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The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book by Mike Oehler |
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For more than three decades, Mike Oehler has been building underground dwellings, experimenting with low-cost, earth-insulated housing at his 46-acre homestead near Bonners Ferry. He has turned his hobby into an industry, producing first a book (The $50 and Up Underground House Book) and then videos and more house-making manuals, and now his latest: The Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book. In his greenhouse book, Oehler shows how he has harnessed the warmth of the earth to keep tomatoes producing until December and kale and other greens going all winter long. All this in a greenhouse that is no expensive high-tech facility. He built the original 10 foot by 27 foot structure for about $400.
With this kind of practical experience and success, he's become an international expert on owner-built housing. His jolly full-bearded visage has been seen on television interviews around Europe and across the US. He even finds a place at academic forums.And then, after each dose of fame, he returns to his rural homestead and continues his underground ways, burrowing into the Idaho soil like a wild potato.Oehler's book shows how he has mastered, through decades of trial and error, using the warmth of the earth to maintain a growing temperature. He explains how and why, what worked and what didn't, and rants about his arch-nemesis, the gopher. And he includes enough drawings and photos for anyone to duplicate his design.Part of the charm of his book is his folksy, ah-shucks writing style. He's a crusty old bachelor and proud of it. Take, for example, this suggestion (page 62) that an expired credit card serves as an appropriate tool to apply glazing compound to an old wooden window:“..if you can't find your putty knife, which is in the kitchen utensil drawer because you've used it last to flip eggs when you couldn't find the spatula which was buried under magazines at the bedside after being used as an emergency fly swatter.”If you want a greenhouse and you want to build it yourself, a good place to start is by visiting with Mike Oehler, www.undergroundhousing.com. |
