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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

> Sage:

> I'm reading (so many pictures, if you can actually call it
> that) Built by Hand: Vernacular Buildings from Around the
> World, and I'm really blown away by the beauty, variety of
> forms, and local materials use of ordinary rural people
> everywhere.

Yoshio Komatsu's photography is superb. Text is superfluous.

You would also enjoy Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter, by Lloyd Kahn, who  
earlier brought us Shelter.

> They have been doing for centuries what we are
> only now talking about doing. How did we get so far away
> from this?

Our resident sociologist and your fellow Texan, Jerry, will hopefully  
weigh in on that question.

In our evolution we have embraced the work of the specialist  
incrementally. For all the simple utility and beauty of vernacular  
buildings and living close to the land, only a motley few of us find  
it fulfilling to retreat to life as a generalist who manually  
performs most of the tasks associated with maintaining life.

There are basic reasons why the design of shelter has changed: we  
have become less nomadic; we prefer houses that maintain superior  
temperature control; we want safety from fire, we want life to be  
easier. Modern plumbing and electricity gives us machines that clean  
our clothes and entertain us. Those systems require a sound, stable  
structure.

There is great power in nostalgia: note the prices of old furniture  
that is less comfortable than modern stuff. I can now reliably  
predict that each new friend who visits will ooh and ahh over my  
handmade cutting block, often eventually hinting that they sure would  
like to have one. We are drawn to what is organic; it speaks to our  
longing for authenticity.

Vernacular building styles and materials appeal to independent, self- 
reliant homesteaders for reasons of cost. We willingly pay great  
labor costs to avoid great purchased materials cost. Note the genesis  
of this thread: preserving poles; poles that many of us can cut on  
our own land.