https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog Read historical and recent blog posts about earthbag, hyperadobe, cob, and natural building by Morgan Caraway. en-us Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:27:53 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/icelandic-turf-houses I have been studying various natural building methods lately and turf houses are one of the ingenious approaches I really want to try someday. If you were to time-travel back to Iceland a few centuries ago... Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/icelandic-turf-houses https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/hyperadobe-favorite I’ve known about hyperadobe building for a long time. I have wanted to give it a shot since I first heard about it. Recently, I got my chance when a friend expr... Mon, 25 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/hyperadobe-favorite https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/kelly-hart-interview Watch this video on YouTube I had the opportunity to interview Kelly Hart. Kelly has shared great knowledge several times a week through his Natural Building Bl... Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/kelly-hart-interview https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/crestone-earthbag-house-workshop-2 It was another awesome workshop, hosted by my soul-sister Willow, in Crestone, Colorado! Flashback – we built a good bit of a scoria (volcanic rock) earthbag ro... Fri, 29 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/crestone-earthbag-house-workshop-2 https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/earthbag-root-cellar In July of 2019, I led an earthbag root cellar workshop for some dear friends. Earthbags are truly one of the great (if not the greatest) methods for building u... Sun, 23 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/earthbag-root-cellar https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/cob-oven-build Earlier this month, I had the great privilege of leading a cob oven workshop at my Son’s school, Woodson Branch Nature School. This was a fundraiser for the sch... Mon, 27 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/cob-oven-build https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/balecob-house I always felt that balecob was an intelligent way to build with strawbale. Balecob is a mixture of strawbale and cob building. The cob makes many parts of the p... Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/balecob-house https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/hyperadobe-office Watch this video on YouTube I came across this family and their page about a nice little hyperadobe office they built. Hyperadobe differs from earthbag in that ... Tue, 27 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/hyperadobe-office https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/living-underground-earthbag The above image is Owen Geiger’s Subterranean Survival Shelter Plan, available on our website. Last night, I stepped outside around midnight. It was a relativel... Fri, 26 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/living-underground-earthbag https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/2023-earthbag-plastering-workshop I haven’t posted anything for a minute so I just wanted to leave a quick update. We had a small but eager class for our October plastering workshop. Our partici... Sun, 26 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/2023-earthbag-plastering-workshop https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/cob-oven-earthbag-building-workshop In June, I travelled to Leech Lake Tribal College in Cass Lake, MN to lead an eight-day cob oven and earthbag building workshop. We made pretty incredible progr... Sat, 08 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/cob-oven-earthbag-building-workshop https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/morgan-talks-green-building I had the pleasure of being able to speak to a friend’s green building class. We discussed a wide range of topics about homesteading, natural building, communit... Tue, 25 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/morgan-talks-green-building https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/sunscreen-for-earthbags Most of my readers are already probably aware, but the greatest danger to earthbags and earthbag structures, is UV exposure. They can handle moisture, impacts, ... Fri, 21 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/sunscreen-for-earthbags https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/our-october-2022-workshop Well, we had another bangin’ workshop, folks! Numbers wise, this was our biggest yet with about twenty people in attendance. I only managed to get a picture of ... Tue, 29 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/our-october-2022-workshop https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/ai-art-natural-building Though AI Art Is in It’s Infancy, It Can Still Pump Out Some Pretty Darn Awe-Inspiring Images. I Discovered AI Art a Couple of Weeks Ago and I Must Admit That I... Sun, 11 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/ai-art-natural-building https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/azure-3d-printed-tiny-houses In my spare time (of which there is very little!) I think about what we can do to put all of the plastic our world produces to good use. Obviously there are bet... Fri, 02 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/azure-3d-printed-tiny-houses https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/ambitious-scoria-earthbag-house While We Were in Crestone for Our Latest Workshop, We Got to See an Absolutely Awe-Inspiring Earthbag House Build. As Part of the Workshop Experience, We Went o... Wed, 27 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/ambitious-scoria-earthbag-house https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/crestone-earthbag-workshop Each workshop is unique. This latest one was in transcendent Crestone, Colorado, at the foot of the Rockies. After we arrived at our campground in the mountains... Sun, 12 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/crestone-earthbag-workshop https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/us-hyperadobe For a number of years I tried to find a domestic supplier of warp knit raschel tubing, used in hyperadobe building, to no avail. For those who don’t know about ... Mon, 18 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/us-hyperadobe https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/mickey-muenning-big-sur Kelly Hart of The Natural Building Blog shared the gorgeous estate of Mickey Muenning, “The Man Who Built Big Sur.” Mary Jane and I lived in Big Sur in 2007 and... Wed, 30 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/mickey-muenning-big-sur https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/diy-dirtbags-earthbag-building-and-punk-rock “You Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee.” Mary Jane’s dad basically told me that we were committing suicide. He said, “You don’t have to live like a refugee.” In... Fri, 18 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/diy-dirtbags-earthbag-building-and-punk-rock https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/earthships-go-mainstream From a New Video on CNBC: ‘Mike Reynolds, 76, Started Building “Earthships” in Taos, New Mexico, More Than Half a Century Ago. For Many Years, Most People Thoug... Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/earthships-go-mainstream https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/inexpensive-earthbag-natural-building People Doing Conventional Stick-Frame Building These Days Are Getting Sticker Shock. Lumber Prices Blew up Early in the Age of COVID and Everything Else Has Fol... Fri, 21 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/inexpensive-earthbag-natural-building https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/a-house-for-the-future Most of Us Were Never Taught to Use Resources Intelligently. The Infrastructure of Our Civilization Has Been Built on the Assumption That There Will Always Be U... Wed, 29 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/a-house-for-the-future https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/tecla-3d-printed-earth-house It’s Inevitable That Technology Changes All Aspects of Our Lives. One Interesting Project, a Collaboration Between Wasp (Italian 3d Printing Experts) And Mario ... Thu, 16 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/tecla-3d-printed-earth-house https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/is-civilization-worth-saving It’s No Secret That Civilization Is Broken. Now We Find Ourselves Having to Decide Whether It’s Worth Saving or Not. Not Choosing Will Have Exactly the Same Out... Tue, 30 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/is-civilization-worth-saving https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/october-2021-workshop We Revisited the Site of Our April Workshop and Worked on a Bit of Earthbag Building and a Whole Lot of Plastering. We Were Joined by Another Group of Amazing H... Tue, 26 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/october-2021-workshop https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/fixing-a-leaning-earthbag-wall In April of This Year (2021), I Led an Earthbag Tiny House Workshop at Some Friends’ Property. Recently I Learned That a Part of the Wall Built After the Worksh... Wed, 22 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/fixing-a-leaning-earthbag-wall https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/northern-cali-hippie-houses When We Started Living This Lifestyle in 2009, We Had Intimations That Others Had Done It Before Us. In Our Typically Disjointed American Style, We Did It on Ou... Thu, 16 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/northern-cali-hippie-houses https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/both-mother-earth-news-articles In the Past Few Months, We Have Had the Good Fortune of Being Published in Mother Earth News Twice. The First Article Was on Building Earthbag Pools and the Sec... Mon, 06 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/both-mother-earth-news-articles https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/june-2021-earthbag-building-workshop We Had Another Amazing Earthbag Workshop Experience Over the Past Weekend. As I’ve Said Before, It’s My Great Privilege to Get to Work With an Intelligent, Dive... Tue, 29 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/june-2021-earthbag-building-workshop https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/wood-street-cob-village You May Have Heard Mention of the Cob on Wood Village at Wood Street in Oakland, CA. It Is Perhaps One of the Most Inspiring Projects I’ve Ever Come Across. Nat... Thu, 17 Jun 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/wood-street-cob-village https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/beat-lumber-prices-build-with-earth If You’ve Been to Lowes or Home Depot Lately, You’ve Noticed Something Remarkable–Exploding Lumber Prices! In the Past Year Alone, Lumber Prices Have Gone up Al... Mon, 10 May 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/beat-lumber-prices-build-with-earth https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/why-build-tiny-homes-with-earthbags The Longer I Build Houses Out of Mostly Earth, The More Advantages I Realize That It Has. We Started Our First Official Earthbag Tiny House During a Workshop in... Fri, 30 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/why-build-tiny-homes-with-earthbags https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/april-2021-earthbag-tiny-house-workshop As a Natural Building and Sustainable Living Instructor, I Have the Privilege of Working With Highly Interesting and Intelligent People. Our Latest Earthbag Tin... Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/april-2021-earthbag-tiny-house-workshop https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/misconceptions-about-earthbag-building When We Were Building Our First House, I Routinely Shared Pictures on Facebook. the Reactions Were Quite Muted Until I Shared a Finished Picture of It Plastered... Thu, 25 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/misconceptions-about-earthbag-building https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/my-little-homestead-family-earthbag Most of y’all are probably already familiar with the My Little Homestead family (mylittlehomestead.com). Their youtube videos are some of the most popular on th... Fri, 12 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/my-little-homestead-family-earthbag https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/our-natural-earthbag-swimming-pool Earlier this month I submitted an article to Mother Earth News magazine about our natural earthbag pool and about a more conventional one that one of my student... Thu, 25 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/our-natural-earthbag-swimming-pool https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/natural-forces-earthbag-tiny-house How I Made My Earthbag Tiny House Super Energy-Efficient. Natural Forces Such as Gravity, Passive Solar, and Thermal Mass Will Not Fail You. There Is No Danger ... Fri, 12 Feb 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/natural-forces-earthbag-tiny-house https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/what-is-natural-building In This Post I Examine What the Term Natural Building Means. I Talk About Earthbag, Straw Bale, Cob, and Environmental Impact.... Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/what-is-natural-building https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/iranian-superadobe-village In Hormuz Iran, Zav Architects Worked on This Project to Develop Beautiful and Affordable Architecture Using Mostly Local Materials. These Dome Clusters Were Bu... Fri, 15 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/iranian-superadobe-village https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/bermed-earthbag-dome Here’s a Quaint Earthbag Dome That Owen Designed and Built. in a Place With Moderate Earth Temperatures, Such a Structure Would Stay Effortlessly Comfortable Ye... Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/bermed-earthbag-dome https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/owen-geigers-plans-coupon-code If You Have Dreamt of Building a House Based on One of Dr. Owen Geiger’s Beautiful House Plans, Now Is the Time to Do It!... Tue, 15 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/owen-geigers-plans-coupon-code https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/balecob-building Balecob Building Combines the Best Elements of Strawbale and Cob Building Into One Seamless Form.... Fri, 11 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/balecob-building https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/sale-earthbag-tiny-house-class Hello all!  The holiday season is upon us with Black Fridays, Cyber Mondays, and the like! In the spirit of sharing, we’re lowering the prices on everything we ... Mon, 30 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/sale-earthbag-tiny-house-class https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/a-video-overview Would You Like to Build a House That’s Stronger Than a Conventional Structure at a Fraction of the Cost? Our Earthbag Tiny House Cost Under $1800.... Sun, 08 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/a-video-overview https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/owens-philosophy Years Ago, Doctor Owen Geiger Wrote Down His Building Philosophy in Succinct Terms. Owen Was an Extremely Educated Man…... Fri, 06 Nov 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/owens-philosophy https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/house-plans-from-owen-geiger We are pleased to announce a partnership with Kelly Hart to offer some of our mutual friend, Owen Geiger’s, floor plans for earthbag and natural homes.... Fri, 30 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/house-plans-from-owen-geiger https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/reasons-to-build-your-tiny-house-with-earth In 2019, we set up a workshop to build a tiny house on our community property. It was an eight-day workshop–the longest we had done to date, and it filled up qu... Thu, 22 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/reasons-to-build-your-tiny-house-with-earth https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/jasmine-dale-the-hobbit-house I Had the Opportunity to Ask Jasmine Dale, Wife of Simon Dale, Some Questions About Their Hobbit House in Whales. If You’re Interested in Natural or Alternative... Fri, 16 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/jasmine-dale-the-hobbit-house https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/our-online-earthbag-tiny-house-class-is-live In 2019, we had an eight-day workshop at our property, to begin work on an earthbag tiny house. This and footage taken since then has been turned into an online... Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/our-online-earthbag-tiny-house-class-is-live https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/hempcrete-house Several years ago, I got an opportunity to work on a hempcrete house for a couple of days. By that time I’d heard quite a bit about the technique and was very e... Fri, 02 Oct 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/hempcrete-house https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/the-organic-house-by-javier-senosiain Here’s a modern hobbit home that uses some very sound design principles and has a decidedly organic feel to it. It was designed by Architect Javier Senosiain an... Thu, 24 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/the-organic-house-by-javier-senosiain https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/what-is-earthbag-building I’ve Been a Proponent of Earthbag Building for Well Over a Decade Now. When I Tell People What I Teach, I’d Say That at Least 95% Of Folks Haven’t Heard of It. ... Fri, 18 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/what-is-earthbag-building https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/the-beauty-of-bottle-walls My first exposure to the concept of bottle walls was through one of Mike Reynold’s earthship books. Mike developed the idea of earthships in the 70’s when recyc... Thu, 10 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/the-beauty-of-bottle-walls https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/building-our-earthship-inspired-earthbag-house In 2014 our small intentional community purchased twelve acres of prime land in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Over the next year and a half, we helped our community... Fri, 04 Sep 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/building-our-earthship-inspired-earthbag-house https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/our-earthbag-tiny-house I quickly fell in love with earthbag building after discovering it in 2007. The fact that you could build an extremely strong, extremely inexpensive house using... Fri, 28 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/our-earthbag-tiny-house https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/where-can-i-buy-earthbags Hello all and welcome to the Sustainable Life School blog! In this blog, I’ll be trying to answer some of the most common questions about earthbag building. One... Fri, 14 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://sustainablelifeschool.com/blog/where-can-i-buy-earthbags