This blog is primarily about a building, actually three buildings, and the pursuance of a vision. It is only secondarily about the two people most involved, Barbara and me.
The buildings are the focus of this effort, and if you should read this blog with continuity, you can watch them develop from ditches in the desert ground to solid structures housing Barbara, David and Louise (our tortoise shell cat and the actual boss of the place) in comfort, satisfaction, and security. The vision is inherent in the act of building, the reasons for building and the methods of building.
These buildings have all been built by hand, with some help from factories or mills (windows, doors, hardware and tools for example) and no hired professionals. The process included friends along the way, whom you will meet via pictures and notes of gratitude from Barbara and me. Each building has at least one individual function and one or more secondary uses. The first building, the Bear Cave, will, when the last building is complete, serve as a writing studio doubling as a guest house when our friends grace us with their presence. The Annex is the utility building, designed for food prep and personal ablution with a small but effective workshop at the back. The Casa de Paja, a work in progress, will be our living quarters and will house Barbara’s studio.
The vision being pursued is the establishment of a graceful, sustainable, independent interrelationship with each other and the land on which we live. Contributors to our vision include the influences of a few close family members as well as Carlos Castaneda and his concept of impeccable living, Bill and Athena Steen (along with all the other pioneers of straw bale and adobe construction), Harlan and Anna Hubbard as symbols of simplicity and grace in a relationship, R. W. Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Sig Olsen, Ed Abbey, Gary Snyder and Ted Kerasote for their various contributions to our paradigm of the natural world, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, Jon Kabat-Zinn for defining mindfulness and living now along with dozens of other teachers, writers, thinkers, and builders. The single greatest influence and guiding light was and is Wendell Berry, whose writing kept me going when the sun was hot and the adobe was heavy.
Brief biographic thumbnails of Barbara and me would include some variety of facts and reflections. I am nearer 70 than 60. Barbara is still in the previous decade. Our backgrounds are nearly polar opposites. She is a Math/Science person, with a M.S. in life science whereas I am an English/History guy. We have both been teachers, but I have had what is generously called a variegated employment history. By nature, I am ridiculously independent while Barbara is a seeker of consensus. We are both politically aware and active via correspondence. (Opportunity to participate in marches and demonstrations are limited in the Sulfur Springs Valley.)
The purpose of our blog is certainly to share our vision and our experience, but perhaps, for some of our readers, to offer reassurance that you too can build it (whatever it is) yourself, without indenture to a bank or reliance on anyone other than yourself and (if you are as fortunate as I) your partner. And perhaps some one reading this will take the step to build his or her own home on some piece of land somewhere and love it as we love ours. I hope so.
The buildings are the focus of this effort, and if you should read this blog with continuity, you can watch them develop from ditches in the desert ground to solid structures housing Barbara, David and Louise (our tortoise shell cat and the actual boss of the place) in comfort, satisfaction, and security. The vision is inherent in the act of building, the reasons for building and the methods of building.
These buildings have all been built by hand, with some help from factories or mills (windows, doors, hardware and tools for example) and no hired professionals. The process included friends along the way, whom you will meet via pictures and notes of gratitude from Barbara and me. Each building has at least one individual function and one or more secondary uses. The first building, the Bear Cave, will, when the last building is complete, serve as a writing studio doubling as a guest house when our friends grace us with their presence. The Annex is the utility building, designed for food prep and personal ablution with a small but effective workshop at the back. The Casa de Paja, a work in progress, will be our living quarters and will house Barbara’s studio.
The vision being pursued is the establishment of a graceful, sustainable, independent interrelationship with each other and the land on which we live. Contributors to our vision include the influences of a few close family members as well as Carlos Castaneda and his concept of impeccable living, Bill and Athena Steen (along with all the other pioneers of straw bale and adobe construction), Harlan and Anna Hubbard as symbols of simplicity and grace in a relationship, R. W. Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Sig Olsen, Ed Abbey, Gary Snyder and Ted Kerasote for their various contributions to our paradigm of the natural world, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, Jon Kabat-Zinn for defining mindfulness and living now along with dozens of other teachers, writers, thinkers, and builders. The single greatest influence and guiding light was and is Wendell Berry, whose writing kept me going when the sun was hot and the adobe was heavy.
Brief biographic thumbnails of Barbara and me would include some variety of facts and reflections. I am nearer 70 than 60. Barbara is still in the previous decade. Our backgrounds are nearly polar opposites. She is a Math/Science person, with a M.S. in life science whereas I am an English/History guy. We have both been teachers, but I have had what is generously called a variegated employment history. By nature, I am ridiculously independent while Barbara is a seeker of consensus. We are both politically aware and active via correspondence. (Opportunity to participate in marches and demonstrations are limited in the Sulfur Springs Valley.)
The purpose of our blog is certainly to share our vision and our experience, but perhaps, for some of our readers, to offer reassurance that you too can build it (whatever it is) yourself, without indenture to a bank or reliance on anyone other than yourself and (if you are as fortunate as I) your partner. And perhaps some one reading this will take the step to build his or her own home on some piece of land somewhere and love it as we love ours. I hope so.
