earthbag

The Owner-Built Home – Ken Kern

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As one of the top natural builders who influenced the direction of my life, we’ll be discussing more of Ken Kern’s building ideas. This is the stuff that fueled my imagination and passion for affordable housing when I was a young man. It was obvious to me 35-40 years ago that modern building materials are … Read more

Advice on Low Cost Land in Texas?

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“First off I want to thank you not just for your website but all the information you have made easily available on alternative building. I am currently in the Army. I’ve been in Iraq and am now stationed in Afghanistan for a few more months. In both of these countries I’ve watched people with no … Read more

Juniper and Cedar Poles for Construction

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Yesterday’s blog post about building with juniper poles prompted me to write this blog post. Much like pallets, juniper and cedar wood is an underutilized resource, probably because these trees tend to be twisted, curved and often smallish in size. For natural builders they’re a free treasure. Juniper and cedar are rot resistant, extremely common … Read more

Craftsmen-built Furniture

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There’s a level of fine woodworking that borders on philosophy, as you can glean from some of the masters who work in this field. “…form is only a beginning. It is the combination of feelings and a function; shapes and things that come to one in connection with the discoveries made as one goes into … Read more

Earth Lodge Pallet Walls

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From time to time we answer reader’s questions. Here, numerous emails have been combined and edited for brevity. Rex: My goal is to learn to build houses with local materials in order to help people in my area build sustainable debt free homes. I’m in love with your Earthbag Lodge plan as I had previously … Read more