Tiny house

[Jhanon]

To me the pit house represents the ultimate in Tiny Houses, and thus the perfect home for the mendicant.  As an archaeologist I have studied them extensively.  They are essentially an Igloo that is made of mud.

The basic design is a hemisphere made of twigs and limbs, basket-like.  It is then covered in mud.  Most often it is semi-subterranean, which is where the dirt comes from to make the mud.

pit houses can be small enough to accommodate one person, or large enough to accommodate an entire family group.  They are easy to make, and can be made in a day.

When I found myself camping along the Rio Grande near Alamosa, CO, I seriously considered building a pithouse along the Rio Grande to winter in, because they have excellent insulation; and the basic design includes a central fire pit, which vents out of a hole in the ceiling, which makes the pithouse more like living inside of a harth.

A pit-house (pithouse) is "a dwelling partially dug into the ground and roofed over." [1] Besides providing shelter from extremes of weather, these structures may also be used to store food and for cultural activities like the telling of stories, dancing, singing and celebrations. General dictionaries also describe a pithouse as a dugout[2] and has similarities to a half-dugout.[3]

In archaeology, pit-houses are frequently termed a sunken featured building (SFB)[4][5] and occasionally (grub-)hut[6] or grubhouse after the German name Grubenhaus[7] and are found in numerous cultures around the world. These include: the people of the American Southwest, including the ancestral Pueblo, the ancient Fremont and Mogollon cultures, the Cherokee, the Inuit, the people of the Plateau, and archaic residents of Wyoming (Smith 2003) in North America; Archaic residents of the Lake Titicaca Basin (Craig 2005) in South America; Anglo Saxons in Europe; and the Jōmon people in Japan. Anglo Saxon pit-houses may have actually represented buildings for other functions than just dwellings.

Usually, all that remains of the ancient pit-house is a dug out hollow in the ground and any postholes used to support the roof.

This is so inspiring. Thank you so much. Thank you for this. Thank you. Thank you. All of the recent posts are inspiring, but this one is like living as a Hobbit! Oh, maybe I am a fool--but tears come to my eyes when I think about it. God, the freedom! The silence of nature. How could any mystic not overcome their substance addictions in such a home.

[Jhanon]

My friends. You know more of this than I. But what are the actual obstacles to building something like the glass home? Is it merely procuring a plot of land? I know nothing of engineering--how long might it take me to teach myself the necessary skills?

[Michel]

Sweet Hobbit House Pictures From The Hobbit Set: http://www.theyearofmud.com/2012/12/14/hobbit-house-pictures/

[Jhanananda]

This is so inspiring. Thank you so much. Thank you for this. Thank you. Thank you. All of the recent posts are inspiring, but this one is like living as a Hobbit! Oh, maybe I am a fool--but tears come to my eyes when I think about it. God, the freedom! The silence of nature. How could any mystic not overcome their substance addictions in such a home.

The pit house is the most simple, and most primitive of habitations.  It is all too easy to build, and can be built in a day.  Traditionally it is typically the job of the women and children to build such a habitation.

My friends. You know more of this than I. But what are the actual obstacles to building something like the glass home? Is it merely procuring a plot of land? I know nothing of engineering--how long might it take me to teach myself the necessary skills?

The glass house made of recycled glass is about the cheapest, and most efficient of homes; however, it does take some building skills, and property ownership.

Sweet Hobbit House Pictures From The Hobbit Set: http://www.theyearofmud.com/2012/12/14/hobbit-house-pictures/

Thanks. Michel. for the link to Hobbit houses.  They are essentially pithouses, so we can use them for inspiration.

[Zack]

You can also get a military surplus tent, from somewhere like armytents.com. I'm guessing some of them hold heat pretty well, so you could heat with a small wood stove.

[Jhanananda]

Thanks for the link, Zack.  They have some pretty big tents, but they have some small ones as well. I also noticed that the same website also offers portable tent HEATERS of various kinds.

During the Upper Paleolithic some people built homes out of Mammoth Bone and skins;


and Whale Bone house.

[Jhanananda]

Here is another tiny house design

A Gorgeous Swedish Micro Home

[Jhanananda]

Tiny cabin envisioned for Athens rooftop

[Jhanananda]

Leaf House Version.3: A tiny house for sub-zero temperatures

[Jhanananda]

Ireland’s First Shipping Container Home Will House the Homeless

[Jhanananda]

Carl Turner Architects designs open source Floating House

[Michel]

Check this site out. Community of students living in dome like small houses in a sustainable fashion. Rent is under $400 per month. This would appeal to you Jhanon. It is possibly a good model for a community of mystics.

https://localwiki.org/davis/The_Domes

The Domes video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEaWmNxeoFY&feature=youtu.be

[Jhanananda]

Thank-you, Michel, for the link.  Valdy sent me this link, which is perfect for my needs:

Musician in Dawson City winterizes camper van with 117 straw bales

[Michel]

Yes, I saw that the other day. Nice solution to beat the cold. I bet straw hay is a good insulator. 

[Jhanananda]

Yes, Michel, bales of straw are excellent insulator; and since I am not a smoker, who cares about flammability; however, I am prone to using a wood stove for heat, so I would make sure the straw and the wood stove stack do not come close to each other.