I've enjoyed your gardening posts, even though I haven't commented on any of them, sorry.

I grew up with a guy who built an earth-berm home; he bought a few acres of property and dug into the south side of a small hill. His entrance faced south and built his home into the excavation and after learning from his past mistakes (trying to bury shipping containers), he put in some of those solar tubes for the back end of his house. He had some minor leaks but got them sorted out and they allow for enough light during the day for him to not have to turn on any lights. I've seen them online; they're not cheap.

What struck me was how silent it was in there; my friend said it felt like being in a tomb, but I liked it. He did have a wind up Big Ben clock in his bedroom and since there was no ambient noise as in a regular house, THAT sounded loud and would have driven me nuts. The best thing was it stayed fairly cool in the back part of the house (away from the sunlight streaming in through the large windows facing south) and his first winter he said his heater hardly ever kicked on.   He also slept through a tornado that touched down only a few hundred yards away the following spring.

"Tubular Skylights" @ Lowes:

https://www.lowes.com/pl/Tubular-skylights-Skylights-accessories-Windows-Windows-doors/4294696743

Also listings at Home Depot and on Amazon.

I think I could actually live in a earth home especially with some acreage. I too, would like the peace and quiet. Not having heating and/or ac is the biggest plus for me. Tornado proof, what's not to love? How cool is that? Now if you have spring water, you would be all set.

Comment by lejardin - Today, 6:11 pm
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When I use to live home on the farm in my childhood we had our water supply from a hand dug well to get water from. The same as spring water except the well was dug down to get it. You can also use what is called a well point which you drove into the ground to the water.
Another option is to have a well driller come in and sink a well casing [about 6" in diameter] as far down as needed to the water. The casing generally went down to where it was not needed and they continued down through the rock, shale or whatever was hard down there.
Depending on the mineral content you would have natural minerals in your water which I find to be very tasty.