Welcome Mike!
I have been a fan of yours for a long time. I remember reading an article about your building methods in Mother Earth news, probably in the early 80's. As an adult in the early 90's I found the $50 underground house book in the Louisiana Tech university library and checked it out many times, and made a ton of notes.
I purchased a backhoe (for $700!) in 2003 with the express idea of building an underground house. In 2004 I purchased 8 acres of
land in Louisiana with the intention of building an underground house. Unfortunately, my business crashed and I ended up with no income for 1 1/2 years and sold the place.
In 2005 I moved to the big
city of Austin, TX. No more country life for me!! I sold the backhoe and prepared to be a city boy. That lasted about 6 months and I moved to the country again, but now no backhoe! I purchased a used copy of your $50 and Up Underground House book at Half Price books in Austin and started back dreaming again. Over a few years there, I purchased tools to use for building a house.
In 2011 I moved to North Idaho. Being an avid reader, I went to the Bonner County library and imagine my delight to see the underground
greenhouse book written by you! I have checked it out a couple of times and read it. For some reason it had totally escaped me that you live in North Idaho until I read the
greenhouse book.
I am currently renting, but I'm trying to make a deal on 5 acres of property here in Bonner County. It is not the ideal piece, it is on the north side of a mountain with the slope facing north, but it will work.
Since I have moved here, I have been watching craigslist and picking up materials. I picked up a trailer load of insulated windows for free when someone wanted different color window frames so they changed out all the windows in their house. I recently purchased 34 sheets of tempered glass from someone else that had abandoned a greenhouse
project. I got another trailer load of lumber from someone remodeling a basement and had my kids remove all the nails.
I also recently purchased a backhoe attachment for my little 16 horse diesel mitsubishi
tractor and hope to get it mounted soon. This past year I also purchased a used Alaskan chainsaw mill and a Husky chainsaw with a 32" bar and ripping chain.
If everything comes together with the land purchase, perhaps I can get a greenhouse in the ground before winter and start on a house in the spring.
I am limited on money and have a extremely strong aversion to debt, so I intend to pay as I go. However, I do have time since I work 3 weeks away from home, then off for 2 weeks, and I occaisionally do really well at work and have a surplus of income that I can use to purchase what I need.
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