To learn about building a home that would live light on the land, Fay took an ecological home design class from Solution Era. Fay, other students, and their teacher experimented with a variety of building solutions and sustainable materials. She concluded that she wanted to build a hemp house. Not a home from hemp wood (a wood-like product made from hemp used for interior face building, furniture, and flooring); nor by using blocks of hempcrete (made from mixing lime and water with the woody core of the hemp plant).

Instead, Fay and her husband decided to use loose hemp. "It's cheaper," she says. "We build the box walls with wood, then push the hemp inside to insulate the walls. Then cover it with a mix of lime, sand, and water to create a kind of stucco." Fay hired an expert to show them how to pack the hemp. Then, they mixed the hemp with lime, water, and a bit of brick powder to bind it together. It took six weeks, but they had the help of six to eight people a day (including other students from her class who wanted to learn).

"I wanted loose hemp because it's so natural," she explains. "You don't have any plastic between the house and the outside, it provides excellent insulation, and it regulates humidity." According to the New York Times, hemp-house enthusiasts tout the material for its stucco-like appearance and lack of toxicity. It also has a lower carbon footprint: a hemp house requires three times less energy to make than standard limestone concrete.

Joy Beckerman, a hemp law specialist and active in the Hemp Industries Association, also told the Times that "In many climates, a 12-foot hempcrete wall will facilitate approximately 60-degrees indoor temperatures year-around, without heating or cooling systems." An additional benefit is hemp's lower overall environmental compared to traditional construction.

Growing Toward Self-Sufficiency

Meanwhile, in Quebec, Fay's home is nearly completed. The wood-framed house, with shou sugi ban window framing and hemp insulation, was designed with large windows facing south to bring in the sun. The home's thermal mass keeps the house cool in summer and warm in winter. A wood stove provides supplemental heat in winter and warms the water that runs through a heating system beneath the floors. No air conditioning is necessary during the summer. The house is solar-ready, but because Quebec electricity is so inexpensive, Fay says, they'll wait several years before hooking up the solar. They also plan to purchase an electric car.

"We're aiming to be as sustainable and self-sufficient as possible," she says. "We already have chickens and a rooster, fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, and a small garden. My husband takes care of the animals and grows mushrooms." A greenhouse will allow the couple to grow vegetables in the winter. Rainwater off the home's metal roof is used for plants. WaterSense low-flow fixtures in the kitchen and bath, and LED lights used in the evenings (as the windows bring in plentiful daylight) help reduce the couple's carbon footprint.