Mud Girls—Creating the World We Want to Live In

They had babies to feed and house. They reckoned that if nobody else was going to change the rules to support basic human needs and respect the biosphere, then we are all free to make our own rules.

Certain members had previous natural building experience—our founder, Jen Gobby, had taken a comprehensive natural building course. Another woman had studied drafting. We also had a carpenter, some herbalists, a baker, a tree sitter, a lawyer, and a circus acrobat. The rest of us were enthusiastic learners, and we all felt compelled to take action.

We were a bunch of young women, some of us mothers with babes at the breast, with little money, and a few survival skills. We found ourselves fundamentally dissatisfied with the options on offer for addressing our basic needs in a way that lessened our contribution to the mess we were making in the world, and avoided enslaving us in an exploitative economy based on debt and credit, mortgages, and ever-increasing rents. It was real: we needed shelter, and we needed meaningful work. We realized that if we wanted to provide homes for ourselves and our families in a way that made any sense to us, we were going to have to come up with something that didn’t exist yet.

Somewhere in our ancestral memories, we harbour an innate and wholesome connection to natural building. Once you get your hands working in this reconstituted earth, you feel a surge of understanding, as though you have done this before. Surround yourself with piles of sand, clay, straw, and a hose, and it can seem anything is possible! We can build a wall out of mud; that’s a revelation. But there’s a lot more to consider! What about the roof, and the digging, and the cutting, and the height and the slope, and the sawing, and the measuring … and the ack! The variety of tasks can quickly become overwhelming, or worse—boring. Building a wall out of mud with your bare hands is primal and monumental. Thinking about gutter systems … not so primal. It can help if you remember that it’s your building resources and your values that are precious, not the hoops you have to jump through for a building inspector. Water is precious; that’s why we’re going to figure out how to collect it. Wood is precious; that’s why we’re going to figure out how not to burn too much of it to stay warm throughout the years. Your life is precious; that’s why we’re going to build something beautiful with toxin-free, natural materials. When you consider that your house is going to be a big part of your life, your little abode becomes an ecosystem, full of relationships. And then insulation doesn’t seem so boring anymore.