques with the latest innovations in environmental design, green technology and permaculture. Construction of “The Hub” … Read more

Degraded Land Transformed into Massive Forest

I found this half hour video both encouraging and inspiring. The incredible story of how degraded gorse-infested farmland has been regenerated back into beautiful New Zealand native forest over the course of 30 years. This documentary is about Hinewai Nature Reserve, on New Zealand’s Banks Peninsula, and its kaitiaki/manager of 30 years, botanist Hugh Wilson. … Read more