One time art teacher and now farmer Michael Buck built this beautiful Cob house with earth, straw, cow dung and clay for less than one hundred and fifty British pounds. And he did it without using a single power tool.Using building techniques that have been proven since prehistoric times, Michael created a beautiful home using natural materials that fit in with the landscape rather than intrude upon it.
In a few years time the vegetation surrounding the structure could almost hide it completely from view. Cob houses are renowned for their thermal qualities. They keep warm in winter and cool in summer and have roofs that overhang the walls to keep the rain out.
Michael used windscreens from old farm trucks to create many of the windows, the straw with which he taught himself to thatch came from local fields and the floorboards came from a neighbour's skip.
Then Michael set about building a matching outhouse with a composting toilet.
There's no electricity and water comes from a nearby spring.
One day, if it was left, the house would disappear back into the landscape and all that you'd see would be a mound of dirt.
The little house is rented out and the current tenant pays her rent with green currency, milk from the farm she tends.
It's the simple life that's best...
a marvel
ReplyDeleteIt's a beauty. Maybe life wasn't all bad back in the old days.
ReplyDeleteImpressive!
ReplyDeleteIs he married?
ReplyDeleteI'll tell him you were asking...
DeleteSelf-sufficiency like this is what schools ought to be teaching. More people could be living in a beautiful, healthy environment that leaves a minimal eco-footprint instead of cooped up in some urban high-rise.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fascinating journey and a beautiful end result.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful work.
ReplyDeleteA spring is better than a gold mine.
Bravo! And his renter pays in milk. That's pretty close to keeping the circle whole.
ReplyDelete