Even if you lose your house, you can make another one!

As long as you have some land, you should be able to make your own house. People have done this for years. It is work, but everything you need is right under your feet. Clay or adobe makes wonderful houses!


Adobe making
www.youtube.com...



Plaster for walls
Natural Building How-To: Making Earthen Plaster (PART 1)

Straw bales can be used for structure of walls. You could also just use your own adobe bricks. You could use sod cut from the ground. If you have a lot of flat rocks you could make a rock home.
www.youtube.com...

I really like this straw bale dome. Sand bags could also be used as a support for the walls, with clay added inside and out.
www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...


There is no reason for anyone to be homeless. There are ways to make a house out of materials you find all around.

Right now you need "permission" to build, and there are codes and such. If SHTF, I don't suppose it will matter. People will need to build homes, and will build anyway. If they run you off the land or out of your home, you could just squat some other place, I suppose.

You are only out the work you put into the home, because it is just clay. So even if you lose it, you only lose what you have put into building it.

I like the sandbag domes the best. It seems like they'd hold up better and a dome shape is more structurally sound. I guess it could collapse, and if you are trapped inside, that would not be good.
Probably if I had to make anything, I'd try a dome shape.
It seems like the walls are just something like long trash bags or plastic bags filled with sand, then everything is covered with mud plaster. It seems the easiest to make. If SHTF, you could probably plastic bags, since we make a lot of those and throw a lot of those away.

Or I guess you could just get clay and make long tubes or snakes out of it, like you would do for making a vase. Sort of like you do in art class, but on a larger scale.

If a wasp can make a home for their larvae out or clay, we can do it too!

reply to post by jessieg

Right now you need "permission" to build, and there are codes and such.

Do you ever find it odd that if someone "owns" land they have to follow codes? They can't just build any structure they want on their "property." They need permission to use something that is (sic)theirs?

Almost makes it seem like we don't actually own anything.

Maybe we don't?

Excellent thread though, living in a mud hut would be fun, but a tree house would be way cooler.

reply to post by dalan.

Almost makes it seem like we don't actually own anything.

It's not our land, it's theirs. Don't believe me, quit paying taxes (rent) on your property and see who gets it.

Originally posted by jam321
reply to post by dalan.

 

Almost makes it seem like we don't actually own anything.

It's not our land, it's theirs. Don't believe me, quit paying taxes (rent) on your property and see who gets it.

100% correct. I own my home, all paid for, but if I don't pay the king property taxes, then the thing I OWN becomes THEIRS after defaulting for a while. People don't really think about that stuff when it's all lumped up in their mortgage payments, but when you have no mortgage, it's very clear what is going on.... "nice house, pay us taxes or else we take it."

Yes, I want a tree house. I saw a post about this. People in India, who have to travel through the jungle, over the years they have trained tree roots to grow into living bridges.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

If they can do it, we can do it too.

I figure you need something like wisteria. Wisteria is a vine though, not a root. But it grows very fast in my area. Basically, one it starts growing it is hard to kill it. It doesn't need any help to grow, and likes to grow up into trees anyway. If someone helped it along, by stringing rope from tree to tree, it would grow along the rope. Over time some old vines may die, but they don't go anywhere. They just provide support for new vines. I have seen wisteria take over trees before. Sometimes they can kill a tree, but that is only if the tree can not get light. I don't think the vine steals much from the tree, because it needs the tree for support, at least until the vine kind of grows it's own trunk. You can train this vine into a tree by allowing the vines to grow thick and twist into a sort of trunk for it.

Anyway, I don't see why someone couldn't plant a lot of tall trees, and using rope or chicken wire, create a structure for the vines to grow across. Over time I think you could basically make your own tree village like this.
And I would plant kudzu and honey suckle and fox gloves around too, just to entertwine and give it some camouflage. I imagine the smell of the honeysuckle, wisteria, and fox gloves as well as maybe some jasmine or something, would smell very nice and look nice when it is all in bloom too!

It would take longer to make a tree village. And I don't know if a person could actually live in one. I don't know how well it would hold up during a rain or wind storm. Mostly it would be used for camouflage and aerial scouting of the area. A good idea, especially if you are trained in archery or are a sharpshooter.
It would probably work better to have some domes on the ground to live in, with trees to retreat into and hide during an attack.

Sometimes I dream the grid had gone down and people must revert back to living more in touch with nature. I think it will be devestating, but also I have hope that people are smart enough to have a sort of tribal lifestyle, farming, bartering and living closely together. Sometimes I actually yearn for this, because technology has not brought us closer together. We can call or text anyone and talk about nothing at all. But to really depend on and love each other, we don't know how to do that.

Originally posted by jam321
reply to post by dalan.

 

Almost makes it seem like we don't actually own anything.

It's not our land, it's theirs. Don't believe me, quit paying taxes (rent) on your property and see who gets it.

Very well put. I was mostly being facetious out of pure frustration.

Originally posted by JibbyJedi

Originally posted by jam321
reply to post by dalan.

 

Almost makes it seem like we don't actually own anything.

It's not our land, it's theirs. Don't believe me, quit paying taxes (rent) on your property and see who gets it.

100% correct. I own my home, all paid for, but if I don't pay the king property taxes, then the thing I OWN becomes THEIRS after defaulting for a while. People don't really think about that stuff when it's all lumped up in their mortgage payments, but when you have no mortgage, it's very clear what is going on.... "nice house, pay us taxes or else we take it."

I would definitely look into trying to get the allodial title for your land.

reply to post by jessieg


How do you own land? You have to have like a 700 credit score to do anything anymore. There are so many policies and stupid rules that make it immpossible to even do something this simple.
I am tired, complacetent and starting to get worn down. Maybe this the end result of our over burdened society.(sigh).

Is clay a mineral? I know there is something about mineral rights if you want to drill for oil or pan for gold or something. If you don't own the mineral rights to your land, then you don't own the gold or oil on it. I don't know how that is supposed to be legal, but somehow you can own land without owning the minerals on it.
So I don't know if it would be legal to get the clay out. I know sometimes people get gravel out of their land to sale, or sale the trees off their land.

I don't own land so there is a lot I don't know about the codes and "ethics" of it all. But I figure if the shtf I won't really be caring about doing things exactly by the book. I figure the lawyers and others that would normally be out to put a stop to this will have worries of their own.

Originally posted by dalan.
reply to post by jessieg

 

Right now you need "permission" to build, and there are codes and such.

Do you ever find it odd that if someone "owns" land they have to follow codes? They can't just build any structure they want on their "property." They need permission to use something that is (sic)theirs?

Almost makes it seem like we don't actually own anything.

argh I can't tell you how much I hate this. if you buy a car you can turn it into a pink pony with skulls all over it and it'd be okay. But god forbid you actually build something useful on your -own- property!

And what erks me even more is there are so many land owners with thousands of acres that aren't being used. I say, if you're aren't using it, then it's not yours.

Originally posted by jessieg

Sometimes I dream the grid had gone down and people must revert back to living more in touch with nature. I think it will be devestating, but also I have hope that people are smart enough to have a sort of tribal lifestyle, farming, bartering and living closely together. Sometimes I actually yearn for this, because technology has not brought us closer together. We can call or text anyone and talk about nothing at all. But to really depend on and love each other, we don't know how to do that.

Wow great point, I yearn for this type of scenario too. I don't feel like were really living, just existing.

Originally posted by freedish

Originally posted by dalan.
reply to post by jessieg

 

Right now you need "permission" to build, and there are codes and such.

Do you ever find it odd that if someone "owns" land they have to follow codes? They can't just build any structure they want on their "property." They need permission to use something that is (sic)theirs?

Almost makes it seem like we don't actually own anything.

argh I can't tell you how much I hate this. if you buy a car you can turn it into a pink pony with skulls all over it and it'd be okay. But god forbid you actually build something useful on your -own- property!

And what erks me even more is there are so many land owners with thousands of acres that aren't being used. I say, if you're aren't using it, then it's not yours.

As far as cars go, you're only partially right. In order to be able to use your car on the road you have to pay yearly registration and insurance. You can't even leave it parked on the street without a valid sticker or they will tow it away. There are also regulations as to what modifications you can make to your car. It has to be smog legal. Even if it passes smog, it still has to pass a visual inspection as well. The car may be paid off, but you still continue to pay the State to be able to use it for the rest of it's functioning life. Hell, even if you don't plan to use it and just park it in the garage for five years, you still have to continue to pay registration, though it's somewhat less than you'd usually pay. If you don't pay, the penalties keep growing every month you don't pay.