A MUM has revealed how she built her own tiny home out of hay bales and horse poo.
Grandma Emma has been living in her enchanted fairyland in Wales with no electricity for the past 20 years.
Passionate about not being a “wage slave”, Emma created her own “parallel reality” that she can live peacefully in.
She revealed she always wanted to live “the Flintstones life”.
“I had a call to ‘do the Flintstones thing’. Living simply with no electricity in these little huts,” she said.
Nestled at the end of a lightly trodden path, amongst trees and shrubs lies Emma’s 13ft quaint hut.
Perfectly camouflaged, the wild roof blends in with the leafy trees surrounding it.
Look down and the pale, bark-looking walls unobtrusively set the place apart.
Emma’s hut cost £1,000 to build and is made from all natural ingredients.
She told Living Big in a Tiny House, her home sits on a Hart Oak platform and although it blows down each winter, it supports the straw bale walls.
The plastering is made from a secret recipe, with one ingredient being ‘horse poo’.
Structured using reciprocal framing, the self-supported roof sits on the top of the walls.
This means each self supporting rafter follows a circuit like pattern, they lap one another, allowing for a dome-like ceiling.
In alignment with Emma’s connection to nature, the 13 rafters which make up the reciprocal framing, each represent the 13 moons of the year.
“Of course, when this home is no longer lived in, everything can just go back to the earth”, Emma claims.
Inside Emma’s hut are her essentials such as her home-made woollen mattress, colourful bed roll, crystals, clothing, food, and an open fire.
Emma’s hut has no curtains or electricity. Instead, she enjoys tuning in with the natural sunlight of the day, and the natural moonlight of the night.
“One of my favourite things, when I’ve got a bit of time, is to go wandering off into the woods and collecting a sack of twigs.”
Emma has no toilet or bathroom and although this is no challenge for her, she understands it can be a shock to others.
The natural waterfalls and rivers are Emma’s source to water, however, hidden amongst the wildlife is her sauna and bath.
From gathering rainwater to fill the bath, the water can be warmed by a fire beneath. Emma also has compost toilets.
Originally, Emma and the father of her children bought the farm which the hut now sits on.
It took Emma eight years to get planning permission from the Welsh Government to construct her home.
The Mum believes we have lost track of the possibility of finding luxury in simple living, as we live in a world warped with an ongoing quest for money.
Emma hopes that other people can find inspiration from her magical home and insists the earth “wants us to be happy”.
“For me, I think our houses are in some way ourselves aren’t they?
“So, I feel that my journey to discover myself has kind of come hand-in-hand with my journey to build my own ideal home.
“This house, in some quite close way is reflection of myself, my wishes, and I’ve learned a huge amount on the journey of learning what my ideal home looks like”.
We break down exactly what you need to do to live off grid
Find a plot with woodland, so you can make fires in the winter, arable land, optimal for growing food and raising livestock, and a water supply, because there’s no life without water!
Get planning permission if you’re planning on making big changes to a building or changing its use
Acquire a power source, whether its solar panels, wind turbines or water power
Think about insulation, so your hard-earned heating doesn’t disappear in an instant
Start planting your own fruit, vegetables and grains so you have ingredients to cook with
Make sure you have an effective drainage and waste system, before things turn ugly!
