natural building woo woo

ancestral architecture, minimal solar power systems and the conspiracy that exists between building departments and insurance companies

The Taos pueblo in Northern New Mexico is made of adobe block. Taos is over 1,000 years old.

Are you having mysterious health issues? Do you suspect you may be suffering from toxic home syndrome but can’t put your finger on what the specific culprit is?

Do you know what your ayurvedic dosha is? If so, do you know what type of house best suits your dosha?

What does a minimalist, stand-alone solar system entail?

What is vernacular architecture?

Should you use horse manure in your plaster?

These are a few of the topics discussed in this interview.

I’ve always wanted to do a series of interviews that take a deep dive into natural building. This is the first in that series. Thanks to Roman and Bohdanna, The Power Couple for making this happen.

This first segment begins with my involvement in passive solar rammed earth and adobe construction in the 1980’s, the early and current history of straw bale construction, how straw bale construction helped give birth to the natural building movement, the founders of that movement and how fate put me in the middle of all of that.

We also discuss the conspiracy that exists between insurance companies, electric utility companies, widget makers and building departments, and how that conspiracy has led to modern homes that - to pass government inspection and gain approval from insurance companies - now contain so many toxic elements and emit such high levels of EMF’s that they’re a death trap for many.

That tyranny has also driven the cost of a new home out of reach for many young couples today.

It doesn’t need to be this way. Prior to this tyrannical control of our lives, people had been building safe, affordable homes for themselves for thousands of years - no self serving “authorities” needed. Here where I live there are thousands of 200+ year old adobe homes still being lived in that would not pass today’s absurd building codes. A thousand miles south of my farm (in Mexico) there are hundreds of thousands of adobe homes over 400 years old that are still being lived in. Today, many modern homes less then 30 years old, built to modern building codes, are already falling apart. I know this because I’ve repaired some of them.

Like so much of modern syphilization, our housing system is corrupt and broken. We are paying the price financially and with our health.

All of this leads me to argue the case for a return to ancestral, vernacular architectural systems.

Is Billy Strings the best flat-picking guitarist of our time? Away From The Mire - a good place to be in these troubling times.

Be free.