Kelly and I currently live in a very small house and we have discovered that there are many advantages. Of course, it cost less to buy, and it uses less in the way of utilities. To our surprise, after decades of having separate offices, we are enjoying working in different parts of the same room, separated by a huge bookcase so we aren’t breathing down each other’s necks but we can quickly discuss something. (I’m the software geek, he’s the natural building expert).

Our friend Owen Geiger has been designing small houses, Kelly has recently been putting some of the plans up on his ecological house plans website, and Owen’s plans have already begun to sell. Links are at the end of this article. Read the rest >>>

Earthbag building is a new member of the family of green building techniques. We built our house in Colorado that way when it was a little-known method, and now it’s very satisfying to see the method spreading all over the world. Sometimes people say that earthbag construction is where strawbale building was a couple of decades ago.

So how do people learn to do this unusual method?

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Where can you go around the web to find good information on simple green living? One of my projects here on this site is to review other websites, and over time I intend to have quite a list.

Now that green is finally fashionable, there are a lot of websites trying to take advantage of the latest trend. You won’t find those listed here. I am looking for websites on simple living and/or green living that provide useful information. Fine with me if they sell products too – hey, I link to Amazon every time I mention a good book! – but to be listed here, the sites have to be ones worth surfing to in their own right.

I’ll start today with a couple of the sites of my husband, Kelly Hart.

[1] Greenhomebuilding.com Read the rest >>>

My husband Kelly and our close friend Peter Rice, with some help from me, built an earthbag home in Crestone, Colorado. We used thousands of bags meant to hold rice but they had been misprinted and we got them as seconds. Into them we put scoria — small volcanic rocks commonly used on lawns in dry climates. They are great insulation. We plastered the house, inside and out, with papercrete, Read the rest >>>