HOW TO BUILD YOUR OWN SOLAR - HEATED HOUSE FOR PENNIES

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Well, somewhere along the way, a copy of How to Build Your Own Home of Earth fell into the hands of a fellow by the name of S.R. House. And, right off, S.R. could see the logic of building a home of earth: do-it-yourself construction that any average Joe and his family could handle on an evening-and-weekend basis. No mortgages. No termites. No worry about fires. No need to insulate the basic building with "add on" weatherproofing. Etc., etc., etc.

As a matter of fact, S.R. liked the idea of do-it-yourself earthen houses so well, that-by 1948-he had founded something in Indianapolis called Mammoth Cave Homes, Inc., which used as its motto, "Earth Homes Built on Top of the Ground".

Nor did Ole S.R. stop there. No sirry. Within a few years he had figured out that an earthen house-with its big, thick walls that both insulated and regulated its inside temperature was an ideal candidate for solar heat. (Sorry, Steve Baer S.R. was 20 years ahead of you!)

S.R. also took that solar heating idea one step further and incorporated enough of a greenhouse right into his dirt based dwelling to make the residence food self-sufficient (or dang near to it). And, from there, it was only a short step to worm pits for the recycling of the building's plant and animal wastes into fertilizer for the live-in garden. (Are you listening, Jim DeKorne?)

Yeah. S.R. House went on even further. On to whole cooperative communities of his self-contained dwellings (he was ahead of MOTHER'S Eco-Village too, you see) and Lord knows what all. The schematic that accompanies this article gives some idea of his all-encompassing ideas for living on/from/ with the land/soil/earth that supplies us with everything we really need.

Anyway, to make a long story short, a Mrs. W. Casey of Granby, Missouri brought all this to our attention a few months back when she sent MOTHER a small packet of S.R.'s printed material. And we did our darndest to track Ole S.R. down but his trail peters out around 1957 and we can't find anything about/by/from him after that date.

So, as matters now stand, we extend a Great Big Thank You to Mrs. Casey for her kindness. And our admiration to S.R. House for predating the current generation's eco technology work by at least 2(? years. And we do kinda wonder S.R., where are you now?

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print