About our homestead

In 2001 we bought 20 acres of land, about a 30 minute drive west of Ashland and Medford, in Southern Oregon. That summer we set up a yurt with an earthen floor and some cob internal walls and lived there with the help of some solar panels and a bucket toilet.

After a year, in the Spring of 2002, we started building a small, code approved strawbale, cob and stud frame hybrid house, a story-and-a-half high with a total footprint of about 650 square feet. It has an earthen floor, internal cob walls, a bucket toilet and is completely off the grid. Most of the interior is earthen plaster.

We proceeded the following year to sell the yurt and build a beautiful cob cottage, completely in the spirit of the “emerging Oregon cob” style, with a curved ridge beam, a pole framed ceiling, a cool box in the wall and a living roof. It has been continually occupied since it was built and has out-performed our expectations.

We now also have a smaller version of the above cottage, merely functioning as a (guest) sleeping space, as well as, a natural building hybrid cabin, a load bearing straw bale cabin and a load-bearing strawbale sauna. We also have several cob garden walls with gorgeous mosaics and a cob green house.

We are concerned about the use of energy in the context of our care for the earth and the limited availability of fossil fuels. Our water is pumped from a well with a solar panel and all our electricity comes from solar panels as well. We only have wood heat and use very little of it, due to the efficiency of our buildings. We use several different kinds of composting toilets and have solar hot water.

As part of our continued effort to come up with better ways to live, we are looking forward to new and exciting ways to improve our houses and energy flows. The 2007 workshops will be part of creating buildings that hopefully will approximate 0-energy homes: No heating or cooling would be necessary year round! We also have plans for a natural swimming pool and are looking into ways to reduce our dependency on propane (for cooking and hot water in the winter) to a minimum.

Last, but not least, we are in the early stages of the development of a permaculture garden, which includes fruit trees, chickens and green houses. We hope to soon be able to harvest all of our fruits, greens/vegetables and eggs from our land.

We live on our land with our two kids, Julian and Rosie (10 and 7 years old). Our load bearing strawbale cabin functions at the moment as a part-time homeschooling center for our children as well as some of the children living nearby. We love our house and cannot imagine ever choosing a place that was not as simple, healthy and beautiful as our place.

We invite people to come and visit us, look around and enjoy seeing the unfolding of our rural sustainable experiment. Please give us a call for directions. (541)899-3751.