http://restlessbrainsyndrome.blogspot.com/
Friday, October 29, 2010
What's Palin Done, Anyhow?
A View From Alaska, by an Alaskan, Dewey Whetsell
http://restlessbrainsyndrome.blogspot.com/
http://restlessbrainsyndrome.blogspot.com/
Friday, October 22, 2010
Mud In Your Eye
In the past when I thought about adobe houses, the image most commonly in my mind was from a John Wayne movie. On a cowboyly mission, Wayne and his companions of the moment would bed down for the night behind some tumbledown adobe brick walls, generally without a roof, or a roof of bare poles.
Stars for a blanket. Romantic. But hardly the kind of dwelling in which one would want to live full time.
If you actually devote a minimum of intellectual attention to the issue of adobe, you will instantly realize that the movies treat adobe with about as much truth as they do space flight. Yes, there is such a thing. No, it's nothing like in the movies.
If you're not asking, by this time, what weird fascination adobe has for me, you're not awake yet. Go smell the coffee!
My fascination is with building materials and techniques that allow us to build more efficient dwellings. Dwellings that incorporate local materials and conditions into the design, allowing us to live softly with our environment rather than hard-shouldered against it.
This probably sounds strange to you, coming from a rabid political conservative. If so, perhaps you should reconsider your assumptions.
Back to adobe - I'm not convinced that it's suitable for New England, but maybe there is an analogous technique that is. For instance, we don't have much adobe-like mud, but we do have an abundance of rocks and sod. However, in the southwest, adobe has many advantages. It's local. Houses made from it have naturally high insulation and thermal mass characteristics. Cool in the summer, warm in the winter. Quiet. Natural camouflage - they don't stick out like a sore thumb from miles away. And you can build in almost any shape you desire, although some shapes have proven advantages.
Interested at all? Learn more: www.adobealliance.org
Stars for a blanket. Romantic. But hardly the kind of dwelling in which one would want to live full time.
If you actually devote a minimum of intellectual attention to the issue of adobe, you will instantly realize that the movies treat adobe with about as much truth as they do space flight. Yes, there is such a thing. No, it's nothing like in the movies.
If you're not asking, by this time, what weird fascination adobe has for me, you're not awake yet. Go smell the coffee!
My fascination is with building materials and techniques that allow us to build more efficient dwellings. Dwellings that incorporate local materials and conditions into the design, allowing us to live softly with our environment rather than hard-shouldered against it.
This probably sounds strange to you, coming from a rabid political conservative. If so, perhaps you should reconsider your assumptions.
Back to adobe - I'm not convinced that it's suitable for New England, but maybe there is an analogous technique that is. For instance, we don't have much adobe-like mud, but we do have an abundance of rocks and sod. However, in the southwest, adobe has many advantages. It's local. Houses made from it have naturally high insulation and thermal mass characteristics. Cool in the summer, warm in the winter. Quiet. Natural camouflage - they don't stick out like a sore thumb from miles away. And you can build in almost any shape you desire, although some shapes have proven advantages.
Interested at all? Learn more: www.adobealliance.org
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