In Northern Thailand, human-dwelling is an arrangement of the local forest

Kitchen at Newlands Food Forest, Pai, 2016

We helped with building cob houses from local clay and elephant dung, and took shelter under roofs made from leaves.

PK slicing a freshly cut bamboo piece into packing strap for carrying the harvest.
PK making a new basket, used for carrying grocery and drying dishes.

One week, PK, a local carpenter, came to repair the kitchen roof. How finely he could split freshly-cut bamboo into thin strips for fastening with only a machete!

Later, we followed him into the forest to harvest more bamboo. He moved around the uneven terrain with great agility, while we gingerly stepped trying to avoid snakes. He could see which bamboo piece to cut for which purpose, and knew all the tricks, like using slices of bamboo as rope to tie the bundles together. For him, the forest is a hardware store.