Earthship: August 6, 2015

Just outside Taos is an Earthship community.  The buildings are entirely off the grid.  Energy is generated by wind and solar power.  Cisterns catch water.  Gray water is used in indoor gardens and to flush toilets; black water is purified by being run through the gardens and into a leach field.  Inside the very thick walls are tires filled with dirt: keeps the buildings warm in the winter, cool in the summer.  There's a lot more to this than what I'm explaining: check out the earthship website for more information.

On the roof of one Earthship.  The plan I particularly like includes an indoor pool for raising tilapia as well as the greenhouse for fruit and vegetables.  The plan calls for having chickens for eggs (and meat, if you don't name them), and goats for milk and cheese.

Squash blooming in one of the indoor hanging planters.

Cucumbers

Ceiling vents can be opened and closed as needed.  In Texas, we'd open them to release hot air when the greenhouse heated up too much.  You can also install window shades to block heat yet let light in.

Window open to the desert.  The Earthship wall around the building contains hundreds of glass bottles as part of the construction material.  Papa Tom and I decided we'd prefer a solid wall; if the exposed glass bottles ever broke, the wall could cut anyone or anything that touched it.

The interior walls are made of adobe

Better use for used tires than dumping them in landfills?