There are days when I think I’ve got about ten years left of building before I’m too old. Then I remember our unbelievable earthbagger Jehane Rucquoi and consider that I might actually have another 35 years in me:) Jehane is still chucking up the earthbag domes at 85 years young. Yes you read that right, eighty plus five.
 
3 Moons is gradually evolving. Jehane’s been tenaciously chipping away at her dream for many years now, and it’s finally bloomed into something fascinating. So what’s been going on at the brave new 3 Moons off-grid earthbag world in Nevada of late? And how has it transformed since Jehane first joined our special FB group back in 2017?

Plenty of People
One thing is clear: 3 Moons is buzzing with volunteers from all over the world. If you want to get a taste of mud building and off-grid living, this is a very good chance to do so. Jehane is an easy-going free spirit and an artist, so people are able to explore their talents and interests at her place in a way that is often difficult in a more controlled environment. Plenty of folk come and go and often return to leave their mark on this intrepid project.

The Well and Power
3 Moons is located in the desert, which is pretty challenging for an off-grid project. Water really is everything. Without it you can't wash, and growing food is tough. But last year, a well was dug (phew) and the water will be pumped up with solar power this year. This will radically change the food growing possibilities for 3 Moons. This project is rustic, entirely off-grid project, with just a couple of panels for phones and lights. I have to say, as long as you don’t work online it really is valuable to cut out the electromagnetic field in your life, and experience the world a little more how our ancestors did.
 
The Domes
Wow, those domes are pushing up faster than toadstools in the Arizona desert (probably a lot faster, because fungus doesn’t do too well in the hot and dry). Earthbag domes really are Jehane’s forte. She studied with the inventor of earthbag himself, Nader Khalili, so if you want to learn about dome building, head on down to Nevada this spring and check them out. Jehane uses tubes to build rather than individual sacks, and generally seems to get a dome up a year. Here they all are, in all their dirtbag glory:
 
The Traveler Dome
This is the largest and most ambitious of the domes so far. It has a superb upper deck for stargazing and a small side bedroom for sleeping. I love that deck, and think it’s an ingenious way of solving the age-old dome issue, namely how to protect it from rain.

The Teapot Dome
This new tiny dome built last year contains a rocket stove which often houses a steaming teapot. This makes it perfect as a tea break shelter from the desert wind.

The Chaparral Dome
Last year the rubble trench foundations were laid, plus some of the walls. This dome is still half finished, and will be completed this season (2020). It will also house a mezzanine for sleeping (who doesn’t love a mezzanine?)
 
All of Jehane’s domes are built without a drop of concrete, with rubble trench foundations, dirt-filled tubes tamped solid, and bonded with layers of barbed wire. They are coated in earth/lime renders. Jehane has also used papercrete in some of her plasters, which is another interesting feature, plus plenty of recycled materials. Papercrete has a high R value and is thus great for insulation.

The Bottle Wall
One of the most enduring projects is the bottle wall, which just keeps on growing and growing. Every year someone adds a bit more. For more pictures and details, have a look on Jehane’s blog.
 
https://3moonsprojectblog.com/2019/08/12/3moons-project-for-2019-last-season/
 
Bookings are now being taken for people wishing to visit this year, so don't hesitate to contact Jehane if you want a taste of the Arizona dirt with plenty of earthbagging.

EMAIL: jehanetogo@gmail.com
If you'd like to know more about Three Moons, you can see it on:
FACEBOOK
YOUTUBE
THEIR WEBSITE
Contact Jehane on FB
 
Do bear in mind, Jehane is off-grid and not in any way a techie, so it may take a little time to get a response.

Staying at 3 Moons – What you need to know:
3 Moons is a very low-impact, off-grid world, powered with a small solar system, and using a rocket stove for cooking in the outside kitchen and heating the shed. Cars, vans, and campers are welcome at 3 Moons. Do heed the climate; freezing nights in March and hot days in July! For those who stay and work, there are two small beds in the earthbag shed, and two queen-size beds north and south of the trailer, under the sun shed. Meals are basic, often sun-oven cooked. Stores and eateries are 18 miles away.

Where is 3 Moons?
3 Moons Project is located in a remote desert area (dirt roads) in Death Valley, Charleston View, California. It’s 22 miles east of Tecopa, and 50 miles west of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Stories like Jehane's come to you thanks to our growing crew of Mud Sustainers and all the dear Mudsters supporting on Patreon. The Mud Home is still open source and ad-free, but it takes me many hours a month to research and write, and goes into the hundreds to run. If you find any inspiration or value in what I do, please consider becoming a Mud Patron. For less than the price of a newspaper, you can join my private news feed where I post updates on my own off-grid project, ask me questions, and become part of our thriving mud club.

There are two ways to build earthbag structures. You can either create a round self-buttressing structure using bags tethered with barbed wire and no wood at all (usually cheaper and easier), or you can make a post-and-beam structure and fill in the walls. Oftentimes the reason people make post-and-beam structures is for square earthbag houses, or to pass building regulations. But here’s something a little different:
 
Kristen Krash of the inspiring regenerative project Sueno de Vida in Ecuador shared a fabulous explanation with us in The Mud Home Facebook Group of how she made her unusual earthbag and bamboo kitchen. I say unusual because this is the first time I’ve personally seen earthbag on a bamboo post-and-beam structure, so of course I had some questions.

How did you make the bamboo post-and-beam frame?
“Ah, the bamboo is actually anchored onto columns that go 50cm into the ground,” explained Kristen.
 
Kristen and Juan buried limecrete columns into the rubble trench below. The columns were made using a gravel, lime, and cement mixture poured into wooden moulds, with long rebar set into the mixture while it was still wet. Kristen reuses everything, so once the mixture was set they stripped off the wood from the moulds, cleaned and sanded it, and used it to make shelves. 

“The bamboo columns that hold the vigas that support the roof (you can see the "fish mouth"-shaped cuts in the bamboo that hold it together like puzzle pieces) are anchored onto the rebar. So the roof is actually directly connected to the rubble trench through the bamboo/rebar combo, which integrates the structure and gives it a lot of flexibility in an earthquake. It shakes and shimmies but doesn't fall,” Kristen told us.

How did they anchor the earthbags to the bamboo?
“The earthbags in our case are not continuous. They are simply sections of infill. The space between each bamboo/column is about two metres. That's five one-hundred-pound sacks in each row. Five rows high, that's a 2,500-lb wall. Properly staggered like bricks, decently plumb, and connected with barbed wire, they aren't going anywhere,” Kristen explains.

But the way they kept some kind of integrity in the structure was with the barbed wire. That is continuous. They laid it in between the bags and just kept going with it around the outside of the columns to make a continuous circle.
 
“We've had four mid-range earthquakes and the bags also shimmy a bit but they don't slide or move,” Kristen says. “Of course I wouldn't recommend this method if you were building up really high with your walls or expected them to bear the weight of a roof. But we knew our walls would only extend up about 1.5 m and the bamboo/column combo would hold the roof.”

What about the plaster?
Kristen plastered over the columns on both the interior and exterior to cover the wire and make it all look smooth, as well as so to prevent critters from taking up residence in the crevice between the bag and column. She used a plaster mix with 2 parts sand, 1 part clay, ¾ of a part lime, and plenty of fibres.

This is such a funky little kitchen, and Juan and Kristen build this stuff on an insanely low budget, off-grid, in the middle of nowhere with no megastores or Amazon deliveries. It’s hardcore.
 
One of my favourite features is the diamond windows and the mosquito nets. If you’re in a mozzie-filled area, there really is no better way to protect yourself than a well-screened room. As Chris in the group asked, “where did you get all that insect screen?” In Turkey, we could get it from a normal fabric shop. They had massive rolls of the stuff and the tailor would make mozzie nets to order so you could make them huge.
 
But in Ecuador? “We got them in nurseries. It’s what they use to shade more delicate plants. It’s called saran,” Kristen said.

Juan and Kristen have planted thousands of trees now and are regenerating their little space. If you’d like to learn more about their project have a look at their website: https://www.suenodevida.org/
 
You can also support them on Patreon if you’d like to do your bit for the forests of South America. https://www.patreon.com/suenodevida

Starting Your Own Project?
The Mud Home’s small, private, and very supportive Facebook group is a safe space for new mud builders and off-gridders. It’s also the most inexpensive way to get assistance from me. It’s filling up, though. The number of members will be capped at 100 so I can give everyone the proper help they need. So if you want to be part of it, don't leave it too long. 

The Mud Home remains free (and ad-free), takes me many hours a month to research and write, and goes into the hundreds to run. If you find any joy, inspiration, and value in what I do, please consider becoming a Mud Patron. For less than the price of a newspaper, you can join my private news feed, ask me questions, and become part of our thriving mud club.

Many thanks to our lovely crowd of Mud Sustainers and all those already supporting The Mud Home on Patreon to cover its costs. It is thanks to you that the site is still running. 

​As you probably know, I’ve renovated two tiny stone huts this summer. They began the year as abandoned, poop-filled, caves. Now? Aha... The transformations were surprisingly inexpensive too, because a) I did all the work myself, and b) I'm predominantly using two very inexpensive materials: clay and lime. But can you use either in any situation? And why did I choose lime in some places, and clay in others? 

As far as the cost goes, both are inexpensive. Earthen plaster is almost free to make. The only cost is the sand, which is about 4 euros for a 25kg bag. Lime costs marginally more (6 euros for a 25kg bag, and that goes a long, long way). Both have other pros and cons. Having worked with the two extensively now, in both hot, dry Turkey and cool, wet northern Spain, I’ve learned when to use which, and why.

When to use lime
 If you have a lot of damp to mitigate, mould issues, or some burrowing termite-type trouble, then lime is unbeatable. Even the resourceful, genius of mice teeth hesitate before lime render. Lime is potentially harder than clay plaster, but interestingly, it’s not necessarily stronger.
 
Lime also works better (in my opinion) if you have a pre-existing stone structure and need to refill the mortar. It’s hard to get a decent earth plaster mixture in and out of a mortar gun.
 
Lime Pros:
1. Lime can handle plenty of damp.
2. It’s an insecticide. Lime deters termites and fire ants.
3. It’s a fantastic fungicide.
4. If you have damp issues, lime is the way.
 
Lime Cons:
1. Not as easy to sculpt (though you can etch it into shape).
2. It’s caustic, so less of a joy to use than clay (but still much nicer than Portland cement).
3. Lime isn’t hugely load-bearing (I wouldn’t make a supporting wall out of limecrete, for example).

When to use clay
 Clay plaster is much, much better for sculpting. It has a wonderful elastic quality that holds its shape beautifully, and once dry is ridiculously tough. I had one heck of a job bashing down a bit of my cob spice rack, for example. (Video) Earthen plasters are also wonderful to work with. Everyone feels happy when they build with mud.
 
Earthen plasters feel warmer too, and although earth is not an insulator, it's still better than Portland cement or stone (Cob has an R value of around 0.5 per inch compared to 0.08 for poured concrete). If you make your plaster very straw-heavy, that R value can increase. Yes, I know half the natural building world will disagree with me, because they are all obsessed with the fact that earth has thermal mass. But in my experience, it ain’t quite that simple. I’m not the only one who has noticed that earth-plastered walls are way warmer than stone or concrete ones. especially in the damp. Mud is magic.
 
Clay Pros:
1. Lovely to work with.
2 Cob has structural strength.
3. Clay plasters are warmer to the hand, eye, and soul.
 
Clay Cons:
1. Clay doesn’t love the damp, and can sometimes go mouldy.
2. Clay and earthen plasters usually take longer to dry out than lime in wet climates (though some have had the opposite experience).
3. Clay expands and contracts when it gets wet or dry, which can cause issues.

So what did I do in my huts then?
1. My bedroom hut is semi-submerged in the ground. In fact, one side is built out of the rock of the land itself! I could see there would be damp in one corner, so I used lime render and lime paints in those areas.
2. I used clay plaster on all the other areas because it felt warmer. I used clay plaster for sculpting sills and shelves, inlaying mirrors, and embedding windows.
3. I used limecrete on one floor because again, the flagstones were directly on the ground and prone to damp.
4. I used lime mortar between the stones, but earthen mortar to build a wall from scratch.

So there you have it. We live in an adversarial world where things are idiotically pitted against one another. But it’s not lime versus clay. As with most things in life, the two actually perform beautifully when they’re doing a cha-cha.

If you want to buy a Mud Home Online Course for someone as a present, just email me at: atulyakbingham@themudhome.com and I'll organise you a gift token.

Many thanks to our lovely crowd of Mud Sustainers and all those supporting The Mud Home on Patreon to cover its costs.  Being off-grid and living in pretty basic conditions, the indispensable role of Melissa, who manages some of the admin and posting, becomes ever more important. Patrons contributions help pay her, as well as funding the weighty email list and free email courses, the website platform, hosting, off-grid internet, and a small bit of my time. Without your funding, I just couldn't keep this running.

As you may or may not know, I still don’t have a bathroom. Winter is well and truly here. The rain has been falling nonstop and the temperatures likewise. Happily I have a few friends who generously open their hearts and homes to me in times of trouble. This time they also opened their bathroom. And what a bathroom it is!

​You may remember the stone, mud and horse haven created by Sophie and Hakan in Spain. Sophie has long been building with mud, and is by now a very experienced (and bold) mud artist. We’ve been fortunate enough to follow her cob bathroom’s progression for the past year in our lovely Mud Facebook Group. Everything about it is completely original, from the way it was made, to the shape, and definitely where she installed it. Because normally when we talk about adding unusual bathrooms, they’re being constructed outside.

​How did she make it?
Originally there was a stairwell where the bathroom is now, and Sophie had experimented with a cob banister there. So first, Hakan and Sophie ditched the stairs, and boarded up the hole. Sophie then used the banister as the beginning of the wall for the toilet area.

​Next Sophie did something quite unusual. She decided to continue building using a method which was halfway between wattle-and-daub, and pure cob. Normally with wattle-and-daub you create a lath out of willow or hazel, and then plaster over it. What Sophie used were dried fern stalks. These are just sturdy enough to hold the cob in place as it dries, but flexible enough to create a more free-form shape.

Issues?
This method worked fine until she reached the top of the bathroom. Sophie had a dream of curving the walls in, like a cave. This is quite a tough angle for cob, because the wet clay, straw, and sand mixture is heavy and can pull inwards or fall off. Indeed this happened a few times, but in the spirit of any decent creator, Sophie simply kept at. Ultimately, it was a case of applying the cob little by little, until it dried enough to hold its shape.

How to screw in attachments?
Once the gorgeous cave-like structure was solid and dry, Sophie and Hakan turned to the interior. One ventricle of the cave is where the toilet and sink were installed. I asked Hakan how he attached things like water pipes. “Normally you have some pieces of wood, or a wooden frame embedded in the cob, and that gives you something to screw attachments to.”

The challenge of the shower room
The shower posed more of an issue. Because this was an interior bathroom, and they were basically constructing upon a wooden floor, Sophie and Hakan thought plenty about how they would waterproof the shower tray. They attempted tadelakt on the floor in the first instance, but it failed. So eventually they found a non-permeable ‘eco’-grout and used it to cement these tiles in place. The result is stunning, as you can see. The walls, however, are all lime rendered on the interior, and I can personally attest that it worked wonderfully, keeping the water out of the cob while retaining permeability*.

Special Features
There are a number of lovely, original features in this bathroom. The door frames are divine, made from foraged wood and tapered to create these wonderful cave openings. Hakan handmade the toilet door to fit neatly into one side. On the other side is a shower curtain. Now, I’m not normally a fan of shower curtains, but this one works so beautifully I became quite enamoured with it. Sophie had posted in our group a while back about her battles with the curtain rail, which she and Hakan eventually made by bending an iron rail. But the result is a beautiful wooden arch in which the curtain sits (but doesn’t bother you while you shower).

I also adored the glass windows (made from glass plates Sophie found at the local pound/dollar store). They illuminated the toilet space and formed eyelets onto the roof joists.
​
How much did it cost?
Sophie and Hakan’s builds are always dirt cheap, mostly because they do nearly everything themselves. The cost of the shower room was about 150 euros, and the toilet was 250 Euros (most of that went on the sink, taps and toilet). Remember that mud and foraging are free. 

Things to take away from this build:
1. While there are plenty of tried-and-true techniques out there, there are potentially many other ways to use mud to build. If you’re of the pioneering mindset and don’t mind things going wrong, it’s wonderful to experiment.

2. Cob needs to be applied in thinner layers when the force of gravity is against it. You can still create gravity-defying shapes, but you need to work slowly, allowing each layer to dry before adding the next.

3. Lime plaster can indeed work on the inside of cob to create a solid, semi-waterproof coating. This success may be climate-dependent, as in a drier or changeable climates where the mud is liable to expand and shrink, the plaster could potentially crack. But Sophie’s was perfect.
​
4. Sometimes you have to compromise and use an unnatural material. I must admit, for my part I’m more bothered about sustainability than natural purism, so if you have to use a tiny bit of cement or plastic somewhere to waterproof something, so be it. The eco-grout Sophie used for the tiles was Fugabella, which while not entirely natural, is a more sustainable range of low carbon, part-recycled cements. 

Related links:

How to make earth plaster http://www.themudhome.com/earth-plaster.html

Natural or sustainable building?
http://www.themudhome.com/mudbuilding/natural-sustainable-or-quality-building
​
http://www.themudhome.com/mudbuilding/how-to-build-naturally-and-sustainably-no-they-arent-the-same-thing

The Eco-spec on Fugabella
http://products.kerakoll.com/gestione/immagini/img_prodotti/Fugabella%20Tech%20Guide%20EN.pdf

About Sophie and Hakan                                                                        ***
Sophie and Hakan met in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, but that's another story:) They lead a life of adventure and are also both professional photographers. You can see more of their work and inspiring lifestyle on Facebook. (Sophie on FB) (Hakan on FB). Their gorgeous outdoors-inspired photography is available on Stocksy @https://www.stocksy.com/hakanandsophie


Do you love the Mud Home?
The Mud Home remains free (and ad-free), takes me many hours a month to research and write, and goes into the hundreds to run. If you find any joy, inspiration, and value in what I do, please consider becoming a Mud Patron. For less than the price of a newspaper, you can join my private news feed, ask me questions, and become part of our thriving mud club. 

Many thanks to our lovely crowd of Mud Sustainers and all those already supporting The Mud Home on Patreon to cover its costs. It is thanks to you that the site is still running.

​In a world where we are continually bombarded with negativity and despair, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s just the way humans are. Most of us are amazing in our own ways, and most of our good deeds and beautiful achievements are never mentioned or shared. This week, with Di and Bis’ courageous renovation project in Spain, I’ve got a story of both inspiration and compassion, not to mention dogs.

​From Turkey to Spain with Seven Dogs in a Van
I know Dianne and Bismil from my years in Turkey, where these two animal lovers have a long history of adopting stray and abandoned dogs. Last year Dianne and Bismil took an enormous leap of faith. They decided to leave their beautiful self-built home on the Turkish Riviera and move with their seven rescue dogs, none of which are small (indeed one Turkish Akbaş weighs more than I do). The country they planned to relocate to was Spain.
 
Now, it’s pretty stressful transporting animals across borders, and I’ve often commented it would be easier to bring a warhead into some countries than a dog. But Dianne and Bismil were undeterred. First they bought a Mercedes van, kitted it out, and decided to drive all seven dogs the 4200 kilometres from Turkey, through Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France and into Spain. That might be adventure enough for most people.
 
At the same time, they also purchased a massive but dilapidated farmhouse in Spain to repair for them and their dogs. On top of all that, when they sold their house in Turkey, the Turkish Lira had crashed. So let’s just say they are doing this on a budget. Feeling hot under the collar yet?

An Odyssey, or Two
It gets worse. Or better, depending on whether you’re the storyteller or the protagonists. Because Dianne and Bismil had so many dogs, they couldn’t fit them all in the van in one trip. So once they arrived in Spain with half the pack...wait for it...Bismil had to turn around and drive the 4200 kilometres back to Turkey to pick up the other half of the dog family! And let me tell you, when you’re driving a van with Turkish plates in and out of Europe, you’d better be prepared to have the thing frequently pulled apart at the borders, as well.
 
While Bismil was crossing a continent on a dog rescue mission, Dianne held the fort, conquered Spanish bureaucracy (no mean feat), and began renovating. When I visited her last winter, the property was in one heck of a state. We sat hugging mugs of tea in the shell of her kitchen, which she’d already begun to attack. “It’s a monster,” she said to me, shaking her head. “I’m not in love with it; it’s like an arranged marriage. I had to find something fast to house the dogs.”

​But I know Dianne. Some people have vision, and can see how to turn beasts into drop-dead-gorgeous aristocrats. Some people have the touch of the witch.

​Both Dianne and Bismil have worked their butts off this year, with seven hounds to feed and walk as well. But what they have got right, which so many people get wrong, is that they have moved step by step, room to room, rather than attempting to transform the whole beast at once. Moving in this way means you have the satisfaction of seeing one area completely finished. It gives you a beautiful space to sit in and enjoy while you carry on with the next job.
 
Needless to say, when I returned this year, I was pretty gobsmacked. The kitchen is unrecognisable. The roof is being completely overhauled. The whole place is taking shape.

A Naturally Recycled Renovation
 
What’s particularly impressive about Dianne’s approach is her commitment to recycling and using natural materials. She’s a real whiz at upcycling old furniture, and there’s no old bit of scrap she can’t wave her wand at and turn into something special.

​Lime mortar, render and crete
She has completely transformed the walls with lime and natural paints, too. She used lime throughout the house to create a series of beautiful mortars, renders, and limecretes to preserve the old stones, eradicate mould, and allow the house to “breathe”. The result, as you can see, is both authentic and warm.

Dianne’s Limecrete
For the steps and sills, Dianne created a special limecrete. She used one part lime, one part brick dust, one part sand, and a handful of straw to form these hard-wearing and beautiful surfaces. The brick dust acts as a pozzolan, which makes the lime more cementitious, while the straw fibres help knit the crete together and add a more rustic feel. You can read more about limecretes like this here.

​The Walls
The walls were totally overhauled and it’s made an enormous difference to the entire vibe. Dianne and Bismil pulled off all the old concrete render, dug out the mortar, and lovingly cleaned the stones up. Then they mixed a lime mortar from sand and lime, and re-mortared the walls. The result, as you can see, is stunning. It creates a completely different atmosphere.
 
In other places they applied a lime render and painted it with a special milk paint. I love the look; it’s both authentic and cosy.

​What’s next?
The only thing left in the kitchen is the pantry. Dianne plans to make a wattle-and-daub cubbyhole in the utility room for storing her groceries. Once that is done, she will build a bottle wall with earth plaster to separate the bathroom from the hall. A TV room is also appearing by knocking out one wall and adding a door.
 
Yes, the beast is being tamed, and looking more attractive by the minute. But I wonder, is there a fairytale ending anywhere for the arranged marriage? Will Dianne fall for her monster in the end?

​6 Important Things to Take Away from this Build:
 
1. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, panic and try to do everything at once when you take on a building project. Instead, be like Di and Bis – work out which space you need to sort out the most, and complete it. Totally. Then move onto the next. Step by step.
 
2. Don’t leave areas half-finished before starting a new task. It leaves you (and everyone you live with) in chaos, and you end up feeling like you’re getting nowhere.
 
3. In renovation, more than half the work is undoing the mistakes of those who went before you. Factor this in when estimating how long it will take.
 
4. Lime really is the way in old buildings. It creates a much warmer, drier vibe in a place. It’s also pretty impossible for mould to grow on lime render or in lime mortar.
 
5. You don’t need to build a house from scratch to enjoy natural building. Natural renders and plasters can transform even the most uninspiring box into something healthy, beautiful, and special.
 
6. If all else fails and you don’t know how to make your place more homely, get a dog (or seven). They are guaranteed to warm up kitchens, hearts, and cold feet.

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​Water is one of the top priorities when you’re building an off-grid world (for the full list see here). Having suffered plenty of experience in doing it the wrong way, I was a little obsessed about water this second time around. I’ve made sure in my new off-grid world that water is in abundance. I can tell you now, the difference it has made to my workload and general comfort levels is huge.
 
So here’s a list of the top five ways you can obtain water in your off-grid world, with (as always) some very common issues to watch out for, plus one thing you absolutely must factor in to your off-grid water system right from the outset.

Rainwater Harvesting
I think this is the water system of the future. Almost everywhere in the world, even in dry areas, there is rainfall at some point in the year. If you can harvest that water and store it well, you can change your world.
 
The best rainwater harvesting system I have ever seen was in Tamera, Portugal. It was a massive water-retention lake designed by Sepp Holzer. You can read more about that here. But the key difference between Sepp’s permie rainwater systems versus classic rainwater harvesting pools, is that Sepp uses clay to line the base of the lake, rather than concrete or any other impermeable man-made membrane. This is fundamental in dry climates because it allows a little natural seepage into the ground, thus rehydrating the entire area around the lake and balancing your local water table. Ultimately it transforms the actual climate, attracting more rain.
 
But not everyone is in a super-dry climate, nor does everyone have enough land for such a project. In which case, the most common (and effective) way of harvesting rainwater is from your roof. It is then collected in a big tank for later use.
 
The reality: The main issue with rainwater harvesting is storage space, because depending on how many months are dry and how big your garden is, you may find yourself needing a tank the size of a house. I think for small off-grid worlds, rainwater works superbly as a backup. The water is also beautifully soft, which makes your skin and hair all soft and shiny (if you like that kind of thing:)
 
You can read more about rainwater harvesting, and about Sepp Holzers’s inspiring work here.
These two Abundant Edge podcasts also give excellent advice on rainwater harvesting.
https://www.abundantedge.com/abundantedge/zach-weiss
https://www.abundantedge.com/abundantedge/rob-avis

​Springs
If you have a spring on your land, then I doubt you are reading this post. It’s the source I favour most, especially if it’s pure mountain water that you can also drink. Like wells or course, springs can dry up. But if it’s an open spring above your living quarters, then you may well be spared the pumping. I’ve seen lucky folk with spring water pipes pouring next to their houses. So if you’re looking for land and find one with a spring in it, go for it!
 
Brooks and Rivers
Again, if you’re looking for land and find a plot next to a river or with a brook in it, it’s probably a good choice. If it’s above your land it’s easier to drive the water down without a pump, but you have potentially more chance of flooding. If it’s below your land you’ve got to pump it up. Ram pumps are very interesting solutions to this problem though. More on them at the bottom.
 
The reality: Both brooks and rivers can dry up, so make sure you check their status at the end of the dry season. Also, in many regions rivers are communal, or much worse, corporation property. Or there may be limits to what you can do with them. This is why I favour springs. Generally, if you have a small spring in your land, the government or the mega-corporation has nothing to say. 

​Dew harvesting/dew ponds
This is essentially a very old but fast-developing water solution. Essentially all you need is a temperature reaching dew point/mist, and a tarp. In the old days, dew ponds were for cattle. A hole was dug, an insulator like straw was put down, and then puddled clay for waterproofing. See more details about the old dew ponds here.
 
You can make your own dew pond by digging a wide basin or pool, lining it with straw for insulation, and then covering it with a tarp.  In the evening and morning, dew will collect in the tarp in a small pond. People have adapted this system for their roofs too, collecting the dew much like rainwater.
 
The reality: This is way, way easier in a cooler, damper climate than in a hot, arid one. In southern Turkey there was basically no dew point reached at all for about four months of the year, so good luck harvesting dew there. It’s still possible, but you need a much larger, higher-tech system. However, if your climate is temperate, oceanic, rainforest, or cool, dew harvesting can be a nice easy backup source of water.
 
Video of how to make a dew pond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66tAHmRd5FE

Pumps
As alluded to earlier, I hate pumps. My neighbour in Turkey was killed by one, which has done nothing to cure my aversion. Pumps often go wrong, and personally, being an independent type of lass, I dislike that my water supply suddenly becomes dependent on power.
 
Electric pumps (which could be solar) are okay for lightweight jobs, but don’t forget that mixing water and electricity is a high-risk venture (this is what killed my neighbour). Also, if you have a steep incline, electricity isn’t going to cut the mustard. You will need a petrol pump instead. These are noisy, expensive, and of course require fuel.
 
Ram pumps
There is only one pump system I like, and that’s the hydraulic ram pump. Old school, that’s me. Ram pumps use gravity and pressure as their power source, rather than petrol or electricity. Basically you have a pipe with a number of valves in it, and the pressure of the flow (in say a river) pushes the water up a certain way into the pipe and through a valve, which closes behind it. When the next lot of water gets pushed up the pipe, it pushes the first lot through the next valve. And so on, until you’ve pumped water up your hill. Ram pumps have a lovely click to them as the valves open and close, too. The only disadvantage is that ram pumps can’t usually drag water up very steep inclines.
 
You can read more about the wonderful ram pump here.
 
Here’s a video on how to make one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enBEMgDR3-A

Drinking Water?
Yes, you need drinking water, but not nearly as much as you think. There’s far too much paranoia regarding water, usually spread by people who have zero experience of life in the wild, and who are spewing second-hand stories they’ve seen on the telly.
 
Remember: Depending on your annual rainfall and the size of your veggie patch/orchard, anywhere between 50% to 90% of your water usage is for your garden. On top of that, the vast majority of your personal water usage is for washing clothes and showering, so it doesn’t need to be pure, either. Then comes the washing up, which unless you’ve got good reason to believe there is giardia or cholera lurking in your supply, and you’re eating off wet plates, can also be washed in non-drinking water.
 
The amount of water you actually ingest is minimal. I have no drinking water in my taps and collect it instead from a pure spring nearby. I usually use between 2-3 litres a day. What you need most is water, full stop. Provided it’s not downstream from a chemical plant, you are probably fine using it for most things except drinking and eating. Most people going off-grid are moving to remote places, which are automatically less polluted anyway. That is, after all, the whole point, right?

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Many, many thanks to the dear Mud Sustainers and the fantastic Mud community on Patreon for keeping this site running so far. 

Lime is one of the most underused, yet versatile, enduring and elegant building materials out there. It's amazing stuff, and does almost everything Portland cement does but better. Yup, I said better.

Lime allows structures to breathe in a way Portland cement never can, significantly reducing the opportunities for damp in your building. It's softer and more malleable, and cures more slowly giving you time to work it beautifully before it sets. This softness is important in mortar work – especially in old buildings. Portland cement is too hard and non-porous, so it ultimately begins to 'eat away' at the stones. It's been banned by the English Heritage Society for this very reason. Lime is a fungicide and an insecticide, and in most places very inexpensive. Unless you're building a multi-story car park, lime is the way.

Lime generates roughly 25% of the carbon that Portland cement does in production,and then slowly reabsorbs that carbon as it cures. Seeing as Portland cement is currently the second largest emitter of CO2 into the atmosphere after fossil fuels, we could do with using a lot more lime and a lot less Portland.

Here are 8 gorgeous things you can make with lime:

1. Render
Lime creates beautiful, breathable renders. It’s so much more suited to this job than Portland cement as it allows the house to air properly, creating a very different, drier atmosphere within. It’s anti-mold properties are also a boon if you are in a damp climate. Because it takes longer to set, you have time to work it into something of beauty.

​2. Mortar
If you have an old building, then lime mortar is a must really. Because it’s softer than the stone or brickwork, it doesn’t gradually eat away at them like Portland cement does.  

​3. Paint
I love lime paint (or lime wash) because it’s so absurdly easy to use. Most commercial paints come stuffed with chemicals, and create either an oily or plastic finish that doesn’t breathe. 

4. Grout
Yes, you can use lime to grout tiles or flagstones (see above).
​
5. Flooring
You can create limecrete from lime, which is durable and works perfectly well as a flooring. In ancient houses it’s the floor material of choice because once again, it doesn’t mess about with the self-airing characteristics of old buildings and allow damp to rise.

6. Sills and Worktops
With limecrete you can form beautiful sills, worktops, or steps. Lime takes longer to cure than Portland cement (about three weeks for adequate solidification) but is perfectly durable, and continues to harden over time.

7. Bubble Houses
You can mix lime, sand, and straw (or hemp) and make all kinds of structures with it. Have a look at this gorgeous bubble house in France by Kerterre (the video is in French).

8. The Taj Mahal
Okay I’m kidding, kind of. The Taj Mahal was rendered in a special kind of lime plaster called ‘araish’. It’s made by mixing burned clay with slaked lime, jaggery, and fenugreek seeds. It's held up pretty well, as you can see:)

Want to know how to use this stuff?
If you want to explore the Amazing World of Lime further, and learn how to use the white wonder, I have a new course out. It’s on a special introductory price for the next month at just $45 (plus your local digital tax), so take a look. It includes videos, slideshow lectures, and PDFs, and is completely downloadable.

I always update and add sections to my courses over time. Once you’ve enrolled in the course you’ll have access to all future updates.

The course includes:

• Which kind of lime you should use for which job and in which climate
• How to slake quicklime
• How to mix and apply lime render
• How to apply lime mortar and some tricks for a clean finish
• How to deal with mortar guns when using lime
• How to mix limecrete 
• How to make a limecrete floor
• How to use limecrete with tiles
• How to create lime paint or lime wash with and without colours

Probably one of the most attractive features of an off-grid lifestyle is that it’s so inexpensive, leaving the dreaded day job behind becomes very viable. You have no power or water bills. You don’t (hopefully) pay rent. You are not spending idiotic amounts of cash on travelling to work, or on a corporate wardrobe. And most importantly of all, I think, is that the mere act of being outside in nature is in and of itself very fulfilling, so you are not wasting money on myriad distractions. I still say building with mud is one of my cheapest hobbies.

After a while you start growing your own food, which shaves a lot off your food bill too. I worked out that even in my paltry first-year herb garden, I saved about fifty euros on herbs alone in just twelve weeks! My friend said she’s saved thirty euros on tomatoes alone this summer. We’re single. If you’re a family, then growing your own vegetables is a big money saver.
 
Even so, as I learned to my chagrin back on Mud Mountain in Turkey, unless you are prepared to cut yourself off entirely from humanity, not have internet, or be a parasitic scrounger, you do need a few bucks to live off. In Turkey I was getting by (fairly uncomfortably) on about 150 dollars a month. Here in Spain it’s more like 350 euros. A good half of my outgoings are on petrol and communications (wifi/phone, etc.), and I won’t lie, I still harbour a dream of cutting those out one day. And then there are the times things ‘go wrong’, the inverter blows up, or your water pipes freeze, and you have to repair your infrastructure.
 
350 euros isn’t much… unless you haven’t got it. So I asked around in our Special Mud Home Facebook Group as to how the other off-gridders and system-escapees earn their crust.
 
How to make a living off-grid:
 
1. Teaching natural building and homesteading workshops
This is one of the most common ways people keep the money clock ticking. The learning curve for people building small off-grid worlds is immense, so once you’ve built your own little world it usually by default attracts others who want to learn.
 
Pros: Depending on your location it’s very viable. In Europe and the US, a lot of people want to learn this stuff.
Cons: You need a decent infrastructure in place to be able to host workshops. Then there’s the food issue (bane of my life). Who’s doing the catering for ten people, who no doubt have all manner of ludicrous dietary requirements? In my experience (and many others concur), workshops are exhausting. You’re not going to be running them every week. 

2. Renting out your yurt/tent/campervan on Airbnb
You’d be amazed what you can rent out, so don’t limit yourself by thinking that your mud hut is too basic for Airbnb. Even a square of land in a beautiful place can potentially be rented out to campers. There is a hunger for beauty and nature and simplicity.
 
Pros: A nice little earner without a huge amount of effort.
Cons: Depending on your location, there may be legal or tax implications with this. It’s tricky to keep rented properties under the radar, and I’ve heard a few cases in various countries of local guesthouse owners complaining, and then fines being issued.
 
3. Selling your own produce/handiwork
A lot of folk are doing this in my area of Spain, because there are some tax advantages to being a stall holder:) Whether there is a local demand for fresh, organic home produce depends on your location. In Turkey, because everyone already made everything themselves, it was harder to sell your own creations. But in many, many countries, home produce is viable. Jam goes for five euros a jar in my local market, which is a pretty high markup I reckon:)
 
What to sell?
Jam, honey, organic veggies, chutneys, herbs, herbal remedies, soaps and natural cleaning products, bread, cakes, pasties, cheeses, butter, handmade jewellery, foraged food.
 
“I’m a big forage geek. Wild gourmet mushrooms sell high in the right season and restaurants ‘eat them up’,” said Wynter Spring in our Facebook Group.
 
Where to sell it?
In your local market, restaurants, create a ‘pick your own’ and let people do the hard work for you, or sell online.
 
Pros: Easy to stay under the radar and earn ‘cash-in-hand’.
Cons: Potentially labour-intensive. You need to be sure you have a market for your stuff.​

4. Online teacher
If you are a native speaker of English you are lucky. You have ample opportunities to teach your mother tongue online. Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese are other popular languages to learn. But people are teaching almost anything online these days.
 
Pros: It’s flexible and sometimes pleasant to chat to different people if you’re getting cabin fever up there in your off-grid world.
Cons: You need a decent internet/power system. Teaching takes more time, energy and skill than people think. You have to prepare classes (usually), have decent social skills, and shedloads of patience.
 
5. Editing/Translating/Copywriting
A number of people edit journals and articles. Or if you speak more than one language, you can also flex your translation muscles.
 
Pros: Flexible. This is non-physical work (which can be important when you are off-grid, as you can get physically very tired).
Cons: Little room for creativity, so potentially quite tedious.
 
6. Retreats and Travel
These are similar to workshops in their need for effort, but retreats and homestays usually require better infrastructure and more comfortable lodgings. You can run spiritual, ecological, ‘writers and artists’ retreats or responsible cultural holidays like Poonam below:
 
“I have a little responsible rural travel project in the Indian Himalayas, where I have trained and hired underprivileged women, mainly widows and victims of domestic violence - www.fernweh-travel.com . Plus we have a homestay looked after by women too www.peachesandpears.net,” says Poonam, (also a member of our Facebook Group - it's nice in there:)

Pros: You will probably meet some interesting like-minded folk. Some are like angels bringing fresh air and ideas into your world.
Cons: You may meet royal pains in the backside as well:) For some, the end of the world = no chia seeds, composting toilets, too much quiet/noise, beds too hard/soft/big/small etc)...it goes on and on.

7. Social media manager/online assistant
You need to be fairly tech savvy and dextrous with a number of social media platforms to pull off being a virtual assistant. These skills can be learned though. A VA may have to upload blog posts, edit, sort out inboxes, post on social media, organise travel arrangements, do online research, write or collate newsletters, and more.
 
Pros: Flexible and not too time-consuming if you have the skill set required.
Cons: I think the most challenging part is getting yourself out there in the beginning so that people can hire you. There are a number of sites where online freelancers tout their wares. Here is a sample of some of the biggest:
 
https://www.upwork.com/
https://www.freelancer.com/
https://www.workingnomads.co/jobs
https://www.craigslist.org/about/sites
 
8. Start Your Own Online Business
I think by now I could write a book on this, which is ironic, because not once in this off-grid adventure have I consciously tried to create a business. What I did want to do was create a platform, which by default is what you need to do if you want to stand a chance of succeeding in the smoke and mirrors world of online business.
 
Online businesses can involve selling products. But I’d say selling things is only one side of online entrepreneurship. You could be creating online courses, such as I do for the Mud Home, or offering services such as therapy sessions, or creating online communities.
 
“Over the past 10 years I've built my business as a master doll sculptor so that I would be able to one day explore my off-grid passion,” says Rhonda, who unlike me and many others was smart and got her ducks in a row before she left the system:) You can see her creations at https://creamsodabjd.com/.
 
Kirsty Henderson has called herself an accidental cartographer. She’s got a great blog post about how she fell into the online business of selling maps. http://www.portugalfromscratch.com/earning/so-how-am-i-funding-this-crazy-adventure/#more-63
 
Pros: Creative and exciting. It’s great to be your own boss.
Cons: There’s a lot of rubbish touted about earning millions online. Don’t believe a word of it. An online business is not a get-rich-quick option, but hey, that’s presumably not what you’re doing it for;) Still, for the sake of realism I reckon it usually takes a good two years to learn the ropes and get a decent online platform going (unless you’ve got a stack of money to throw at advertising).
 
9. Building/designing projects for others
When you have a built a few natural homes and are on the level that Shagun Singh is, you can design or build for others. “I started taking designing and building projects very selectively. These are mostly social with no charge but a few commercial ones too to support finances,” says the amazing woman behind Geeli Mitti in India.
​
Pros: Potentially lucrative. Could improve your standing in the natural building world.
Cons: Potentially exhausting and frustrating. You have to navigate other people’s vast and often unrealistic expectations.

10. Consultancy
If you are an expert with hands-on experience in any field, you can offer advice to anyone who’ll pay you by becoming a consultant. There are permaculture design consultants, natural building consultants, online business consultants… heck, even dog psychology and hairstyle consultants. This may be part of your online business, but not necessarily.
 
Pros: Potentially interesting work because you have a deeper level of input into someone’s project without the burden of actually making it happen.
Cons: Make sure you have decent internet. Your main challenge will be to find customers.
 
Links and Further Reading for Online Entrepreneurship
https://www.fulltimenomad.com/virtual-assistant-jobs/
http://www.portugalfromscratch.com/category/earning/
 
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It costs a fair bit in both money and my time to run this site without annoying adverts popping up. Quality posts take time to research, too. So if you are benefitting from or enjoying The Mud Home, please consider making a pledge on Patreon so that others can continue to access this free information in the future.
 
For just $2 a month you have email priority, access to my private news feed, and a monthly patron-only video from my land. (Psst… I’m building a small, stone off-grid world single-handedly and on a very tight budget. If you want to watch how I do that, and how I deal with my woes as well as triumphs, it’s all on my Patreon feed).
 
Many, many thanks to the dear Mud Sustainers and the fantastic Mud community on Patreon for keeping this site running so far.

​Have your own project in the pipeline? Need inspiration or advice?
The Mud Home’s small, private, and very supportive Facebook group is a safe space for new mud builders and off-gridders. It’s also the most inexpensive way to get assistance from me. It’s filling up, though. The number of members is capped at 100 so I can give everyone the proper help they need. So if you want to be part of it, don't leave it too long.
 
http://www.themudhome.com/mud-home-facebook-group.html

​So you need a hard slab on your floor but you don’t want to use Portland cement, because you’ve done your homework (or learned from experience) and know that Portland cement floor slabs are bad news in natural/ancient buildings. In this case, what you need instead is limecrete.
 
It still baffles me how few mainstream builders use lime, especially limecrete. I really don’t get, it to be honest. Are they scared? Too stuck in their ways? What is it? Lime isn’t any harder to use than Portland cement. It takes longer to cure, which means it’s a lot easier to correct mistakes than if you use Portland. It looks a lot nicer, too. It’s cheap, uses a quarter of the fossil fuels to manufacture, and it will pull damp out of buildings like nothing else. If you’re in a wet climate, lime is the way. What’s not to like?
 
Luckily for us, a friend of mine who shall thus be called ‘S’ has shared how she and ‘E’ made their limecrete floor for their Victorian cottage in Lincolnshire. Yes it’s to code, too.
 
How S and E Made their Limecrete Floor
 
Because S and E are in the UK, there are building regulations that have to be observed. But the system outlined here was pre-approved so it’s a great guide for anyone looking to make a limecrete floor system. Here we go:

​1. First, because this is an old house that someone had unwisely stuck a concrete slab in (damp issues in abundance), the existing concrete floor had to be dug out to a depth of 30cm. You can do this yourself but it’s a nasty, heavy job requiring serious machinery, so you may prefer to get a builder in. “We removed all the rubble ourselves, seemed about a million wheelbarrowsful. You have to remove absolutely every bit of it, because if you don't any sharp bits leftover will puncture the geotextile membrane,” explains S.
 
2. The geotextile membrane (shown above with the lilac arrow) stops the dirt travelling up into the glapor insulation. Once you have a rubble-free base to your floor, you lay the membrane.
 
3. Next, S and E added the Glapor insulation. Glapor is foamed recycled glass and laid to a depth of 30 cm throughout. “More long days of shovelling and wheelbarrowing,” laments S. 

4. The next stage was to compress the glapor to 20cm. For this, you need a plate compactor. "There's just no other way to do it," S says, "It's a nasty, noisy, heavy, slow job.” (He he he, I think a picture is emerging here).
 
5. Not yet defeated, once the glapor was compacted S and E then put down another layer of geotextile on the top. This stops the limecrete from sinking down into the glapor.

​5. Because they were laying underfloor heating, S and E installed a geo-grid to hold the pipes in place, before laying the pipes themselves. They then used a pressure pump to pump water through the pipes to check there were no leaks, because once the limecrete goes down, that’s it! You can no longer access the pipes.

​6. Once that's all done, the limecreting begins. First, you shutter off the section you're going to limecrete. “Obviously, start furthest from the door and leave the area around the door to last. Limecrete is much more forgiving than concrete and can be done section by section, provided you do the sections quickly enough that it doesn't dry out,” explains S.

​7. The limecrete mixture was made as follows: “Our builder lent us a concrete mixer. The mix we used was 2.5 buckets of slabbing aggregate and one bucket of NHL lime, with a handful of fibres added for strength. Because of the slabbing aggregate we used, we did not need to use sharp sand, but many other systems do require sharp sand. You then add water bit by bit until the mix is the consistency of stiff porridge. Keep it mixing for 20 minutes, then empty into a strong wheelbarrow and wheel it indoors.”
 
8. While one person lays and tamps the limecrete in the shuttering, the other person mixes the next load. Once the entire section is laid and tamped to the level of the shuttering, you can finish it with a float or trowel, and create the type of surface you want.

9. Finally leave the limecrete overnight, before removing the shuttering on that section and setting up an adjacent section. Continue until the whole floor is limecreted.
 
10.  Limecrete takes about three months to fully cure, but you can walk on it long before that. If you’re in a hot, dry climate, you need to damp (but not soak) the floor regularly to prevent it from drying too quickly and cracking. Once it's cured, use a stiff brush to remove all the loose dust. “You will need to do this repeatedly for quite a long time,” says S.
 
Something tells me S is happy this floor business is over:)

​Last word on the matter from S
"This was by far the biggest, heaviest, hardest, nastiest job we had to do, but once we'd done it, we felt like we could tackle anything because no job we're likely to do here now will be as physically taxing as doing that floor!"

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​Another Way to Contribute
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Abrazo House
If you're a regular follower of the Mud Home blog you'll have already read a bit about Abrazo House. At this ecological learning centre in a tiny village in the green mountains of Cantabria, we've spent the past fourteen years building natural homes and doing permaculture with the help of hundreds of volunteers from all over the world. You can read all about the project in our free ebook: (http://abrazohouse.org/en/book/)
 
In 2016 we decided to apply our hard-won experience to a further natural building project: to create two new, beautiful and efficient eco-houses on another plot of land in the same village, with the aim of attracting like-minded people to live and work in this amazing part of the world. The houses are now complete and are on the market. (http://abrazohouse.org/for-sale/) For all you natural building fans out there, here's a quick rundown on the essentials of the project.
 
Design
The site is 5000m2 of south-facing terraces with young woodland (planted after we bought the land in 2005) and a stream, in a small village in Cantabria. The "urban" zoning of the land meant we could get permission to build two homes there, and we went down the legal route of architect's plans and municipal permits. (NB We've never run into legal issues because of the unconventional nature of our buildings.)

​Because of the steep, south-facing site, we decided to cut away into the hillside and build earth-sheltered houses. A key design element is the addition of a semi-enclosed garage to the north, in between the house proper and the hillside: basically doubling your useful space for just the cost of the roof.
 
Materials
The choice of materials was based on ten years' experience of natural building in this bioregion. Of course there would be loooads of cob: we love working with cob, it's cheap and easy to mix with our well-honed rotavator technique, and it makes gorgeous organic shapes. But we wanted these houses to be completely passive solar—not needing any additional heating in winter—and cob alone isn't quite warm enough to do that even in our mild climate, so we went for a hybrid construction: straw bales laid on edge (35cm thick) with a good 15cm of cob inside and out for protection and thermal mass.
 
A notable feature of our local landscape is the humungous areas of eucalyptus plantations. These non-native trees are mostly used for making paper, but they actually make a very good structural timber which is very durable if treated with borax solution. So we decided to erect a timber frame structure and green roof first, and build the bale-cob walls afterwards, allowing us to work under cover. We cut and peeled our eucalyptus trunks on a friend's land, less than 1km from the building site. Using them in the round meant stronger beams, and saved us an expensive trip to the sawmill.

​Earthmoving and Foundations
On site, our digger crew scraped away the topsoil—which we piled up for use in mixing the cob later on—and found that the underlying subsoil wasn't soil at all, but rock. This meant a lot more expensive digging, but it did have two benefits: a nearly infinite supply of stone for building retaining walls and foundations, and a very solid base for the houses, with no need to pour a concrete foundation. In some areas we could go straight up from the bedrock; in other places we built a brick pier for the posts to rest on.
 
Timber Frame and Roof
Due to administrative delays we weren't able to start building the timber frame until December 2016, but once we got going it went up in just a couple of weeks. With the main frames up and temporary supports in place, we put on the rafters and the roof during the winter, luckily blessed with good weather, and were ready to start filling in the walls by March.

Walls
To keep the bale-cob walls dry, you need a good stemwall. Despite having plenty of stone on site, our stemwalls are mostly built from termoarcilla, a specially insulating type of brick that interlocks like Lego, because it's way quicker: we only used stone on the visible exterior walls. We filled in between the two layers with expanded clay pellets (arlita) — a lightweight insulating pellet that's a bit like Rice Crispies.

Straw bales
On top of the stemwall we put a thin layer of cob, and then it was bale time. It was pretty easy to keep the bales straight and stable by tying them to the post-and-beam structure; in some places, we strengthen them with bamboo poles tied through the wall from inside to outside. At this stage we just left a big enough gap for each window or door, added a wooden lintel and kept going with the straw bales. It's important to take into account that the straw bales will settle over time, so the lintels must be able to move with them. (Our lintels could have done with being a bit stronger, too.) Later on, we would come back and hang the doors and windows from the lintels, filling in around them with slip-straw.

Plastering
The first layer of plaster we added to the bales was a clay slip—just clay soil and water mixed by hand and foot in a pit (an excellent way to make friends and get incredibly muddy), and applied to the bales by hand. 

Electricity tubes get fixed straight on to the straw bales. Then it's time for the cob plaster—layers and layers of cob plaster until the walls are weatherproof, thick and straight.

On top of the cob we applied Ecoclay, a commercial earth plaster—basically a much finer version of cob. Then came the finish layer: gypsum plaster inside the West house and an extra fine commercial clay plaster in the East house, with lime plaster on the exterior of both houses for strength and durability.

On the market
The two houses are now on the market, together with 5000m2 of land with wooded terraces and a stream. The East house is furnished as a small family home, while the West house is slightly larger, with a loft and two bathrooms, and would be ideal as a studio space for working, running courses or as a rental property. We believe this is an exceptional property for the right people, who are looking for a place to realise their dreams of a life in harmony with nature. Please take a look at our webpage (http://abrazohouse.org/for-sale/) or check out our promo video (https://youtu.be/mgMiTj5ujCA) and get in touch if you want to know more.

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