*YEARN...Yes - its true - Im talking about buildings that you create with your own two hands and a lot of dirt - I'm talking in particular about rammed earth buildings and I'm getting pretty damn excited about it to tell you the truth. I only discovered it today courtesy of another blogger but it's really lit my fire. I think I'm going to upgrade my Tepee for something resembling the building above. I now want a gorgeous rammed earth, arched windowed meditation room which can double as a spare bedroom for when guests come to stay! Who wouldn't love to meditate/sleep/anything in a building like the one above. I'm totally in love with not just the design but also the whole ethos of its creation. All from natural abundant materials that don't rape or deplete the earth. No toxic building syndrome for this little beauty AND we get the enjoyment of building it ourselves. I'm sure its much more enjoyable to look at the finished product that to actually do the digging and packing and creating but still, when the work is done and the building is there in all its splendour, the work will have been worth it. Maybe it's just another of my high and mighty dreams but it's a pleasant one and I'm enjoying it right now.
* If you got to Amazon to view this book and click on the larger image, you can see through the window to the outside of the house and it's got some amazing sculptures on the outside. I just LOVE these.Dont you just love the carvings above the door of this house? There is something so sensual about getting ones hands in the dirt, creating beauty from the raw materials of the earth. I have always loved sculpture and pottery for this very reason. I like to create with my hands though I have precious little to show for it at this stage in my life. I'm a newbie to sewing but that's ok, I'm starting small with soft toys and such. I'm also no gardener but that will all change in the next 3 months when I finally get my hands on the veggie patch left by the last owner! Speaking of which, I covet this book - yes, the dreaded book slut strikes (yet) again. I just WANT IT. I would make good use of it. I promise.
Another piccie to calm and soothe the savage (book slut) soul.
* I love this house.Slowly, I am being called back to earthwise ways, sung back home to the land that has become my home. I'm hoping that building and gardening and sewing will become a way of life for me and a good way of life at that. I feel ready for a change of pace, a different way of living and whilst I freely admit that I could not imagine life without my computer, I also know that there are many other ways that I can become less of a consumer and cut down on extraneous buying (not books obviously). This blog has become something of an inspiration to me. If you want to know what can be achieved when one 'drops out' of modern living and consuming, then this woman can tell you all about it! She's amazing. She also has some terrific links to other green blogs that are quite inspiring too.
Anyway, I have much to do (as always) and much more dreaming to accomplish before I move. We are knee deep in packing boxes and Things That Must Be Packed (and which are being studiously ignored) and we only have two more weeks before it all starts happening. I suspect there will be sporadic blogging in the next month due to all the shennanigans that are about to ensue, but rest assured, I will be WATCHING YOU...
Green Dreams of Witchypoo Goodness to all...
This will help.
Images from the following books:
*Earth Bag Building - Kaki Hunter (yes really) & Donald Kiffmeyer
*The Natural Plaster Book - Cedar Rose Guelberth, Dan Chiras, and Deanne Bednar
* Natural Building - Joseph F Kennedy
7 comments:
I see you living like a hobbit in a hobbit hole house in the side of a hill before long. Just watch out for orcs that's all.
I am a little unnerved by the fact that you are watching me... especially since I have an awful lot of books... Green Mama is watching you...!!!!
There is something Gaudi-esque about those buildings. Very art nouveau too. But the art nouveau house I want is a museum to it's architect Victor Horta. Sigh!
I am sure the Bean has been making mud houses for a long time. So at least you have an expert helper. Of course, I don't know what she'll charge you for her service...! Food and a cuddle probably.
Might I also add that there is a fab book about how to build yourself a wood-fired cob hot-tub out there by Becky Bee. It is very, very appealing. :)
We live in a cob house. Quercus recently had tremendous fun mixing up more cob to do some repair work to bits of wall - earth, sand, stones, water and a lot of hard work. Basically, we live in a giant mud pie.
I laughed at the comment above me. It's so true. We live in a giant mudpie too, I mean, mudbrick house, and can I just say ...
Welcome to ... WORLD OF DUST!
But yeah, it's handy when the plumber makes a hole in the wall (on purpose), or your children do (by accident) - you just grab a bit of dirt from what we euphemistically refer to as the garden, wet it with some water, and slap it onto the wall.
Very VERY satisfying.
woohoo! We can now get together and talk about mud!
I seem to have absorbed a fair bit on the subject due in great part to the Prodigal Father's obsession with earth building, (he's going to build what will be his 3rd rammed earth abode next year - in Tasmania this time). I wanted to build one before we bought here, and was researching the whole thing, but land now costs a snooty Queen's ransom. And I couldn't quite see the bloke out there with mud up to his elbows.
I agree with griffin and can see you getting all hobbitty out there. Orcs would not be part of your bucolic picture I'm sure.
btw - irresistible segue here...Did you know that my brother was actually an orc in them films about The Preciousssss? Big, brawny boy my bruv. So they cast him in TLOTR films. He needed the money for his law degree...heeeheee. The Orc that went to law school. He was very scary and I could only recognise him by his walk.
Oh, and in the same films he also played an 'inbred hill tribesman'. I told him he'd had plenty of practice for that role just being part of our family, the MacKenzie clan. Ah bless 'em.
Um. That was very off-topic wasn't it?
Anyway, gorgeous idea that meditation housie. I'd love a yoga/sewing studio of that ilk. Is there a spot in your new garden for such a project?
And the Charmed Garden: I tried to buy that very book a year ago and it sold out on me. It looks delightful.
Ahh, I too share your fascination and longing for earthy, muddy simplicity, m´love. Me, me! I´d love to snooze, meditate, and be hobbity in your little earthen housie in the forest! Those pics look so welcoming and lovely, especially to a homeless wee sprite like myself! Gingham and I were musing this very afternoon about living more sustainably, simply, and creatively when we get back. And now I read this! You are always freakily inspiring in timely ways! Good luck with packing, but make sure you take some good time out for pampering and frivolity on Sunday! xx
What a fantastic blog! I love it. I´ll have to start reading back issues. It is so beautiful, too.
I sooo agree with you about the stunning rammed earth buildings. I´ve been strangely drawn to the adobe buildings in Sth America. There is something so starkly beautiful about them. In some places we saw the equivalent of "razor wire" fences (little cacti planted on adobe walls). Brilliant!
Talking to yourself is always 'torquing' to the one'ness' , so believe your beautiful natural home is drawing nearer to your awakened heart. Merry Christmas and SO much gratitude for your posting of the Art of Natural Building pic which I have included here http://www.bodhitorque.com/7206.html with a link to purchase from the image.
Imagine and Inspire
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