Vote with Your Wallet

Zafra, one of our readers, left a comment today that said, “I would argue that government itself is not the problem, but corporate control of government is. As a rule, if you see government interfering in progressive movements it’s to protect the corporations and industries (banks, insurance, timber, chemical just to name a few that … Read more

Lightweight Hyperadobe

As reported in a previous blog post just recently, low cost raschel mesh tube material is now available. (Thanks again to Patti Stouter for tracking this down.) Affordable mesh tubing means hyperadobe is now a more realistic option for many earthbaggers. A growing number of people think hyperadobe is the fastest, easiest earthbag method currently … Read more

Christina Atkins’ Pinterest Site

I really love the Internet. I just learned of another cool way to share ideas called Pinterest. It’s an “online pinboard” to “collect the things you love.” I stumbled onto Christina Atkins’ site and was happily surprised to see not only some of my projects, but also other interesting pics. I loved the whole collection. … Read more

Off-grid Boulder House

Do you dream of ‘getting away from it all’ and living in a self-sustaining, off-grid home surrounded by nature? A number of my earthbag house plans would work well for this purpose. If you’re looking for a relatively low cost and easy to build Boulder House then take a look at my Arc House. Arc … Read more

More Earthbag Building Tips

My Earthbag Building Guide covers all the basics of building with bags. In addition to the basic techniques, here are a few more small suggestions that didn’t make it into the book. I say small, but little improvements like these can save a lot of work over the course of building a home. – Cover … Read more

Autonomous Buildings: Houses With No Bills

“An autonomous building is a building designed to be operated independently from infrastructural support services such as the electric power grid, gas grid, municipal water systems, sewage treatment systems, storm drains, communication services, and in some cases, public roads. Advocates of autonomous building describe advantages that include reduced environmental impacts, increased security, and lower costs … Read more