Day Twelve
October 13, 2023
a site level
the site as a whole
a lot of processes are happening at the same time, multiple streams of activity as various aspects of the site get worked on.
rafters - a half a dozen rafters went up by the end of the day. really large, single pieces of lumber that are a bear to move around, even for the crew.
outer glass (greenhouse) wall - more tires pounded there that will serve as the base for the widows and doors. sometimes we need to make a concrete ‘tire’ in a spot where a full tire won’t fit, and you can’t use a squishy.
buttresses and pads - along the back wall there will be concrete buttresses, plus there are concrete pads to be framed and poured in order to bring certain areas up to floor height. and all that needs …
concrete - a team of 4-5 people who are constantly mixing the concrete and running it out to where it’s needed. anyone want to push a wheelbarrow full of concrete 40 yards, 10 times in a row?
i’ll tell you this … i’m in pretty good shape. i know what people mean by having a strong core. that’s exactly what i feel, strong at the core. all it takes is swinging a sledgehammer and moving heavy things for 8 hours a day. there was some discussion among a few of us as to how we could marry Crossfit with an earthship build. so much synergy there, and with a tangible result beyond ‘my core is strong’. : )
i had a ‘first’ today. someone was looking for something and asked one of the 20-somethings where it was. she replied, ‘it’s over there, by the old guy’. meaning me. sigh.
we’ve had a bunch of people pass through, people who know the earthship crew and stop by to say hello and actually lend a hand for a day. i talked to an older couple who are living in NC and have 10 acres. they’re both serious about permaculture, a term i’ve heard but never knew much about. it was explained to me by Billy and Michelle - it’s trying to live in such a way where everything fits together like a puzzle, where the synergy of different life activities is utilized as efficiently as possible. a simple example - using ‘waste’ in one activity to support/feed another. like when you harvest your apples and press them to make cider, you take the pulp to feed your pigs or chickens.
which is also what the whole earthship premise is - the puzzle of a living structure fit together so that it works as efficiently as possible.
as i talked with them, the inevitable ‘where are you from’ question came up. he’s from coatesville/lancaster area in pa, she’s from the elmira/corning in ny. for those of you who don’t know … i live near coatesville/lancaster, and the group i meet with twice a year is largely from the elmira/corning area.
the usual walk around. everything is pretty well buried.
the tires laid out for the outer greenhouse wall. by day’s end they were almost done.
one rafter is in place, though by day’s end a half dozen more went up. you can also see the bases for where the concrete buttresses will be along the back tire wall.
that’s concrete packing between the tires (with cans stuck in there to take up some space). combine that with the mass of dirt piled up behind and you have a pretty indestructible wall.
