In natural building there are several things to consider when preparing for a new structure. The most important is the location of the building. In an ideal world, you would find a site that is south facing, with an amazing view, close to tall deciduous trees for shade in the summer but allow plenty of light in the winter, when they lose their leaves. The site would have access to water, electricity, and plenty of raw material like clay, rock, trees, and sand if your lucky.
Since we don’t live in an ideal world, its alway good to be willing to compromise. In our case, we were lucky enough to have a south facing site. There are deciduous trees on the site, but none near the actual building site to provide any shade during the hottest times of the day. We were lucky enough, to have water and electrical access, not too far away. The main water line was about 100 yards away, and the electrical was brought in several years ago, when the site hosted a mobile home, a TP, and a trailer. Since then the trailer, TP, and mobile home have been removed.
The land has plenty of raw material, like clay, rocks, and trees. There was also sand left over from another project that we are able to use. The clay actually has a good amount of sand in it, so we don’t have to use very much sand. We did have to purchase straw, since we don’t yet grow it on the land.
The first thing we did, was locate the actual site for the main building that will be constructed in the future. Once we all agreed on that site, we looked for the site for this year’s building project. We were lucky enough to have a relatively flat spot in direct connection to the driveway for next year’s building project. After several meetings, with all the people that would use the structure, we finally decided on a site. Then we got together and blessed it.
Now that the site was located for this year’s project, we needed to prepare the site for building. Stay tuned for this……..
Natural Living School 