Building a house and living in a house both produce large amounts of waste.  Not our house!  This will be as close to a no waste as possible and our finished house will produce no where near what a conventional home might produce. Since we are using almost all natural …

The next permaculture principle is produce no waste.  No wasting things can be anything from recycling to being efficient and not wasting time.  Much of the “waste” we produce can be used for other things with just a little creativity. One of the most obvious sources of waste is simply …

One of the more commonly seen natural homes out there is the Hobbit House.  Thank you to Being Somewhere for the photos. Natural homes, in my opinion, are the most beautiful homes you coud build.  When our house is done, it will be beautiful just because it is a natural …

The fifth permaculture principle is use and value renewable resources and services.  I know what you’re thinking, solar power! but it is so much more than that. We always try to make the most of our renewable reources here on the homestead for a few reasons.  Anything we can gather …

Our dream home is a fairly complex natural home with lots of fun additions like an attached green house and an amazing masonry stove as the centerpiece of the home.  This house will take a lot of skills to build.  A lot of skills that we do not currently have.  …

The fourth principle of permaculture is to apply self regulation and accept feedback.  Self regulation is about mimicing the systems of nature to form your own living systems.  Natural systems take what they need to grow and reproduce and not more.  These systems can adapt to change, which is accepting …

While the landscape is not quite part of the house, there are many features outside, around the house that will improve our day to day life and the house itself.  From the outdoor kitchen and kitchen garden to the garden pond, all the elements including make a more functional home. …

The most obvious example of “obtain a yield” is to grow food.  You do work planting, growing, maintaining, and harvesting a garden to get a yeild.  Amazing food that you can eat and then store the excess to eat through the winter.  Simple, right? We can make it a little …

Being energy efficient is a must for us here on the homestead.  We don’t have the time to waste energy.  This is going to be very important to keep in mind when we build our cordwood house this spring. The most important energy in our home build is heat.  We …

The second permacuture principle is catch and store energy.  When you think of “catch and store energy,” solar power tends to be the first thing that comes to mind.  This is a great start, but energy that can be caught and stored can be so much more than just solar. …