Energy — a key concern for your tiny house. Especially for you off-gridders out there. In the vid below, I show how to build a tiny house mobile solar cart. This is Don from Piedmont Pine Coffins. Click here for a guest column I wrote for the website Tiny House Listings on our tiny house […]
Countercultural coffins and urns
September 19, 2016
In a radio interview I did recently, here are words that came out of my mouth: We always wanted to be countercultural — in an ADMIRABLE way. Revelatory. Never knew I thought that till that moment. Really, the things a soul will pronounce on when you’re distracted by wires and microphones. I was referring to the […]
The outhouse joke
June 15, 2016
The outhouse joke. Recently, when coffinworks visitors Marshall and Donald toured our place, it called to mind their growing-up years on a dairy farm in Iredell County and the following outhouse story: My father had an outhouse with two seats. One day one of the hired hands went down to use it. Well he was […]
Spilt milk: a monastic lesson for activists
March 24, 2016
It was during the time I left teaching to make coffins that our Dexter cow had her first calf and began to give milk. For readers just joining, we are Piedmont Pine Coffins. We make our boxes with hand tools and take our inspiration from farmsteads and monasteries through the ages: self-sufficiency, hospitality, and a […]
A murder of crows
September 26, 2015
A murder of crows in both senses — that’s the tale of this post. But my hand was stayed, and to good effect. Read on. A flock of sheep, a brace of coneys, a murder of crows. Well, there’s been a murder of crows in our garden the last couple of years. It’s usually about […]
BCS tractor review: a French kiss
June 8, 2015
This BCS tractor review involves a fateful and forceful French kiss. Read on. A BCS — “Beast” for short — is an Italian vineyard tractor with two wheels that you walk behind. Ours arrived on a truck one day last week. It’s designed for slopes and small acreage. Since it’s Italian, maybe I should say, then, […]