ECO-Construction

Moving to the jungle is a very educational experience when it comes to building. We have many ideas of what "Green Building" means and we practice new ideas daily.

We spent the first couple of months here finishing the half completed home that was here. We are learning the language, the nearby town, the stores, the money exchange and the communication with our crew.

This wet season was the beginning of our first eco-home. We did not have the cob building knowledge we needed to start practicing yet. So we decided to go with local and recycled material mostly.

Starting with what was the pig barn was a challenge. The smell was enough to send most packing. We spent months burning our garbage in the old structure to help the sanitizing process. Our first instinct was to burn the whole thing but the permaculture attitude won the day and we salvaged all of the old roofing and wood we could.

We found that our neighbors had "junk" wood cuts just rotting in their fields. Sam spoke with them and started picking up all he could. The Green Building book inspired Sam to move forward with the Cord Wood design. We use a mixture of cement, saw dust, sand and small rocks from the farm in the mortar between scrap firewood, lumber and even river rocks.

We have been adding tons of bamboo to our techniques. It is beautiful and fun to work with. Our neighbors have large tufts and let us cut what we want from them. We have planted our own recently and it is all coming along wonderfully.

Please click on the picture to dive into the projects page.