Maybe you’d prefer a fixer-upper instead of starting from scratch? I love old world stone houses like this. Note how the structures are attached. They were probably added on one at a time over the years.
natural building
New FAQ’s at Earthbagbuilding.com
The Frequently Asked Questions section of www.earthbagbuilding.com has been accumulating pertinent questions and answers for over a decade. These had been categorized into only about a half dozen pages, which had become overly long and cumbersome for finding specific information. I finally decided to organize them in such a way that it is now much … Read more
Eppivent Waterless Non-electric Toilet
“Dr. Jerry Dean Epps says the Eppivent is a waterless toilet that requires no electricity and has no bad smells. No working with waste required like with compost toilets. Internal flush moves contents out of sight. Waste is digested in main tank, moves through the bio-filter tank and the small amount of liquid discharged is safe for the environment but we send it to an underground evaporation/transpiration bed anyway. It is a stand alone and completely deals with waste on site.”
Sheds for Farms and Homesteads
Easily overlooked and often underappreciated, the humble shed serves many purposes on homesteads and farms. Not only are sheds extremely functional, they are typically low cost, and fast and easy to build. Often they can be built in a weekend or two, easily modified or extended later, or even taken apart and the materials used for something else. To keep costs to a minimum, you can build with recycled materials or build with poles from a nearby forest. Sheds make good test structures, where you can try out new building methods at low cost and low risk to determine what works best for your situation. You can develop your skills on something small and simple, and then if it makes sense take on larger projects using what you’ve learned. Most sheds in rural areas are exempt from building codes, which is one less thing to deal with. While modern farms often have large, expensive sheds, for this article we’ll primarily consider small, less expensive sheds for do-it-yourselfers who are setting up a sustainable place in the country.
Cobblestone Architecture
“Cobblestone architecture refers to the use of cobblestones embedded in mortar as method for erecting walls on houses and commercial buildings. Cobblestone architecture was developed in the northeastern United States, especially antebellum western New York state. Masons that built the Erie Canal during 1817-1825 started building cobblestone structures about the time the canal was finished.
Living in Ghost Towns
A recent blog post about a rebuilt ghost town in Spain turned out to be quite popular. This got me thinking about the practicality of living in ghost towns. If you don’t mind fresh air, no traffic jams, lack of noise and nosey neighbors then you might like it just fine.