A Book On A Shelf

There was a book on the shelf today in the newest dry toilet of the Northern Lights project which read 'Je fai tout moi-meme' - I do everything myself. I like it and it really summarises my life goals, not that I want to do it all, but I would like to have capacity to do the things I need for myself, my family and the community. Today I fixed a hole in my top, cut someone's hair and hand washed clothes in a bucket whilst having wonderfully diverse conversations, when I think of the building that's ahead I'm reminded of all I have created @forestlings and I feel proud. Capable and comfortable with the skills I have gained, also motivated to continue gathering and harvesting new skills to make life truly self sustainable.

This morning we covered the theory of building and met one of our facilitators for the course. We saw examples of different size structure built with wood and straw bales, discussing the benefits of natural building techniques and building on the ground and mounting sections of the house, the hinges walls particularly stuck in my mind. We began preparations for building a straw bale house, reviewing the plans, the decisions for materials, the importance of community when building with cob, green roofing, greenhouse connecting to the building, using bottles in the design. 

There is an availability that cob brings to the building process as families can build together creating homes that last and can easily be maintained by any age member of the family. These qualities are being lost in the current grey method of building but our ancestors had a deep knowledge of these techniques and we can return! Retaining the knowledge for ourselves and our communities after us  
The afternoon we got our hands into practice and all over the farm machines have been moving trunks and digging trenches. Teams of men and women taking off old roofing, moving materials, scraping wood, cutting tyres and mapping out the building plot. Kids have been building their own mini houses of cob and the farm is fully alive at the height of summer   

Going grey to green  

Let's grow together