Building a Cob House for $7,000

"Hap and Lin purchased a $700 camper on eBay, parked it on this acreage on the southern edge of Abundance Eco-Village in Fairfield, and moved in.

They planted trees, built a hoop greenhouse that serves as an open-air garden in summer, and constructed a three-sided shed for their outdoor kitchen, shower, and workshop.

For bathing, they catch rainwater from the shed’s roof in a 350-gallon plastic tank, then pump and heat it with a Coleman camper shower.

The place bursts with rustic charm. Nasturtiums, roses, and morning glories are blooming. The green prairie swells in gentle hills, and the air feels fresh, light. Then we start mixing cob, as that’s what Hap and Lin do these days. “It’s about two buckets of clay and two and a half buckets of sand,” Lin explains as she dumps first sand, then clay subsoil, and finally water on top of a tarp. We mash it with our feet. It’s smooth and cool and squishy. I follow her in a tight circle, slapping my feet in a happy, rhythmic dance...... How to Build a Cob House

Stuck in Gridlock ? Time to Go Offgrid

This is a funny cartoon, but it tells the story of Modern Man.

Are you a success ?
Do you spend most of your day fighting traffic to get to the office ?
Are you spending thousands of dollars to make a few thousand and then pay it all back ? Why ? Why do we do this ? Who created this system ?

The term gridlock is defined as, "A state of severe road congestion arising when continuous queues of vehicles block an entire network of intersecting streets, bringing traffic in all directions to a complete standstill; a traffic jam of this kind."



The term originates from a situation possible in a grid plan where intersections are blocked, preventing vehicles from either moving forwards through the intersection or backing up to an upstream intersection.

The term gridlock is also incorrectly used to describe high traffic congestion with minimal flow, which is simply a traffic jam), where a blocked grid system is not involved. By extension, the term has been applied to situations in other fields where flow is stalled by excess demand, or in which competing interests prevent progress....

So if you are feeling stuck in "grid-lock", or even a "traffic-jam" and going nowhere maybe its time to get off the grid. And enjoy life !

Living on the Grid and planning to Go Off the Grid

Obviously I am on the Grid, and if you are reading this via the Internet, or even Mobile, you are also probably on the grid.


But I am planning to go off the grid, and this is my web log of this journey.....


I'll be posting ideas and concepts for going off the grid. This will be a sort of archive and catalog of what I find along the way.


I will even post some of my designs. Thanks for dropping by....

The awesome cob homes of Dancing Rabbit Eco Village.

Check out these incredibly beautiful and sustainable homes at the Dancing Rabbit Eco Village in Missouri.....

 Dancing Rabbit- 1 Dancing Rabbit Lane -  Rutledge, MO 63563

"Dancing Rabbit is an ecovillage and intentional community of about 70 people set amid the hills and prairies of rural northeastern Missouri. Our goal is to live ecologically sustainable and socially rewarding lives, and to share the skills and ideas behind that lifestyle."  http://www.dancingrabbit.org/