What most people don't realize is that we built two earthships on this land and our project started in 2007 with the delivery of the tires. The problem we faced is that the drive way was narrow so the driver could not get into the yard with his big truck. We purchased the tires from the local tire recycler. The local company has since been purchased by the tire mafia as they rake in the money due to the $4 recycle fee that people are now charged when they buy a tire. They are now making millions. If you want to find tires now, the best way is to build a relationship with the local tire shop. They would be more than happy to give you their tires as it saves them the $4 fee.
We spent the next 4-5 hours hauling 15 ton of tires back into our yard. The driver dumped his load onto the county road. A very stressful day that we now laugh about.
I then hired a hoe operator to dig a dugout for us and use the earth as back fill for the earthships. He also built our drive way which I was very grateful for. It took a few years for it to get into shape, but with enough gravel, it all worked out. We live on the top of the Tawatinaw Valley and there is lots of sand and gravel around here.
The very first tire I ever pounded. It was the start of a beautiful relationship!
You can see a couple rows of tires in this picture. The tires are on the north, so that when we are done, the south sun will shine into the building and heat up all this thermal mass.
The garage in the background is where we lived for the first two years of our project. When we started we thought that we could have the buildings done in a year, but pounding this many tires takes a lot of work. Michael Reynolds and his crew makes it look easy. But to manage expectations, it took my wife and I over 4 months to pound 8 rows of tires for a 75 foot building. We worked two days, took a day off as the work was demanding on our bodies.
Our cisterns went in at row 5 and you can see that I filled them 1/2 full of water. If I was to do this again, I would put them in the center of the building along the back wall instead of in the east wall. Reason is to ensure that during a storm, the water collection system can capture all the water. It takes too long for the water to flow down the front of the building to get to the tanks and it overflows and causes flooding. I'm going to redesign the roof so that all the water flows backwards so that during a storm, the water would flow down the back of the earthship instead.
Note: We experience -40C / -40F temperatures during the winter and some winters last 7 months. The tops of our tanks are not even covered with earth yet as we are not done our project. We get ice in the tanks as the tops freeze, but we have never had the bottom freeze and we have always been able to draw water from the tanks. The earthship keeps the tanks from freezing in the winter, which is a testimony to the power of thermal mass.
We were tired of pounding tires, so we dug down a couple feet and got to work on the foundation for the south wall. The space in front of the foundation is for a 10 foot atrium that will run down the whole length of the building. The atrium provides a second row of glass to buffer the building from the extreme cold weather in the winter and shade the building from the summer sun.
The south wall is up and our home made trusses are going up too. The span is 20 feet and you can tell that we are getting late in the season by the length of the shadows on the floor. On winter solstice, the sun is so low, that it will shine half way up the back wall. On a good sunny day in the winter, it could be -35C outside and the sun will heat up the building to +25C easily.
When the roof went up, we installed our solar system into the Earthship. It has been in a shed for the past two years powering the shop that we lived in. We have not moved in yet as the earthship was not ready for winter.
This is our Earthship in the late fall of 2008. We ran out of building season, so we only managed to get the plastic up as we were not ready for the windows. There is no insulation in the attic either, just a sheet of plastic on the ceiling. The building sat that way all winter and despite our harsh winters, it only got down to -4C / 25F during the night and +10C / 50F during the day.
I took pictures of our project from the end of the driveway. You might find the progression interesting.
This is taking about April 2007. No gravel on the drive way yet. Our shop is being framed right now. Clay has been piled up for the two earthship builds.
Spring in Alberta at times looks like winter.
My family has joined me now and we are all living in that small camper waiting for the garage to be built. It was a very wet spring which made construction challenging.
We got some gravel in and the garage is now ready for us to move in. We are using the camper as a kitchen now. It was a great day and our infrastructure to meet our needs is starting to come together.
We started on our partners earthship first. It is Sept 2007 and it is coming along. Our solar system is generating all our power now and had been for most of the summer. We are now scrambling to prepare the shop for winter as we did not expect to be in it through a winter. So we insulated it and got a stove setup. Preparing for our first winter off grid.
This picture was taking about April 2009. Our earthship (on the right) now has windows and we are continuing the build with the intent of moving in before winter ... whether it is ready or not. We did two winters in the shop and don't want to do another.
I must admit, it was tough work and we endured a lot. But we made it and I now look back and marvel at what we accomplished and laugh at a lot of the things that happened. I lived more in the last 10 years than I did in the previous 40 and I would do it all again if I had to. Our Earthship is still not done as we build out of pocket, no debt. But it has kept us safe through some brutal winters.
Wow, I just made the connection. Watching Ben & Daniel's documentary trilogy of Esoteric Agenda, Kymatica, & Ungrip is what opened up my eyes years ago
:) Yes, UNGRIP is the film he made of our life. I shared it in my introduction post back in October. But for those who don't know, here it is again!
W o w, how amazing is this! What a great accomplishment.
Thanks for taking us on the journey of this build :)
You are welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Lots of hard work, but very rewarding experience.
Yeah, it looks like an astonishing amount of work! But so worth it! Living sustainably without any debt, knowing YOU DID THIS by your own hands... Incredable :)
That is the greatest satisfaction actually. Every day I walk around the yard and marvel at the idea that we built it all, ourselves. Incredible feeling!
Awesome @wwf. It must be appreciable. You really won my heart by sharing this story of very own of yours. I can see your hard work in every single word and picture of this great blog post. This is not a blog post indeed this is a very beautiful side of true life. I want to give you a SALUTE on doing this.
Your words are inspiration for many and people have learnt lot of things from your sharing. Please keep sharing the very valuable stuff for the sake of betterment of community.
All the best and Stay Blessed!
I am deeply touched by your expression of gratitude and appreciation. I want to thank you for taking the time to share how you feel and the impact my work is having. I feel honoured by your sentiments and I thank you for sharing them. May Creator bless you my friend with peace, freedom, prosperity, joy and love.
I'm so blessed that I found you here at the best community of the time in this universe. And I'm thankful to you for giving me such a great response. Keep smiling friend ever. All the best @wwf!
well say @jawad09
i agreed with your views and stuff
I honestly had no idea what to expect from an Earthship but this is freakin cool.
Its a million miles from my slave ranking on you of grid check list
I must admit that this building contributes to a huge leap on the 'off-grid checklist' from my previous post. It addresses shelter, water, waste and power. If you want to learn more, Michael Reynolds has lots of info on his website www.earthship.com. I spoke with him when we started our project. Nice fellow.
Wow that is pretty cool< I have never seen that beforfe. When we were kids as a family we built a mud-brick house. We spent hours in the mud. I recently took my hubby @shai-hulud back to visit it.
Wow. It is standing up well! Very nice. Thank you for sharing that. Is the winters cold there at all? If so, how did it stand up to the temperatures?
The second photo is the outhouse we built when I would have been five so a good 32 years now, the house was built from 1986 to 1990. It still wasn't finished when we moved to WA, the wood is new but the bricks are the ones we laid.
It does get cold there, sub-zero, I remember many mornings the pipes in the car were frozen and we had to pour the kettle over so we could get to school. The best thing about mudbrick was it's ability to keep the heat in from the potbelly in winter and the heat from the sun out in summer. It's a brilliant renewable building source.
If we ever went offgrid this the house type I would build. It involved a lot of working bee's and many muddy days but we had a dam we could wash off in close by and we were never short of family friends will to help. We traded their labour for ours as they were building their own at the same time. One was made completely of rocks we collected from the sides of the road. Bit by bit, year by year we built his house too. A labour of love, I wish I have photo's of that too.
Wow, that is so fantastic and wonderful. I love hearing stories like this because it shows that people have been working together and building their homes with what ever is around AND has been doing it for years, generations even. What I talk about and you lived, is not new and there are huge benefits, freedom and liberty associated with that type of philosophy. Bravo to you and your family. I love it!
Dear @wwf. I am very happy to see this hands on earthship post. Amazing how you pulled off two of these, as they are massively labour intensive, yet once done the best houses you can have in almost any climate, especiall yin the cold climate your ombiously living in... Did you have help for the construction?
I love the rough interior, yet I am curiuos if you are planning to finish the walls with some kind of render. Any plans?
Kepp it goig dear @wwf.
All the best.
Moritz
We had some volunteers come out the first year for the first earthship, but for ours, we did it all ourselves. We bartered with the neighbour for some skid steer work and to help excavate the building. We are working on parget the interior wall in the kitchen and living area. We just received 70 bags of cement to help with that process. We are toying with the idea of just concrete or using field stones or cord wood to do the wall. Exterior walls, no plans as of yet. 99% of the people that visit actually like the tire wall and don't want to see it covered up. lol
Haha. Just like me. Yet there is a difference, what you like to see in other peoples houses or on photos and what you want for your own house ;)
I guess we will add a 3 inch lightweight loam and straw mix to one wall of every room in our convetional portuguese contemporary contruction. I visited a strawbale house once and was completely fascinated by the quality of sound in such a space. In the hope to reproduce the soft sound and to help with moisture issues in our wet winters I thought about the light weight loam /straw mixture. I also heard that hemp crete works well for what I am searching for.
Yet in your case you don't want to insulate that wall right? A sit is your thermal mass you want to absorb or radiate energy to stabilize the seasons.
That is exactly right. I want the heat to move in and out of the wall. So any material that insulates, like straw, wood, etc would actually reduce the performance of the building. The couple that bought the other earthship a few years ago put a wood floor in and are in the process of turning it into a regular house, which brings tears to my eyes. I hope to one day buy them out.
Ouch. That hurts... and very strange. I would guess people who decide to buy an earthship also know what it is about and want to live with all the benefits these kind of buildings have..
Are you sharing the land?
Yes, very ugly relationship. They are weekend warriors and violate every principle we live by. It has been hard to learn to be patient and forgive them. It is my hope that Steem provides an opportunity for us to buy them out so that we can return to our original goal, to build a world class training facility where we can teach people how to be stewards of the land. It is happening.
What made you make this detour from your original goal? Seems like all was set up for a specific goal, yet now your sharing your land with "stangers".
Thank you for sharing the "time lapses" of the construction of your Earthship. When you worked together to build it, you were not only building the Earthship but also your relationship and memory you can cherish for the rest of your life! I love it. <3
Indeed. We built and earthship and without realizing it, we built a life, a strong relationship, memories like you said and a philosophy on how to heal our relationship with Mother Earth! Thank you my friend and brother.
We didn't have the brutal winters while building but we did have wild animals, mostly coyotes and rainy season with the odd tropical storm thrown in for good measure! And mud! Boy, can I relate. But the feeling you get for conquering all is worth every struggle and laugh you had! We had an offer the shared land, but I am so glad that we turned it down. We now have our own family compound and are enjoying the benefits of a close knit family.
I look back and I laugh and marvel over what we did. I've lived more in the last 10 than I did in the previous 40! While I hold some regret regarding sharing the land, I learned a lot from the experience and I've come to accept it for what it is. I still have that relationship to clean up and I'm confident that Creator will help me do that soon. Then we can move forward with our plans. I suspect we were held back because it was too soon and we were not ready. We had to do a lot of learning, which we did over the last 10 years. It will come!
Nice post.
I couln't tell from the pictures but how are your cisterns protected from freezing? Are they partially buried?
I have insulation panels around the sides and on top. It is buried around the sides, but no earth on the top. So the corners of the cisterns are completely exposed and that is why I get ice on the tops during the winter. I have work yet to do in order to keep the ice out.
I have to figure out a probably gravity fed sand filtration system for North Carolina where it freezes in the winter. Or even better a biological filter but not sure how they do with cold temperature. So much to learn and so little time! :-)
Lots of ideas and solutions out there. It is a matter of finding one that works for what you are looking for. I'm sure you will figure it out. :)
That's one heck of an impressive build! So cool to see it all explained here. Isn't it great how we can look back at stressful times and laugh? That must have been a crazy amount of work just moving all those tires, I can relate a little by having hauled 3 cords of wood by hand up an incline. And I've volunteered to help build an earthship, so I understand what it's like to pound those tires!
Those cisterns are huge, how many gallons do they hold? And wow I'm really impressed at the buildings ability to regulate temperature. Super cool to see the progression pictures! Amazing what you guys have accomplished!! I am in awe! :O
Our cisterns hold 2000 gallons each for a total of 4000 gallons / 15,000 liters of water. Yes, looking back at all the blood, sweat and tears (literally), it is nice to reminisce, laugh and joke around about how crazy we were to do all that. We survived, thrived and learned a LOT in the process.
Where was this build that you shared the picture of?
That's a whole lot of water! I imagine that much lasts you roughly a year? I just have a 300 gallon IBC tote that lasts me a few weeks - a month. It was in the Okanagan BC just outside of Penticton. The people who put it together were trying to develop a course for the college to do it professionally like as a job which is pretty cool!
Love it! We are thinking about doing the same thing. I really enjoyed seeing the pics of it being put up. I see that you did not go with the many "U"s as the original earthship designs show. Is there a reason for that? Some say that if you have too long a wall (like your 75 ft wall) without any tire walls going towards the inside of the building, there is danger of the wall caving inward. Have you noticed any issue with that?
No, there has been no movement in the wall at all and it is nearly 10 years old. I'm not concerned about it at all. the buttress were supposed to be put in, but they were added just to appease building codes in the US. That wall is not moving. The only issues we had was due to erosion with the exterior wall, but it has been remedied and the issue is resolved. But I continue to monitor it. The building is designed to be a living being, so it is not as 'rigged' as a house built by the system.
hey sir @wwf
always your stuff is really outstanding and wrote wonderful staff, this is very charming article, i learn much knowledge.
this is for best for steemian and your followers.
All the best and keep it sharing
My support always with your blogs,
steem on
That is nothing short of amazing! Sounds like you are reaping the benefits of all the hard work now
Indeed. We are blessed and it has been the cornerstone of our freedom. No question in my mind or heart about that!
I've taken a lot of old stuff home from the dump but never tires. You've really got my wheels turning now, though. That place looks positively cozy!
It is -38C wind chill out there right now. The sun is shining in and I won't have a fire going all day! The sun will keep the space warm during the day. I burn a fire in the evening, but about 9 it is done and we sleep without a fire all night. By morning it will be about 15C. We will never freeze in the winter time!
Love this! There is actually a building near to where we live that has been created with tyres too. It was supposed to be used as an eco learning centre for nature preservation, but unfortunately the build was never finished and it has been left standing empty for a few years now which is such a waste. I will take some pictures of it when I next walk the dogs there :)
It is sad and a waste. The first one we built sits empty too. 10 years. It dies and it is sad to witness. Thank you for commenting and following our work! <3
oh that really is a shame! Hopefully you will be able to buy them out in the future and bring it back to life :)
This looks fantastic! Do the tires give off any toxic chemicals and pollutants as they age?
Not inside the house. The UV from the sun will break them down outside, so we do need to get them covered one day. But the UV in the winter time is very low and that is the only time the sun hits the tires and it is for a very short period of time. I'm not concerned about off gassing at all from them. We have lived in here for 9 years and still doing great! Our plan when we are done the house is to have them all covered up. But only when we have the materials to do the work.
Sounds like a great plan! Keep up the great work!
Great post, wonderful build and an amazing time with family and friends! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for dropping in and commenting. Peace to you.
This is a really awesome project to see through its stages. Olivia has mentioned your earthship but this is the first I have seen of it. Thank you!
You will have to come for a visit one day then! :) Bring Olivia along too. Would be great to see you both again!
Sounds good to me. We will for sure be in contact when we are ready for a road trip.
This awesome,
many obstacles to make big project.
the effort will not betray the results.
Hopefully running smoothly.
thank for sharing @wwf
Thank you @milend for following my blog and commenting. <3 Peace to you.
I am follow your blog n your story @wwf.
see u,,!
:)
I really loved reading your post. I have always dreamed of building and living in an earth ship home. The energy and love that goes into the home may be challenging, but sooo worth it! And will only become more beautiful over time. Thank you for reigniting the inspiration!! 💚🦋
Beautiful. Thank you for sharing! I pray that your inspiration takes root and grows into a wonderful creation that expresses love, compassion, protection, self-governance, self-sustainability and independence. Peace to you through your journey.
Thank you so much! Im so grateful to found a wonderful community that keeps the inspiration alive! And yes, Im rooting into all of this, thank you!! Lots of Love!! 🤗💚🦋
hello @wwf
its nice project steeming that is very wonderful, I like your stuff that is excellent for steemian community which is best for seeking knowledge. appreciation and salute your brilliant works,
I m just newly join the steemit social media and not know much idea to use it. please help to guide me as steemian community member, I will be very thankful to you in this kind regards.
whereas I m your follower and my support always with you.
stay blessed
If you want help, I have several posts over the last few months with ideas and suggestions for new users. You are welcome to look them up and get some guidance based on my own growth on this platform. Peace to you and steem on!
well work and I see your post
thanks for reply