Blast from the Past: Maybe Underground House?

The rain gauge showed 1.8" of rain when I got up, and another half inch before night fell. "Sopping" would be an apt word to describe our homestead.

We welcome the water and the mud. With no rain since August 26, we were ready.

I was curious how baby Beatrice would handle the wet. She lay next to her mama and slept. Newborn calves sleep a lot, just like baby humans.

I felt Bethany's teats before darkness fell, and they felt full and smooth to the touch, rather than wrinkly. Maybe tomorrow we'll have a new calf.

I called to order minerals for the orchard today. I am so happy to not have to do that for the first time, as I did last year: I knew to ask for a custom blend, I knew that ammonium sulfate is not the same as 11-52-0. I knew not to allow a full 3000 pound tote, since the skidsteer cannot unload it easily!

We were reading the latest Mother Earth News and they had a rather uninspiring article about underground houses. And we both asked why we weren't still thinking about an underground house. That had been our original idea, back at Christmas in 2007, when we were enthralled by the $50 and Up Underground House Book. A $50 house appealed to the cheap part of me, and though I don't think I actually want a dirt floor covered by carpet (think of the bugs! Think of the dirt!), an adobe floor with radiant heating might not be that bad.

After having just settled last week on building a concrete block basement down slope, with intention to build up at some point in the future as funds permit, now we're equally firm in the decision to build an underground house near our current construction trailer "dwelling."

Which is to say, we still have no idea what we're doing, but at least we're talking seriously about what we should do.