by Suzann Thompson | Dec 8, 2013 | Earthen House, Life, Retro Blog Post
The southern wall is the longest earthen wall in our house, so my friend Rachel and I were happy to lay its last brick in September 2012. My brother Van and our cousin Jerry came as quickly as they could, to begin work on the bond beam. They set up frame boards and...
by Suzann Thompson | Oct 24, 2013 | Earthen House, Life, Retro Blog Post
After Charles and the kids built the arched window for our well-house, they pulled the wooden arch form out of the opening. We had ourselves a window! Here they are, posing in a totally (or should I say “toats?”) teenager fashion for the photo. So with...
by Suzann Thompson | Oct 23, 2013 | Earthen House, Life, Retro Blog Post
Building a house can play games with your mind. It’s about space and defining space. It’s about seeing the trees over the wall one week, and barely seeing the tops of the trees over the much taller wall a couple of weeks later. I like the game of opening...
by Suzann Thompson | Oct 22, 2013 | Earthen House, Life, Retro Blog Post
In Summer 2012, my daughter Eva and her friends Beth and Tim worked with me to build walls for our Compressed Earth Block house. We finished the wall with four windows in it: two windows for each daughter’s bedroom. Then we moved on to the kitchen wall, which we...
by Suzann Thompson | Aug 11, 2011 | Earthen House, Retro Blog Post
These are lentils. Make the recipe at the end of this post, but only if you approve of eating pork. You can buy these lentils, inexpensively, at the grocery store. Unfortunately, they won’t hold up a wall over windows and doors. For that, you need lintels. Our...
