Light straw clay

So this is something I haven't posted about in a while, but it's a big passion of mine. This building in the video below was built using light straw clay which is an awesome sustainable building method that I've used in the past (in fact I lead a mini-workshop of sorts in New Zealand) and Paul and Antonia who hosted it built a beautiful house down in Whangarei.

I learned this building technique during the 2 month Natural building apprenticeship I did at Emerald Earth. You can see pictures from my time at EE here on Flickr.

So here's the video:

Back from Emerald Earth

Ready to help
Originally uploaded by Mark Juliana.

I'm back from Emerald Earth. I had hoped to post some pictures sooner but things didn't work out that way. The internet access from Emerald Earth was a precious resource and taking it for hours in the evening to post pictures just wasn't possible.

I've included lots of photos of the projects and work we did at EE. Feel free to post comments and ask questions.

T plus 1 week

So I've been unemployed now for 1 week. During that week I've learned to cut round pole logs for use in a timberframed structure, pour the 1st and 3rd layers of an adobe floor, and how many dishes 20 people can dirty at 1 meal (and it's a lot!).

The first week of my nautural building apprenticeship is over and we're all resting up for an intense week of building next week.

It's quite a different experience from the high-tech life at Netflix that I left behind. More to follow (with pictures I hope).