Jim Christophic came to Taos with the idea of ​​helping the people of the Navajo Reservation. This may make Kristofic seem confused about the geography of New His Mexico.

he’s not confused He is actually a thinker and writer who has cut through the fog.

“There aren’t many passive solar buildings on the reservation, and the people there don’t have them. I knew Taos had that knowledge,” Christofik said in a telephone interview.

His original intention with “House Gods” was to introduce the Navajo to the possibilities of sustainable building techniques while at the same time reducing the building’s footprint on the environment. Christofik was raised on the reservation in Gunnard, Arizona.

“You can spend $30,000 to $40,000 and get a degree in architectural design, or you can move to Taos and do that,” he added.

Christofik has indeed moved there. He spent five years researching and writing “House Gods.” It is based on his interviews (and apprenticeships) with a handful of rebel builders in Taos, Mora, and Rio his Arriba counties.

Book essays make for a lively read. These builders will show you how to use the sun and gravity, use sledgehammers to compact soil into tires, place straw into bales, and compact soil into bags.

The essay is not only about building materials and design. Weaved into Christophic’s informative essays are the personal lives of builders, dramatic landscape descriptions, surviving extreme cold, his relationship with a rescued dog, Adobe history and the Navajo tribe. It is a worldview study.

These short sidebars are nicely integrated into the essay.

The first essay is about builder Willie Groffman. He lives in the rural community of Los Hueros near Ocate in Mora County.

Christofik said a chance encounter with Groffman in 2014, just before the Taos screening of the documentary film, was the driving force behind the book’s focus. I bathed.

Groffman introduces Christophic into his greenhouse, with a large water barrel along the south wall that catches the photons emitted by the windows and heats the water in the barrel. The thick east and west walls are made of sun-dried mud and cordwood.

A cobblestone fireplace in his home acts as a heat sink.

A casual writing style makes the reader feel at home. For example, Groffman invites the author to a greenhouse and quotes Groffman: This is where I worship the sun…this is where I get my inspiration. I build towards the sun “

Christofik describes the change in Groffman’s facial expression:

Also, Christofik writes: On yet another occasion, Groffman tilts his face and “winks a dim smile that reminds me that I’m also talking to a smart Jewish kid” who has fled his South side of Chicago.

One essay that deviates from the theme of the book is “Summer Solstice of Cruelty.” It is about the New Buffalo (Winter) Solstice Reawakening Shamanic Ceremony. (New He Buffalo He was a commune in the Taos area founded in the 1960s.)

Christofik observed the ceremony attendees.

The title of the book is taken from calling Hogan or the House God, or God, who lives at the door of every house.

House deities represent strength, wisdom, health and integrity. The gods of the house of books are builders.

Christofik is an English teacher at Taos High School.

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