Natural Building (96)

Pairoducks Meets SunRay Kelley

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…SunRay returned my online inquiry with a brief email and a phone number, so after a short chat we made plans for a visit. When I arrived he gave a brief introduction and skeptical inquiry of my east coast upbringing, then informed me he had to do a dump run and pick up firewood. I tied down piles of garbage to the rack of his Toyota and off we went, only to return with an equally disproportionate load of firewood, Fir and Madrone. We walked around the homestead and delivered tractor bucket-loads of wood to hungry wood stoves and fireplaces. It’s constant work to keep the buildings warm during the downpours and gusty blows of Northwest winters. The guy burns a lot of wood…

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Earth Dome by SunRay Kelley and Sierra Sander-Hewitt

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From August to October of 2015, I worked with a team of five people to build a 200 sq. ft. off-the-grid earth dome in the forest of Northwest Washington. The structure was designed by SunRay Kelley and built for our client Ranger. The building of the dome was filmed by Sharp Entertainment and the episode, Building off the Grid: Mudmen aired on DIY Network on January 19, 2016…

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Cob House in Northern Spain

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Dear Lloyd & Co,

I’ve been an admirer of your work since I came across the first Shelter book years and years ago. I wanted to send you a link to a self-published book that we’ve just brought out about our natural building & ecological learning project here in Northern Spain.

Our cob cabin was already featured on Lloyd’s Blog

The book’s available here: www.abrazohouse.org/… It’s in English and Spanish, free to view online or download. If you like it, share it or give it a mention on the blog!
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Stone Cottage Overlooking Sea on Scottish Island

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Everything here is perfect. It’s one of the buildings where I just say to myself, oh yeah! The rounded, angled-out corners, the proportions, the deep wall openings, the red roof.

According to an historical account which I read, some 14 farm families were forced to leave their land by landlords in the mid-1800s, and resettled on a more remote and less fertile part of the island. This is one of the dwellings; in its day, it would have had a thatched roof.

And with this I conclude posts from Scotland. I’m back in the saddle at home and back at work on Small Homes.
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Black-and-White Photos of '60s Back-to-Land Communes in New Mexico

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No one captured the spirit and essence of the ’60s southwest American communes better than Irwin Klein. With a Leica, black and white film, and natural lighting, he created an authentic and artistic record of this unique and short-lived period of back-to-the-land ’60s idealism.

Poet Gary Snyder, in Earth House Hold, described the ’60s communards: “Men, women and children — all of whom together hoped to follow the timeless path of love and wisdom, in affectionate company with sky, wind, clouds, trees, waters, animals, and grasses — this is the drive.”

In this newly-published book, you can see the optimism, the earnestness, and yes, the impracticalities of these young, mostly urban people who left the cities for the harsh climate of the high desert of New Mexico. Irwin was a photographer who was obviously in tune with his subjects, and they with him, so you are getting an inside look at a period now lost in time, with these spare and insightful photos.

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