The Art of Dreaming

What do computers have to do with the art of Dreaming?

The Art of Dreaming

I never remember my dreams. 

I don’t daydream very often.

I can’t tell if it’s related,

But it might have something to do with living in the future.

The future is much like the present. 

The only difference is the rate of dream growth.

By living in the future, I’m blessed to see so many dreams of friends and family come to maturity

Dreams grow about as fast as trees,

Some faster than others

Like a tree, a dream must live in its appropriate environment,

Depending on the dream, it must be pruned, or fertilized,

Some can go neglected for years, and come to fruition all on their own. 

The art of the impossible

            Vaclav havel--  the poet/ playwrite / cum- former president of Czechoslovakia

Be reasonable, demand the impossible

            The anonymous student-worker protests of Paris’ 1968

To fruit, you must plant your dreams, in firm air, love, sand, water, clouds, dirt, words,

Trees perform the impossible, and many are still stronger in strength per lb than steel.

My first Saturn was the gathering of seeds, dreams, and books,

My second Saturn will be of sowing & engineering,

(Saturn is a 27 year cycle of challenges)

just a test

Potentials and ...

Cities.

Austin, sucking you in like a mirror pool. Young blood & sharp minds cutting teeth in springs pulling birds south and food north.

New Orleans' neptunian spines crucify timidity. You're tickled, loved and unjudged. You open like a flower and soon don't notice the bees.

Springs and buffalo. Live oaks, cypresses and juniper. You enter, the moss - before you know the womb has become unbearable and barren. Maybe scorpionic after all.

Star Struck

Or more specifically, etherically struck.

It always happens in the cheese aisle. (neighbors weddings... you know everything)

Connecting the Biodynamic dots, a little process of understanding comes out of what could seem like a bouncing of dots between assholes-- but there was a more energetic understanding behind it all.

Now I'm trying to figure out what the best advantages are telling me. For some reason, it seems obviously apparent that I apply for Grad School, but not that I take it up and actually go--- Something is telling me that along the way to that GradSchool path will be multitudes... perverse and fascinating.

Its unbelievable how many dots this cat i met last night connected..

Super ironically (well actually, serendipitously) considering i had just come from my new membership at Southaustin Gym.

www.solarbikery.com Mark
hmmm.

must eat.. will continue.

Descent Apple Core

It still is the case that my essence is clouds and clouds away from daily existence,

The cloud carpet that my soul inhabits take quite a bit of time to exercise itself... often times the plants can help bring it out,, but even hours after leaving people's presence, the unique mixtures of egos and egos and egos... ideas and presumptions... keeps the cloud that holds my heart and soul a long way away from my mind and body (and actual enactment)...

Ego, hormones, stress...

Presumptions and false shames---

Presenthood--- is an odd place when it is a language not understood by ones kin and tribe.

But the tribe is ever expanding, and presenthood is always there. haven't yet found that medititation--- and often mix it up with coffee/// seratonin highs... but ce la vie.

Reactions

Traveling....
how guided can I be by feeling.
The feeling one gets from a place.

And then.. from the other folks in that space. The electricity of this coffee shop dizzies me--- unsettling-- unfocusing..

Where-as -- last night-- the great relaxation from encountering the great hemlock trees i would sleep beneath. -- yet, after a short walk, i sped out of there this morning to check the Market --

I am one who searches out always new-- new things. new spaces to meet -- and to sleep.

how is it i can want to build. Build? How does a nomad construct a worthy architecture?

hmmm.

focus... on-- flux of energy-- change of seasons--- running water. plants experiences difference and metamorphosis. Close to nomadism? --- bringing in folks to live with and exchange with for different sets of time. hmmm. and children i suppose.. who are continents into themselves.



When is music (as good as) a forest.




When you're in a GM cornfield/ ? (suburban). sub.

Robber barons....

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/public-enemies-run-not-rob-our-banks?pagenumber=2

....Do this and "we will see an economic life closer to our biological environment: smaller companies, richer ecology, no leverage -- a world in which entrepreneurs, not bankers, take the risks and companies are born and die every day without making the news. In other words, a place more resistant to black swans."....

Wow... even in marketwatch.com stock market site. Nicely said. :-) Capitalist, but with spirit. mm.

My two cents on the Econ. as of July 2009

From my perspective educated as a critic of Growth Economics, schooled in regional ecological experiments in sustainability, I assume the economy will continue to "shrink". By this I mean that economic data will be less suitable as an all-purpose benchmark to describe American Life. This of course is inevitable from a "sustainabilist" perspective. Capitalism typically attempts to delay this shrinking by going to war (taken from Marcuse's idea from the 1950's), playing with currency valuations and trade barriers, subsidizations and incentives.

Now, as a new player in the stock market, where the rules are changing, and even whether the dollar with soon be over- or under-valued, I find myself betting against myself often enough. The rule bending and suspending that high-banking and high-business folks have specialized in has convinced even me.

However, it seems more and more true that American life is going to soon look much more like the rest of the world.

In these ways:

People will live at home longer as youth, and older parents with their children (to save money).
It will be less likely that both parents will work if at all possible (for lack of jobs).
People will move less because there will be less opportunities anywhere and everywhere for growth and people shuffling. This will cause less "cookie-cutter" homes to be built, so although homes will be more expensive to buy (because they will be a majority of custom homes if new) renting may go down.

This will slowly affect almost all sectors of the economy. Transportation.., energy.., education..- maybe not.

Hmmm.

Discussion

lost/other random discussion
- - - - - --- - - -

How shallow is your ego?
How much can you achieve, without having continual reinforcement for your ego?


I fear for myself, very little.

Or perhaps, my ego is weighing me down.
The addiction to jogging my ego's muscles prevents me from focus, and the more i jog those muscles, the more they desire it, and the more distracted I become.

Does happiness come into this picture?

What does this have to do with teaching?
or with providing apprenticeships?

How can one be a good teacher without involving their ego?

How can one maintain a healthy ego without involving it in their careers or other places in their lives where it doesn't belong?

Is this one of the main functions of religion?

Is it possible to keep your ego out of your sex life?

Laughing sex. Laughing teachers.

I learned this week that laughing is not a universal cure.
Mourning and laughing are by no means opposites,
Nonetheless, they occupy and flourish for different purposes.
Laughing ghosts,
mourning humans.

What is the time period needed to feel loss?
And the time period needed to register it?


At what point do we feel loss?

And empathy, what of feeling someone else's loss?

and, when its too much, to know, complex maybe-- how does the empathy intuition work ?

For myself-- i have definitely acquired a block of sorts---
possible to overload on empathy from afar---- via books/ news etc.
But heavy, present empathy-- my circuits are a bit overly defensive.

Locura

and identity.

can't say more,
reading minds,

clothes,
reading
reading and into
projecting
needing
of you
of you--
for ....?
what sort of team is this?
when did we enter this stage? and the laughter--

your hair's down,
we weren't going to talk about it,
what is business and --
business appropriate?

when did This become..........

appropriate?
This (subversion)...
for the duration of ?
the context is numbing--- thrilling-- but.

let's talk about it over lunch.
in private...
toxicated ? In. coffee, beer or poppy seed?

comprometida....

freedom and beauty is the game,
looking for investors--
in name--- selling many things in the meantime.

the city and the country

in the city i am lost.
Mixed and sorted.
available,
like a red light,
on a stage, even when alone.

maybe the camera just looks different

in the woods,
the expectations---
the wrongs--- or rights,
the social and antisocial are more balanced-- easier to set right,
it appeared to me.

the influx of availability, taps out my desire,
ultimately-- touch is centering---
something like a massive gym with dry towels, and free and welcome hugs and massages
kids running around and people watching out for them,
people laugh and nod at babies screaming (as long as it isn't dire, which it usually isn't)
I'm dreaming.
Walk out side to a green house
cool rain or bright sun,
the plants care for the people, and in kind,
the people for the soils, and the bugs, and the plants,
adrenaline,
a need-- caffeine gives me customer service,
maxed out on cheerfulness,
a paycheck-- that i struggle with
going to town to cash it in with friends--- food or cheap and fine wine
a comfortable level of intimacy---
a comfortable level of adrenaline,
-- - - of pushin'
levels and limits,
(( I'm desiring ))

...a culture with acceptable limits for many folks of different ways--- that still knows how to push us to keep our skin soft-- and yet strong.

work it out.
work it on out.

muscles
everywhere....
fine tuning,

little clocks
care
little teeth
interlacing gears
turning,
and music boxes
hidden rooms-- with yet beautiful windows---
you walk out, the trees hold you,
the cars are convenient--- but only in their place.
grass and bridges
beneath your feet.

. . . . . . . . .


tickin' time... ultimately,
saving

accumulating interest like dust on rare and expensive books,
waiting,
waiting
.
to buy, timelessness.
investment
in fruit trees, and babies' knees,
giant cypresses,
pines,
fields of corn and potatoes,
meadows of milkin' cows,
dewy feet in dewy ground.
character building on walls and wrinkles

the rush is love

(feelin' it, not sure how to show it... ) when where....

Meditations on not Dirt

Never have I so desired to be clean.

In my head, I can visual a temple. A place where I can be clean, where I have prepared to be clean.
My thoughts are a jumble. Clarity is a place.
I want a beautiful place that distracts me only in itself. It is almost all self-referencing. When I leave, life automatically references back to this place, and thus also the clarity that we cultivated there.
I love dirt. I love working and getting dirty. Work, as dirt, as soap and cleanliness have more meaning when they can be washed away.
I love spectrums, and levels. Options.
Clean, well prepared sex, and dirty necessary sex.

My thoughts are jumbled, Living in the present does not always prepare one for writing thoughts === because the present is all about responsiveness---
and long thoughts are supposed to be more immobile.

Fantasies....

Living in a motivational place--
what is that alchemy among some-- ?

how do you cultivate-- even among people you love and know dearly--- that level of "privacy" and "formality" that stimulates you both to create? [[Is this the true meaning of respect]] Looking always for the best in each other-- and hoping to inspire it as well--
as if-- there was no other way.
As if, it wasn't that either of you could possibly fail--- a game-- but also fate of sorts-- trying to impress each other--

I'm wondering if this is the true meaning of integrity--- that which our english teacher Hilsabeck asked us in 2000.
The ability to exist within the particular vacuum--- the particular microcosm and relatavistic space of your own little diety and bag of tricks-- but also inspiring and stimulating the other mythological characters (around, within and about) --
This is an interesting dream.

This is not the surrealist, psychological etc-- probing dream that i had growing up in the late 90's and early 2000's.
We all wanted to come to the ___bottom___ (or I at least especially) of our particular disorders.

We weren't particulary concerned with the Top.

This is not to say that surrealism-- and improv-- and psychology cannot exist within these realms--

I guess i've never tried to find people to be in competition with--- because i've rarely found people who knew my game-- (and I rarely knew other peoples)--
So i thought i didn't like competition.
But things are narrowing in, as they do.
Rob Brezney-- among many other wonderful friends i actually Know in Real Life.

Just keep on truckin' boy.

peace
the laughing g.

Gender and Mythology in "Counter-Culture"

I often think that one of the key factors that facilitates the crises or disassociation with Gender that I've noticed in recent history is the lack of a third gender. Another factor is the rapidity of change in all aspects of economic structures.

Food for Thought on Wealth and Desire....

Thanks to Rob Brezny's Free Will Astrology :


THE RICH GET RICHER

"Dear Beauty and Truth Laboratory: Help! My old Buick's transmission is
dead, my credit cards are maxed, my kid's got to see the dentist real bad,
and the one-speed bike I ride everywhere is about to collapse. I'm working
two low-paying jobs already, although I just applied for a more lucrative
gig as a strip-club dancer, only I'm having so much mysterious pain in my
joints I'm not sure how sexy my gyrations will be. Please clue me in to
some tricks that will help me keep a pronoiac attitude in the midst of the
mess that is my life. —Pickled"

Dear Pickled: Here's the first thing I want to tell you: Pronoia does not
assume that material comfort is a sign of divine favor. The universe is an
equal-opportunity provider, conspiring to shower blessings on every one
of us in the same abundance. But while the blessings may come in the
form of money and possessions, they're just as likely to consist of other
gifts that aren't as concrete.

Here's a hypothetical example. Let's say you have the gift of feeling at
home in the world no matter where you are. The universe has determined
that it's the exact skill you need in order to fulfill the specific purpose you
came to earth to carry out. Having a prestigious job and big salary, on the
other hand, might be exactly what you don't need.

The question of what gifts are essential revolves around your precise role
in the universal conspiracy to perpetrate blessings.

The second meditation I'll offer you is a passage from the Gospel of
Matthew: "Whoever has, shall be given more and more, while whoever has
nothing, even what he has will be taken away from him."

Pronoiac translation: Whatever you choose to focus your attention on,
you will get more of it. If you often think of everything you lack and how
sad you are that you don't have it, you will tend to receive prolific
evidence of how true that is. As you obsess on all the ways your life is
different from what you wish it would be, you will become an expert in
rousing feelings of frustration and you will attract experiences that assist
you in rousing frustration.

If, on the other hand, you dwell on the good things you have already had
the privilege to experience, you will expand your appreciation for their
blessings, which in turn will amplify their beneficent impact on your life.
You will also magnetize yourself to receive further good things, making it
more likely that they will be attracted into your sphere. At the very least,
you will get in the habit of enjoying yourself no matter what the outward
circumstances are.

Bear in mind that you are a great wizard. You can use your powers to
practice white magic on yourself instead of the other kind. The most basic
way to do that is to concentrate on naming, savoring, and feeling
gratitude for the blessings you do have—your love for your kid, the
pleasures of eating the food you like, the sight of the sky at dusk, the
entertaining drama of your unique fate. Don't ignore the bad stuff, but
make a point of celebrating the beautiful stuff with all the exuberant
devotion you can muster.






--- - - - - - - - - -
I am not uncritical of Mr. Brezny's constructive positive position, but i do enjoy it very much. When i have run out of Tom Robbin's books to keep me sane and out of harm and depression's way-- i have Rob Brezny.

I often think that my identification as a middle schooler, reading about 4 dozen fantasy books, with Elves, half-elves... led me to have the lean physique that i inhabit. (Although the physique is common among my male co-aquarians).
Similarly-- I like to think that community can be brought into being through casual meditiation and desire over a number of years.

Thoughts on Post-Industrial Construction and the (anti?) Pursuit of Perfection(ism)

I put in my two weeks at work after the boss invited us to a motivational conference featuring Colin Powell, Rudy Guiliani, Zig Zigler and others.
No real correlation besides temporal.

I've been at this job, described as a carpenter's apprentice, because I was interested in 1) Working with wood, 2) Learning more about general construction of houses, and 3) To improve my blue-collar credentials.
I've succeeded mildly in all three, however, over all I've learned that the modern construction of a house requires such a diverse skill-set that the learning curve is incredibly steep. Because of this, I figured that I would not be knowledgeable enough to even consider asking for a raise for quite some time (as is true with most jobs, but these previous jobs were sub to my school work at the time, or something i seriously loved-- farming- once, fancy food/cheese-second, which made the challenge of the learning curve less overwhelming;) But I am not willing at the moment to commit to this particular learning curve given the present conditions. It is time for something different.

Anyway.

Part of the disenchanting part of the Job is its pursuit of perfectionism-- much like what I would imagine building a new car would be like if it were by hand--, that accompanies the majority of the work we perform.
We try to bring our cabinets and doors to a level of perfection many times before, during and after painting, which cannot be maintained--- only pursued (because always working, and moving the pieces always endangers them to bump doorways, boots, elbows, tables,...) and once added to the house, will quickly lose their flawlessness.
So what is this perfect moment we are striving for?
Is it an image? A claim for less liability on the part of the company for the wood future imperfections/dents/expansion/contraction?
I know it is part of an appeal to the wedding/fiesta/love at first site/ celebration- psychology that many appeals to our artistic eye contain. I accept this and can appreciate this. However, this architecture/construction/carpentry that moves me and get my hands dirty within its loomingly historic and deeply rich field is largely not this.
Rather, it is more in line with the learning to love your partner/siblings/roommates occurance that so parallels the beauty of old buildings with their layers revealing themselves.

Ianto Evans is quoted to say "I build old buildings" (Hand-Sculpted House)

This he described as buildings that look old within a year or two after construction. I respect that this is not very everyone, but I am passionately engaged in this aesthetic and its promotion. This is largely because the region i have been raised in (and its patron-statehood) is severely lacking this aesthetic, (and i understand that it even passively promotes it worldwide).
Part of this aesthetic is giving in the aging, which for a building involves a particular disposition towards its climate.
Another, for me, is a house that encourages use, that invites it. A well designed kitchen, workspace, living room, garden; Warm, easy to clean, easy to mess up. Ones that make you want to cook, work, play, love, garden, etc.

Not: "Not for sitting"

This is the type of cabinets we are building. So ironic, because a cabinet's design function is to be used.
Instead of going to that faultless linearity, impeccably flat planed fronts, and perfectly sanded and painted right angles, --
instead of this, take a look at Sunray Kelley's Work, take a look at "the Hand Sculpted House"
If if you don't have the benefits of your own mill, chainsaw, etc, A space, a cabinet can still look beautiful-- and perhaps even more so with time , if its imperfections are chosen more carefully. Sanded down to be sure- for the most part-- smoothed , and made pleasant to the touch--
but exactly that: Pleasant to the touch. And not a touch that is afraid of the Perfection of its beheldst. The cabinet says: Use me. Respect me, but please use me.



Tomorrow, and Saturday, and less than two more weeks of Partly Panoptic Perfectionism,

Beginnings and "Bibliography" (Continually Expanding...)

This blog is a begun at the behest of a lovely friend in Madison, in order to help me chronicle and put in order some ideas about forming a community intentionally. 

     To begin,  I am going to list out a bibliography of influence and inspiration,  as well as websites or just ideas that I associate with certain pivotal figures or movements.  I am creature of dreams and words, so quite naturally books are most important to my journey.

Do you have any recommendations?


1. Authors/etc, that inspire Autonomism/Anti-imperialism

a. Latin American History
Eduardo Galeano "Chronicles of Fire" books two and three
John Reed “Mexico Insurgente”
John Mason Hart (Mexican Revolution 1910-193x and US imperialism leading up to it)
Gloria Anzaldua's “Borderlands/ La Frontera”
The EZLN (Ejercito Zapatista Liberacion Nacional) aka, the Zapatistas of Chiapas, Mx- so many sources of information ; indymedia, email lists, books, sites, etc,


b. General History
Noam Chomsky's 911; Manufacturing Consent;
Affluenza (by de Graaf, Naylor, Wann and Robin)
Derrick Jensen's Language older Than Words; A Culture of Make Believe; Walking on Water
Hakim Bey's TAZ and Immediatism
Autobiography of Malcolm X (with Alex Haley)
Charles C Mann's “1491”
Diamond's “Guns, Germs, and Steel”
David Korten's "When Corporations Rule the World" not a Fan of the Title, but a wonderful breakdown of economical institutions manipulation through IMF, Bretton Woods, Economic theory, NAFTA (c) 1999?



2. Farming/Gardening
John Jeavons' book
Joel Salatin- speeches, farm and (Recommend "You can Farm")
Toby Heminway's “Gaia's Garden”
Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird's “Secret life of Plants” and “Secrets of the Soil”
Allan Balliet's Farm www.freshandlocalcsa.com ,
Alejandra and Paco Caballero's farm www.proyectosanisidro.org,
Jonathan and Nina White's Bobolink Dairy www.cowsoutside.com best bread and cheese almost anywhere!
the Rhizome Collective
David Wolfe's “Tales from the Underground” = stories about Soil
"Avant Gardening" Ed. by Hakim Bey


3. Construction/Architecture
Lloyd Kahn's Shelter, Homework, and Builders of the Pacific Northwest
Evans, Smiley, and Smith's “Hand Sculpted House”
Christopher Alexander et al, 's “A Pattern Language”, the “Nature of Order” books (Expensive!)
John S. Taylor's “A Shelter Sketchbook/ aka Commonsense Architecture”
Kindra Welch
Sunray Kelley
Guelberth, Cedar Rose “The Natural Plaster Book”
William McDonough and Michael Braungart "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we make things"
Visiting the Cities of Barcelona (Catalunya), Venice (It), Verona (It), Split , Dubrovnik, Hvar, Korcula (Croatia), Fez, Chefchaoen (Morocco),
the - deatech cob email-list
City Repair http://www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php/about [Fits kinda everywhere, an Amazing Group! ]
http://www.dignityvillage.org/content/
Chipp and Clara Boggs' " A Mountain Home(stead)" An extremely powerful place!
http://directory.ic.org/5962/Mountain_Homestead
http://www.attrainternships.ncat.org/internDetail2.asp?id=10


4. Cooking/ Food Preparation/Preservation/Traditional Diets

Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions
Sandor Katz's Wild Fermentation
Jessica Prentice's Full Moon Feast
Stephen H. Buhner's Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers
Jerry Brunetti's Lectures/ Video
Charlie Papazian "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing"
The gardener's & Farmer's of Terre Vivante "Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning" Foreward by Eliot Coleman
Slow Food International Organization www.slowfood.it

5. DIY (Do it Yourself); Homesteading and Early Influences

Gilbert's “Last American Man” Often inspiring and a wonderful meditation on self vs. others'-Education
William Copperthwaite's “A Handmade Life” Amazing and beautiful notebook/autobioraphy
Eric Sloane's “A Museum of Early American Tools” ; “A Reverence for Wood”


6. DIY Early Influences in General

William “Upski” Wimsatt's “No More Prisons” and “Bomb the Suburbs” (Early Influence)
Krakauer's “Into the Wild”
Marlo Morgan “Mutant Message Down Under” (Yes, a controversial book, yet provocative),
Griel Marcus' “Lipstick Traces” (esp. situationist critique on economy and everyday life)
Raoul Vaneigem 's “Revolution of Everyday Life”
John Cage's “Silence” (stories of Music, Zen, and Mushroom ketchup)
Tao Te Ching Laozi
Evasion published by crimethinc
John Zerzan's "Future Primitive" ; "Running on Emptiness"
Herman Hesse's Siddhartha
Surplus (a movie; pretty wonderful)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6265290247873039570&hl=en



7. Community/Relationships/Education

Jean Liedloff's "Continuum Concept"
Dale Carnegie (no relation) "How to Make Friends and Influence People" (c) 1936
bell hooks "All About Love"
Marge Piercy "Woman on the edge of Time" 1977
Aldous Huxley "Brave New World" 1936
Soma-Therapy - An Anarchist Therapy Movie by Nick Cooper (amazing fellow from Houston)
http://www.nickcooper.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatherapy
Great Article on Soma-history http://www.anarchymag.org/node/46
http://www.somaterapia.com.br/eng/soma.jsp


IC's mostly from heresay and websites:

The Farm Summertown, TN (IC)
Earthaven Asheville, NC (IC)
Emerald Earth Mendicino, CA (IC)
Ithaca Co-op Ithaca, NY (Housing Co-op)

Article: Building Codes and Natural Building from House Alive

इ was going to start this blog with अ bibliography, but इ thought this Article might बे more appropriate!

Also check out Joel Salatin's "Everything इ Want to Do is Illegal" : http://www.mindfully.org/Farm/2003/Everything-Is-Illegal1esp03.htm

http://www.housealive.org/newsletter-archive/building-codes-natural-building.html

Building Codes & Natural Building

• Building shelter is a human right! Birds build nests, beavers build dams, bears find caves and humans build homes.

• Building a home comes with responsibilities. It should be built without endangering the health of the inhabitants, the local ecology, the neighborhood, or the planet, both during construction and its useful life.
• Building a home is a joy. The act of creating beauty in a home can uplift us with pride and self-worth. It's a great learning experience and can bond families and communities closer together.

Building codes dictate how we should build houses. Their original intent was to set some safety and environmental standards for buildings. Over the years this has evolved into a focus on how industrially produced components should be put together. In the way they function now, building codes support the building of toxic homes, devoid of natural materials (except milled wood). By prescribing minimum sizes of rooms, number of outlets per walls, over-engineered structural components, irresponsible waste treatment systems (sewage and septic) and cold and hot water at multiple locations, buildings have become outrageously expensive.

We now have this weird thing going, where it is deemed irresponsible and illegal to live in a simple, small cottage by candlelight. Instead we say it is reasonable that people have to work 30 years before they own their home, which by that time is usually in need of a serious remodel. Conventional buildings put a heavy burden on the ecology of the planet and few people seem to enjoy building a house. This process has become so intimidating to potential builders, that most homes are now built by professionals, who have the tools, the skills and the strength to put the industrial components together.

My Own Experience
I recently built my own code-approved straw bale/cob home. Did it work for me to build a natural home through the official route? Yes, but at a cost. It is very hard to build a home under $30,000 (plus land expense) when taking the code route. Most people spend more in the range of $100,000 plus. However, code usually does allow straw bales for insulation, non-load bearing internal cob walls, earthen floors, living roofs and round wood.

For all practical purposes, if you work really hard at it, you can do a lot within the code. You need lots of patience and people skills (to "educate" the county officials) and be willing to waste some money on things that are often undesirable such as septic, an over-rated electricity system and some over-engineered structural components. Curved walls, though naturally stronger than straight walls, will need additional engineering (think $$).

Part of the problem lies in the fact that building codes are part of a building system whose other pillars include contractors, architects and an industrial complex that produces the building components. They all speak the same language and support one another. You're not just battling codes that don't provide much for natural building, you're fighting a whole system.

An alternative, which keeps you more or less within the code, is to buy a junker home and renovate it with the use of natural materials. Stud frame, foundation and roof can stay in place, as well as the electricity and plumbing, the rest can be re-done beautifully and affordably. My next newsletter will have an article on natural renovation, which I believe is going to be a very popular and promising option for people.

The Outlaw Builder
Then there is the "outlaw way". A friend of mine from the natural building community told me recently that he was seriously considering handing out building permits to people: A piece of paper that would state that you have permission to build your home. Thousands of people in the U.S. and millions abroad exercise their right to build shelter without the government telling them how to do that. Once a few precautions are in place, this is a very viable option, allowing people to build a beautiful, non-toxic home for less than $5000. Here are some helpful hints:

1. Keep it small and invisible from the road and your neighbors.
2. Stay away from using big, loud machines.
3. Get along with your neighbors. Most evictions are a result of complaints from the nearby community.
4. If possible, build where there is an already existing code-approved home on the land. (Decoy for building officials and tax assessors.)

The first three points are good ideas within natural building, code or no code. The last point knows several variations.

One option is to buy land and to drag a cheap second-hand mobile home onto it. Depending on the cost of permits and septic, you can get the whole thing approved for as little as $10,000. Once that is done, build your dream natural building somewhere else on the land and change the mobile into storage, office space, or fix it up and rent it out! Also many people have built "outlaw" cottages on other people's land and live in them for little or no rent. They usually have some written agreement with the landowner, and often contribute to managing the land, farm or homestead. Many people have a large chunk of land with only one house on it and would enjoy sharing it. This option makes it possible for people to build without a bank loan and just a little bit of savings. And last but not least, many natural buildings are code-approved as an agricultural building, barn, garage, etc. Once approved for that purpose, a kitchen and some kind of bathroom facility can easily be added.

This discussion wouldn't be complete without mentioning that there are many parts of the country where there is no code enforcement. This is usually the case in very under-populated counties. Finding community and work in these places may be more challenging.

As you can see, there are many possibilities to exercise your right to build. If we look at natural building as a conscious movement, trying to empower people to provide reasonable and sensible homes for themselves, all paths described here will contribute to that goal. We all look at our comfort level, skills, financial strength, local circumstances, stage in life, and then pick a course of action.