Our Off-Grid Experience

In February, Joshua and I took some time to get out of town. For quite some time, we've been interested in alternative building techniques and wanted to explore the idea of eventually living in a rammed earth, straw-bale, tire-bale, or other sort of home.

That dream was put on the back burner when we moved here, bought our current home, and got busy with life. Early this year, our curiosity was rekindled and we decided to stay in a rental that was built with alternative means.

What the heck is that? It's an earthship!
(click to enlarge)

Enter Earthship Biotecture - they develop passive solar homes made of natural and recycled materials and are located just 4-5 hours from us (just outside of Taos, New Mexico). Without getting too much into the sustainability aspect of this type of building (although I find that fascinating, this post would be much too long), I wanted to share some of our adventure with you.

Joshua and I have made a lot of changes throughout our relationship. Most recently, though, our changes have been because of information we've gathered largely since my diagnosis. We are making more informed choices about the foods we eat, the chemicals we have (or no longer have) in our home, what we choose to keep in our life, and what we choose to slough off.

For me, spending a week living in an earthship was an exhilarating experience. I felt nurtured after living closer to the earth for a week. It seemed much more in line with the other lifestyle choices we've been working towards: less chemicals, more sustainability aspects, and clean living!

The Greater World Earthship Community is located
12 miles NW from Taos, NM.
You can see the Rio Grande Gorge in this picture.

Our home for a week: the 'Euro' Model Earthship.

Some intriguing design features: bottles in walls (cans and tires, too), vigas, and manual vents.

Releasing, opening, and securing the home's top air vents.

Most earthships have rounded, bulbous design features.
The construction means lend itself to looking that way.

A view from the shower shown above.
See the plants?
They're in the bathroom growing out of dirt in the floor watered from gray water used in the home!

The earthship model uses water four times before it is discarded outside the home in a leach field. Awesome!

From water collected from the roof/structure and stored in cisterns, you get...
1. drinking water (it's super-filtered), sink/shower water (also filtered)
2. plants (which filter the water, too)
3. toilet water for flushing
4. a solar-enhanced septic tank with leach-field and planter cells

We decided to forego the trip into town for a laundromat.
We washed our clothes in the bathtub, rung them out, and hung them to dry! 

Interestingly, the earthship maintained a consistent inner temperature of ~70 degrees during the day, ~65 at night. The greenhouse portion ranged 80-90 degrees during the day. This was with daytime temperatures barely reaching 30 most days - impressive!

We never felt as though we had less or were having to live without. Laundry hookups were in the pantry area - we'd probably like that in our home, but it was fun doing it by hand and drying it in the greenhouse. The propane oven and ample kitchen sinks made not having a microwave or dishwasher a piece of cake! Electricity was plentiful even on snowy days; we were mindful about not using electricity when it wasn't necessary. By living "off grid," you learn what you really can do without. We are so used to having (and paying for) an unlimited power supply and not thinking about it.

In the greenhouse area, you can grow plants year-round.
Some of the plants we could ID in our rental: banana tree, jade,
aloe, geranium, chard, mint, spiderwort... the list goes on!

Happy campers after experiencing off-grid life for a week. 

I'm curious to hear from blog readers! My questions for you are:

• Have you heard about passive solar, rammed earth, straw-bale, or tire-bale homes before?
• Have you ever stayed in an alternatively-constructed home?
• Do you know anyone that's built a home with alternative construction means?
• What concerns would you have about living or staying in one?