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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
When Craig Benson started working on reusing industrial waste to rebuild infrastructure 20 years ago, he says, “I didn’t even know the word sustainable.” He just knew that there were valuable materials going into landfill from places like the paper industry and the coal-burning power plants. “Trying to find ways […]
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 […]
We did not paint our barn (see my post Don’t Paint — Gray is the New Green ) because it is sided with 1-inch slabs of white oak, which has weathered to a silvery gray and will not rot. But we do have to paint our house in town, which […]
We astonished our friends and family 7 years ago Labor Day weekend when we purchased 44 acres of Driftless Area ridge side that we had first walked only a week before. We wanted to settle on its south-facing slope and care for this bit of land Then we learned, as […]
Digging in the Driftless 