Greater World Earthship Community, New Mexico

I started my 3 week internship with Earthship Biotecture on July 6th and I have a week left. I live and work in the Greater World Earthship Community about 25 minutes from Taos, New Mexico. We are around 7000ft up on the Taos Mesa with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains looming above.

I first learned about and became interested in Earthships while taking an organic farming class at The University of Alabama. The farm I helped out at had an earthship and I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. From then on I had my mind set on building my own earthship on my own farm. Now 7 years later I am on the path to making it a reality. I found myself daydreaming about my future home and how I would design it and I came to the realization that if I want to build my own earthship I need to learn how. So I did some research and learned about Earthship Biotecture and the creator Michael Reynolds. [Check out Garbage Warrior for free on youtube to get a glimpse into this lifestyle]. I became so excited when I learned that Michael Reynolds started it all in Taos, not too far away from where I was in Flagstaff. I debated on whether or not to attend their Academy or the internship and I went with the latter due to the cost of the Academy. 

    So basically Earthships are off-grid sustainable, autonomous houses. The 6 basic principles include: building with recycled materials (tires, cans, glass bottles, etc), solar and wind electricity, water harvesting, contained sewage treatment, solar thermal heating and cooling (the comfort zone stays a constant 70 degrees without a heating or cooling system-no utility bills), and food production. The Earthships use rammed earth tires (300-400 pounds when filled) as the structure to contain thermal mass, water cisterns are placed behind the house under a berm (so the house looks like it is built into a hill), the houses face South to gain passive solar, greywater is used to water indoor botanical cells (they grow bananas inside), and on and on. 

    The internship consists of working Monday-Friday from 9-4:30 on various build sites. The interns are split up into groups and we move around from site to site doing hard manual labor. Thus far I have had hands-on experience pounding tires, making adobe and cement, building can walls, repacking adobe between tires inside, plastering exterior tire walls, and shoveling dirt to level floors. 

One of the build sites

Repacking with adobe

Phil showing us how to make a can wall

Nicole and I worked as a team to make this wall

Tires and Mountains-nice juxtaposition

Adobe plastering an exterior wall

Pounded tire courses

We have also had a class to learn more in depth about the systems such as the water organizing module and the greywater system. Rather than be in class all day we are out at the build sites working and seeing Earthships come together. We have also had the opportunity to visit a wide variety of Earthships (there are many different designs and models). 

The Castle-Intern Housing

Waybee-nightly rental

Waybee inside-Global model

The Phoenix-most extravagant and my favorite, also a nightly rental and for sale

Inside the Phoenix

Glass bottle bathroom

Chicken Coop made out of cans

Inside the Phoenix Greenhouse

I also live in an Earthship (called the split-level) with 4 other interns. 

The Split-Level, where I'm living

Interns hanging out before work

This has been a great experience and I have learned so much. My desire to build an Earthship has intensified since being here. This is much more than a house, it's a lifestyle, an intentional lifestyle. This is what I want my life to be about- building my own, building them for others, and sharing this revolutionary concept with the world so we can all lower our impact on the environment and live mindfully of our actions.

Next: I will post about all the extraneous activities I've done while in New Mexico. Then I go to Colorado to visit friends before working on an Earthship build in Salida, CO.