Outside Bed

We have set up the outside bed for the summer. The breeze at night is nice.


Here is the bed, right outside our bedroom.

















View from the bed, with dog.

















View from the bed, with chickens.

Chicken Palace

Here they are....the Girls!
Henny and Penny.
In their new Chicken Palace.
They are Aracanua / Rhode Island Red cross.
We are getting 2 eggs everyday.

Fall Travel

Back from a great trip to visit friends and family.
Stayed in a caboose.

































Delivered the pony to the Wilsons. Took a bicycle ride in the rain, the quintessential Eugene experience. Played Puzzle Pirates with my Crew. Ate and drank lots of good stuff.


















































And visited Tim and Pat. I gave them the basic design, and they have made a beautiful home. Good thing they like it, or I would be in big trouble. The pictures don't do justice to the beautiful finish carpentry that Tim did. And the mosaics by Pat deserve a professional photographer.
Thank you all for a fun trip.

I love my job.

Visiting people and helping them plan for the home they want.

This is going to be a spectacular patio, with an incredible rock cliff on one side.

Strawbale House

Here are some pictures from the bale raising at Scott and Poala's new house. One of my favorite designs.


Scott carving niche.




Paola and Clover serving food.




Cobbing the voids to even out walls, using a mixture of earth and straw.



Mmm, Loving earth on our hands.



Sewing thru the wall and attaching bamboo poles as stiffeners.



The bales were notched and stacked around and between the posts supporting the roof.

A great time was had by all.

Tree Home

I needed a raised bed for the chestnut tree. And a practice super-abode project. Voila! Happy tree. The earth is stabilized with lime and cement. We tested various mixtures. The cement stabilized mixture is rock hard.

The tree is in a cage because of the varmits (squirrels and rabbits).

I love my yard. Largely thanks to Steve and Carol.

Dirt Cheap - Do It Yourself Housing

Super Adobe, the wonderfully elegant earth building system. See the CalEarth link on the right. The answer to the world wide housing problem. This is the EcoDome, a lovely home built of earth. Here are Steve and Carol, building a retaining wall with the same technique. They are putting the earth and cement mixture into the tube to form the wall. You can almost see the strands of barbed wire between the courses. It is like a clay coil pot, with barbed wire for glue.