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28-30 Jul 11
28 Jul - You're sacked!!
6 Sunseeders turned up today to take part in the great sack race. Well, not really a race, more like a sausage roll. With 6 of us working on the filling and placing the sacks and 2 sieving soil to make sand we made brilliant progress. 
Above: Tania loosening the soil ready for sack filling |
Above: Ceci and Francesca filling a sack |
Above: Greg and Phillip digging and sieving soil |
Above: The finished sausage roll |
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And at the end of the day we had a 2 sausage, I mean sack, high wall around the back roof edge. This will stop the bermed soil from spilling onto the roof.
We also had a lovely soft layer of sand so we can now lay out the plastic without it tearing on stones.
Thanks everyone, you were fab.
From left front: Silvia, Tania, Francesca, Ceci and Gregory.
Left back: Me and Phillip. |
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29 Jul
Phillip stayed and helped Dave today. They were working on the bit of roof that joins the greenhouse to the round room. Square peg, round hole - whoever thought of joining a circle and a rectangle should be sacked, oh, it was me, well I'm sorry chaps. Needless to say this stage took a lot of thinking, planning, talking, contemplating....! It also involved some very accurate cutting as you can see in the pic. It's far too complicated to explain what they're doing, so you'll just have to watch this space to see how it develops.
As the day cooled they covered the sandbags with bitumen, see below for pics. |
30 Jul
I'm back on site again with more paint to get that bitumen 1st coated before it melts into a big blob. And so I did, after Phillip and Dave finished the very fiddly job of covering the sacks with it. They started last night and soon found that bitumen doesn't mould very well so had to rejig the soil in the sacks to pad out the gaps. I think they've done a very good job, even though it does look a little like an elephants hind leg!
A white elephant, or maybe an albino snake? |
Catching water
Dave took a photo this morning to show how much dew the roof is already catching - I reckon it's about a litre. Ok, so it looks (and tastes) pretty yucky at the moment because we're still sealing the bitumen under paint, but who'd have thought we'd be getting so much in this dry, semi-desert - in the height of summer. |
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So what does Eco mean?
On my way to the 'ship I stopped to pick up an armchair left by a bin. It's in good enough condition to be used at the 'ship while we're working and maybe one day I'll recover it. It was tricky getting it into the car on my own so I asked a man standing nearby to help. He was amazed that I wanted the chair so I told him why and what we're building. This lead onto a discussion about eco builds in which the question came up about the carbon footprint of our Earthship during construction. I have no idea what this is and should've said so, but I felt a little defensive so said it must be at least 50% of a regular build. Picking a figure randomly out of the air was a mistake and a lively discussion ensued! I made my excuses and exited as quickly as I could. But it got me thinking...
What is the carbon footprint of an Earthship during construction? Does it matter as so many of the materials are reclaimed or locally sourced and the end result is sooo eco friendly? What does Eco friendly actually mean? How do I work out our carbon footprint? Do I want to??! Any comments on these questions would be much appreciated.
A little toilet humour
A few weeks ago we had a visit from Lucia who is translating into English a web site about human waste. When we said that we were installing a flushing toilet into the 'ship (using the greywater from the planters) she was horrified and spent a while trying to convince us to install a dry toilet. We've always planned to have a dry toilet outside, but inside? So I became quite defensive again (I remember using the 'tinderbox' in my Aunt's garden in Wales - a cobweb ridden, dark shed with a wooden seat and a hole, I had nightmares about that shed!) But it got me thinking....
So I checked out her web site www.eautarcie.org and am now tempted to give a BLT a try. No I'm not talking about a Bacon Lettuce Tomato toastie, I'm talking about a Bio Litter Toilet. I still have my reservations and there's some questions I'd need answers to before going ahead. But my main worry is that I just don't do poo, well of course I do it, but I've been brung up in an environment where it was considered dirty. To change my views on it now is going to take some doing.
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Logically I can see the benefits of a BLT; no plumbing, no water, useful compost after 2 years, no smell (apparently). But what about emptying that bucket at the end of the week? Will that become an onerous task that neither of us want to do, especially when we have guests in the 'ship? I mean there's one thing dealing with your own merde, but dealing with others'???
What do you think? Leave a comment below...
Right: a BLT made from a milk crate - cool. See www.rootsimple.com for instruction to make it. |
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Some other BLT's 
Love this |
A throne to be proud of |
Comments
I had a question relating to the earthbags. What kind of material are they made of? Folks over here in the states talk of using used poly feed or grain bags and its got me curious
joseph
Hi Joseph, The earthbags are a plastic weave grain type sack, the cork was delivered in them. They wouldn't last long exposed to the elements, but I think they'll be ok undercover. Laura
Laura Davies
Thanx Laura
I think I might be able to scrounge around for some thing similar. Other wise it might be blue jeans and fishing line
joseph
Joseph
We only used the sacks because we had lots of them, I'd go with whatever you have a lot of or can get locally - good luck!
Laura Davies
looks like I,ll be hitting thrift shops hard and heavy for a while.
joseph
Let us know how it goes, would be good to see pics of your build - what are you building??
Laura Davies
I dont have anything planned. In fact I,m still looking for property. But I do work for a shortline railroad, and we are always working on a short shoe string. It would be perfect for beefing up headwalls on those old style wooden bridges. So I,m looking for something to integrate into my work as well as for a homebuild when the time to build a home comes up
joseph
Sounds like a good idea Joseph, what would you use to cover and protect the sacks in that situation?
Laura Davies
In regards to a house, I would use papercrete, but in regards to stopping up against headwalls, that part I havent figured out yet
joseph
buenas estoy viviendo en barcelona y estoy muy interesado en aprender de los earthships, me podria ecomendar por que camino empezar
yurandi poots
Hola Yurandi, si entiende Ingles ver el primero livro de Michael Reynolds - Comfort in any climate - ver nuestra 'Books' conexion. O visitar el pagina web del arcitect www.earthship.com
Laura Davies
Indoor W(ater-less)C
Compost worms could do it quite nicely; they certainly love horse poo, and in my experience of domestic waste (including human “poo”), chomp through everything. Poo is repulsive to us, not them.
A compost worm solution could be neat, because they like little and often & the worm population grows to the nutrient load available. It would save regular emptying, though you would obviously need a larger storage space. They would die if you didn't feed them for a long while (a few weeks) e.g. went way for a while; although worm eggs are viable certainly for months, so the population could re-grow again.
The main issue is keeping them in (they are very exploratory and can wiggle through the smallest gap).
I read another blogger who used lights successfully for indoor worm composting (until the bulb failed that is!).
My (theoretical as yet) solution to keep them where you want them is therefore an under-seat light (as they really don't like light).
As you will (presumably) be limiting power use, a 12v electroluminescent wire uses little electricity and is bendy, LEDs may also be appropriate... (I have wondered about catching the urine separately and with appropriate anode and cathode, using that as some sort of battery. To be looked into....)
Construction-wise:
I'd install a “stink pipe” (for outside ventilation, including insect screening). A black tube through the roof during day would certainly pull air through the “compost” to the outside; I guess there is a potential for cold air to sink in at night though?
using plenty of dry compostable mater to cover each deposit should avoid the need for drainage;
I think that urine separation is sensible to avoid saturation (easiest design 2-hole sit or squat position does require sit down pee's for men!);
main storage unit on wheels for more easy manoeuvre when full and interchangeable with a new one for fast turn around.
Don McLean
Thanks for the info Don, very interesting and thought through. Didn't realise worms would be ok in this environment. We have them in our compost heap but that is only filled with vegetable matter.
Laura Davies
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