Live in a Green, Sustainable...Hobbit Hole?

To the Shire!

Sorry, just got a little excited there. It is after all, a rather rare occurrence when a beloved fantasy story begets very real environmentalism. What the hell am I talking about, you ask?

I'm talking about this Woodland home, a real life hobbit hole built by Simon Dale in Wales. That's right—working with his father and his bare hands, over the course of 4 months, he built his home right into a hillside, a la Bilbo Baggins. He estimates that the whole thing cost him less than $6,000. And it's a fascinating, strangely beautiful home (view more pictures at the Simon Dale website) that surely turns its fair share of heads.

And perhaps best of all, it's green. It was designed with sustainability and reuse in mind, and Dale has minimized his impact on the surrounding land. He lists the green features of the house online, and there are many:

- Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter

- Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.

- Frame of oak thinnings (spare wood) from surrounding woodland

- Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building

- Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture (compared to cement)

- Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings

- Anything you could possibly want is in a rubbish pile somewhere (windows, burner, plumbing, wiring...)

- Woodburner for heating - renewable and locally plentiful

- Skylight in roof lets in natural feeling light

- Solar panels for lighting, music and computing

- Water by gravity from nearby spring

- Compost toilet

- Roof water collects in pond for garden etc.

And there you have it?a green, real life hobbit hole. Sorry if I keep repeating myself—I guess I just can't get over the fact that someone actually gets to live in the Shire. If only there were a real world, sustainable Gandalf, too.

Dale's not the only one either?other folks have taken up living like a hobbit as well.

And the great thing about Dale's website is he includes a step by step how-to pictorial—so you can build your very own hobbit hole, too. See you in Middle Earth.