Homing in on Adobe Brick

We just had our labour day weekend go by a couple of weeks ago and I attended
the annual general meeting field trip of the Earth Building Association of
New Zealand (EBANZ). We went to visit some earth buildings around
Christchurch. I was most interested in adobe brick as we are now seriously
looking at using the clayey soil we have on the forest block to build a house
with. We'd like to source all materials (well almost) from the property and
build a sustainable living showcase. Kristi wants very much to teach people
about nature, ecology, sustainability. Me, I'd like to show how techology can
be put to good use and to help in sustainability. I only saw one real adobe
brick house but even they ended up using some concrete in their bricks, which
I think now is completely unnecessary. Back when they built their homes, the
standards weren't in place yet and I think to get council approval, most
erred on the side of using materials that were familiar to the the people who
approved these buildings. Most of the advocates of the pure adobe brick
building are up in the Nelson area, which is in the same district as the
forest block, so I feel like there will be a lot of support for trying to do
what we are doing.

Now, it's time to work on getting ourselves up there. I asked at work about
telecommuting but they weren't so keen, so I think I might begin to look
around to see how I could continue to work while living closer to the forest
block so we can start the work...you know...before we turn 9.

We met the previous owners of the forest block and they had an amazing
sustainable forest plan in place which we hope to continue. I got lots of
good maps and hopefully will be adding to the website soon and share this
info about the work that is being done there. he showed us a bunch of beech
furniture that he had and well, it's pretty exciting to think that I've got
my own supply of this beautiful wood.