Days 181, 182: Home For A Bit...

Drove home after work last night.

Some easy mud work today; taking it easy--as I've worked the last six days. The weather is absolutely perfect. Sitting outside watching the stars last night, I thought how beautiful this place is. And I thought of a line I read from Wendell Berry the other night (and sort of summarizes why we are trying to build this rickety mud house):

"The modern home is so destructive, I think, because it is a generalization, a product of factory and fashion, an everyplace or a noplace. Modern houses, like airports, are extensions of each other; they do not vary much from one place to another. A person standing in a modern room anywhere might imagine himself anywhere else---much as he could if he shut his eyes. The modern house is not a response to its place, but rather to the affluence and social status of its owner. It is the first means by which the modern mentality imposes itself upon the world."

When I sit outside my home, I know where I am. I know where every log came from; I know where every rock in the foundation came from (dug up by us!). I know the leaky tin is from a barn down the road built in 1915. I know that this mud is from the hole out behind the shed. This house is a product of place. Of human labor. Non-industrial. A wobbly work of art!

I hope the damned thing doesn't fall down...

p.s. I've added a couple photos to earlier posts....