A Message from Bilbo

A Message from Bilbo

Here’s a secret from the road. There are three universal languages and no matter where you wander everybody in every village understands them. 

The first language is music. Whenever people gather music happens. Everyone has music in them, a harmonica and a pair of spoons are all you need.

The second language is gardening. You can kneel in the dirt anywhere and with anyone and engage in the timeless pursue of nurturing plants.

The third language is shelter.  Everyone understands four walls and a roof, they are our second skin.

We live in a funny old world. A long, long time ago in the wild wet woods if you built your house in a day you owned it freehold. The building materials where under your feet. Today, with a hobbit-size fist full of dollars you can still build a home that exceeds all building codes for structural strength and coziness using earth bag construction. It’s called a hobbit house.

Today a half of North America's energy and carbon emissions comes from housing and yet owning a home is beyond the beyond for many because a middle class income no longer supports a middle class lifestyle. We’ve been on a crazy shopping spree leaving a debt-ridden economy and climate swinging on their hinges. We have driven ‘old blue’, our planet, into the ditch and to get back on road we need hook the tow chain to nature and keep fingers crossed that she still has the strength to get us back on the trail.

 Dancing barefoot on a grass roof leaves no footprint. A third of the world lives in dirt built houses and their homes last for centuries compared to the sixty-year lifespan of the standard modern house. No matter whether you from the Shire or dark Mordor all buildings are ruled by the four gods of construction: water, earth, air and sun. Water goes where water wants to go, weak foundations and walls wobble, fresh air gives you energy to dance all night and the sun keeps you warm, the lights on and the music playing. Views of distant horizons remind you that great things happen when men, women and mountains meet. Hobbits know housing and they also know that the good life depends upon having a vibrant community. The village provides support for people as they adjust to a kinder world.