Home Bases

December 21, 2005

First day of winter

Joel Akin

So you want to own a home of your own and have decided you would especially love an alternative house with everything. Welcome to the club. Since I began Earth House in 1998 I was searching mainly for an answer to an imponderable question; 'How do I prepare for the end of the world as we know it.' Now that may sound like a grandiose question and difficult to answer and for me it was. There were many people out there with ideas but the more I searched the more I realized no one had all the right answers. Not even the people at Biosphere 2 could keep the project self contained. I wondered why over the years and I have come to a conclusion that mankind is not meant to receive 100% of his food, produce, supplies and more from his immediate area. Why? Because eventually something is going to happen called a problem which is unfixable. History speaks of it. So we have a dilemma called a group of people moving from their location to another like a band of locusts searching for food, shelter, and hunger is the mean issue that says "out of my way stranger."

We speak of the question of waste and waste is one of the keys to survival. It may sound strange coming from someone like me who promotes economical use of food and water but I realize that we have to be able to produce more then we can consume. This excess produce is a blessing and not a curse. It is like God saying that our baskets are overflowing. How much better to see this to to see that our baskets are half full and we go hungry or run short of needs half way through the year. When there is a shortage we know that there is something happening that is wrong. Someone is holding back the blessings if we have done all we can do. When that stage is reached with enough people they tend to look at their neighbors with desire. But if the neighbor is also struggling then we look at more distant neighbors. This is the question of need and desire quenched. It is not always right but history does point this out at one of the reasons mankind went to war was over the resources and how they should be used.

We are living in an age that overproduces yet at the same time we lack in our understanding of what to do with the excess. As someone, like myself, who struggles with the financial aspect, I realize that my shortage prevents me from partaking in any of the normal excesses of the world. Now in some ways you might say this is a blessing. What is the purpose of being on the sidelines and being at the bottom end of the scale financially wise? The answer is the ones at the bottom are treated as the foundation for the province or country that is served. If the disabled, elderly and weak become the foundation of the country without the iron will of the top then the collapse of that government is inevitable. It will come and there is nothing that can stop it.

So why do I mention this? Because we are all going to grow old and eventually we are all destined to die. That destiny is chosen and appointed for us but there is a legacy that we can leave behind. One we can call helping humanity. Most of us are introverted and see ourselves as the center of the world. This self centric thinking is okay while we are young but as we grow old its important for us to begin to see beyond the shades and shadows of our own personal interests. We don't abandon them we just set them aside so that we can help our self grow stronger and filled with wisdom. Take the idea of Earth House. I set it as a goal that I believed could be reached.

To make a home that was self sufficient, integrated, had the ability to produce a percentage of its own food and so on. In other words a home that made a difference in the community and not one that sucked up electricity, became a castle that could be destroyed at any time by fire, thief or storm. There had to be someone out there who was working on this concept. There were a few but again the integration of the home was lacking. There had to be a way to bring in new ideas so we could take housing to the next level for humanity. A level so powerful and so neat that for the first time in history we could say this house helped produce instead of detract from the landscape. I've complained before about the methods used by designers now. Row after endless row of beige, greenish, oranges' colors with houses guaranteed to fall apart in 20-30 years and if the builders were extra nice 40-60 years. But when you start speaking of houses destined to last for centuries why do people get spooked? What is wrong with handing a house down to your children and their children's children? Why is is so difficult for us to understand that if we use wisdom and understanding we can grow a house from the ground up using the earth under our feet in many cases.

But not just this but a change in lighting. A fiber web of lighting integrating the entire house so your own switch is a dial you turn and where you only have one main bulb in the basement. That's it. Just one light and never worry about turning the lights out in the kitchen or dining room. Is it possible? You bet but it will take time and experimentation to perfect.

Heating and cooling-The entire house can be geothermically heated and cooled. Thick walls are build able in hot, cool and cold climates and can keep the house at the perfect thermal incline year around. Why worry about heating when you can provide a method of recycling that newspaper so it can be turned into wood pellets for the wood pellet stove. The same for cardboard's. And the plastics? Mix them with wood cellulose to make boards and lumber.

How about the flooring? Try bamboo. One of the fasted growing woody grasses in the world. Hardy, strong like steel, long lasting. Mix it with cement and it compares to Ferro concrete which lasts centuries.

I don't claim to have all the answers yet. Ha. I just know I'm on the right path. For the first time we have a chance to rethink the way we make houses from the ground up. And in the process of rebuilding the home we live in we can mix in the very best of nature and the best that man can produce. And produce is the key for where we have a home we can call our castle that is safe from predators and is built to last centuries we can focus on safer things like taking care of our family and seeing the kids off to school.

Is there such a thing as a perfect home? I believe it is a process of growth. The integrated house is a way of seeing the future of homes outside the box. It is a way of processing new information and technology and integrating the very best into that new home without losing the integrity of it. We want homes that last and survive the majority of natures storms. We want homes that will be a provision for us and give us that little extra which will help us be producers. Its possible and if we are willing to get off our high government horses and straddle new ideas we might just get somewhere. But sticking to a stone horse will leave you saddle sore and clinging to things we just don't move.

So what is it? What do you want for the future of this country. A world where every house begins the road to self sufficiency yet gives us the ability to enjoy that little bit of excess we never had much of. Take a choice and make a stand and help me put together this idea. I know I'm on the right path and I've spent 8 years searching for ways to integrate concepts into the new house and longer then that dealing with alternative energy and dreams of a kid rocketing off to the moon.

Write if you care and write if you can make a change.

yours truly

Joel Akin

Earth House

webmaster@earth-house.com