Hello all,

   I just kind of stumbled on your website here and I don't know much about the Mudcat Cafe (interesting name, though). I live in Brazil and here houses are made with a lot of concrete and very fragile hollow ceramic bricks that are reinforced with a lot of cement covering. It's a very inefficient way to build a house and it can take up to 2 years depending on your financing conditions. The weather here is mild, though, so people can get away with it.
   Personally, I really like wood because it is so easy to work with and buildings can go up very quickly.
   On the other hand, wood doesn't seem to make sense for people who live in areas with a lot of severe weather. I think if I were living in Kansas or Oklahoma, or other tornado alleys in the midwest U.S., I would think seriously about rebuilding a destroyed home in all wood structure.
    It seems that now would be an interesting time for people in those areas to consider building earth-bermed houses with some reinforced concrete, stone, and maybe some hay bales. There is a huge amount of area there and the land must be reasonably priced, but I'd imagine many people are hesitant to move there because of the occasionally violent weather. Maybe now would be an opportunity for those people to build some more solid and perhaps environmentally friendly structures that could withstand the weather...anyone agree with me? Really, perhaps we need to get the developers to think about this...any aspiring developers out there?