Welcome to my humble attempt at ‘having a web page’.
In these pages and posts I delve into matters of natural building/healing/living… with particular focus into the art and craft of building clay-masonry stoves. I’m not much good at taking pictures of my work, but hopefully there are enough in here to help convey the possibilities. Most of the above articles are complete and coherent, but some are works in progress. I hope it all makes sense enough for you.
In this day and age the high tech industries do a solid job of pointing us towards the latest gadgetry. Sometimes those gadgets are advantageous and can help improve our lives; but other times, they take us further away from the most sensible ways of living. When it comes to heating our homes (to heat our bodies) wood-fired appliances have all but disappeared, replaced by high tech flick of the switch electro-mechanical devices. The rationale is that labour-free convenience is of utmost importance, and that wood fire is polluting (which is not the case with masonry heaters). But missing from that perspective is awareness of how being around wood-fire soothes the soul; helping us to ground out, relax, and re-member our ancient connection with the primordial elements. If we also factor in that masonry heaters require way less wood (tending, labour…) than metal box woodstoves… then the little bit of daily exercise gathering and prepping the fire wood can be health-enhancing.
Another case in point can be seen in differing approaches to building a house: A modern conventionally constructed house requires a plastic vapour barrier lining to try and stop the (inevitable) migration of indoor atmospheric humidity into wall and ceiling cavities. Said house must then have a ventilation system to discharge 50% of the house’s indoor air per hour. Then it must have an even more complex HVAC system to try and recover the heat from the exiting air. Granted, these high tech systems can work (for 10 years or so til they malfunction and require either costly repair or replacement…), but there is a whole nother natural way to go about ventilating and regulating moisture that you will not hear about from big building industry.
These natural, simple, time-tested durable, ‘optimized low-tech’ approaches to building are what these web pages are all about. To find out more, please click any of the above tabs. I hope you enjoy…
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