Projects Blog

Life is all about getting started. When getting started means building a house get ready for a lot of work! We decided to build a cob earthship as an example of environmentally friendly, low cost building. Earthships use tires packed with dirt as foundations for walls built into hillsides. Cob is a mixture of sand,…

Living without air conditioning mean creative measures must be taken to keep cool. 1. Roofing- The east side of our house is tin it gets very hot but allows us to collect drinking water. The West side is thatch so during the hottest time of day the sun falls on cool thatch. The tin overlaps…

Cob is a mixture of clay, sand, and fiber. The fiber gives the walls tensile strength so if a crack does form the wall is still connected by the fiber making the patch easy and effective. For fiber we used a mix of sisal, coconut coir, and sticks. I have a high recommendation for using…

Fences are an unfortunate necessity. Roaming animals can easily destroy a harvest. Our own goats cause us problems with our neighbors when they destroy someones crop. With something as divisive as a fence the best choice is to make it useful. Privacy is valuable. On the people side we have stacked coconut, cashew, moringa, papaya,…

When it rains it pours. There is little worse than looking out over a barren dry landscape,  having nothing to drink, and remembering all the rain that, a month ago,  washed away neighbors seedlings and soil. There is often adequate water but uncaptured it causes devastating erosion followed by thirst. There are numerous ways it…

Roads allow people to access markets. When it rains the economy suffers because of lack of mobility and cessation of building projects (a large employer). The shelves at the local stores empty because vehicles, mostly motorcycles, cannot reach our area. Pockets lighten as meager savings dissipate and work projects are put on hold until it…

Mulch is a non living soil covering. Keeping the soil covered does a few things. o Slows water droplets before they hit the soil giving it more time to sink in. o Provides a home for burrowing insects that make holes the water can travel through to permeate the soil. The insects also eat the…

Geese It took a while for Jey to sell me on the geese but they turned out to be a great facet on our farm. They are grazers and keep our orchard trimmed. Most importantly they are amazing watch animals. They patrol the farm and sending up a holler and chase snakes off the farm….

We have the idea to create one to two acre high yielding, carbon capturing farm plots integrated into the developing suburbs. We go about this by shaping the land to catch water, building the soil by protecting it and adding organic matter, and creating integrated systems of plants and animals that work together. On our…

Eco-building  involves using local available materials, design for efficiency, analyzing resources such as wind, rain, sun, and topography. Examples of work: This kitchen set is carved out of albizia I cut down clearing my land. I designed, built, and painted this tiny house in 2 weeks. This is a wall I built using all recycled…