>>1284135I think that was because some older ones fell down eventually and he ended up buying his own land or something.
>>1285555I knew a guy in the 1980s who actually did this sort of stuff locally. It gets -40 in the winter here at worst, but usually only -20F. He built his place using a 4' tall stone foundation with cob walls and originally a thatch roof until he found a place with slate he could mine. He had like 300ish acres and all the supplies, to build the house, came from the land. The house lasted all his life, but once he died it passed through a few owners until a well company bought the land a few years ago and bulldozed a giant road right through the area, flattened the hill entirely and put a gargantuan 4-head Marcellus well platform on top. There was talk about turning it into a historical site to protect it, but that was tossed out the window when the oil & gas people showed up in the area.
Anyway, he was always making pottery kilns, pottery, flint arrow heads, and a slew of homemade stuff. The house had 2 fireplaces. I only knew him when he was an old man and his children were all off with their own families. The house never had electric, unless the later owners installed it.
