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Seeking A Handmade Life

By Resources, Media
Bill Coperthwaite Yurt House

Bill Coperthwaite’s yurt home in Maine

“The main thrust of my work is not simple living, not yurt design, not social change, although each of these is important and receives large blocks of my time. But they are not central. My central concern is encouragement – encouraging people to seek, experiment, to plan, to create, and to dream. If enough people do this we will find a better way.”

This is a quote from Bill Coperthwaite, whose book A Handmade Life: In Search of Simplicity I have just recently finished reading. The book is, for lack of a more creative word, an interesting one, sprinkled full of a life’s worth of knowledge and insights, yet strangely lacking in what I thought would be the obvious subject — living a handmade lifestyle. The book is both idiosyncratic and universal, simple yet dense, and encouraging yet only pointing in a general direction.

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Earthen Floors Book Due Spring 2014

By Resources, Earthen Floor, Media

Earthen Floors Book

Exciting news on the natural building book front — Earthen Floors, a book all about installing and living with earth-based floor systems, is due out April 1, 2014. Written by two very experienced natural builders, Sukita Reay Crimmel and James Thomson, the book is the first of its kind dedicated solely to the art of making inexpensive, durable, and beautiful floors made mostly of sand, clay, and fiber. There are a host of books that touch upon the topic of floors, but few that delve very deeply into the nitty gritty details. This will be a welcome addition to the natural building library.

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Update: Petition to Save Charlie & Family’s Natural House

By Media
Charlie's Natural Roundhouse 02

The house slated to be demolished, unless retrospective permission is granted

There is now a petition online at Change.org that has been organized to try to grant Charlie and his family retrospective planning permission for their stunning roundhouse in Wales.

Click here to sign the petition. In barely 24 hours, the petition already has nearly 15,000 signatures! Wow. Here’s a big thanks to Natural Homes for putting all that effort into helping this young couple.

Is there still hope? We’ll see… I sure hope so.

Justice Unserved: Incredible Natural Home in Wales Ordered to Be Destroyed

By Media
Charlie's Natural Roundhouse

This natural home has been ordered to be destroyed by planners in Wales

Today, justice has gone unserved. Photos and stories of Charlie’s roundhouse have been circulating the web for the past several months, especially when it was announced that Charlie and his family might have to demolish their incredible and artful home, since the house was deemed “harm[ful] to the character and appearance of the countryside” by Pembrokeshire County Council planners.

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My Cob House in Chinese Fashion Magazine (?!)

By Photos, Media
grace magazine - cob house

Gobcobatron featured in GRACE of China

The most recent magazine to feature my cob house, Gobcobatron, is Grace of China. It’s kinda like Vogue, I think. But in Chinese. They did a full five pages on us, so maybe mud houses are trendy or something over there? I have no clue what the article says… translation anyone?

Check it out! (Click for large!)

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What is Life Like in a Sustainable Ecovillage Community?

By Media

Bringing home the harvest at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

Ever wonder what it is like to live in an ecovillage? It’s hard to believe that it has been nearly five years since I moved to Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northeast Missouri. After all this time, I’m still learning the ins and outs of community life and what it means to live ecologically. But that’s the way it should be, I think. Learning is an ever-present process.

I wrote up a guest post for Earth Easy about what it’s like living in an ecovillage, how I spend my time here,  and some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

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My Cob House on Forbes: Cob is a “Wacky” Material

By Media

Apparently, cob is a “wacky” material, even though half of the world’s population live or work in earthen structures – ha!

Well, anyway, Forbes has deemed cob “wacky” enough to include in their latest article, Homes Made From Wacky Materials. They’ve got my house in the mix.

p.s There are perhaps no more wacky materials than the industrial, synthetic ones in use in conventional construction today. Talk about far-removed from any identifiable source! Sheesh.

Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter: Lloyd Kahn Book Review

By Media, Resources

Lloyd Kahn is an owner-builder’s best friend. His colorful books document owner-builders’ projects across the world, chock full of captivating, beautiful photographs and valuable information for both the aspiring and active builder folks among us.

Each announcement of his book releases come with a certain wave of excitement, and Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter rides on the wave that Lloyd has been stirring up for over 30 years since the release of Shelter, and delivers a unique look into the newly exploding popularity of tiny houses.

Read ahead for a book review of Lloyd Kahn’s latest.

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My Cob House in Lloyd Kahn’s Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter book!

By Media
tiny homes book - ziggy 1

Gobcobatron in the new Tiny Homes book

I was really excited yesterday, literally breathless with joy. I walked to the mailboxes yesterday afternoon and spotted a package from Shelter Publications casually lying across the top of our mailbox, and I tore it open to find two glossy new copies of Lloyd Kahn’s latest book, Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter. I literally ran home to pry into it (dropping one of the cute Tiny Homes mini books in the mud in the process… whoops!), and I was thrilled to see my cob house gracing four of the pages within.

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