low cost – Page 79 – Natural Building Blog

Turning Round Straw Bales into Rectangular Building Bales

June 3, 2022September 8, 2013 by Owen Geiger

More and more farmers are switching to small round bales. Consider rebaling them into rectangular bales for strawbale construction.

Cliff, one of our long time readers, sent me the photo above and the following email.

“Just a heads up on something I see coming in the future in the straw bale world. Small round bales. Lots of reasons. There are a lot of lifestyle or small farmers who can’t afford or need the big expensive bales. These smaller balers are much cheaper to buy and operate. The bales are much more weather resistant than square bales. Here in NZ they can fit down a row of vines in a vineyard. Any other baler can’t go there. I think we may see some innovation in the straw bale building world. You use what is available and as these become more available people will adapt to using them.”

Industrial Country Market

June 3, 2022September 7, 2013 by Owen Geiger

What do you do after you’ve built your sustainable homestead? Have you considered expanding your original self-sufficiency plans to include an income generating business, teaching workshops and possibly producing food for your community? The Industrial Country Market has done all this and more.

A Tiny House Photo Tour

June 3, 2022September 5, 2013 by Owen Geiger

Here’s what you see when you open the tiny front door- most of the house. “Having spaces flow into each other and adding natural light from plenty of windows makes the house feel bigger.

“This week I’d like to take you on a photo tour of Brittany Yunker’s 165 s.f. tiny house in Olympia, Washington. If you enjoyed the video I did of the interior, this post should give you a better idea of what it’s like to move around the space. Be sure to leave a comment and let me know your impression. Remember too, that you don’t have to build a house this tiny to learn from the wisdom of this design. You could use these space-saving tricks on any house.

Texas Prepper’s Greenhouse

June 3, 2022September 3, 2013 by Owen Geiger

“I call this TexasPrepper’s Greenhouse, and you can build your own… easy!
You can build a low cost, PORTABLE greenhouse, or Chicken Tractor for less than $150…! Build your own greenhouse and save big! Watch my OTHER video on the step by step building of this greenhouse.”

Kay e Sante nan Aiti

June 3, 2022September 1, 2013 by Owen Geiger

It’s great to see more house designs and projects to rebuild Haiti. This particular design is very good. I recommend going to their site (see link below) and checking out all the details.

New Cob House Interior Design

June 3, 2022August 31, 2013 by Owen Geiger

Interior view of Ziggy’s remodeled Gobcobatron cob house.

“Our work on updating the interior of our cob house, Gobcobatron is finally complete! I think this latest design might be my favorite so far… although of course it’s so exciting just because it is “new”, too. We changed things around to make it an even more appropriate and better place to stay for renters and people who come stay for weekends.”