Curt's Ponderings From The Bioshelter

The Situation We tried to get away from it all last week, taking a few days vacation when our son and daughter-in-law visited from out of state.   In about the second day of their visit we were enjoying a lively conversation about friends and family.   As the conversation began to wind down, I turned the conversation to an idea about solving a construction problem.   My son and daughter-in-law laughed.   “And once again, back we go to talking about the greenhouse,” they said. The greenhouse project at the bioshelter has been much more all-consuming than either Cindee or I had expected…and others are noticing. In fact, it is not just our friends and relatives, who are affected.   The whole bioshelter project has been affected.   We try to employ the principles of permaculture in our daily life, and one of those principles is to catch and store energy.   Putting so much time and effort in the greenhouse has stood in the way of our ability to do many of our normal, energy gatheri

  The Situation It has now been a month since Lasse Holmes arrived to teach a class on Building with Clay-Straw at The Alaskan Ecoescape Permaculture Center , which is also our bioshelter home.   The first hour was truly an uncomfortable experience. Lasse arrived, entered the construction site, looked at what had been built so far, and sat there for the longest time.   He looked at the terraces we had excavated, the house posts we dug into the ground, the trenches we had dug for the rubble foundation, the double-wall framing we had put up to hold the clay-straw and, finally, the roof.   Cindee and I sat with him and wondered what he was seeing.   At first, Lasse was very silent, and Cindee and I began to grow a bit uncomfortable.   Then the silence drew on even longer, and our discomfort grew.   In my experience it is not a common thing for someone to come to your home and sit in silence—at least not for so long. Finally, Lasse began to ask questions.   Is the header