The Owner Built Home & Homestead

Beginning, of a heavy series by Ken Kern, author of the Owner-built Home and Homestead. A collection of information on low-cost, simple and natural construction materials and techniques in home-building.

September/October 1970
 
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KEN KERN

Ken Kern, author of THE OWNER-BUILT HOME and THE OWNER-BUILT HOMESTEAD, is an amazing fellow and everyone interested in decentralist, back-to-the-land, rational living should know of his work. Back in 1948 he began collecting information on low-cost, simple and natural construction materials and techniques. He combed the world for ideas, tried them and started writing about his experiments.

Eventually, Mildred Loomis started publishing Kern's articles in THE INTERPRETER, WAY OUT and GREEN REVOLUTION. Ken has also issued a three year series of pieces (called TECHNIC) on his own and a greenhouse-sun pit design of his has been featured in ORGANIC GARDENING.

I'm not going to waste time telling you how great Ken's ideas, experience, artwork and writing are: I'll let you have the delight of discovering that for yourself. I will apologize, however, for running the last two chapters and epilog of OWNER-BUILT HOME and the introduction to OWNER-BUILT HOMESTEAD this first time around. We had to do it that way to fit our magazine into Ken's schedule. It's worth it!

- MOTHER

RELATED CONTENT

STONE
MASONRY

Next to plain dirt, stone (or rock) is the least exploited of all materials for building construction. And like earth—which has been used for centuries in building walls, floors and roofs—rock is most readily available at little or no money cost. It can be gathered (usually free for the hauling) from any streambed, from abandoned mines and quarries, or from open fields and embankment cuts. There is hardly a region in the country that doesn't contain a substantial resource of building stone.

Maps and aerial photographs of one's region are generally available, and can be employed to advantage in locating building stone. Agricultural soil maps are revealing and thorough. Geologic maps indicate existing pit and quarry sites as well as the type and structure of the rock. U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey maps cover nearly every section of the country. They are especially helpful in locating abandoned ore mines. Tailings from mines are among the best sources of building stone. From aerial photos one can locate such rock-laden features as excavations, outcroppings, cliffs abandoned railroad and road cuts and natural streambeds.

With such widespread availability, one asks, why is building stone so rarely exploited by homebuilders? Because building with stone is similar to building with earth: There is a large "time" and "labor" factor involved in gathering and placing the material into a wall. But the average Owner-Builder's time and labor resource customarily outweighs his capital resource, so this cannot always be considered a serious handicap.

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