Cob Under Construction
Search Results for: cob
Cob Homes
Cob Homes
Cob House Interiors
Earthy and warm, the inside of cob homes exude an incomparable charm.
Historical Cob
Historical Cob Buildings
How To Build Your Own Cheap Outdoor Pizza Oven
Last summer, I got hooked on the idea of baking pizza and bread outdoors in a wood-fired oven. Baking outside, in a super hot oven with a brick hearth, (the way bread is really meant to be baked) was a hugely appealing thought. It became very clear to me that I wanted to build a […]
Rocket Mass Heaters: What Are they, How They Work, And Photos
Rocket Mass
Outdoor Earth Ovens: What Are They, How Do They Work, and Photos
Outdoor Earth Ovens
How To Build An Earthbag House For $6,164
In this post, guest author Jay Eisenberg details how he and his wife built their earthbag house for $6,164, completed on Oahu recently in 2017. For years I had dreamed of building my own home and not being enslaved with a mortgage. While living in New Zealand I was connected with Shaye Boddington of DIY […]
Cob Building
Cob Fireplaces
Cob Fireplaces… Cob fireplace. americanclay.com Cob fireplace in Hilde Dawe’s house, British Columbia. onelessbrickinthewall.com Cob fireplace by Charles Andre. www.fasttraxfilmcorp.ca Cob fireplace (Rumford) www.firespeaking.com Cob Fireplace. Budownictwo Naturalne. earth-heart-grupa.blogspot.com
Alternative Building Methods
When most people in the Western world think of building a new home, almost all of them imagine the same sort of construction process: Stud framing (as this most ubiquitous method is known) uses materials such as dimensional lumber (usually two- by-four and two-by-six) to form the skeleton of the house. The exterior of these
Top 10 Alternative Building Books
For those of us who use alternative building methods in construction, it can be difficult to find a mentor. Trade schools generally teach stick framing, so you will be hard-pressed to find an official school in which to learn. And if you canโt find an architect who is a natural builder to apprentice under, your
The Basics Of Cordwood Construction
In the realm of natural building, you have many different options. From rammed earth to straw bale to adobe, there is a building method suitable for almost any situation within the United States. In this article, we will be taking a look at a method that is perfect for the many forested areas of North
๐งฑ Natural Building
Modern day building utilizes man-made materials that can be harmful to the environment. Even natural materials, like wood, utilize fossil fuels in order to be milled into the final product. Everything from steel to plastic is used in modern building, and the resources needed to create those materials are not renewable. Alternatively, traditional building methods
๐จ Green Building
It seems like nowadays every time you look around thereโs another large suburb or apartment complex being built. Often times they replace large forests, greenbelts, and other natural ecosystems. Aside from that, the large construction machines emit carbon emissions for months at a time and all nearby residents have no other choice but to deal
Tiny House Designs & Styles
Tiny houses come in many shapes and sizes. Most people consider tiny houses to be anything less than 400 sq. ft., and some even describe ~500-800 sq ft homes to be tiny. They’re certainly below the average American single family home, so it’s not unreasonable to do so. When most people think of a tiny
Seven More Homes and Buildings Made from the Darndest Things
You might see “Seven More” above, and think “Where were the first ones?” That’s OK… we’re doing something a little unusual in the blogging world: creating a sequel to a post on another blog. Not quite a year ago, Brian Clark Howard at The Daily Green did a post on unusual green buildings that included
Homestead Stories: Glass Gem Corn
โOh my! That is colorful. And itโs really corn?โ I was flabbergasted. I loved growing and eating corn on the cob. Usually the standard yellow corn or the peaches-and-cream which is a combination of a deep yellow and a pale yellow. I have eaten, though never grown, white corn, loving its tiny, sweet taste. I
Can I Compost Corn?
Maximize benefits from your corn scraps, benefitting for your soil and plants. Learn how corn effectively improves compost quality, the best methods for composting corn, addressing potential issues like attracting pests and odors, and much more.
Types of Corn
With an immense number of varieties, corn is one of the most consumed grain in the United States. Don’t get lost in the cornfield as we guide you in this comprehensive read!
Earthbag Homes
Earthbag Construction, Sandbag Buildings
Shed of the Year
Shed of the Year Contest
Outdoor Brick Ovens: Types, Uses, And Photos
When it comes to building an outdoor oven, you may start feeling like one of the proverbial three little pigs when you try to decide what type is best. Will you build it out of mud? Concrete? Stone? Brick? Unlike the porcine story, however, there’s no downside to choosing any of these building materials, and
The Recycled, Post-Industrial Green Building Material: Urbanite
Urbanite is the perfect symbol for the new natural building movement, the new wave of building that incorporates natural, local, and recycled materials in place of high embodied energy, destructive, and ultimately unsustainable building practices. Urbanite is the name for reclaimed, recycled concrete from the demolition of roads, buildings, and sidewalks. It is typically broken
Growing & Harvesting Corn
Corn is one of the most ubiquitous food ingredients in the world and is unusually suited to growing in hot weather. Since much of the growing land in the U.S. gets hotter than 90 degrees Fahrenheit on summer days, corn is one of the best grain crops in America. Why do corn plants heart the
Top 10 Reasons to Live in an Electricity-Free Home (PPB #27)
When I designed my cob house here at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage two years ago, I decided that I was going to live without electricity. I had no plans to buy a solar power system or a wind turbine. I was going to make the leap to live electricity-free in my home, in order to live
Glass Bottle Walls
glass bottle buildings, glass bottle building inspiration
Homesteading Resources
Want a chance to win free homesteading gear every month? Sign up for our email list and every month (sometimes more) we send freebie emails with stuff like free books, seeds, gift certificates, and tons of other great resources for fellow gardeners & homesteaders! SIGN UP FOR CONTESTS HERE Our Most Popular Content: Earthbags Shipping
Straw Bale Greenhouses
Straw Bale Greenhouses
Cordwood Homes
Cordwood Homes and Barns
Masonry Heaters: Benefits, How They Work, And Photos
When you think of heating with fire, the first image that might leap to your mind is a crackling wood stove, the mainstay of cozy homesteading living rooms everywhere. But despite itโs current ubiquity in back-to-the-land imagery, the wood stove is a relatively recent invention, having been invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1742. If you
Insect Hotel
What Is An Insect Hotel? Insect hotels are winter lodgings for your backyard crawling and flying bugs. Usually made of found or upcycled materials around your yard, these hotels consist of different suites catered to each little bug’s preferred lodging taste. Most hotels are constructed with a strong protective frame of wood boards or pallets and
Best Dehydrator Recipes
If you’re lucky enough to have an overabundance of fruit, veggies, or meat, you also have a problem. How to preserve this bounty? Refrigeration may only keep the stuff fresh for a few days. Freezing? Maybe a few monthsโless if your power happens to go out. Dehydration is the best way to store food for
Search Insteading
Search Insteading Type your search here: Fun searches: “stoves”“cob”“upcycled”
Best Canning Recipes
Canning is a fun project that gets your hands dirty, keeps your food fresh, and gives you a last-minute gift option when the holidays roll around. The key to successful canning is starting with a recipe you can trust. We pulled these gems from our favorite homesteading and farming blogs. We also recommended the best
Writer’s Guidelines
About Our Audience: Insteading readers are active gardeners, beekeepers, chicken herders, permaculturalists, environmentalists, and many other things. Our readers range from newbies looking to plant their first raised bed, to advanced homesteaders who live in earthen homes powered by solar panels and produce most of what they eat. Our readers make sustainable and organic choices whenever
Jobs At Insteading
Contributing Editor for Gardening and Building Does beautiful topsoil make your heart flutter? Is โbuild a greenhouseโ an item on your bucket list? Would you save your tools in a fire but let your laptop burn? If this is you, envision yourself as Insteadingโs Contributing Editor for Gardening and Building. Job Duties Produce content about
Companion Planting For Sweet Corn
Companion planting can help you grow delicious sweet corn. The gardening method combines good neighbor flowers, herbs and vegetables that support the growth of each other. Good neighbor plants can provide essential nutrients to the soil, attract pollinators to the garden, provide shade, shelter or support for other plants, control weeds, andย deter and confusing predatory
17 Treats For Chickens
There is nothing quite as satisfying as a happy flock of chickens. I’ve developed a good relationship with my chickens through care, gentle handling, and the occasional treat or two. I love to watch them run toward me when I come outside.ย When they see me, they’re usually hoping for attention and a snack. Over the
Free Land: Where and How to Find It
Land, free for the taking, just waiting for someone to work hard enough to claim it as their own. Does a sentence like that send shivers of longing and hope down your spine? “But those days are gone” you may concede with a sigh. Gone along with the covered wagon, the real cowboy, and herds
How to Incorporate a Wildlife Habitat on Your Homestead
Many homesteaders are lovers of the beautiful, nonhuman, natural world and want to see this world thrive on their land. They put bird and squirrel feeders, birdbaths, and perhaps, salt licks on their property to encourage birds, squirrels, and deer (among others) to feel welcome. These are great ways to attract wildlife to your homestead.
Using Straw Bale for Construction
Straw bale construction is a relative newcomer to the world of alternative building methods. It does not have the millennia-long history of cob or adobe, but it certainly has a viable place at the table of natural building methods. Indeed, it has seen a surge in popularity in recent decades, and many people the world
Top 12 Homesteading Books
If you are like many of us modern homesteaders, you werenโt raised in this life. You probably come from the city or suburbs and worked a typical 9 to 5 job. As you soon find out, that sort of life doesnโt really prepare you well for living on a homestead. So how do you fill
Sustaining Survival Gardens
Iโm not trying to sound apocalyptic with that title. Growing food has been a way of life for centuries. Long before farmers markets and grocery stores, people grew produce. It was a part of day-to-day living. Having enough food to sustain your family or household in times of need is security. If youโre like many
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Silo Homes
Silos converted into houses.
Wooden Bathtubs
The lowdown on today’s wooden bathtubs…