Kat Ehrhorn's blog

Peace Shrine dedicated to serving a vision of world peace.

My name is Kat Ehrhorn. I am 53 years totally young and was trained by two very kind and bright sons, Grail, now 21, and Zeleigh, 19. They are the fifth generation of our family to be born in Los Angeles, were raised in Arizona and are now both still here in college.

I was born into a well educated, upper middle class American capitalist family. For generations, the ideals of that family have been driven by the values of the American Dream: the one with the most wins. They still live that dream, amassing capital that generations have enjoyed, made from sweat and brilliance, oil, cattle, Wall Street and orange groves.

Basking in the abundance of capital consumerism in the mid-1950’s and 60’s, American and global consumption sky rocketed and the happiness index of America began to decline. Meanwhile my family amply enjoyed the fruits, and our adventures together were wonderful. What a great time to be a kid.

 

 

 

On to yet a different dirt road

After serving half of
the last three year retreat, I and my two sons came to Diamond
Mountain, sleeping on metal cots at
the bluffs of the wash where we helped to build the campground. A passion for
using native and local materials drove my vision of construction and design,
and I felt compelled beyond reason to change my life, give up my company with
sales of a million dollars a year while living in a desert forest paradise. I HAD
to move here and help build for the benefit of some yet unknown body of wisdom
and compassion. And by the kindness of holy teachers, we soon landed in the
Jamyang House, built by Holy Lama Winston, to finish and ready for service as the
sole classroom for the first year at DM.

Back in Santa
Monica in 1986, I was introduced to Nader Khalili’s
flexible form rammed earth domes.  And I knew
then in 2003 that I and friends at Diamond
Mountain would have to make one, now
known as the kiva at Jamyang. When Holy Geshe Michael walked into the kiva, he
said, “This is what I’ve always wanted. This is what I want for Three-Year Retreat.”

I told Him I wasn’t pleased with toxic by-products that harm
life in the manufacturing of the plastic bags, and that they’re quite expensive.
But he said, “Go ahead and make ours with the plastic bags. And keep working on
it”. So a three-year development of a paper emulsified adobe is that adaptation
of materials and method. Now without using plastic bags and expensive forms, we
are keeping paper trash out of landfills when adding it to adobe mud products,
and saving thousands of dollars. The cellulose matrix of the paper fiber offers
a superlative bonding element with the clay, as well as improved sound proofing
and insulative qualities, enhancing non-mechanical climate control. With the
non-brittle, light weight, strengthened adobe, I now had the material to make adobe
domes without the plastic bags.

Those years were also spent in finding someone who would show
me how to make a bagless adobe dome. I knew it was an ancient seed we carry as
humans in the deserts on this planet of clay and stone. Making shelter in the
desert environs of Middle Eastern, Saharan and Sub-Saharan deserts without
steel, concrete or wood, forced elegant evolutions of adobe dome structures over
thousands of years that tolerate the most extreme of temperatures and conditions.
They are earthquake and fire resilient, time tested. However with the current wood
frame based construction climate of the US
(95% of the houses built in the US
are frame and stucco), it was challenging to find that person.

Last year I finally met
Trini and Chabela Pena Lopez. They came to Diamond
Mountain the past summer to teach
me. And the first two adobe domes at Diamond
Mountain are underway in the
ancient way of the Nahtual Aztec Indians of Central Mexico: in complete
perfection, without compromise of materials and harm to life, with hardly any
cost, and lots of joy in their making (especially when Anik is in your crew making
mocha coffees and other delicacies).

These methods are being demonstrated for the benefit of the
poorest of people on this planet who need shelter, as well as for proposed 30 decentralized
library pods-cum-practice rooms, throughout the deep retreat valley at
different retreat cabin sites. Labor to make these domes is light weight and
non skilled. Materials cost practically nothing.

To be coordinated through Adobe Club efforts, we are
developing plans for ten more adobieros to come to Diamond
Mountain from Stone
Island, Mazatlan,
Mexico for a yoga, meditation
and cultural exchange program during late spring. As with the YSI programs that
were conducted in San Pancho, Mexico
for the past two years, they will be doing yoga and meditation programs in the
mornings and evenings, and community service in the afternoons. For their
community service I hope they will be making adobe domed decentralized library
pods at 30 sites, alongside seven members of the Adobe Club.  Time and funding permitting, we also hope to implement
rain water catchment and storage facilities at those 30 sites, removing them from
total dependency on a fossil fuel based water supply for enhanced water
security.

On to Retreat

 

 

I have no fears about doing three year retreat, as I take my refuge from the love and support of my friends and family, in the training from my teachers, and from the authenticity of the teachings. I have the best holders of the lamp in all the galaxies!

 

May you live long lives in perfect health and happiness.

Winter 2009 State of The Club

In our case in the southwest, there is an abundance of adobe mud, sand and hardwood timbers, such as mesquite, cedar and pine. True of all communities worldwide, there is also an abundance of recyclable paper trash. It’s been shown that by amending mud with the paper (wood) cellulose, an improved adobe building material results. So keeping our local community’s paper trash out of the landfills, we amend locally available mud and produce non-toxic, eco-friendly, high quality low cost building materials, keeping our local economy strong and environment cleaner.

Another important benefit from a locally based materials system is that processes are scaled and tailor-made to embrace children and the elderly, Diamond Mountain students and other in-need populations as identified in related EBM programs. These programs create opportunities for every individual in the community to be vitally important to the overall health and development of their community, and to provide links to socially important support services when needed.  

Adobieros and environmental ed teachers Trini and Chabela from Mexico came and taught us adobe plaster methods and mixes (we’re now using recycled KFC oil for sealant!), as well as brick and cast dome methods. The Club also learned the pampas grass growing at Jamyang is the very best mud reinforcement of all metals and plant species. Chabela advised everyone should plant it, along with the corrizo grass used already as a locally grown building material and shade plant.

Plans are underway to invite members of all ages from the local San Carlos Apache Reservation, to spend a week at Diamond Mountain and learn how to build a domed paper adobe guest house. This particular group of Apaches comes to DM regularly to pray. They tell us they like to come here for the peace and freedom to pray as they wish, away from conflicts at their reservation. They have asked for housing here, to accommodate the elders and children, the spiritual practitioners, for stays of several days to weeks. They want a round house, like the kiva at Jamyang.

Through building this project, they will also be empowered to bring knowledge of this affordable housing option to others at the reservation, and hopefully help residents out of old, inadequate and unsafe trailers that currently dominate reservation landscapes. This visit will be co-administered by other DM EBM programs.

Gardening at the Adobe Club, is also a vital aspect for eco-friendly human infrastructure development and the Club continues efforts towards establishing community food security. The same travesties that exist in our building materials industries also prevail throughout our food production industries: we produce poison and toxicity that are directly attributable to disease and death on planet earth for all species and for all ecosystems. This must be changed and the Club continues with this commitment.