I just had an article published in Odyssey Magazine this month. This is a very cool, science magazine for middle school kids that I have loved for a long time. Each issue has a theme, and April’s theme is trees. I wrote a piece about how whole tree building can […]
Several of my posts lately have been short because of family health issues. One of those issues concluded last Saturday when my father-in-law succumbed to a long, wasting disease. This man was part of my life for 33 years. He was a hard man for me to like – politically […]
Continuing family health issues, so I am taking the opportunity to recommend another really neat site I recently learned about. The Third Teachert is based on the premise that children develop through interactions, first with adults, then with peers, and ultimately with the environment around them. For children, that environment […]
In 2012 we will build a dwelling place on our land. We are working with Whole Trees Architecture and Construction on drawing up plans to design a structure built of locally grown (many grown on our own property), unmilled timbers. These won’t be the best “specimen” trees around. Instead they’ll […]
GUEST POST BY DELLA HANSMANN. Read more of her thoughts on green building and design at Dwelling Places. Does anyone else in their late twenties (or with kids that age) remember the old Sesame Street song about “Clean, clear water”? I still find myself singing “Don’t… waste… water. Water water […]
Our architect, Della Hansmann, has recently started to collect her thoughts and experience into a comprehensive blog Dwelling Places: Let’s Design the World as if People Mattered which focuses on residential, small and green design. If you are interested in any of these topics, you’ll find a lot to like […]
Last Saturday was a day I wait for all year long – The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) National Solar Tour . This great event happens every October, so put the first Saturday of October on your calendar for next year if you want to know more about what solar […]
A scene viewed in reflection on the surface of water–even very still water– can be transformed to something more beautiful than the actual trees, sky and clouds above it. I feel the same sense of wonder when I look at the world through vintage glass. This week (yey!) we built […]
Guest Post by Della Hansmann Last Friday I wrote a guest post about green building suggesting that one benefit of building bank-free would be to delete those elements from the standard kit of home parts that don’t pertain specifically to your life. I think its very important to design the […]
GUEST POST BY DELLA HANSMANN Last Tuesday, Denise posted about how she and Doug are planning to apply the Goldilocks Principal to their building time line. Rather than build their new home and move into it directly from their existing house in Madison, they are planning to sell their current […]
Digging in the Driftless 