01 & 09 Mar 2012

01 March - Poco y poco back to work

After nearly 4 months off while Dave's fingers were mending we're back to it.

We started slowly and gently by laying the waterproof liner for the roof to tank gulley. It doesn't look like much in the pic but it took a lot of measuring, cutting and jiggery pockery to get it to fit. That's quite enough for today!

01 Mar - Planning matters

Before starting the above work we nipped into Sorbas to meet with Pablo, the Town Planner, and hand in the amended paperwork. This included architect drawings for all the buildings, the extra fire regs, and other bits n pieces. Also Pablo had to put in a note to confirm the economic viability of the project. We're not sure what this has to do with Building Regs as we'd already got this type of approval with the Project of Actuation, but hey, who are we to argue.

02 Mar - Garden Club talk

At about this time last year we were asked by the local Garden Club to do a talk on the Earthship. We ended up joining the club who now have about 300 members and meet on the first Friday of the month.

Today we did an update talk at the club and showed a summary of all the work done on the earthship so far. It was good because it made me go through this site and pick out key photos which I've now made into the intro pages for each of the larger subjects - Tyring Work, Putting the lid on and Greenhouse. Take a look if you haven't already.

I also did a new 'artists impression'. Seeing this makes me so excited about getting it finished and moving in!

09 Mar - more gulley work

You wouldn't think a little gulley like this would take so much work would you? Today we extended the sack wall to protect the gulley and water tank from the earth berm. The first pic shows the sacks in place. The second where we've temporarily covered them with plastic to protect them from the sun until we have time to cover them with bitumen like the rest of the wall.

You can't see in the pics, but we did both sides of the gulley with sacks.

Container houses

A few years ago I saw a programme about cheap housing where they took an old shipping container and converted it into a small but very stylish living space and put it on top of an apartment block.

Well, we've been pondering buying an old container for dry and secure storage while we work on the earthship. Then maybe in the future we might turn it into a workshop or studio. So today we went to see a local guy who has a couple for sale. I must say, seeing them up close has slightly daunted me, they're massive and not the prettiest things, but they are very strong so would make brilliant storage. And maybe, in the future sometime, covered with straw bales, rendered and with windows added it might make a very good workshop? We're still pondering...