earth berms as pig shelters

I have seen a few videos and read some on earth berm shelters and am thinking of building a few this spring for my pigs.anyone else done this here,pictures would be great.i was thinking here in Vermont they would make great winter shelters,even work for farrowing.

Here is a picture of one of Sepp Holzer's pig huts

Credit:

And, have you seen Paul's video?

yeah,pauls video is what first peaked my interest in earth berm.sepp holzers shelters look great.

I planned on doing them, but never got around to it and no longer have hogs. I still may do it for sheep, goats, and me (hunting blind).

I don't have enough rot-resistant logs to do it holtzer style, but was planning to do a stabilized earthbag wall with log roof.

We've been doing earthbermed animal shelters, including for pigs, for decades. We use stone and masonry rather than wood though. Wood rots out too fast. FYI, we're in the mountains of Vermont. With our soils we can't go back very far - we hit granite. Then we start cutting into the mountain.

hey walter,i am in Wolcott vt,and I have a stonework/landscape business so stone would work well for me.i was thinking of using the 2by2by6 ft cement blocks for walls,and then logs for roof,with pond liner and soil cover.maybe build doors etc outta rough cut.though grizzly gravel for floor.what ya think?mike

I have done some with logs. Rots. I like rock and concrete, which is mostly rock in reality. We use a lot of granite.

Rocks grow well in that region. May as well use them as long as they're free, and need to be removed from the soil anyways.
Done right, they'll still be there for your grand kids. Cant say the same for logs.

I agree.