cool articles
Jul. 28th, 2005 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonA couple of nifty articles on self-built homes that came across the OWL-OldWaysLiving@yahoogroups.com mailing list earlier today...
THE POWER OF BUILDING OUR OWN HOMES
Gordon Solberg, Radium Springs, New Mexico
(Full article)
There have always been people (such as the readers of Earth Quarterly) who
have a "can do" attitude. We figure that we can do just about anything we
set our minds to. For example, we can even build our own homes! (What a
revolutionary concept this is in modern America, where "consumers" (who are
more helpless than they would like to admit) are unable to provide for
their most basic needs, such as food and shelter.) When we build our own
homes, we empower ourselves in a way that merely paying off a mortgage
never can.
When we build our own homes, we reconnect with part of our own sacred
birthright, and we discover that we were designed to be at home on this
planet. We are supposed to be here, and it comes naturally to us! We are
not just mere "consumers," or expendable cogs in some corporate machine--we
are part of Nature! We possess, if we will but tap into it, the inner
wisdom required to live on this planet in the way that Nature intended. We
are inherently competent to build our own homes, grow our own food, develop
our own livelihoods, and live in genuine communities--and when we do this,
we are then able to share the benefits of our existence with our friends,
neighbors, and community-at-large. Rather than being just a bunch of
alienated consumers, each jealously protecting our own narrow
self-interest, we have the potential within us to create a genuine
civilization that goes beyond the mere accumulation of monetary wealth and
the distractions it provides.
[snip]
(Full article)
------
Building with Nature, Earth and Magic: The Natural Buildings of Sun Ray Kelley
GREGG MARCHESE
It's a scene right out of Tolkien. Elves and gnomes must have come out of the mist to create these dwellings — curved cottages of tree poles and cedar shakes, sculpted earthen walls, convoluted stone foundations. Roofs curve and soar like fronds or bird wings: some are topped by grass or moss.
They rise like mushrooms in a 12-acre meadow on a ridge in northwest Washington, surrounded by a fir and cedar forest that looks west across the Skagit River Valley to Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains beyond. Amidst conifers, apple orchards, berry patches and vegetable gardens, the structures in this Ecotopian fantasy world were not built by elves and dwarves at all, but by Sun Ray Kelley and various crews of volunteers and apprentices over the years. Sun Ray has lived on this land all his life, as did his father and grandfather before him. Sun Ray's School of Natural Living is also here, where he conducts workshops on the art of natural building.
[snip]
(Full article)
THE POWER OF BUILDING OUR OWN HOMES
Gordon Solberg, Radium Springs, New Mexico
(Full article)
There have always been people (such as the readers of Earth Quarterly) who
have a "can do" attitude. We figure that we can do just about anything we
set our minds to. For example, we can even build our own homes! (What a
revolutionary concept this is in modern America, where "consumers" (who are
more helpless than they would like to admit) are unable to provide for
their most basic needs, such as food and shelter.) When we build our own
homes, we empower ourselves in a way that merely paying off a mortgage
never can.
When we build our own homes, we reconnect with part of our own sacred
birthright, and we discover that we were designed to be at home on this
planet. We are supposed to be here, and it comes naturally to us! We are
not just mere "consumers," or expendable cogs in some corporate machine--we
are part of Nature! We possess, if we will but tap into it, the inner
wisdom required to live on this planet in the way that Nature intended. We
are inherently competent to build our own homes, grow our own food, develop
our own livelihoods, and live in genuine communities--and when we do this,
we are then able to share the benefits of our existence with our friends,
neighbors, and community-at-large. Rather than being just a bunch of
alienated consumers, each jealously protecting our own narrow
self-interest, we have the potential within us to create a genuine
civilization that goes beyond the mere accumulation of monetary wealth and
the distractions it provides.
[snip]
(Full article)
------
Building with Nature, Earth and Magic: The Natural Buildings of Sun Ray Kelley
GREGG MARCHESE
It's a scene right out of Tolkien. Elves and gnomes must have come out of the mist to create these dwellings — curved cottages of tree poles and cedar shakes, sculpted earthen walls, convoluted stone foundations. Roofs curve and soar like fronds or bird wings: some are topped by grass or moss.
They rise like mushrooms in a 12-acre meadow on a ridge in northwest Washington, surrounded by a fir and cedar forest that looks west across the Skagit River Valley to Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains beyond. Amidst conifers, apple orchards, berry patches and vegetable gardens, the structures in this Ecotopian fantasy world were not built by elves and dwarves at all, but by Sun Ray Kelley and various crews of volunteers and apprentices over the years. Sun Ray has lived on this land all his life, as did his father and grandfather before him. Sun Ray's School of Natural Living is also here, where he conducts workshops on the art of natural building.
[snip]
(Full article)
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Date: 2005-07-28 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-29 12:33 am (UTC)